‘‘Then I’d better start hiking. I’m about as riffy a rack of raff as you’re likely to step in.’’

‘‘Always the charmer.’’

‘‘One hundred and ten proof.’’

‘‘We didn’t expect you this soon. I would’ve told Hector to bring you straight to Max.’’

Gilbey belongs to Dean’s generation. Old as original sin. He and Max have been best friends since their Army days, in a war that began before they were born and continued till their grown children were dead. Until a year ago. Devouring Karentine youth all the while.

Hector stepped aside. I followed Gilbey through the foyer, down into the vast ballroom that takes up half the ground floor.Click-clack across the bare serpentine floor. Then up to the mezzanine on thick, custom carpeting.

I murmured, ‘‘What was that?’’

‘‘Hector?’’

‘‘Yeah.’’

‘‘Son of a man Max and I soldiered with. A hero himself, Hector was, but he was having a hard time making it. Life is tough if you don’t have pure blood.’’

‘‘Crap,’’ I said. ‘‘We’re not getting into all that human rights bullshit again, are we?’’

In Karenta, in TunFaire especially, ‘‘human rights’’ means the rights of humans to preferential status. The Other Races and artifact peoples get whatever is left.

‘‘No. Our problems are in a new arena now.’’

‘‘Alyx said something about building a theater. That seems out of character.’’

‘‘I’ll let Max explain.’’

I glanced back. Hector was standing by, ready to answer the door. Beside a rack of lethal tools, there in case his immovable object had a showdown with an irresistible force.

‘‘A true exotic. Maybe even a unique.’’ Slang terms for mixed breeds of extreme aspect.

‘‘Would you believe Hector has a wife and five kids?’’

‘‘If you say so. But I don’t want to meet the kind of woman who finds him attractive.’’

‘‘He may have hidden assets and unexpected talents.’’