“You’re going to reveal yourself,” Zan snaps back, utterly unconcerned by the threat I offer, which isgoodbecause it’s not focused at him, but it enrages me all the same.
“Yes,” I bite out. “I am.”
“Do you want to undermine what Teren took this risk for?” Zan demands. “He revealed himself rather than letting you for areason, Yora.”
“And his gambitfailed,” I snap. “For this to have happened—”
“Someone from Crystal Hollow helped them. I’m aware,” Zan says grimly. “But his gambithasn’tfailed yet. This community has not begun to try. You have to let them, or it’s all for nothing, and nothing will change.”
I scream at him.
No words, incoherent, just a blast of pure rage.
Zan’s eyes are bright in the face of my storm.
“I’m not waiting any longer,” I snarl.
“Oh, I agree entirely,” Zan says in a low voice. “But the first thing we need to do is get Terenback, and you have more room to maneuver as long as it’s not publicly known that you’re the Sage of Wrath. Finding Teren is more important than punishing the people responsible.”
With my wrath carrying my clarity I ask, “Is it?”
If they are not punished for a transgression such as this, they will never stop.
Zan says. “The secondary priority, then. Punishment can’t come at the expense of the people whose lives we’re trying to save.”
That, finally, makes me take a breath and begin a kata, gathering the wrath back into me.
I’m not dissipating it or spending it. I will yet need it.
And I will be ready.
Only when I have packed my aura tightly back under my skin do I meet Zan’s gaze again.
“We’re going hunting.”
Zan squeezes my shoulder briefly; an acknowledgement. “You have my fire.”
Thefirstthingweneed to do is find where Teren has been taken.
If Zan or I leave the island to search for him, the priests will have laid traps for us.
I strongly suspect the modern Order doesn’t really appreciate what I’m capable of, but it is to my benefit to wait until it is time to free Teren to allow them to find out, not before; that way brings us the greatest chance of success in getting him back.
But with Nomi back on her feet, she gets to work rousing Crystal Hollow.
Zan emotionally withdraws from me again—it’s something of a relief that it’s at least so easy for me to reach him through his walls—to make himself physically able to leave me and circle the island—atspeed—while I go to the edge where in low tide there is a land bridge connecting Sanctuary Isle to the mainland of Kameya.
There’s no path now.
But as I gaze out into the mist, I vow that when there is, I won’t hesitate to take it.
And in the meantime, with the island silent, I begin my preparations.
No magic will enter here again without my being aware of it.
They won’t be stopped; this is not a wall.
But it’s a door with a bell on it.
