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Wax drops out of the mist onto the mansion's front steps. The guards on the door are constables now — they have been running low on the regular sort — and on the lawn behind them workers are putting up a small stage in front of a swelling crowd. Aradel supervises with a sour expression. Wax agrees with the look on his face; addressing the crowd is playing into Bleeder's hands. He confirms with a constable that there has been no fresh attempt on the governor's life, then heads inside.

In the hallway Marasi intercepts him. *Kolossblood*, she says. *Nighttime Summer*, he answers — passphrases verified, neither of them a kandra. She tells him Wayne left to look in on the protesters over half an hour ago and has not been seen since; she also tells him, quietly, that she has found proof Innate is *really* corrupt. He says they will survive the night first. They split the hostage check between them — she will look in on her sister, he will look in on her father; neither should turn up as an unexpected hostage. She heads for the door to find Wayne; he catches her on the way out to tell her the uniform suits her, and she manages a blush even now.

MeLaan, wearing the body of the guard with the sling, is parked outside the study door with three other guards. She is furious. The guards inform him in clipped tones that the governor is composing a speech and will not see anyone. Wax walks past them, finds the door locked, weights himself with Feruchemy, and flings it open hard enough to splinter the frame. Inside, Innate freezes mid-pace then relaxes, complains that Wax could have knocked, and on demand offers back his passphrases — *Wind's whisper. Drunken steam.* He passes. Wax crosses to the open window, fuming. The speech being practised behind him is inflammatory, dismissive, full of *peasants* — and exactly what Bleeder would want delivered to the city tonight. He could stop it. But what if she wanted that too? He drums his finger on the windowsill and his fingertip lands in a stuck wad of gum.

Wayne's gum.

The pieces fall into one shape. Bleeder set all of this up before the night arrived. She did not start by killing politicians at Winsting's party; she started years ago. She deliberately wore Bloody Tan's face at the party to mark Wax as her target audience. *So where is the best place to hide?* Rusts. He turns and reaches for his gun, and finds the governor pointing a pistol at him. *Just a few minutes more and I'd have had this, Wax,* the governor says. *You see too far. You can always see a little too far.* The pistol returns nothing to steelsight: aluminum. Wax hisses out the rest aloud — she gave back the passphrase because he had given it to her; Drim was hers all along; she killed him tonight because Wax had bloodied her at the saferoom, and she needed an excuse for *the governor* to be covered in blood. She had pulled off her bloodied shirt to stanch the wound, then walked out in the governor's face. *How long has the city been ruled by an impostor?* *Long enough.*

He sees that she does not want to kill him. She has never wanted to. He yells for help. The door bursts open, the guards take in the governor levelling a gun at the constable, and they level theirs at Wax and start firing. He throws himself behind the desk shouting *the governor has been taken — don't —*; Bleeder guns the guards down in two breaths. She apologises, half to herself: *I'm sorry. I have to claim you were the kandra now. I have to talk to the crowd and free them.* She doesn't come for him.

Best to take advantage. *MeLaan, go!* He Pushes off the floor-nails, vaulting up over the desk. One of Bleeder's new corpses grabs her round the legs — MeLaan is inside it. Wax Pushes off a wall and dives for Bleeder with the last anti-kandra needle in his fist. She knocks his hand sideways and the needle goes flying. She kicks MeLaan off her legs, blurs across the room as he scrambles, snatches the needle out of the air, and drives it down into MeLaan's shoulder in a single motion. Then she stops short. Her stored speed has at last run dry. Wax empties his pistol into her on his back; her skin reseals over the wounds. They stare at each other. Boots in the hall. She curses, dashes for the open window, and disappears into the mist. Wax grabs his other gun and follows, takes a shot or two from below, throws himself flat and finds her gone. The old hole in his shoulder from the night before is bleeding again, and the painkiller has worn off.

He checks on MeLaan — her face has melted but she will be fine — *I made them do this to me once to test it out.* He uses steelsight to sweep the room and catches quivering lines of metal in the closet. Wayne tumbles out trussed and gagged, stabbed in the leg, his metalminds stripped. Alive only because Paalm meant to harvest his Twinborn powers later with spikes. Wayne's first words on having the gag pulled out: *Wax — the governor — bugger's got the same 'a' as MeLaan!* From Wayne's pocket: a small pouch from Ranette containing a single bullet. The constables, led by Marasi, pile into the room and demand explanations. Wax leaves the explaining to Wayne and goes back into the mist.