“They know,” Nomi says flatly. “They have seen me with Teren and tried to take him. We’re not just talking about abstract possibilities of what might happen here. If the priests gain free access to Crystal Hollow, I’m dead, and Teren worse than. Those are the facts.”
The room digests that for a moment.
“Well, damn it,” Gisa finally says with a sigh. “I guess we have to be revolutionaries after all.”
Romasa turns to her, visibly shocked. “Now, wait a—”
“Are you going to just hand the boy over then?” Gisa interrupts her sharply. “Are you comfortable with that, Romasa?”
“That’s unfair—”
“Shall we talk about practicalities instead?” Gisa interrupts. “Are you going to be happy having to take the time to make your own blankets again? How about handing over Nomi, who’s been fixing our weird-ass houses for decades and doesn’t have an apprentice? How inconvenient will it be when something in your house breaks, and there’s no one left to fix it?
“And then who do you think will be next, Romasa? Anyone who’s traded with either Teren or Nomi, perhaps, who might have known something, taken in for questioning? You think being innocent will protect your life here?” Gisa snorts.
Then she fixes the room with a hard look.
“They don’t get to have any of us, or else we’reallat their mercy,” the old woman tells them. “The stranger is right. We’ve done without the priests this long, and we’ll have to keep doing. And I assume now,” she says, fixing a glare at Nomi, “that Yora’s presence isn’t an accident. How do these two with all their convenient knowledge fit in?”
Well that turned quickly.
But Teren speaks up again. “Zan introduced us. He’s part of the network that helped me escape here as a child. Anyone he says is trustworthy is.”
I glance at Zan, trying to keep my expression calm even as I fear how he’ll react to being partially outed—even if this may have been the only alternative to not outing him as adragon.
“Then why did you, Zan, bring Yora here?” Gisa asks.
Zan doesn’t miss a beat. “More priests had been able to pass through the Quiet. I thought she might be able to figure out why.”
Smooth. Not even a lie, exactly.
More priests had passed through—making a concerted effort to kill him.
And I do know why.
I made my choices.
“Whatever caused the Quiet was centered on an ancient temple on the mountain,” I say, keeping my voice even. “It was once called Celestial Sanctuary, and the Sage of Wrath was entombed there. There is no body left in the cell she seems to have been kept in.”
“And how do you knowthat?” Romasa demands.
“Well I can’t think of many other reasons for a walled in room with a pallet,” I tell her blandly. “There was only one set of bones inside. The rest have been burned to set them to rights.”
Therewasa set of bones there, anyway.
I just happened to walk out when a dragon made me a door.
Everyone’s expressions are giving bigyikesvibes, though, so my words landed as intended.
“Even if you’re right,” Romasa says, “the priests of today aren’t like that. I know we all have our reasons for being here, but their danger to us here in Crystal Hollow isn’tphysical. They’re trying tounifypeople. They’re led by the Sage ofCompassion, for the gods’ sakes—”
Teren interrupts flatly, “The Sage of Compassion was the first person to recognize me and insist on trying to enslave me.”
“She’s not a slave!”
Oh boy, this one I can answer. “Whatever face the Sage of Compassion puts on is at the Order’s behest, not the other way around. She does whatever her masters tell her to without question—and she doesn’t question.”
“She has to,” Teren explains, “because the way the priests in our modern era enslave sages is by... it’s like a magical addiction, basically. Sages they catch can’t go against them without killing themselves with the effects of the withdrawal. But I grew up outside the Order and learned to control my power without them. So I can tell you with assurance that the priests do this so that no one can gainsay them, not because it’s safer for anyone.”
