My insides turned cold and Kerrick’s arm tightened around me. “We do, too,” I whispered.

“Since we’re not welcome to return to Prince Ryne’s army, we should search for Belen after we rescue Melina,” Flea said.

Not a bad idea. “I’m in.”

“I’m all for it.” Kerrick pushed up on his elbow. “But before we go rushing off, we need to have an idea which direction to search. With Melina, we know exactly where she is. If Belen’s been taken by Cellina, he could be anywhere in Vyg, Sogra, or Lyady Realms. That’s a lot of ground to cover and it’s all in enemy territory.”

“But we haven’t heard a word. Not even a hint of where he might be,” Loren said.

“Tohon claimed to have turned him into one of his dead soldiers, but Sepp said he froze Belen in a stasis. Neither can be trusted to tell the truth,” I said.

“After Melina, we concentrate on Belen. Agreed?” Flea asked.

It was unanimous. Kerrick settled back. He pulled me in tighter.

“It’s fitting we make sure Melina’s safe first. Remember how upset Belen was when she went missing?” Loren asked.

“Good thing he didn’t find those kidnappers, or he’d have ripped their arms off.” Quain made a tearing sound.

“They deserved to have their arms ripped off,” I said. The men had quite a profitable operation. They’d kidnap older teens and sell them to men looking for wives. One of those activities that had benefited from the loss of almost all law enforcement due to the plague.

“The ladies we rescued wanted to cut off another body part,” Kerrick said. He still sounded horrified by the idea.

“Oh, yeah,” I said. “Too bad Mengels’s town watch had re-formed or I’d have given them my sharpest knife.”

The monkeys groaned in sympathy. Men.

“Uh, Avry. Can you heal...uh...you know...man pain or would a patient need a male healer?” Quain asked.

Suppressing a fit of giggles, I imagined his face was bright red, even the top of his bald head.

Loren laughed. “What’s the matter, Quain? Did your last encounter give you a case of the clap? I didn’t know cows carried that disease.”

A yell followed a grunt and then the unmistakable sounds of two men wrestling accompanied a cloud of dirt.

“That’s enough, you two,” Kerrick said in his no-nonsense voice.

They stopped, both panting from the exertion.

“Quain, you really need to ignore Loren’s comments,” I said. “He’s just doing it to get a reaction from you.”

“And he falls for it every time,” Loren said.

“Easy,” Kerrick said to Quain.

“If he stops, we’ll lose hours of entertainment,” Loren added.

Quain didn’t twitch, but his glower promised Loren future pain. Loren kept his amused expression, unfazed by his friend’s demeanor.