“I don’t know,” Trey said, remembering more of his journey, more of what Alishia had been muttering in the deep parts of her mind. “But she’s afraid that something is going to come back.”

“What could that be?” Kosar said. “I don’t know anything of the girl. Is she normal?”

“She’s a librarian,” Trey said. “This is her first time outside Noreela City.”

“Trickery,” Hope said. “For some reason only the girl knows, she’s feigning this sleep. Has she stolen any of your fledge, miner? Is she guiding the Monks to us, even now?”

“No!” Trey said, fear of the witch fueling his anger. “She’s good. Something drove her from her own mind, and she’s terrified—”

“So why has it gone now?” A’Meer asked. Everyone turned to look at her. “And where? She’s only been like this since Rafe . . . since he touched me. We all felt what happened then, we all know what it was, but why would that drive the girl to distraction?”

Nobody could answer. The silence in the cave was loaded.

“Well, it scared the shit out of me,” Kosar eventually whispered.

“There was something inside her,” Trey said. “I saw the space it left, the scars on her mind. They were huge.”

“Something left her mind when it saw magic,” Hope said, staring at Rafe. “The boy did just what he claimed he couldn’t, and something fled Alishia’s mind.”

“You sound like you blame me,” Rafe said.

“I blame you for never believing.”

“It’s the Mages,” A’Meer said.

Heads turned. Nobody spoke, and the rain provided the counterpoint to their disbelief.

“Perhaps they got wind of what was happening, knew somehow that magic was making a return. They have their spies in the land—they have ever since they left—gathering information, feeding back news, trying to ease their eviction with stories of how the land has been failing ever since. Maybe they heard that the Red Monks were on the move. They have access to things most people do not. Hope, they have your arcane knowledge, and much, much more.”

“But they fled northward, way past The Spine,” Kosar said. “It would take a couple of moons to travel that far.”

“As I said, Kosar, they have access to things. Trey, did you have to run across the land just now to report the Monk to us? No. Why would the Mages’ spies have to?”

“But what . . . ?” Kosar said.

A’Meer sat up slowly, wincing as her bruised and battered body protested. “A shade,” she said. “They mastered controlling damaged shades during their reign. Who’s to say they don’t still have a certain influence?”

“But that’s magic,” Hope protested. “There is no magic!” She glanced at Rafe as she spoke, then looked away again.

“It doesn’t have to be magic. I received a message from you, remember?”

“That was a skull raven, that was just . . .”