Good gods.

“You were saying?” the woman asked Jell.

“But Thom was my—” Jell began.

“Release those girls,” the woman commanded.

The man who had killed Thom did not move.

“And do not let them flee!” she shouted, and the other women scurried after Fenn and the retreating Rising priests. “I said, release those girls,” she repeated her order.

And as the man who killed Thom looked side to side, carefully, Tedrey moved the hands that he’d left held behind him, forgotten in the spectacle, to his ankles, where, trying to mask his movements, he worked on the ropes at his feet.

“Did you hear me!” she snapped to the man. “Release those girls!”

When no one did her bidding, she turned to Jell.

“You do it,” she bit out. “He’s always like this when he makes the surface. Like he’s never seen trees before.”

“Daemon?” Jell called tentatively.

The ropes at Tedrey’s ankles fell loose.

He thus poised to take flight.

“Daemon?” the woman asked snidely.

“Daemon? Look at me,” Jell bid to the unmoving man.

“What do you speak of? Daemon?” she spat.

Tedrey did not take flight.

With their attention on each other, and the Rising contingent gone, he took his chance.

He crawled swiftly to the women who were all scooting, but not as one, willy-nilly, to get away in all directions, which would get them nowhere.

He put his fingers to the ropes at the wrists of one, these ropes also tied to two others, with a line leading down to bind their feet.

“I let you go, you help me release the others,” he whispered to her.

She shook her head, tears of panic escaping her eyes, spittle mixing with rain dripping from her gag as she panted behind it.

“You help me get as many loose as we can,” he pushed.

Her head kept moving frenziedly in denial.

He loosened her.

She immediately tugged the binds from her feet and bolted.

Gods dammit.

“He has given you a name?” Tedrey heard the woman demand.

“I will help you,” he heard whispered.

He looked to another woman who had somehow nudged her gag free and moved to her.

“Daemon, we must find the others. We must find them, for they are our friends, and then be away from this place,” he heard Jell say.

“When did he give you a name?” the woman asked.

Working as swiftly he could with wet fingers on slick ropes, Tedrey released the girl. She freed her feet and instantly shifted around, her hands going to the ropes on the next.

“Run west when you are released,” he instructed. “Take cover and call to any that race after you. We will meet up, move as one, it will be safer.”

The girl he was working on nodded to him.

He released her.

However she did not bolt, and she did not do as he said.

Once she had her feet free, she turned and put her fingers to the ropes of another.