“Back to town?” Mahlia stared at the doctor. “Are you sliding? We got no guns. They’ll kill us.”

“We’re not going back to fight. We’re going to help as many people as we can.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“You understand how hard I fought for you, Mahlia? How many times I convinced our neighbors not to run you off? I stood for you. I guaranteed you.”

Beside them, the half-man growled. “People are coming. You should flee, or else go to your death. Choose now, before the choice overtakes you.”

Mahlia turned to the half-man. “Would you come with us?” she asked. “Would you help us help them?”

Tool laughed. “This is not my war.”

Mahfouz glared up at the creature. “You brought the soldiers here, and you accept no responsibility?”

Tool’s teeth showed in a cold smile. “I neither started this war where your kind tears one another apart, nor did I choose it. I carry no burden of guilt.” He sniffed the air, then waved toward the swamps. “If you wish help in escape from your enemies, I offer you aid, willingly, in thanks for medicines.” Tool straightened to his full height, looming over them. “But I will not seek out a fight that cannot be won. And I will not suicide on any human being’s behalf.”

Their conversation was cut short by running feet.

Everyone tensed except for Tool. Mahlia expected soldier boys to come bursting into the swamps, rifles blazing, but it wasn’t soldiers at all, it was a woman…

Amaya.

She stopped short, staring. Her eyes widened in shock. “You,” she gasped as she saw Mahlia. And then she caught sight of the half-man.

“Amaya,” Doctor Mahfouz said. “What’s happening? What’s going on? Where are your children? Where is Salvatore’s grandchild?”

“You!” she said again. “They want you!” Her eyes narrowed. “This is your fault, castoff. They’re looking for you! We took you in and you brought the soldiers down on us!”

“Amaya—” the doctor tried again.

But Amaya had already turned. She was running back the way she had come.

“She’s going to tell them!” Mahlia said. “She’s going to give us up to the soldiers.”

She leaped after the woman. If she could take Amaya down before she made it back to town, before she could spread word to the other villagers, she might—

A hand grabbed Mahlia’s shirt and yanked her around. She spun with the force of it and landed in the mud. Doctor Mahfouz stood over her.

“Mahlia, don’t.”

Mahlia scrambled to her feet. “She’s going back to the soldiers! If she rats us, we’re all dead. Once they got our scent and our direction, there’s no way we shake free.” She made another run for the trails, but the doctor grabbed her.

“That still doesn’t justify whatever you were planning for Amaya,” he grunted.