“Domenic, be careful,” I warned. “Don’t go stumbling into treason. We don’t know what the truth is here. There’s got to be some deception at work.”

“The truth is the children are gone, and their parents are grieving and angry.” He shrugged, a defeated motion. “If it wasn’t the Empire, I don’t know who could do such a thing.”

Zaira patted his shoulder. “The Empire isn’t the only demon in the Nine Hells, believe me. It’s just the biggest and ugliest.”

That startled a smile out of him. He squeezed her hand. “Thanks. That’s a great consolation.”

“I’ll help you find out what happened to the children.” I caught myself before adding I swear. “My mother may have more—”

His chair scraped the floor. “You can’t tell La Contessa what we talked about. For Graces’ sake. I’d be dead by morning.”

“She wouldn’t do that.”

“She’s on the Council of Nine,” he said. “She executes a dozen traitors before breakfast.”

“Never before breakfast,” I objected. “And she doesn’t execute them. She just condemns them to … Oh, never mind. I won’t tell her. But I won’t be able to accomplish as much without her help.”

“I’ll take that trade.” He relaxed. “Thank you. Even if you can’t find out anything, I’m glad you’re willing to listen. A lot of Raverrans would have just shouted at me about the Empire and never admitted the Falconer system might have problems.”

Zaira crossed her arms. “Anyone who can’t see it’s got problems isn’t looking too cursed hard. By the Demon of Madness’s pimply buttocks, you’re arguing about whether they stole these particular brats, not whether they’re child stealers.”

“They don’t steal children,” I objected.

“No, you’re right. They conscript them into the army. That’s so much better.” Zaira gave me a challenging stare over the rim of her mug as she sucked down the rest of her coffee.

“Not much better, perhaps,” I admitted, “but the Falconers are at least an improvement over the alternatives Eruvia has come up with thus far. Loreice burned the mage-marked at the stake before Raverra brought it into the Empire. In Vaskandar, the mage-marked have raised themselves as bloody conquerors, abusing the people as their whims dictate. Every place and time in history there have been no laws to protect or regulate the mage-marked, they’ve become either victims or tyrants.”

“Less terrible is still bad. And I’ll tell you an alternative: leave us alone,” Zaira snapped. “I wasn’t bothering anybody before the Falconers found me.”

“You killed three men and were about to set the city on fire,” I protested. “If you weren’t in the Falcons right now, you’d probably be executed for murder.”

She glared at me. “They had it coming, and you know it.”