I leaned against the wooden fence, watching him quietly for a moment. He reached into a trough, pulling out a large kela steak and tossing it to Tuupa. The gurza reared up on its strong legs, catching the meat in midair and noisily tearing into it. Isaak laughed, then turned his head slightly and caught sight of me. I thought his smile wavered, just for a moment, but then it passed and he came over to stand beside me.

“Hey,” he said. “How are you feeling? Better?”

My cheeks burned with embarrassment. “Yes. I’m sorry about… you know, last night.”

He looked at me. “Why are you sorry? You didn’t do anything that needs apologizing for.” When I didn’t respond, he said, “How’s Ceilos? I must have already been asleep by the time he came in last night. I haven’t had a chance to talk to him.”

I ran a finger along the knotty wood of the fence. “About as well as can be expected.” I told him what Ceilos had said about the man who called himself the Liberator.

Isaak frowned, climbing up on top of the waist-high fence and staring thoughtfully at the gurzas. “It doesn’t make sense. Why would this guy target Ceilos, but then let him go?”

“I’ve been wondering that myself.” The two of us glanced up to see Ceilos approaching us down the dirt path. He came up beside me, putting a hand on my shoulder and looking at Isaak. Isaak didn’t react, but I squirmed internally. It felt like Ceilos was trying to mark me. He obviously still didn’t trust me. I shrugged his hand off, moving several paces away from both of them, not meeting his eyes.

“So?” Isaak said. “Do you have any theories?”

Ceilos stared unblinkingly at me. “One. But I don’t like it.” He folded his arms and sighed. “What if I wasn’t the real target? What if it was…” He thrust his chin in my direction.

My eyebrows furrowed. “Me? But why?”

“I don’t know. But that comm he sent you seems to indicate that he was more interested in you than me.”

I looked down at my feet. It didn’t make any sense. I was a nobody. True, I was the daughter of geroi, but there were two others here on Iamos and a third on one of the two colonies on Hamos. They were all younger than me, though—I was next in line for the gerotus before I failed my evaluation. But what did that have to do with anything?

“What if it’s because of the time postern?” Isaak interrupted. I looked up at him. He’d swiveled on the fence, looking down at me seriously. “I mean, all of this started right after the people from my time started turning up. And you and Gitrin were the only ones who knew about it.”