“You are alone?”Olsa asked.
“Yes,” I said, perplexed.“What—How did you know I’m here?I asked about you, but…”
Illya lifted the chair from my hands and looked me over.“What happened to you?”
I was reminded I was still in my infirmary shift and a bandage, and, though I was by no means prudish, I was without even stays.
“I was shot in the leg, and they took my clothes.”
Illyatsked and put an arm around me.He doubtless intended only to hold me up, but my frayed nerves sensed an embrace.Before I knew what I was doing, I’d wrapped my arms tightly around his neck.A sob stuck in my throat.
Illya hugged me back, firm and warm, and patted my back with the ease of a veteran father.He, at least, was unbothered by my state of undress.
“Olsa saw you arrive,” he explained, putting a more practical arm around my shoulders.“So we decided it was time to make our escape.”
“That’s fortunate.”I squinted between the two of them, still in denial of my tears.“I was just about to leave too.”
Olsa smiled, warm but distracted.“I know.But other Sooths may too.We must hurry.”
I nodded but held up a hand.“The High Cleric said they could heal Samuel.Can we risk speaking to them?Searching their library?”
“I did try.”Olsa gave me a tight, apologetic look.“I knew of Samuel’s hope for a cure.We have discussed it many times.I found a book on the topic last week while attempting to recover the papers Jessin Faucher gave us.They were seized when the ship was taken.”
“The papers?”I repeated, momentarily at a loss for what she was talking about and why they mattered.“Did you recover them?Where is the book?”
“Not the time for this,” Illya broke in.
“The papers were in locked in an office—a very well-guarded one.We nearly escaped with the book on corrupted mages, though.That I found in the library.”
“Now the book is gone, you are here, and time is running away,” Illya cut in.“Let usgo.”
I grasped at one last hope.“Can we take the Cleric then?”
“That is too great a risk,” Olsa said firmly.
The need to protest assailed me, but I knew she was right.Just because the Cleric had been relatively kind did not mean they would come easily, and they seemed to be involved with Enisca.
That left me feeling ill and disheartened, and my strength abandoned me.The importance of Faucher’s papers was still vague to me, and our lives, I thought, simpler without them—however much Samuel might disagree.
But Samuel’s cure was another matter entirely.
“Then there’s no hope for him,” I summarized, overwhelmed.
“Only if we are dead,” Olsa said.
“Fine,” I managed, walling off my fears.“But there’s a man two doors down, hemustcome with us.He has a way out.”
Olsa hesitated—evidently, she had not foreseen that—but only for a moment.She nodded and we set off, I limping but determined.
A stolen key in the lock of Maren’s door and there he was, dressed in coat and hat with a heavy-laden satchel over one shoulder.His eyes went round when he saw my companions, but he joined us without a word.
I held up my wrist and its manacle meaningfully.Maren produced a key and clicked it in, pulling the manacle away from my reddened skin with gentle maneuvering.
My power rushed back in, and I sighed in relief.
“Also, you must take this.”Maren held out two talismans on a single fine, golden chain.
“Against Sooth and Magni,” the Mereish man explained and reached under his own collar to tug out its mirror image.He glanced at the Uknaras.“I did not expect company, but I will secure you talismans before we leave.Many of the guards are Magni—we must be prepared.”
