“I keep to strict tenets, Illuminess,” said the Hawk, her posture not folding one bit. Anji’s brows rose. If anything, the woman was standing even straighter. “I am forbidden from announcing my charge’s crimes.”

The urge to admit she’d been the one to kill Rolandrian flashed through Anji like a bolt of lightning. The Hawk was obviously terrified of the Sun Warden and her Maxia companion. How satisfying it would have been to defy the woman in front of her betters. To feel the waves of disbelief rolling off her captor, to finally have the upper hand, to do something of her own accord. But that tiny victory would die in an instant. There was no telling what twisted tortures the Maxia could summon while keeping Anji alive for the real show in Linura. Anji almost laughed: the only thing keeping her safe at present was the Menagerie’s stupid tenets.

But why was she willing to break them before? Why not now?

The Maxia leaned to whisper in Hectate’s ear.

With an impatient wave of her hand, Hectate leaned against the bars of the cage at their backs. “Have it your way then, hunter. I care not what the vermin did.”

“Of course, Illuminess.”

The Warden reached into her robes and drew out a bulging, fist-sized sack of silken gray cloth, tied at the top by a white string. With twitching fingers, she unclasped the string, then withdrew a bright blue marble of rock sugar. She slipped it in her mouth, sucked loudly, and said, “Do you have a scrying sheet?”

“I do not, Illuminess,” said the Hawk. “I’m afraid that privilege rests only with my cadre’s commander.”

The Warden tutted around her candy. “Unwise,” she said, more to herself than to the Hawk. “So you’ve not heard … One of your companions was found dead near Olangar. The Lynx.”

The Hawk’s mask twitched side to side as she said, “I had not, Illuminess. A tragic loss to my cadre.”

“Tragic, yes. The report suggests the nature of his wounds was … unnatural. Butchered by his own arrow.”

“Many dark forces plague the land of late, Illuminess,” said the Hawk.

“‘Dark forces.’” The Warden bit into the candy, the hollow crunch sending a cringe up Anji’s spine. “Vagrancy is the plague, hunter,” she said, swirling the pieces around her ancient mouth. “Neither spirit nor demon walk the earth without the One’s design. Your friend was likely robbed, raped, left to bleed out on the rocks.” She swallowed and waved a hand. “The price paid for arrogance.”

“Of the Design are we so made to serve.”

Anji had given up trying to figure out the deeper meaning of this conversation. Her gaze drifted past the Maxia to the cage at his back, the thing inside now shifting, its matted fur tangled with bits of straw and slivered wood.