In Justice Square, a stilling hand had turned the crowd as into stone while the city below sank further into chaos.

NOW THAT SHE was trapped, her purpose suspected, Marit felt a sense of peace. Let them do their worst!

She rode behind Lord Radas into a hall lined with benches. The Toskalan council sat in expectant assembly, everyone facing the woman cloaked in night who stood on the elevated speaker’s platform holding the lacquered speaker’s stick. They watched her as if she were holding their hearts in her hand and meant to decide whose she would crush.

The air in the room was sweat-drenched. The size and weight of the horses devoured space so the women and men seated on the benches shrank back to give room. Marit knew the trick of quick assessment: there, twelve reeves, experienced men and women; a pair of militia captains and another dozen prosperous-looking council members, some of whom shifted nervously while the rest sat very still. Guardsmen stood behind the benches on which the reeves sat. A cloaked man stood in the shadows behind the speaker’s platform, his face unfamiliar. Six Guardians assembled here. Kirit and her mare blocked the door; she watched the council through the reflection of her mirror, studying their faces.

Something terrible was going to happen.

“An ill day,” said she who wore the cloak of night. “Trouble has risen to plague the Hundred. We the Guardians have returned on this day to restore peace.”

As in the old days with Flirt, when the raptor’s excitement at a reckless maneuver had burned in her blood as well, Marit grinned as she took the plunge. She stood in her stirrups.

“Don’t believe her! These are ones who command the army that assaults Toskala. As we are speaking, in the city below, the gates have been opened by traitors and your enemy marches in. Don’t trust them!”

One of the reeves stood, an older man whose black hair was streaked with silver. “Who are you? You look like a reeve who died twenty years ago. A dear friend of mine. Her eagle was slaughtered on the Iliyat Pass and yet her own body was never found. Who are you?”

Lamplight flashed off a mirrored surface, illuminating his face. Aui! She hadn’t recognized him. The years had not been kind, not in the way they had been to Joss. “Kedi?”

“Marit? Eiya! You have the same voice! Yet you’ve not aged a day. Commander, this is a ghost or a demon. How can it wear Marit’s face?”

“Marit!” said Lord Radas beside her. “I recall you now. You are the foreseen traitor. ‘One among the Guardians will betray her companions.’ ”

“Kedi, I beg you, believe me for the sake of the friendship we shared. They mean to betray you, they have already a plan in place, you are in danger—”