.

were better ways to point to lack of knowledge, but given Kaylin wasn’t terribly diplomatic on the best of days, even thinking that was kind of hypocritical.

      “Teela feels that the failure lies with her.”

      “What?”

      Severn, Kaylin’s actual partner, was silent and steady. Small and squawky actually left her shoulder to sit on his for half the march, glaring balefully at Kaylin as he did.

      “I have not discussed this with Teela; I doubt she’s discussed this with anyone. I am therefore guessing, based on some minor observation.”

      “Skip the part where you imply that I’m stupid.”

      “I did not imply that; I implied that you are not observant.”

      “Bellusdeo—”

      “You focus on your job. You focus on your home. Where it is necessary, you will focus on other things as they effect the former or the latter. Beyond that, however, you still feel that the world is somehow other, or foreign.” She exhaled at Kaylin’s expression, and added, “You know nothing about knitting.”

      Kaylin blinked.

      “I do not expect that you will know anything about knitting. But when you are wearing a sweater of some intricacy, I will unconsciously assume that you know something of what went into its making. Let us say I know something about knitting. Don’t make that face, I chose this example for a reason. I have seen the same sweater you have seen, but I have marked the intricacies of stitch and design. I know that the sweater could not be made by, well, you. But I understand that it could not be made by me without painstaking effort. I assume, at times, that you will also see what I see.

      “You have been given such a sweater. Your concern is the cold, or laws of public decency. You don’t care that it’s oversized. You don’t care that it might be inappropriately heavy given the weather. You understand that it is clothing, and some clothing is better than none. You don’t appreciate the quality of the sweater itself. It seems almost irrelevant to its function. I occasionally forget this. When someone wears such a sweater, it is, like most expensive fashion, meant to be a statement. No, it is a statement. Most people who make such statements are pretentious—but not all, and regardless, even the pretentious understand what they think they are trying to say. You don’t.

      “Were knitting, however, integral to your job, you would. You would see the stitches, the wool used, the dyes used on that wool; you would know what size the needles were, and whether or not different sizes were required to knit the whole. You are not stupid. You are, however, too narrowly focused. Better?”

      “I’m not sure.”

      “That’s the best I’ve got.” She glanced over Kaylin’s head at Severn and the familiar.

      “What Bellusdeo was trying to say before she started on knitting,” Severn then said, “was that Teela considers the attempt an act of desperation and fear. If she’s insulted at all, she’s insulted because Canatel—and Tagraine—didn’t come to her first. They didn’t ask for her help. They assumed that the people threatening them held all the cards. Barrani are, at heart, snobs.

      “Teela is a Lord of the High Court. She has one of The Three. We all know this. But we also know Teela best when she’s wearing the Hawk. If she weren’t in service to the Halls of Law, none of the Barrani Hawks would know her. They’d know of her, the same way we know of the humans in the human caste court.

      “When Teela’s wearing the Hawk, she’s just like them. Or you. Or me. She’s a Hawk. The Barrani can’t see someone who wears that Hawk as a power.”

      Kaylin opened her mouth and shut it again.

      “When they first started out as Hawks on the force, they were probably allowed to do so because they were considered—by their own people—barely better than your average mortal.

      “They haven’t considered that their ability to be Hawks was guaranteed by Teela as Lord of the High Court. They’ve had at least a decade to see Teela in action on the ground. They can no longer hold her in awe. They can’t think of her as an actual power because she does exactly what they do. She even obeys a Leontine. She is not called Lord when she’s in the office. That had to be a deliberate choice on Teela’s part—and I’m not certain she’s happy with the results.

      “The people who are threatening them, however, are powers, in Tagraine’s and Canatel’s minds. They didn’t come to Teela first because they felt, viscerally, that she was just another Hawk. They didn’t trust the protection she could have offered. That’s why she’s insulted. And I believe she holds herself responsible for their attempted assassination.”

      “Because she knew things were getting political,” Kaylin said, after a more thoughtful pause, “and she wasn’t prepared.”

      Severn nodded. “The Barrani Hawks have already been used.”

      “Against Moran, though.”

      “It doesn’t matter. It’s recent enough that she knew they could be used. She didn’t shore up her own defenses—and part of those defenses would be providing protection for the Hawks. They were threatened because she was too caught up in the concerns of her cohort.”

      Kaylin thought that was hugely unfair.

      “I’m not agreeing with her assessment,” Severn continued. “My agreement won’t matter to Teela one way or the other.”

      “I’d suggest you stay out of it,” Bellusdeo told him quietly.

      Severn glanced at Bellusdeo. “We need information.”

      “Teela’s a Lord. Leave the information gathering to her.”

      “Teela is a Lord,” he agreed. Severn could agree as if agreement were irrelevant. “But a Lord doesn’t enter the warrens. A Lord doesn’t—ever—meet with outcastes.”

      Bellusdeo’s eyes had shaded to a gold orange. Kaylin intervened. “Teela’s met with Nightshade before.”

      “Not under her own instigation. Her tabard and her choice of employ protects her in such situations. While the High Court does not consider the Halls of Law a suitable place for the Barrani nobility, they have all sworn oaths of service to the Eternal Emperor.”

      She remembered what Candallar had said, and nodded.

      “Teela’s interactions with Nightshade are considered, by the Barrani, to be a direct result of her tabard. Were she not a Hawk, she would not have met with him. Teela’s enemies are Lords of the High Court.”

      Kaylin nodded, thinking. “The Barrani Hawks met with Candallar. They probably didn’t meet him by accident. Either he was told to approach them, or they were told to approach him. Do you think they left the East Warrens and headed into his fief with an offer of some sort? Or do you think he already had an offer on the table and left the fief to meet them?”

      “Either would work,” he replied, in his neutral tone. “If the Hawks crossed the Ablayne, there are bound to be witnesses.”

      “They’re from the warrens. They’re not going to talk to us.”

      “They’re not going to talk to Hawks, no.”

      “Corporal,” Bellusdeo said, in a sergeant’s tone of voice. “Teela is no doubt waiting for Canatel to regain consciousness to ask him.”

      “He has a vested interest in giving her the answer she will find most acceptable,” Severn countered.

      “It’s none of our business.”

      “It’s not,” Severn agreed. “Until the cohort descends from the West March. We’ve got six weeks, if they travel overland the way we did.” And he clearly intended to use those six weeks to their full advantage. “Although I believe Mandoran is attempting to talk them out of it.”

      “No one listens to Mandoran,” Kaylin