The tent’s door flap fell closed behind him.

Shaken, Barl stared blankly at the drab, oiled-felt wall. Felt her fingers creep up to touch where Morgan had struck her.

Oh, Remmie.

Sat in Gribley’s crowded hall with Bannet, Del nowhere to be seen, Jervale watched Barl Lindin and her brother and the other Doranen mage, Lady Martain, enter with Elder Chaffie. The look on Remmie Lindin’s face chilled him.

Something’s wrong.

He tried to catch Barl Lindin’s eye, but the mage was inward-looking, her face paler than ever. There was a faint red mark on her right cheek he’d not seen before.

“Hush now,” said Chaffie, her hands raised. “Mage Lindin has some things to say.”

As Chaffie took her seat, and voice by voice the hall fell silent, Barl Lindin stepped forward. “My dear Olken friends, I must ask your forgiveness. When I first told you our story, there was a part I left out. I didn’t think you needed to know it, but I was wrong. So now I must tell you, for it will explain why I need you to do what you must do, so we all can be safe.”

A buzz of consternation. Bannet leaned close. “I don’t like the sound of this.”

Jervale swallowed, churned with unease. “Nor do I.”

“There is a mage I have not mentioned,” Barl Lindin said, her blue eyes haunted. “He was a friend once, but no longer. His magework corrupted him. He became a great danger. And when Dorana began to fall apart, we left him behind. But now he’s looking for us, and I fear that if he finds us he will wreak a terrible vengeance. Not just on the Doranen, but on the Olken as well, for helping us.”

Chaffie stood. “Why would he come looking?”

“Because he loves me… and because he thinks I betrayed him.”

“And did you?” said Chaffie.

In the hall’s ordinary torchlight, Barl Lindin’s eyes shone with tears. “Yes.”

Uproar. Loud voices, stamping feet, folk leapt up with fists waving. The mages stared at each other. Lady Martain said something, her voice smothered by Olken anger.

Giddy with dismay, Jervale sat unmoving, his rudely woken instincts clamouring as loudly as his fellow Olken. Even Bannet was protesting. Lur’s green and growing future was set to go up in flames. If he didn’t do something, say something…

Ignoring Bannet’s cry, he shoved his way along their row of seats and joined Barl Lindin at the front of the hall. Waved his arms and shouted for folk to hear him. But no-one was listening. He turned to her, despairing.

An explosion of glimfire silenced every raucous voice.

“Listen to her!” Jervale said loudly, before Chaffie or anyone else could speak. “If you love your families, listen.”