“What servant?”

Karas studied him with her big gray eyes. “Why do you ask so many questions?”

“I just want to know, so I don’t make a fool of myself in the city.”

“I think you’re lying,” she said. “I think you have some trick up your sleeve.”

“Don’t be absurd! Look at me.” He lifted his arm for her to see. “I’m diseased, what do you expect from me? Of course I’m nervous; we all are. What do you expect? For all we know, you’re the one playing the trick.”

He noticed now that her skin was covered in a white powdery substance that seemed to put off a flowery odor. He’d never heard that the Horde tried to disguise the cracking of their skin.

“Really? Do I look like the kind of little girl who would play a trick on you?”

He thought about that and answered together with Silvie. “No.”

“Then believe me when I say can get you in without a commotion. Of course, I’ll get you clothing, I’m not crazy. We’ll go in on a cart, and you’ll look like some peasants from the wheat farms who want to worship Teeleh.”

“Perfect!” Jackov said. “We can’t go wrong with that.”

They had indeed stumbled on a gold mine, but the purpose of their journey wasn’t to visit the priest. It was to find his mother. They couldn’t follow the girl to the priest or let her know that they didn’t want to meet him.

“We can’t endanger you like this,” Johnis said, casting a quick side-glance at Silvie. “If someone knew that you hid us, you could get into trouble. Maybe we shouldn’t go straight to the priest. What about his servant? Maybe she could help us?”

“No one’s supposed to see her,” she said. “She’s being punished now.”

“She is?” It had to be his mother! “How . . .”

Johnis felt urgency storm up inside him, but Silvie squeezed his arm and addressed the girl before he could condemn them by blurting something incriminating.

“If you could just get us the clothing, I think we could manage. We would be so thankful for just that.”

The little girl kept her eyes on Johnis. “What do you care about the servant? She’ll likely be killed, you know. My father is a very powerful man who can squash those who cross the ways of Teeleh.” Her voice trembled slightly.

Again Silvie pressed her fingers into Johnis’s arm to keep him silent. He felt his face flush. They didn’t have time to wait!

“You say that like you’ve been squashed a few times yourself,” Silvie said, and by the girl’s sudden stillness, Johnis knew immediately that a chord had been struck.

For a long time none of them moved.