Billos and Darsal both jerked their eyes to the sky and followed the flight. The sight of the black beast flooded Silvie with ice-cold alarm. No person could grow used to those leathery wings, the mangy body and wolflike jaws, fangs dripping with saliva. Those talons that had, only days earlier, touched her own cheeks. Those red, pupil-less eyes.

Thomas looked up, searched the sky. “What is it?”

But of course, he could see neither Shataiki nor Roush.

“Johnis told you what happened in the desert,” Silvie said. “We were taken captive. Beyond that none of us can speak; it is still too raw. You can’t force us to tell you what horrors the beasts forced us to endure. We fought our way out and left the whole place burning. That’s enough.”

“That’s not good enough,” Thomas said. “Anything we can know about the Horde is to our advantage.”

“Not now,” Silvie said. “Please, sir. It’s too fresh. And Johnis is our concern now.”

“Let it go, Thomas,” Rachelle said. “There is more going on here than any of us could piece together anyway.” She looked Johnis in the eyes again. “Isn’t that true, Johnis?”

“Yes,” he whispered. Then to Thomas, “I’m sorry, sir. It won’t happen again. Ever.”

His tone was so remorseful that Silvie thought he meant it couldn’t happen again because he planned to end it all here and now.

“I need to be alone,” he said.

“What do you expect me to tell the Guard?” Thomas asked. “That I’ve decided to leave you alone without any repercussions because you are sorry? You’ve put me in an impossible situation!”

“Then strip me of my rank,” Johnis said.

Rachelle faced her husband. “You know we can’t do—”

“I’ll decide here! This is my army, not yours!” He breathed hard for three long pulls of air. “I won’t strip you of rank, but I expect you to give a full accounting to the Council by day’s end. Pass their tests and I might let you be, but I wouldn’t expect to do it with those puppy eyes.”

Rachelle tsked and rolled her eyes. “Please, Thomas, quit being such a man! This isn’t a battle, for Elyon’s sake!”

“The rest of you stay nearby. No more heroics until we get this settled!” Thomas spun around, stormed to his horse, swung into the saddle, and disappeared into the trees.

“He’s right, there will have to be an accounting,” Rachelle said. “But don’t lose heart. None of you.” Then she, too, left, gliding more than walking into the forest, where her horse presumably waited.

“Now you’ve gone and done it,” Billos said. “We’re on a mission to find the books, not this.”

“Unless you have some enlightened plan to find the books, keep your hole shut,” Silvie snapped, surprising even herself with her anger.