The Ox shook her head. “I told you, we didn’t know her intentions. We were informed about your relation in Conifor and ordered to disperse. Bear sent the Lynx ahead, directly north, while I searched out farther west with Goat here, and Bear herself stayed south to cut off your retreat. We had no idea the Hawk had gone after you until the Lynx’s body had been found.”

“Got a nice tip from Illuminess Hectate,” said the Goat, and though Anji couldn’t see his face, she could have sworn he was grinning from ear to ear. An image of the shriveled old woman sucking on her candies sprang to Anji’s mind. She’d likely been intending to contact the Menagerie from the very start, just like the Hawk had said. What had she asked the Hawk about? A scrying sheet?

Hawk wanted to move right away, Anji thought, remembering her tantrum before the funnel cloud hit. Before Molli had been eaten alive. She was telling me the truth the entire time, and I was foolish enough not to believe a word of it. I couldn’t deal with a few more hours of discomfort, and now I’m stuck with these two psychopaths.

But something else still caught in Anji’s mind, like a fish fighting on a line. She wiped her grimy hands on her pants, sweat beading in her palms despite the dropping temperature.

“How did you know about Conifor?” said Anji, though a rumbling in her chest told her she didn’t want to hear the answer.

The two bounty hunters shared a glance, having some sort of silent conversation despite their blank masks. The Goat began rolling up the map. “Tenets, Ox,” he said.

The Ox scratched at the back of her neck, the dark meshed pits of her mask not quite level with Anji’s eyes. “The first hours were chaos,” she said. “You managed to escape so fast, nobody knew where to begin the search or who to search for, for that matter. The Wardens set us to work at the castle, starting with the men guarding Rolandrian’s private chambers.”

The king’s rooms materialized in Anji’s mind. Marble floors, gilded furniture, curtains billowing on the breeze, the letter opener on Rolandrian’s desk. Warm blood, thick and sticky, coating her hands. The bored expressions on the pair of guards who’d let her pass without a word. She’d shared a shaky glance with one of those men.

“Then we moved on to your fellow laborers.”