“Because of Catherine and that boy,” I said. “I guess . . . The way I’d always justified it to myself was that the rest of the world had started it. But those two hadn’t done anything to me. So I tried to fix it. And I failed.”

Luna sat without speaking and I wondered what she was thinking about. It was a relief when I heard footsteps and Anne and Variam arrived. I looked between them, then down the tunnel. “Sonder?” I said.

“He had to leave,” Anne said. There was a slight distance in her manner, but at least she didn’t flinch when I looked at her.

“He’s still choking on the whole ex–Dark mage thing,” Variam said. “He said he’d call.”

It wasn’t really a surprise. Sonder had always been the idealistic one, and I had the feeling it was going to take a while for him to get used to this . . . if he ever did. I glanced at Variam. “How about you?”

“I figure we owe you,” Variam said.

“I don’t want you to get involved in this because you feel you have to.”

“Yeah, well, that’s my call, right?” Variam shrugged. “You’re about the only mage who’s ever stuck around to help us out. I’m not leaving because of some old grudge.”

I didn’t say anything but I gave Variam a nod, and he gave me one back. I looked at Anne, who answered in her soft voice. “I’m not blaming Sonder for leaving,” she said, and again there was that trace of remoteness that hadn’t been there before. “But . . . what’s done is done. I don’t want anyone else to die.” Her eyes held mine and there was a question there.

“Neither do I,” I said, and I felt Anne relax slightly.

“Okay,” Luna said, raising a hand. “Not to point out the obvious, but they seem just fine with someone dying, as long as it’s you.”

“Is there any way to talk to them?” Anne asked.

“Yeah, I got a close look at these guys,” Luna said. “They really didn’t seem in a talking mood.”

“How many of ’em are there, and what can they do?” Variam said.

“Six that I saw,” I said. “At least three are magic-users, probably adepts. Will can accelerate himself, the girl throws ground fire, and the tall one’s a life-drinker. I caught a whiff of space magic too.”

“Only four of them were fighting though,” Luna said.

“That we saw,” I said. “If they can put together an attack team of six, they’ve probably got others.”

“If their group’s that big, they’re going to have trouble hiding,” Variam said with a frown. “There should be some way to track them down.”

“But if you go following them it’ll just lead to another fight,” Anne said.

“You got any better ideas?”