They walked back to the training ground, Joss falling to the rear. Every temple of Kotaru was arranged in four quarters, with four gates and four corner watchtowers. This temple had prospered and been requartered in the past. The walls of the original temple now constituted the barracks quarter, and new quarters for the sanctuary, workshops, and training ground extended from the old square, careful to keep a strict north-south and east-west axis despite irregularities of ground.

As they passed through the central crossing gates between the four quarters, Isar dropped back to walk with Joss.

“You said you interviewed everyone at the compound for their story of the incident. I trust you were not allowed to speak to my daughter.”

“No, indeed, ver. That had all been settled before I arrived and everyone returned to their place. But I did receive written testimony from her hand, which was read out to me by your son, Eliar. I must say, hers was a forthright and clear-sighted account, very useful to me.”

By his tightly clenched mouth, Isar was as angry, in his own way, as Anji had been earlier. And even less likely to be placated. “It should not have been allowed.”

“That she give testimony, in such circumstances? Every free person who witnesses a crime is required to give testimony.”

Everyone said the Silvers were cunning merchants. The look in those dark, slanted eyes was angry, certainly, but calculating in its own way. “But not slaves? Still, I was speaking to myself, Marshal, not to you. Forgive me for showing a father’s vexation. I knew such a reckless scheme would come to no good. Grandmother and I argued against it, but Eliar twists his mother around his heart, and likewise several of the uncles could not say no to the pleas of the captain’s charming wife, for which I am sure I do not blame them.” He nodded toward Anji, who was walking beside the censor, deep in conversation. “But it is to be understood that the virtue of a Ri Amarah woman is only safe within her own household. Now my daughter is compromised.”

“Compromised, ver? For visiting the house of a friend?”

“You Hundred folk cannot understand.”

“It is your people who live in the Hundred, not ours who live in a land of your making.”

“So it may seem,” he agreed. “Forgive me for speaking intemperately.”

“Neh, think nothing of it. We are all upset to hear such strange tidings.”

“Do you really think it was a Guardian, Marshal?”

“Not as we know of Guardians from the tales and the records of the assizes kept by the Lantern’s hierophants. We hear no accounts of summary execution. But the other elements—the light coming from no visible source, the winged horse, the cloak—how are we to think otherwise?”

“The tale of the Guardians speaks of corruption: ‘I know that in the times to come the most beloved among the Guardians will betray her companions.’ ”

“I fear the evidence suggests that such a terrible shadow has indeed consumed some of the Guardians,” said Joss, feeling the weight of the words in his heart.