The blue-haired man spoke. “She is, my Hon. I know what I saw in Jorat—”

“Or should I say, everyone is the Black Knight now? Killing me isn’t going to change a thing. We knew you lot were looking for armies, so we never formed any. We knew you lot were looking for leaders, so we made everyone a leader. We knew you lot would try to find the Black Knight, so we made everyone the Black Knight. Me? I’m just a thief who’s good with a bow. Killing me is like taking a cup of water from the sea and thinking you’ve stopped the tide.”

“Shut her up,” Relos Var said. “She’s just trying to delay—” He paused, and his eyes widened. A dozen emotions seemed to cross his face: anger, shock, outrage, and fear the most identifiable. Brother Qown thought he looked rather like someone who had just been stabbed or poisoned by a good friend, who had just realized how thoroughly they’d been betrayed.

Or maybe Qown was just conflating Var’s emotions with his own.

“What’s wrong?” Duke Kaen said.

“Someone just killed my brother,” Relos Var said.

Then he vanished.

Everyone hesitated. A beat of silence filled the room, and then Duke Kaen turned to his wife. “Did you know he had a brother?”

“I didn’t think he was the sort to have a family, to be honest.”

“Hmmph. Fine. And now that he’s gone—” Duke Kaen drew his sword and advanced on Janel’s unconscious body. “I will not tolerate traitors.”

“Azhen,” Xivan said, “we don’t yet know what happened.”

The Hon whirled back to face his wife. “We know she’s a traitor. We know she disobeyed at least one of my orders, freed prisoners I’d ordered executed, sent them into Jorat. She killed my dragon! She clearly knew who the Black Knight was the entire time and hid that fact from me. I know all I need to know. I had hoped I could trust her. Now I know I can’t.”

Qown stared at the blue-haired Yoran, who was biting down on a knuckle, eyes haunted. Now that Qown looked closer, he didn’t think the man a noble. The man was dressed in simple Joratese-style clothing.

“I agree we will need to do something,” Xivan Kaen reminded her husband, “but if we kill Janel, won’t that just send her to our enemies?”

The duke paused, consternation in his expression. He had forgotten the reason they made a point of not killing certain people.

Senera gestured. “If you like, I could, um, an enchantment might, uh—” She licked her lips, looking nervous and upset. “I mean, I—”

Qown had never seen Senera lose her composure before.