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“Medra.” Rodriguez swallowed. “House Mortis must have been watching us. They took him.” He looked around nervously. Now I understood his paranoia.

“Did you see it happen?” I demanded.

He shook his head. “No. They must have grabbed him when he was wandering around.”

The fluffin was fearless. He also enjoyed exploring. It was normal for him to disappear from camp for a little while, then to come racing back—looking for food, cuddles, and a cozy place to sleep. Usually inside Hawl’s tent.

My mind was already jumping ahead. “We have to wake everyone up. We’ll go after him.” I started to move.

Rodriguez grabbed my arm. “Wait.” He did not look any less anxious. If anything, he looked worse. “They left a note.” Wordlessly, he handed over a folded piece of parchment. My name was written on the outside. “They left it outside your tent.”

I scanned it, my anger rising. It was from Silvio.

We want the rider. Send her to us and the creature won’t be harmed. She must come alone or we’ll destroy the animal. No tricks.

–SS.

I let out a disbelieving snort. “This is insane. Of course I’m not going alone. We need to wake everyone up. What were you waiting for?” I thrust the note back at him. “Why didn’t you tell me as soon as you found this? They aren’t going to kill Neville. They don’t have a fluffin. They need him as much as we do. They must have finally realized it,” I said grimly. “Obviously we’re not doing as Silvio wants. We’ll attack them. We’ll get Neville back.”

I chewed my lip. Neville might be injured if we did this, but we had no other choice. Silvio was not going to just make a simple exchange. He had to know we’d show up en masse: He wasn’t a complete idiot. Mortis would be preparing for us right now. I thought of something. Had they gotten past the last ward? Had they reached the egg vault? “We’ll have to prepare for anything. Everything,” I said, starting to turn away.

“Medra, wait.” Rodriguez still looked like he was going to puke.

I narrowed my eyes. “What are you not saying?”

He rubbed a hand over his mouth. “Hawl saw the note first. Not me.”

My blood went cold. “No.”

“I couldn’t stop them,” he said desperately. “You know how they are. And when they found out Neville was gone …”

“Shit,” I said. Now we really did have a problem. Mortis might not kill Neville, but they wouldn’t hesitate to kill Hawl. My heart was sinking. “Shit, shit, shit.”

“What should we do?” Rodriguez asked.

“Is this it, then? Is this the prophecy?”

“What?” He stared at me, then shook his head, looking frustrated and sad at the same time. “I don’t know. I really don’t.”

Part of me wanted to be furious that for once he didn’t have all the answers. But that wasn’t fair. He wasn’t infallible. He was just doing his best, like I was.

“I’m going after them,” I said.

His eyes widened. “You can’t. Blake.”

“Oh, you’re worried about Blake, are you?” I snapped. “Well, my friend is out there. Mortis could kill Hawl at any time. What other choice do we have now?”

Rodriguez took a deep breath. “I wasn’t thinking. Now that I am … We can’t rush in without a plan. I think this is a bad idea. You were right the first time—we need to wake everyone up.”

“It’s too late for a plan,” I said mercilessly. “They told me to come alone, so that’s where we’ll start. They have Neville and Hawl—and they will kill Hawl, Rodriguez. I’m not going to let that happen.” I swallowed. “Even if they take me captive. The main thing is that Hawl and Neville get out.”

“They aren’t just going to hand over the fluffin,” Rodriguez pointed out.

“No, but I can at least exchange myself for Hawl, and then you can all do whatever you want. I’ll try to keep Neville safe. They won’t hurt me.” Well, they would. But I wasn’t going to think about that part right now.

At least Rodriguez had done one thing right: I’d been completely distracted from thinking about Orcades.

I hesitated. “By the way, I think Molindra is dead.”