He had almost repaired the damage when the attack began, had been close enough to finishing that if he had been given just another half an hour, they would have escaped everything that had happened. He experienced a fresh wave of frustration thinking of this, but brushed it aside quickly so as not to disturb his concentration. Self-recrimination would not help. Anger would not help. Not yet. He would save all that for when he caught up to the skrails.

“Are you watching my back?” he called out again to Praxia.

She glanced at him from where she knelt by her injured companions, nodding her answer and saying nothing.

He should never have left Kirisin out in the open like that, he told himself. He should have kept him inside the Ventra where it would have been much more difficult for the skrails to get at him. He should have just locked the boy away. But would Kirisin have stood for it? He saw himself as a man, not a boy, and he would not have appreciated being treated as somehow less than the others. Besides, hindsight was twenty–twenty and all that. It was easy to second-guess himself now. When he was finished with the repairs to the AV, he slipped behind the wheel, triggered the power key, and listened to the soft purr of the engine as it slowly revved up. Everything was working again. He gave it another minute, making sure, and then stepped back out and walked over to the Elves.

“When you’re able, start walking. Stay on this road. Follow it north to the river and wait for me there. Stay out of sight. If I don’t show by tomorrow, go in search of the camp where the children and their protectors are waiting. Find the boy Hawk. Tell him what has happened.”

“Ruslan and Que’rue can go,” Praxia replied. “I’m going with you.”

He shook his head. “No, you’re not. You’re going to do what I told you to do.”

Her face hardened. “I don’t answer to you, no matter who or what you think you are.”

He nodded. “No, you don’t. But you do answer to Kirisin. He gave you the Loden Elfstone in trust. He gave it to you to hold and keep safe until his return. You can’t give up that trust. And you can’t come with me if you’re holding the Elfstone.”

She stared at him without saying anything for a moment. “You have to find him,” she said finally. “You have to bring him back or everything we’ve done is for nothing.”

He almost laughed. As if he needed reminding. “Stay on the road,” he repeated. “I’ll find him and then I’ll find you.”

He climbed into the Ventra, released the locking mechanisms on the wheels, and without looking back drove away into the night.