He pressed a shoulder to my leg and I dug my fingers into his fur. “I am here,” he said. He must have been shouting so I could hear, but his voice sounded soft and as though it were at my ear. My panic eased. Around us, wood groaned and furniture creaked as waves of water buffeted them. Cracks sounded as sundry items tumbled from their places inside the home, striking walls and pillars. I stood in the eye of the storm, untouched. The hooded figure appeared out of the storm in front of me, hands still raised.

I lifted my staff, trying to reach for that thrumming in my bones and feeling only a slight tremor. I couldn’t make out the face beneath the hood. And then the Alanga let the water fall and she brushed the hood back. The lamp in the corner was miraculously still lit. By its light, I could make out Lin’s eyes, her furrowed brow, her pursed lips. Thrana crept to Mephi’s side, sniffing at his wound and curling her lip back.

I couldn’t think of anything to say. My mind went blank, silent.

She frowned. “What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be at the palace.”

And then I found words, the panic from my near-capture still lingering in my throat. “So I’m your leashed pet? Waiting until you call on me?”

She was a slight woman, but she trampled the floorboards beneath her as she approached. The heat of her anger radiated from her as she jutted her face toward mine. “You are my Captain of the Imperial Guard,” she hissed. “Or have you forgotten that? Is that why I find you in a den of Ioph Carn?”

“They were trying to trap me! I’m not here to work for them.”

“I asked you to patrol the hallways, to look for anything odd. You left me there to handle things alone.”

I gestured to the wreckage around us. “As you’ve stated before yourself, you’re obviously more than capable. Were you following me?”

She threw up her hands, exasperated. “I ran into trouble at the palace. When I needed you, you weren’t there. I checked back at the ship and Ragan told me you headed in this direction. After that, all I had to do was to follow the sounds of fighting. I wasn’t trying to nose into your business; for once in your sorry life, acknowledge that a person can care about what happens to you!”

And then all of the implications fell on me at once, and I felt like such a fool. She could have sent my guards after me; she could have stayed in the safety of the ship. Instead, she’d risked her life to save mine. “Lin, I—”