“Well, then,” said Roland. “I guess something positive came from that fiend. I knew something had happened here when I saw the boy, but I wasn’t exactly sure if it was good or bad.”

Roland’s happy expression had dimmed a little, which I couldn’t understand. I didn’t know what his comment had meant either. “The boy?”

He nodded. “The one I met before. The one who was raiding Tucson and Phoenix.”

I exchanged puzzled glances with Dorian. “You mean Pagiel?” I asked. “What about him?”

“He’s back,” said Roland. “And since I knew you took him with you on your quest, I figured either you’d succeeded and freed him up to come back or else failed and forced him to more of the same.”

For a few moments, I was totally confused. When I was finally able to parse what Roland was saying, I nearly reeled. I was certain I’d misunderstood.

“You don’t mean ... you don’t mean Pagiel’s back in Arizona?”

Roland nodded. “Back with more people. Back for more raids.”

Chapter 24

Chapter 24

I immediately turned to Dorian.

“I know nothing,” he said, quickly guessing my question. “This is the first time I’ve heard anything about this.” He turned to Roland. “Forgive me for any doubts ... but I have to ask: are you certain you saw him?” It was amazing how quickly Dorian had recovered from my romantic mixed signals to dealing with the task at hand. I was reminded of my discussion with Kiyo: no matter the problems between Dorian and me, we always put them aside to work as a team.

“Positive,” said Roland. “I was on the scene at one of the raids. He’s hard to miss with that hair. The others have made the news, and each time, the footage showed these crazy haboobs that just didn’t look natural. That, and we don’t generally get four of them in two weeks. The boy controls wind and air, right?”

“Right,” I said with dismay.

Dorian arched an eyebrow. “Haboob? Isn’t that slang for—”

“It’s a kind of sandstorm,” I interrupted. “They occur all over the world, and Arizona gets them every once in a while. The Thorn Land theoretically could, but I’m too in sync with its weather to let one happen.”

“Shortly after our return from the Yew Land, Pagiel left to visit the village he’d grown up in, on the far edge of my kingdom,” said Dorian thoughtfully. “You knew he lived out there before Ysabel dragged him to my court, right? He was worried that those villagers hadn’t fared as well as the people in my castle during the blight and wanted to help them rebuild. I haven’t heard from him since and just assumed he was preoccupied with the rebuilding.”