Maralah looked up when she saw Roh. “Your puppy’s here,” she said.

“How do you know he’s not yours?” Kadaan asked.

“The dancers are always yours,” Maralah said. She walked past Roh and back into the keep.

“Are you going to teach me to move like that?” Roh asked.

“Why are you so persistent, puppy?” Kadaan said.

“You’re the one who followed after me, remember?”

“Pacifist,” Kadaan said.

“I’m going to be a sanisi,” Roh said lightly. “Why do you think I came here?”

“Youth,” Kadaan said. “Foolishness.” But Roh saw humor in his face as he turned away.

After, Roh tried to slip back into the archives unnoticed, but Nioni caught him on the stair.

“Ora Dasai wants to speak to you,” Nioni said. “In his quarters.”

Dasai’s door was open. The old Ora sat on the couch with a pile of correspondence.

“I wasn’t far,” Roh said. “I just went into the-”

“I’ll be sending you home in a few days, Roh. I’ve written a letter to your parents. They will expect your return.”

“It’s still winter,” Roh said. “No ships will be going to Dhai!”

“There is a ship that leaves every year at the beginning of Siira to bring us Saiduan steel. You and Kihin and Ora Chali will return with it.”

“I think you should ask the Kai first, before you send me back. And… and what about Kihin’s exile? What’s he going to say when you send Kihin back?”

“He will most likely be glad to see Kihin alive. If Kihin perishes, it could make things very difficult with Clan Leader Tir, exiled or no,” Dasai said.

“Ora Dasai, I don’t understand–”

“Then let me make it clear,” Dasai said sharply. “Shut that door.”

Roh did.

“You are an asset to Dhai,” Dasai said. “You’re a fighter. You can see past hazing wards. You think these sanisi are interested in you for your own sake? No. They are owned body and soul by the Patron of Saiduan. We are nothing to them. Dhai is nothing. And those creatures that stepped so easily into the great hall of Kuonrada are going to be descending on Dhai. Your place is Dhai. I am getting you away from here before the Patron demands that you stay. Because if he demands it of me, I will have no choice but to honor him. Do you understand now?”

“No. Who were those men in the banquet hall, Ora Dasai? Where are the invaders coming from?”

“You’re willful and arrogant,” Dasai said. “That will either save you or ruin you. I hope I’m no longer living when you find out which.”

“Ora Dasai, you can’t–”

“I can. You’re dismissed.”