"We're digging out a passage. It'll take time because we have to be careful not to cause another collapse. Can you hold on?"
"We're not going anywhere," Ravel said.
With excruciating slowness, that hole grew larger, and fresh air began to filter through.
"Almost there!" the voice called. "The opening is small, but we think you can crawl through it."
"Morek, you go first," Ravel said.
I watched Morek climb the unstable pile and squeeze through the narrow opening. Then Shovia, wincing as she tried to protect her injured wrist. Codric went next.
"Your turn," I told Kailin.
She looked up at the narrow tunnel our rescuers had carved out of the stones and swallowed hard.
"You can do this. I'll be right behind you," I promised.
She nodded and started up. I stayed close, ready to catch her if she slipped. Her hands were shaking as she pulled herself up over the broken stones, and more than once I had to steady her when a rock shifted beneath her feet.
"That's it," I encouraged. "Just a little further."
When hands reached down to pull her through, I felt a weight lift from my chest. She was out. She was safe.
I squeezed through the narrow opening behind Kailin and squinted against the light.
People and equipment were scattered across the temple floor, and multiple dragons waited just beyond the Circle.
A medic tried to check my head wound, but I waved him off. "I'm fine. It's just a surface scratch. Tend to the others."
I walked over to Kailin, who stood wrapped in a blanket, and pulled her into my arms.
"We're okay," I said. "We're safe."
She pressed her face against my chest. "We were lucky."
She was right. We'd been lucky. Next time, we might not be.
I glanced at Ravel, who was conferring with Captain Odinah. His jaw was set in a grim expression and his eyes kept sweeping over the personnel, probably searching for suspects.
He knew what I knew, what we all knew now.
Someone in the Citadel wanted us dead, and they were willing to blow up sacred temple ground to make it happen.
A few minutes later, he walked over to us.
"You're coming with me," he told Kailin. "I want to keep you close until we figure out what's going on."
25
KAILIN
"The body keeps a score, even when the mind pretends otherwise."
—Unattributed inscription in the medical wing.
The note had arrived the night before, slipped under our door while Alar and I were at dinner. It informed me that Commander Ravel would escort me to the medical wing in the morning and that I should be ready at dawn.
The commander had told me about the appointment a few days ago, but with all that had happened, it had slipped my mind.
