“Enough, Tamar! Your opinion was not asked for,” the Fisherman says.

Tamar is silenced. She looks resentfully at me, but I also see something else in her eyes—fear.

“It is a noble ambition,” says Col-Blanche, “but we do not know how many dens the Tiger controls, or where they are. Even if we knew, how can we free the Sisters and subdue their captors? We don’t know how many sons of Flesh are posted in each, how many weapons are at their command. To go blind into such a fight would be disastrous, and the other Guilds, the ones allied to the Tiger, might take his side. It would be an all-out Guild war,” he finishes.

“But one of us does know their numbers,” I say.

Everyone waits for me to go on, and I proceed, rolling out a map of the city I painstakingly copied from St. Juste, down to the little red marks he has made for the places where the revolutionaries will erect their barricades.

“Lady Komayd, will you give us the information we need?” I ask in a solemn voice. “The numbers of the Tiger’s sons, the locations of his dens, the numbers of his weapons and”—I swallow hard, knowing the enormity of what I am asking—“the location of his Guild House?”

She considers it for a moment, and I hold my breath.

“You ask much, little Cat. Rescuing one of my sons from the Châtelet was indeed a great feat, but the bone debt you seek could mean war.” She taps her fingers to the side of her head and quirks her mouth. “And yet the Tiger is a stain upon this Court,” she says with resolve, and her small eyes shine behind her spectacles. “The Guild of Flesh is here.” She steps forward to the map and points. “On the right bank of the Serpent la Seine. It stands three stories high, with an underground cellar. The Tiger’s quarters take up the entire top floor. There are never guards at the front of the house, so as not to call attention to their location.”

“And also because no one in their right mind would ever attack them,” Femi says drily. But he uncrosses his arms and steps forward to look better at the map.

“There are walls on the east and south sides of the house,” continues Lady Komayd. “There are four guards posted in each corner. Two more guards are stationed at the west side of the house in front of the river. Boats unload their goods there, and the goods are carried through a gate into the garden.”

“You will need a distraction there.” Femi points to the riverside. “To draw the guards away from the garden.”

“I might have something that will bring all the guards to the front of the house,” I say innocently.

Everyone stares.

“Angry men wanting to overthrow the government marching up and down every street in the city,” I say by way of explanation.

Orso snorts, and I give him a hard look.