Flea jumped down from Coffee. “I’ll fetch them.”

Kerrick helped Mom dismount. “Go on inside, Mom, I’m sure there’s a warm fire and food.”

“Oh, no, dearie. Not until I hear what happened to Avry.”

Belen removed the tack from Tea, then moved on to Coffee’s. Flea returned with Odd, Loren, and Quain. No Avry. Her absence was a red-hot poker right through his heart. The monkeys tackled Belen, whooping and teasing him.

Kerrick endured the moment of levity as he braced for the bad news. Odd waited, studying him with a hostile expression. Odd’s going to blame me.

When the monkeys settled, Odd asked him, “What took you so long?”

In no mood to defend his actions, Kerrick ignored the question. “Where’s Avry?”

Odd crossed his arms. “She’s alive. The traitor Wynn took her south with a large company of soldiers as backup. They want her to assassinate Tohon.”

So many things jumped out at Kerrick. First, Avry was alive, the best news. But... “Tohon?”

“Back in the king business, according to the traitor. Whether or not you can believe her...” Odd shrugged.

“Why didn’t you chase after them?” Flea asked.

“They had approximately one hundred and fifty soldiers, Flea. We have twenty.” Odd looked at Kerrick. Accusation blazed in his gaze. “We would have had more, except they got the drop on us and killed my men, Lieutenant Macon, and all of his squad.”

Ah. “And if I’d been here, they wouldn’t have died? I’d have made a difference against one hundred and fifty soldiers?”

“We would have had more warning.”

“You did have warning,” Loren said. “Remember, Sergeant Gylon encountered the enemy two days south of us. We sent a message to Prince Ryne.”

“But we’d assumed it was just a patrol. Kerrick would have been able to determine how many soldiers.”

“And then what would we have done?” Kerrick asked. “Ryne’s main forces are too far north.”

“We could have evacuated.”

True. But would they have caught up to them in the end? Kerrick refrained from mentioning that. Instead, he asked Odd to explain everything from the beginning. “But first tell me how they cured Tohon.”

Odd reported the events as if talking to a superior officer—concise and emotionless. Kerrick wished he could say he listened to Odd with the same detachment. His emotions twisted into a tight knot over Zila’s capture and the unknown fate of his brother and Great-Aunt Yasmin.

* * *

“...we sent another messenger to Prince Ryne and have been waiting for instructions from the prince,” Odd concluded.

“Danny?” Kerrick asked.

“Inside. I wouldn’t let him come out until I knew it was safe.”

Another bit of good news.

“When are we going after Avry?” Quain asked.

“We?” Kerrick gave him his flat stare.

“Yes, we,” Belen said. “We’re stronger together than apart.”