Dance of Thieves

Kazi, Wren, and Synové stash their weapons and supplies before going to dinner. The Ballengers talk quietly in a corner. Jase asks Kazi about her ring, but doesn’t believe her story about the ring. Natiya, still undercover as the cook, serves the first course when Jalaine comes in. Jase hugs Jalaine and whispers in her ear. Wren, Synové, and Kazi exclaim over the food while the Ballengers eat with more hesitancy. Jase announces the settlement houses are finished so everyone should see them, and watches Kazi’s response. After a long hour of conversation, the yawns come and Ballengers exit until only Jase is left. Kazi helps him to his room where he falls unconscious. Kazi whispers she loves him in Vendan before leaving.

Kazi, Wren, Synové, Natiya, and Eben creep through Darkcottage and the tunnel armed with knives. Kazi and Eben capture the scholar Phineas in the hidden study. Eben holds Phineas while Kazi, Wren, Synové, and Natiya surprise Captain Illarion, Bahr, Sarva, Kardos, and Torback. Kazi announces their arrest for treason and murder and orders them to get down on the ground. Captain Illarion tries to dissuade them until Synové lets an arrow graze Bahr’s ear. The Rahtan tie their prisoners up, force them to drink birchwings, and gag them. Kazi asks Phineas for the weapon plans and he points to the second outbuilding near the gate. They are halfway to the gate when Kazi hears a rustle and whistles to her team. 

The Rahtan force the prisoners to their knees at arrow point with Wren’s ziethe at the captain’s neck. Kazi faces Jase and his family, who have arrived to interrupt their plans. The Ballengers discovered the Rahtan plot and avoided being drugged with the birchwing as planned. Jase holds up the container of birchwings and accuses Kazi of using their relationship to carry out her mission. Kazi accuses him of harboring treasonous criminals and tells him to move or get arrested. When Jase reminds Kazi she’s outnumbered, Kazi promises the prisoners will die with her. Gunner brings Zane out and offers to trade him for Illarion. Jase yells at Gunner as Kazi struggles to choose between justice for her mom and duty to the queen. Kazi asks Zane what he did with her mom, but Gunner stops him from answering. Jase lunges toward Kazi and she puts her knife to his throat. She orders his family to stand down. Knife still to his throat, she walks Jase past the outbuilding that Synové burns down with a fiery arrow. Natiya and Eben chain the prisoners to a rail in a wagon as Mason calls for horses from the stable. Kazi orders Jase to drive the wagon.

Jase asks for rest at dawn because Kazi held him at knifepoint all knight. She tells him to send his family home, so he stops the wagon and tells Gunner to go and take care of things until he returns. Jase suspects there are troops waiting ahead and he doesn’t want to leave Hell’s Mouth at risk. Gunner reluctantly agrees and pulls everyone back. Kazi lowers her knife, and they climb from the wagon. The Rahtan take care of the horses and captives and Synové taunts Bahr. Jase stares at Kazi and thinks of the seer’s warning to guard his heart. Kazi yells at him to stop looking at her but Jase doesn’t.

Jase continues to drive, but Kazi rides behind on Mije while Wren guards him. He gets angry as he thinks about the Queen of Venda sending soldiers to his domain, which would have been considered an act of war if the Ballengers were recognized as a kingdom. Wren taunts him about Kazi then rides ahead with Synové. Illarion, Bahr, and Kardos try to convince Jase to help them take down the Rahtan, but Jase refuses. Illarion says they are destined to die because they fought with the Komizar against the Queen of Venda. Jase is disgusted by them.

Synové catches a small antelope; the Rahtan make dinner as the prisoners sit shackled to a tree. Jase is upset at Eben and Natiya for pretending to be cooks and calls the queen a liar. Kazi explains her letter was a farce. Jase asks if everything was a lie, and Kazi yells at him about stockpiling weapons to overthrow the kingdoms which Jase claims are lies. Eben separates them and Kazi tells him the queen is confined to her bed before walking away.

Kazi refills water skins at the creek as Eben checks on her. He assures her they’ll go back for Zane, but Kazi knows he’ll be long gone. Eben apologizes but Kazi is glad she did her duty. Illarion's mocking laughter about the Ballengers keeps running through Kazi’s mind and makes her think the Ballengers were double-crossed. Kazi tells the Rahtan her suspicions and Natiya questions her loyalty to Jase, but Kazi insists that Jase’s dismissal of her accusations was swift and genuine. Illarion's agenda is revenge against the queen, but Jase’s world is Hell’s Mouth. Eben and Natiya concede but point out Jase was hiding a known fugitive so the queen will decide his fate. Eben and Natiya load the prisoners and Kazi wants to tell Jase before they leave. Synové doesn’t want him to drive because he’ll be tempted to drive them off a gorge, and she doesn’t want Bahr to die that way; Synové says the queen will decide what happens to Bahr. Wren thinks Jase let Kazi use him as a shield to protect her from his family while Kazi insists she took him by surprise. 

conspired with the Komizar of Venda. Phineas and Torback are Morrighese scholars who turned their backs on the gods to serve themselves. Kardos was a general in the Komizar’s army who used children on his front lines to unnerve enemy soldiers. Sarva was governor of a Vendan province and Bahr a Sanctum guard who both led an attack against unarmed citizens. Wren’s family was butchered and Synové watched Bahr behead her parents. Though they promised to protect Hell’s Mouth, they planned to kill the Ballengers and dominate the kingdoms.

Jase compares Kazi’s betrayal of him to Illarion’s, but Kazi protests she never would’ve killed his family. Kazi violated his independent realm’s sovereignty and points out she’s imprisoning him for hiding Zane, not Illarion. Jase swears he was going to tell her about Zane. Kazi reminds him she gave back his ring when it mattered and walks away.