“Sedric!” Alise gasped his name. Sedric was missing? She’d always thought he was safe on board the Tarman. He’d been there, in his cabin, when she left. How could he be missing, unless the barge had taken a terrible beating in the wave? Had his shelter been torn free, had he been drowned in his bed? The devastating news that Sedric was definitely missing collided with her joy that Leftrin was fine and would soon appear to rescue her. It was as if neither emotion would allow her to fully experience the other, and so she was trapped between them, feeling disloyal and numb. She worked her way around the clustered keepers and through them until she stepped out in front of Carson. At the sight of her, a sudden smile lit his face.

“Alise! You are here! Well, that will take away the captain’s greatest fear.” A light of cautious hope spread over his face. “And Sedric? Is he with you?”

She shook her head as Carson sidestepped Greft and came straight to her. She found her voice and tongue, though she could scarcely draw breath to push out the words. “I thought he was on the Tarman.” A devastating guilt dizzied her. She’d made him come with her. And now he was missing. Dead. Sedric was no swimmer, no tree climber. He was dead. Unthinkable. Impossible. Don’t think on it, don’t allow it to be real. She cleared her throat, and her tongue babbled on without her. “Now that Veras has returned, we are missing only the copper dragon, the silver one, and Heeby. Of keepers, we’ve seen nothing of Rapskal, Alum, or Warken. Are any of them with you?”

A silence fell, and when Carson slowly shook his head, low groans and sighs met his denial of their hopes. “They’re gone, then,” Alise said aloud, and she hated the finality of her words. It was like pronouncing them dead.

“I intend to keep looking.” Carson’s words jolted her back to awareness of the world around her. The keepers were milling around and talking, absorbing this latest piece of news. Veras had rejoined the other dragons; Jerd, Sylve, and Harrikin were working together to show her how to use the logs to float so she could rest.

“I found her wedged between some trees,” Carson told her. His gaze had followed hers. “She’d climbed up there when she was too weary to swim anymore. That probably saved her life. But as the water went down, she found herself wedged. She’d probably have gotten herself out after she starved a bit more, but I’m glad it didn’t come to that.”

Alise met his eyes. “You’re trying to tell me that the others may be in similar situations somewhere. Stuck, but alive.”