Kihrin met Janel’s eyes. She hadn’t been looking around the room. She’d been watching him.

“Did you think I wasn’t going to tell them?” she said.

“I assumed that, yes.”

She stood up from her chair and trailed her fingers over Kihrin’s hand as she walked past him to the center of the room. “All right, everyone! Pay attention.”

Everyone did. Immediately.

“I’m sure by now you have all heard about the little problem we have waiting for us outside,” Janel said.

“Yeah, what are we going to do?” a large man said. “We lost fifteen people in Ferra because of that damn dragon.”

The bartender snapped, “We lost fifteen people in Ferra because they didn’t follow orders.” She absently moved her hair from her face as she spoke.

A wine-stain birthmark covered part of her face.

Maybe it was just coincidence … no. Kihrin didn’t think so. Ninavis.

“What the—” Kihrin looked around the room again. Too many stallions, now that he knew what to look for. That made no sense for a small town, but worked perfectly for a military group. Kihrin glanced at Brother Qown; he didn’t seem surprised either.

“I have a theory about what’s going on here,” Janel said. “I hope I’m wrong, but in the meantime, there’s nothing we can do but wait. And yes, Dorna, if she wanted to dig her way down here, she could. Aeyan’arric isn’t trying to kill us. At least not yet.”

“But how did she find us—?” a large roan man with an impressive mustache started to ask. Sir Baramon.

Janel cut him off. “I don’t know, but this changes nothing. Make yourselves comfortable. Look like you belong.”

Janel returned to the table.

“Don’t give me that look,” Janel told Kihrin. “Or do you mean to tell me you have never arranged a tricky meeting, in a neutral location, and replaced everyone with your own people? Not once?”

“Yes, but it ended with me on the auction block, so I don’t recommend it.”

“I’d have avoided this option if I had any alternatives.”

Kihrin gestured to the room. “These are all those people from Mereina, aren’t they?”

“There’s a few faces I don’t recognize,” Brother Qown said. “But it has been a while.”

“We gained some, we lost some,” Janel said. “And I’d have told you earlier, Kihrin, but you seemed suspicious enough.”

He had to admit there was some truth to that. Still …

“You said you have a theory about our dragon friend. Do you? Or did you just say that to calm them down?”

Janel started to shake her head. “Unlike you, I’m not impossible to track with magic, so Relos Var must have told Aeyan’arric where to find me.”