She was scrambling. China Sorrows was scrambling hard, not precisely panicking but near enough. Her web quivered, not like a fly was trapped in it but more than something big and powerful, something from which the spider could only run and hide, was disturbing the web.

Solomon looked up at her calmly, relaxed back in the seat with his arms on the rests. "I'm not going to order you," he said. "That would be rather foolish, and I've been doing a lot of that lately." He grinned. "Exact definitions of which actions were foolish depending on whom you ask, of course." His sightless gaze tracked the vibration travelling down the lines of that web, and without thinking he lifted his hand to feel it buzz against his palm when it followed a silken thread past him.

It was like holding a bee in his hand.

"I'm curious, though. How long do you intend to keep up this pretence?"