“To where?” he shouted. “Do you have some intelligence that I’m not aware of, because as I understand the situation, you don’t know where they are.”

“I know,” the Roush said. “Just keep that in mind. I know exactly—”

“That’s our problem,” Johnis said to Thomas, this time keeping his eyes off the Roush.

“And you’re my problem,” Thomas said. “You’re making me look like a fool. Don’t forget that it was me who chose you.”

“No, Thomas.” Rachelle turned her head to her husband. “It wasn’t you who chose him.”

She was speaking of the circular birthmark on the side of his neck that marked him as Elyon’s chosen one.

Thomas grunted. “Well, I’m beginning to wonder if Elyon’s purpose in choosing this runt is to mortify me.”

“He was a hero not two weeks ago,” Rachelle said. “You don’t remember the cheering?”

“And the next week he plotted to take my life! Yet here I am, giving him a secret audience in our chambers so that no one will hear that we’re as foolish as he!”

“You do so because you know it’s the right thing to do.”

Thomas frowned, but he couldn’t deny his wife’s wisdom.

“Then you agree?” the Roush who’d called himself Hunter asked Thomas, knowing the man couldn’t possibly hear him. “So be a leader and let them go before going makes no sense!”

“Karas could be invaluable to us,” Thomas said, refusing to let the matter resolve easily.

“We were the ones who lost her,” Johnis said. “You have to give us the opportunity to find her. I was the one who rescued her in the first place, for the love of Elyon! How can you deny me my right to go after her?”

“But you are holding something back,” Rachelle said. “Aren’t you, chosen one?”

How could he lie so directly to a woman who was his advocate? He couldn’t. “I’m within my rights to hold back everything Elyon has told me,” Johnis said, then added so as to sound more like a chosen one, “All in good time.”

Thomas lowered himself into a chair next to Rachelle, crossed his legs, folded his hands over one knee, and looked at Johnis. For a few long moments he just stared at him.

“Fine,” he finally said. “I’ll give you my permission—for my wife’s sake—to go after them, but on the condition that you tell me everything when this is over.”

“Everything?”

“You can’t do it,” the Roush said.

Johnis glanced up at him, and this time Rachelle followed his eyes and saw nothing but an empty rafter.

Her eyes lowered and met his. What do you see, chosen one? But he couldn’t know what she was thinking.

“What if Elyon forbids my telling you everything?”