There was another silence. Beq pulled a roll of bandage out of her pack and started wrapping up Maya’s arm.

“So what’s happening now?” Maya said.

“Kaiura and a bunch of the villagers followed Tanax,” Beq said. “I’m not sure what they’re fighting about now.” She lowered her voice. “Tanax is really angry with you.”

Maya sighed. “Of course he is.”

A few minutes later, she had the strength to sit up, and Beq helped her wobble to her feet. A small crowd of villagers stood by the cages, all open now. Maya recognized Kaiura in their midst and caught a glimpse of Streza clinging to a bent-backed old woman and a filthy, sobbing younger boy in a fierce hug. Some of the rest were also comforting the rescued children, while a small circle around Kaiura spoke to each other in low tones, occasionally glancing up at Maya and the others.

Tanax and Varo, meanwhile, had pried the lids off a few of the crates and were carefully examining the contents. Small jars were packed neatly in straw, beside boxes stacked with waxy tablets wrapped in oiled paper.

“Up and about already, Maya?” Varo said.

“Didn’t want to get lazy,” Maya said. “Were all the kids okay?”

“Well enough,” Varo said. “Just scared and dirty. They were only here for a few days.”

“According to Kaiura, they were taken after someone discovered the smugglers moving goods into the cavern.” Tanax nodded to the entrance, where the wooden barricade had been. They’d removed it, and Maya could see out to the bank of the river. “Best guess is they use this as a depot before moving the stuff overland. Apparently they grabbed the children as hostages.”

“Thank the Chosen we got here, then,” Maya said.

“Indeed.” Tanax frowned. “It might have been a great success, if you’d exercised better judgment.”

Maya stood frozen for a moment, trying to digest that. Beq stepped forward, hands raised.

“We don’t have to get into that now,” she said. “Maya’s still—”

“What do you mean, better judgment?” Maya said. “And how is this not a success?”

“All three smugglers are dead,” Tanax snapped. “Two of them at your hands, I might add. We have no opportunity to interrogate them, which might have led us to the rest of their organization.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t get the chance to take prisoners,” Maya said. “I was a little busy trying not to get killed myself. One of them was a dhakim, if you haven’t noticed.”

“I understand your difficulties,” Tanax said, and his air of condescension made Maya want to scream. “But you wouldn’t have been in such a dangerous situation if you’d gone for backup immediately.”

“You were the one who told me I was wasting my time pulling cats out of trees.”

“That doesn’t excuse charging in on your own,” Tanax snapped.

“The children were hostages. If I’d waited, and the smugglers figured out we were onto them, they might have killed them all and run for it.”