“The night she died?” Yisaoh shook her head. “I wasn’t there. Check the Line records in Garika. I left the next morning, the day I heard word of Kirana’s death. Not before. You think I walked there, attacked some boy, and then walked all the way back – a two-day journey! – only to take the Line the next morning? What, do you think I flew home on the back of a parajista? It’s quite obvious you never taught logic to your little sheep students.”

She made to walk back up the steps.

He grabbed at her sleeve. She jerked her arm away. “Don’t even think about touching me, any part of me. Don’t come within leagues of me.”

“You say you wouldn’t kill a boy, but you were happy to kill me.”

“That wasn’t my preference. Now, if you’ll give me back some measure of my own autonomy, I have things to pack.”

“I’m afraid you can’t go back to your rooms.”

“What?”

“I’ve sent my assistant and a contingent of militia to empty your rooms, and Kirana’s quarters here in Garika as well.”

“You have no right.”

“I have every right. You’ve been exiled.”

She took a pull from her cigarette and regarded him a long moment. “You think you’re clever enough to save this country on your own? You aren’t half so clever as you think. I wish whoever killed Kirana had killed you instead. The country would be better off for it.”

She crushed her cigarette under her heel and walked back into the council house.

Ahkio twisted away stiffly. He paused a moment in front of his bear, then mounted. He looked at the mob in the square. He needed to say something to them. Anything. Instead, he was leaving militia the color of mourning in their square. And he could think of nothing to say to that, nothing that would make it any better.

As he turned his bear about, Liaro rode up beside him. “Could have gone worse,” Liaro said.

“They may kill us yet,” Ahkio said.

“They’ll think about it a lot harder this time.”

“Let’s hope.”

“Did you really mean what you said, about exile to the third degree?” Liaro said.

“Yes.”

“You know who else that means, right?”

“Yes.”

“That includes some of my cousins. It nearly included me,” Liaro said. “And it definitely includes Meyna and Mey-Mey. Rhin and Hadaoh.”

“I know their names, Liaro.”

“Just wanted to make sure you weren’t forgetting.”

“I’m not going to forget.”

They were a sodden, downtrodden group filing into Osono four days later, short a dozen militia members who had stayed behind to escort Tir and his family to the harbor. Caisa had returned with her escort, though, driving a cart full of Yisaoh and Kirana’s belongings, unhurt and fairly crowing at the success of her theft.