But how? I’ve been trying my best, and my best hasn’t been enough.Eklor had outsmarted her every step of the way. He’dbeen more ruthless, more prepared. How could she hope to beat him?I’m outmatched. And I failed to see it.
And Amurra paid the price.
Dimly, she heard the door open and registered that Jentt and Zera had returned. She heard Marso fill them in, and all of them began to yell and argue about what to do next.
“We can’t do it,” Zera was saying. “It’s what he wants. If we withdraw our accusations, if we don’t have the doctors testify, if we don’t get that talisman out of his hands... Stran, you can’t want him to go unpunished!”
“I want Amurra back,” Stran said. “Whatever the cost. If that means capitulating to that monster, I’ll do it in a heartbeat. She’s my wife, the mother of my children. She’s my life!”
“He’s trying to neutralize us before his big show,” Jentt said. “He sees us as a threat.”
Zera smacked her fists together. “Then webethat threat and we stop him!”
Stran raged, “I will not risk my wife! If there’s any chance of saving her—”
“You’d sacrifice all of Cerre for the chance that Eklor will honor his word?” Zera shot back. “I am sorry, deeply sorry, but there is no real chance of that. You’ve met Eklor, right? Never honors his word. And even if he did, remember the cost? An innocent would die. You want that on your conscience? You want it on Amurra’s? Eklor isn’t making an offer we can take. He offers false hope. You know that. We can’t negotiate with him—we have to take him down!”
In a shaky voice, the boy Yarri whispered, “She’s right. Listen to her. Master Eklor hid human bones in my bed. You saw them. You can’t trust him.”
Zera spun. “Thanks for the vote, but who the hell let a kid in here?”
Yarri shrank back, and Stran crossed to wrap an arm protectively around him. “He’s innocent. We’re keeping him safe.” To all of them, he said, “I know we can’t trust Eklor. But what choice do I have? Amurra is mywife.”
Kreya turned away from the waterfall and faced her friends. “It’s my fault.”
“It’s Eklor’s,” Zera said flatly. “And he’ll pay.”
“I always think I know best,” Kreya said. “I always think I know exactly what to do, how to keep everyone safe, how to win... I was so consumed with needing to beat Eklor.” Holding the scout tightly, she closed her eyes and let the full force of her guilt wash over her.
“Love that you’re having a personal epiphany,” Zera said, “but right now, we need you to lead. Stran here wants to capitulate to a war criminal, while I think Eklor needs to be punished.”
“He’s won,” Stran said. “He has my Amurra. He holds her life in his hands.”
“He’s not offering a way to save her,” Zera snapped. “He’s offering a trap. You walk in there and capitulate to what he wants, and we lose. But if we stick together...”
That was it.
Thatwas what they had that Eklor didn’t: a team. A team that could work together and trust each other and lean on each other’s strengths. If they could unite in a single purpose.
But that depended, right now, on Stran.
Kreya focused on Stran and only on him. “What if we could get her body back? What would you do to save her? How far would you go?”
He understood what she was asking. “You broke law afterlaw to bring back Jentt. Believe me when I say I would do the same. I’d do anything for her. Give up anything for her.”
Kreya studied him. “You’re certain?” Next to Amurra, whom she couldn’t ask, he was the one who’d been hurt the most. Not Kreya. Not this time. She’d made too many decisions for her team without listening to what they wanted and needed. She’d spent too long thinking she knew what was best for all of them, for Jentt, for Zera, for the world. This time, the choice was theirs. And she wanted it unanimous, beginning with Stran.
“In a second,” Stran said.
Jentt jumped in. “No.”
Stran glared at him. “You can’t choose this for me—”
“She won’t thank you,” Jentt said, and Kreya felt as if he’d stabbed her in the heart and twisted. She should have told him from the beginning what the cost was. She shouldn’t have let this lie grow between them. She should have given him a choice. “If you sacrifice your life for her, even a portion of it, to bring her back—”
“She’d do the same for me,” Stran said. “As you would for Kreya.”
Zera let out a mirthless laugh. “Jentt gave up his entire life for me, and I’m only a friend. Of course he’d give up his life for Kreya. Without a second’s hesitation.”
