“You weren’t there,” I pointed out. “You have nothing to report.”

He shook his head. “This is too important.”

“Yes, it is.” Zaira’s eyes burned with suppressed fire. “If you make your report like a good lapdog, and your masters decide one bad apple in Ardence is a good enough reason to set the whole barrel on fire, it’ll be too late for second thoughts and sorrys. Once the city is ashes, you can’t unburn it.”

She didn’t seem as confident now as she had when we argued earlier that under no circumstances would she turn her fires on Ardence. But if I’d undermined that certainty, I could take no vindication from it—only shame and dread.

“You don’t have to make your report right away,” I suggested. “Take your time writing it up. Send it by post rather than over the courier lamps. Whatever will give us more time.”

“Time for what?” Marcello asked. “There’s nothing more we can do. We still have an Ardentine traitor at large, trying to start a war—and coming closer to success than we are at stopping them.”

“Time to catch them. We have more clues now. Think.” I wound a loose coil of hair around my finger, but dropped it with revulsion when I found a speck of dried blood. But it jarred my memory. “One of my would-be kidnappers said something about brats. I think they helped steal the Ardentine nobles’ children.”

Marcello frowned. “So the same people arranged the taking of the children by the false Falconers, attacked Lemi, tried to kidnap you, and are manipulating these … Ardentine patriots … against Raverra. And the plotters may include someone within the duke’s inner circle.”

I itched to get up and pace, but my legs still felt shaky. Instead, I picked at the arm of the divan. “Taking the children and attacking Lemi make sense, if they seek to anger both sides and provoke a war. Manipulating Gabril makes sense, too; the Shadow Gentry will whip up anger against Raverra more effectively if they believe what they’re saying. But why kidnap me?”

Zaira shrugged. “To stop you from releasing me. It’s not much of a war if I just burn down Ardence, is it?”

“Kidnapping me doesn’t keep you hooded,” I said. “I can release you from miles away. Our plotter has given this scheme a lot of thought and planning. I don’t think they’d make such a basic mistake.”

Marcello’s fists uncurled, puzzlement relaxing the rage in his face. “What does happen if they kidnap you, then?”

“My mother kills them.” That I knew from experience.

“Well, there you have it.” Zaira waved a hand. “They kidnap some Ardentine nobles’ brats to bring Ardence into the war. They kidnap you to bring Raverra into the war. Everyone loses their minds and murders each other to get their children back. Our warmonger lives happily ever after. The end.”