Taigan felt the poison. It was a subtle thing, twisting through his body like a cold, snaking elixir. He had been poisoned before by any number of things, and though it would not likely kill him, it would dull his access to Oma, a connection that was tenuous at the best of times.

“Talk fast,” Taigan said.

She puffed out her chest. Cheeky little child. “You need people who can channel Oma,” she said. “That’s why you’re after me. I want to help you. I do. I know what’s happening now.”

“Do you?” Taigan grunted. “Then you are well ahead of me.”

“Help me find my mother in Dorinah, and I’ll go with you willingly.”

“Haven’t we already made this bargain, girl? I gave you that boy’s life, and you betrayed your oath to me.”

“Only because I made another oath first. My mother is a blood… she’s… well, you know already. She can channel Oma.”

“You have a very strange way of asking favors,” Taigan said. His voice was slurred. He tried to move his fingers.

“You wouldn’t help me otherwise,” Lilia said. “Not even if I asked nicely.”

He could not argue that. “You said your mother was dead.”

“Do you always say things that are true?”

“They’ll gut you open if you try and go to Dorinah alone. You’ll end up a slave.”

“That’s why I’m asking for your help.”

“Why not your Dhai friends?”

“You’re the only person I know who isn’t Dhai… and I know for sure you won’t kill me.”

“Do you?”

“I’m important to you.”

“Cut me loose, then, or whatever it is you’re going to do,” Taigan said.

“You’ll take me?”

Taigan saw Maralah’s swirling note before him, and something older, darker – a searing brand, a ward Maralah burned into his spine, sealed with the power of Sina to ensure he did Maralah’s bidding. He was almost impossible to kill, but like any other thing of flesh, he could be coerced with the right ward. It compelled him now; he could not destroy the girl, no matter how much he wished it. He fought the ward the same way he fought the tree’s poison, and with the same results.

“If I escort you,” he said, “you both come to Saiduan.”

“All right,” Lilia said.