He leaned against the wall and ran a hand through his dark hair. “The chains couldn’t stop me, especially once I shape-shifted. Once I had a moment to free myself, I got the chains off everyone else, and then we just kind of busted our way out in the night. Why haven’t you done that?”

“Would if I could,” I muttered. “Varia’s keeping me in check with a few things. First, it was you guys. Then she tacked on the destruction of my kingdoms and finding Isaac and Ivy for good measure. Now she’s got Dorian with torturers and his execution penciled in.” I gave him a brief recap of my morning meeting.

“You were smart not to act then,” said Kiyo, when I was finished. “Dorian’s strong. He’ll hold out.”

I wondered if Kiyo meant that or if he just didn’t really care about Dorian suffering. “You never told me where the others are.”

“Hidden in the city,” Kiyo said. “Your Hemlock friends helped us find a safe place.”

“Hemlock ...” A light went off. “You’re Alea’s scout, aren’t you? You’ve been looking for the room with the talismans.”

“Found it,” he said, in a manner far too casual for the importance of those words. “Like I said, you can get to a lot when you’re rat-sized.”

“Is it in the basement, like Alea said?”

“Well, yes, but there are a bunch of basements here. This place goes as far underground as it does above. The room’s about four floors down and has lots of guards. The objects are inside, in two collections, surrounded by some magic I can’t really figure out. But then, gentry magic isn’t my specialty.”

“Two collections ... let me guess. One for the lands actually in the blight and one for those who’ve sworn allegiance. But obviously, she’d still keep their tokens around as leverage.”

Kiyo nodded. “That’s what I thought too. Not sure if this makes you feel better or worse, but the blighted pile was much larger. More are resisting than giving in.”

“How do you know it was the blighted pile? Did you recognize Maiwenn’s gift?”

“No, but there was a marble bust of Dorian in there, which I figured must have been his kingdom’s ‘humble’ gift.”

That normally would’ve brought a smile to my face, but thinking of Dorian only served to remind me of the trouble he was in because of me. The image of him being punched in the face was etched in my mind.