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As my heart lurches, Ivy’s posture stiffens. “Gone along with what? Stop who?”
The Order of the Wild defector shoves his hand back through his tawny hair. “When I joined you—it was supposed to be a trick. I didn’t want to lie to anyone. I haven’t felt right about what’s being done under the banner of the Order of the Wild for months. But I was afraid of what they’d do to me if I didn’t go along with the plan…”
With every word that falls from his mouth, it’s obvious how anguished he feels about his decision. Anger flares in my chest at the thought of the danger he’s put us in, but my fury is tempered by a corresponding rush of compassion.
I don’t know what this man has been through—what the scourge sorcerers put him through before he got to this point.
He’s confessing to us now. That counts for something.
Ivy’s hands have clenched at her sides. I jump in before she can speak. “It’s understandable that you’d have been afraid, and it does you credit that you’re owning up to your missteps. We can deal with the past later, on our own time. What is it you’re worried about now?”
His expression turns even more miserable. “The last thing I did for them—I managed to pass on a message a few days ago, not long after we got to the temple, to let them know where Princess Petra had gone. They signaled me just now, through a charm they gave me—they’re on their way. I’m supposed to distract you so you don’t realize they’re coming, but I don’t want to. I want you to get out of here before they can do whatever they’re planning. I—I want to come with you.”
He drops to his knees in appeal, his hands clasped in front of him, his gaze fixing completely on Ivy. “You know what it’s like to hurt people and regret it. To want them to see you as something better. I know I can do so much better too. Please, give me the chance.”
As she stares at him, I reach for my gift with a tingling through my teeth and focus on the man in front of me. In the rush of sensations that flow through my mind, my certainty locks into place.
It’s a much more specific impression than what I first got from him, when he needed us to welcome him to carry out his trick. What I could do that would make this man happiest is to help him escape the horrors he’s already seen from his former colleagues.
“He means it,” I say.
Ivy’s gaze turns fierce. She motions Filip back to his feet. “How far out are they?”
He splays his hands helplessly as he scrambles up. “I don’t know. I assume they’d give me a decent amount of warning, but it could be less than an hour.”
Ivy’s stance is still rigid, but my calm approach appears to have tempered her anger as well. She turns to me. “Come on. We need to get everyone out of the temple.”
Her head jerks back toward the defector. “And you’d better stick with us. You’re going to need to prove that we can trust you now when we shouldn’t have before.”
He hangs his head. “I know. I thought… I thought I’d already been dragged into so many messed up things that there wasn’t any hope for me. I haven’t really felt like myself in years… until the past week with all of you. This is where I want to be, and I’ll do whatever it takes to prove it.”
Ivy gives him a sharp nod and jogs down the hall. She raises her voice so it carries through the building. “Delfis? Tinom? Petra? We have a problem!”
In a matter of minutes, the temple is consumed with activity. Delfis directs most of his devouts to help us in our frantic packing of supplies while several others usher the rescued sacrificial accomplices into a hidden entrance that leads to a secret basement chamber.
“A security measure I wish we could offer all of you,” he says. “But if the Order is suspicious of us, they’ll watch the temple closely for weeks. I don’t think you’d be able to leave to carry out the rest of your mission unless you do it now.”
Petra bobs her head to him with a tap of her fingers down her chest, acknowledging both him and the godlen he serves. “I understand. We’re grateful for the hospitality you’ve already offered.”
I hurry out to the stable to gather all the horses we brought and a few extra steeds the cleric says he can spare. When I lead the last couple out to meet the emerging crowd, Petra is deep in debate with our allies from Pima.
“I don’t know how far we’re going to have to flee to be safe,” she’s saying to Emor. “And Nikodi was right at the heart of the uprising. We can’t go there. But I can’t ask your people to travel so much farther from home either.”
He waves off her concern. “I’ll return to pass on word of what went on here. But what matters the most to us has always been seeing the scourge sorcerers taken down.”
He glances around at his followers. “Is there anyone who’d rather go back to Pima with me than continue helping our future queen secure her throne?”
At the chorus of refusals that rises up in response, Petra looks both awed and nervous. Her mouth sets in a firm line. “I’ll do my best to keep you all safe.”
Ivy secures a bag to Toast’s saddle and swings onto his back. She scans the yard as if seeing beyond the temple walls. “I can’t sense any magic extending this far yet… but that doesn’t mean they aren’t close.”
Petra hefts her younger brother onto her horse in front of her and checks on her sister, who’s sharing a horse with Rheave. Once we’re all mounted, Tinom extends his arm, sweeping his hand through the air.
“I’ll do my best to deflect their attention from us in the darkness. Let us go quickly and quietly. If anyone gets separated, make for Tupno, and we’ll regroup outside the city. I think we’re best off heading south. There are a few noble families on the far side of Florian I’d expect to take the Melchiorek side. It’s about time we called on them.”
We set off through the gate at a brisk trot.
The night drapes around us, the temple’s lanterns quickly dwindling behind us. All my companions are reduced to faint shades of gray in the dim starlight.
