Lariat laughs, heartily, obviously suffering none of her qualms. “Yer just fulla surprises, ain’t ya? Here I wouldn’t have thought you’d live to see your second battle, and you go and survive a dust-’em-up like this’n without a scratch! Though it looks like they tested ya, eh?”

Evie looks down at her hands, unable to distinguish dirt from dried blood. She stares at the streaks of both across her chest, rubs at the same grit suddenly itching her neck.

“Life is a test,” she says quietly.

Mother Manai laughs. “And death’s the only real answer.”

“Made a new friend there, have ya?” Lariat asks, sizing Brio up with a hard gaze.

Evie glances back at him. “This is… we knew each other in the Bottoms, back in the Capitol.”

“Ah. Capitol boy. We won’t hold that against ya none.”

“Did anyone else survive?” Evie asks.

“The dozen’er so B’ors that were in camp, they all came through,” Lariat informs her. “They’re havin’ a rest in back the weeds, where we were hidin’ out, but I wouldn’t count on ’em stayin’ long. They’ll take their chances runnin’. Hardheaded bastards, the lot of ’em are. They’d rather deal with coin hunters on one side and Sicclunan soldiers on the other, and the Sicclunans don’t like B’ors any more than Crachians do.”

“Other Savages? Skrain soldiers?”

“A few stragglers who took to the brush with us when the Sicclunans marched on the camp in force,” Mother Manai says. “No Skrain that we’ve seen.”

Lariat snorts through his mustache. “They picked the Skrain camp clean of armor, weapons, supplies, anythin’ worth taking. We looked.”

“Of course,” Evie says ruefully.

“If you wanna keep surprisin’ me by livin’, little Sparrow, you’ll come east with us and hope we find the Skrain before the Skrain or the blood coin hunters find us.”

“I suppose it won’t matter to them that our only crime was surviving an ambush in the night.”

Lariat shakes his head. “A Savage outta camp is fair game, reason don’t matter. They ain’t so good at listenin’ to us.”

“That’s assuming the Sicclunans haven’t pushed the line back and are holding it,” Manai offers helpfully.

“Right,” Lariat says. “In that case we’re behind enemy lines and they’ll be happy to kill us themselves. Won’t care about the reward.”

“There’s something to be said for denying the coin hunters their due,” Mother Manai remarks, actually sounding delighted.

“I can’t let my friend be returned to the Legion,” Evie insists.

“Why, ’cuzza his leg?” Lariat asks. “It’ll probably haveta come off anyway, from the look. Might as well let a surgeon—”

“It’s not that.”

Evie again looks to Brio, this time holding his eyes with hers, a silent question passing between them.

He only shrugs, looking as weary as she’s ever seen him.