“The True Way, as the Most Favored instructed me, teaches that everyone who bears the great gift is sacred and precious. If it had been in my power, I would have done as you did. But some of the masters misguidedly teach their apprentices that others of their kind are to be regarded as rivals. Enemies. They would not weep at a reduction in their number.”

“What?” Alice looked down at the sleeping Soranna. “That’s crazy. She’s just a little kid.”

“She is not much younger than you, I think. I do not know her story, but I am afraid it is not a happy one.” She shook her head. “Brother Garret may be correct in one respect, however. I am not sure she should be here with us.”

There was a moment of silence. Alice swallowed, and ventured, “What about Isaac? Do you know him at all?”

Dex shook her head. “I have not had the privilege of working with Brother Isaac, but he seems to know you—”

Soranna moaned, and Dex hurried to her side, digging a canteen out of a pocket in her robe.

There’s an easier way to answer that question. Alice left Dex to care for Soranna and went in search of Isaac. He hadn’t gone far. She spotted him sitting halfway up the stairs to the next floor, huddled under his ratty greatcoat. As she approached, he looked up at her briefly, then hung his head again. It was hard to tell in the torchlight, but she thought that his eyes looked red. Has he been crying?

“Are you all right?” he said, after a long pause. His voice was dull.

“Fine,” Alice said.

“Good.” He lapsed into silence again, letting it stretch on and on until Alice shifted uncomfortably.

“Are you?” When he didn’t answer, she shook her head. “Honestly, Isaac, what’s wrong with you? I thought that after what we went through, you and I were . . .” Friends? A friend wouldn’t have stolen the book.

He said nothing. Alice ground her teeth.

“Look,” she said eventually. “If you’re afraid that I’m angry with you, then you shouldn’t worry. Not that I don’t have a reason to be angry, and I reserve the right to be angry at a future date, but I think we have to get through this first. Don’t you?”

“Alice . . .”

“Yes?” It sounded too eager, and Alice cursed herself for letting excitement run away with her.

“Please don’t talk to me anymore.”

“What?”

She was stunned. Before she could recover, Garret was calling their names from below. Isaac got to his feet and slouched past her, refusing to meet her eye.

Alice followed Isaac down the stairs, fuming, and found all the others gathered round. Soranna was sitting up, and was accepting a few swallows of water from Dex’s canteen. Garret was smiling, but Ellen still wore her characteristic scowl.