“I think the fighting’s stopped,” he said. “The machines aren’t moving anymore. I can’t see the hawks.”

“They’re stalking us,” Hope said. “They have to be. It’s the boy they want. They’ll go back for the Monks later.”

“It’s Rafe they want,” Alishia said, “and they’ll get him.”

“Go back to sleep!” Hope said.

“Then where are they?” Trey asked. “Why don’t they just attack if they want him?”

“I don’t know,” Hope said.

“You pretend to.”

“But I don’t! I don’t know anything. It’s guesswork, all of it. The only one who knows is him and . . . and maybe her!” She pointed an accusatory finger at Rafe and Alishia. “And they’re not telling the likes of us.”

“So what happens now?” Kosar asked. “Do we just sit and let this thing take us wherever it likes?”

“What choice do we have?” Hope said. “We’ve never had a choice. We’ve been dragged along for days, never given any option, no free will. Everything that happens to us is fated. Maybe in an hour we’ll all be dead, or free, or somewhere we can’t possibly imagine.”

“That’s helpful,” Kosar said, but her words chilled him because they echoed what he had been thinking all along. No free will.

The witch stared at him, her tattoos writhing as she grimaced in annoyance. “It’s the only help I can give.”

“So we sit back,” Kosar said. “Enjoy the view.” He glanced down over the side again at the wide forests surrounding the burning valley. A’Meer was in there somewhere, dead, already graying into the land. He scanned the darkened treetops, wondered if he was looking right at her.

The machine rose higher and higher, light bursting occasionally from its underside. The air became cold, the sky above them darker, and soon night enveloped them once again. They could not outrace the sun, however powerful the magic that carried them.

They watched and listened for the hawks. They must still be there, Kosar thought. There’s no way that single attack from the machine could have finished the Mages, no way. Not after three centuries awaiting their chance to return. There must be more to them than that. “We should plan,” Kosar said quietly. “They’ll be coming. We should figure out how to fight them off.”

“Don’t be so stupid,” Hope said.

“And don’t be so fucking negative!” Kosar stood on the uneven clump of ground held inside a machine, glowering at the witch where she squatted next to the unconscious boy. “Why did you come along, why did you take it on yourself to protect him? When we first met he was yours and yours alone! Now you’re ready to sit back and let the Mages take him without a fight? I don’t believe that.”