Thomas felt his pulse surge. A dozen distant memories flooded his mind. It had been thirteen years since he’d dreamed of Earth, thanks to the Rhambutan fruit that kept him from having any dreams when he slept.

“Who told you this?”

“It’s well-known.”

Thomas dismissed them with a hand and turned away. “Don’t believe everything you hear.”

“You deny it then?”

“What does this have to do with Billos?”

“Billos—” Darsal started, but again Johnis interrupted.

“Billos was talking about your . . . dreams, whatever they were, before he went missing. Darsal seems to have linked the two. Please, we are wasting his time with this, Darsal.”

“And why are you trying to shut her up?” Thomas asked.

“Am I?” Johnis shot Darsal a hard glance. “I wouldn’t want to do that.”

“You’re obviously dancing around something that has you all bothered,” Thomas said. “Less than a day has passed since you came out of the desert, nearly dead, and already you’re running around like frantic little rodents, sniffing for trouble. Truth be told, I’m in no mood to play games at the moment. So . . . have no fear, Johnis, I won’t push for the moment. But I will know everything; you do realize that.”

Silvie looked at Johnis, who stood six inches taller than her and was broader across the shoulders. His otherwise boyish features made him appear only slightly less feminine than she. Johnis’s weapon was his brain, not his brawn. Silvie, despite her petite frame and delicate features, was perhaps more brawny than he. Certainly the better fighter.

There is love between these two, Thomas thought. He should discourage two sixteen-year-old squad leaders from pursuing their love for each other, but something about Silvie and Johnis’s attraction felt right to him.

Without offering any explanation, Thomas stripped off his shirt, loosed his boots, dropped his sword, and strode to the lake’s edge. He dove into the cool water and let Elyon’s healing power refresh his skin. “Bathe once a day to cleanse yourself of the disease,” Elyon had told them. “Until I come to save you from evil in one fell swoop, as prophesied.” Thomas had heard the words himself.

He rose from the lake, threw his head back, and filled his lungs with fresh air. He turned and drilled the three fighters on the beach with a stare.

“It wasn’t long ago that I could breathe Elyon’s water. Do you believe that?”

He walked out of the lake without bothering to wipe the water from his skin. “Do you?”

Johnis answered, “Yes.”

Thomas snatched up his shirt. “And do you believe the rest of it? That the Roush once flew overhead, protecting us from the evil Shataiki? That Elyon lived among his own? That there was no disease?”