“Can’t you just scry for them?” Ephyra asked, waving a hand vaguely.

“It’s not that simple,” Anton replied. “Prophets can hide their esha. It’s how we’ve avoided being found by Pallas this whole time. How we’re continuing to hide from him now—and hiding you all, too.”

“So that’s why Jude couldn’t find you,” Hector said, almost to himself.

Anton turned to him, startled. “What?”

“Jude hired these bounty hunters to track you down and…” He trailed off. “You know what, never mind. How do we find the Prophets?”

Anton paused, his gaze still locked on Hector, already knowing what he would say the moment Anton brought up Kerameikos.

“There’s a certain place,” Anton said carefully. “It has … echoes of the Prophets’ Graces. We think if we scry there, then we might be able to sense a trace of the Prophets’ esha and use it to track them down.”

Hector was shaking his head before the words were fully out of Anton’s mouth. “No. No, no, no. We can’t go there.”

“We don’t have a choice,” Anton replied testily. “The Circle of Stones is the only place that will give us a chance of finding the Prophets.”

“The Order of the Last Light has decided that Jude and I are oathbreakers,” Hector replied. “Kerameikos is too dangerous—and not just for the two of us. We have no idea if the Paladin there are loyal to Pallas.”

“The Guard wouldn’t turn against—” Hassan began.

“Yarik did,” Hector said darkly. “And even if the rest of the Guard is in Kerameikos, even if they haven’t joined Pallas, Anton and Jude abandoned them in the middle of nowhere. I wouldn’t exactly count on their support.”

“Well, it sounds like we don’t have a choice,” Ephyra said.

Hector pushed toward Anton, beseeching. “Come on, you know how much this puts Jude in danger. You’re willing to risk that?”

Anton looked away. He wasn’t willing to risk Jude. And that was exactly why they needed to go to Kerameikos. But he couldn’t tell Hector the truth—not without revealing the real reason he wanted to find the Prophets, and what would happen if they failed. “I won’t let anything happen to him.”

“You’re going to protect him?” Hector asked disbelievingly. “Against a hundred Paladin?”

“Yes.”

“You two don’t even need to come off the ship,” Hassan interjected. “We can go in alone.”

“No.”

Anton’s breath caught in his throat at the sound of Jude’s voice. He released it shakily, heart pounding, before he turned toward Jude, who hovered stiffly in the doorway, his gaze locked on Anton.

“If you’re going into Kerameikos then I’m coming with you.”