“He’s in danger. The pilgrims he stole from are the kind of people who wander into your village and look around and say, This is an awfully nice entire population you have here, it’d be a shame if something were to, you know, happen to it. If they learn what Margot’s done, they’ll kill him. Or worse, study him to find how he broke into the pool. We need him alive, and in custody, so we can stop anyone else from following suit.”

“This sounds like priestly business.”

“It is.”

“Then why are you here, not up the mountain?”

She sighed. Always to the point with Claude. “Because Jace kicked me out. I’m going to tell him, but I need more answers first, and answers take time. Meanwhile, we can’t leave this guy walking around.”

“Are you sure Jace doesn’t know already?”

“If the priests knew, Margot wouldn’t be free. If the people he stole from knew, he’d be dead, or worse.”

“And how did you learn this?”

“I found some papers I wasn’t supposed to find. I recognized Margot’s name, and here we are.”

“Okay.” He spread his hands on the desk. “What’s the hurry?”

“The idol he stole from died awhile back. Its pilgrims hired a Craftswoman to resurrect it, and this woman knows her business. If she doesn’t know about Margot already, she will soon. She was close on the trail last night.”

“Let me see your evidence.”

“I can’t. My having these papers is a breach of about five ethical guidelines.”

“As bad as letting this guy get killed? Or his theft going public?”

“A second mistake won’t fix the first.”

“Kai,” he said, and repeated, “Kai,” as if saying her name twice might make her bend. “You understand, you’re asking me to grab someone off the street—”

“Out of his home, probably. He doesn’t leave much.”

“You want me to invade someone’s home, lock him up, for the good of an Order that wants nothing to do with you. All because of evidence you can’t show me, which you’re not even supposed to have.”

“I haven’t done anything wrong,” she said, and thought, Technically.

“I can’t hold people for no reason. If my superiors asked why is this man in jail, and I said theft, and they said what of, and I said soulstuff from the priests, and they asked your bosses about it and they deny anything is missing, and then they ask who gave you this information, and I say that I promised my source anonymity, what do you think would happen?”

“Nothing good,” she said.