She needed time to collect her stunned and disordered thoughts.
Before going to the palace they conducted her to the royal crypt.

The urn containing her father's ashes was deposited in a niche.

Many other niches contained urns, and Umballa explained to her that these held the ashes of many rulers.

Tears welled into Kathlyn's eyes, but they were of a hysterical character.
"A good sign," mused Umballa, who thought he knew something of women, like all men beset with vanity.

Oddly enough, he had forgot all about the incident of the lion in the freight caboose.