“You bloody,” and Fenn’s boot connected with Seph’s face, causing a starburst to explode in his eyes as pain burst through his nose back into his brain and he fell hard to his side, “fool.”

Blinking rapidly, he pushed up to a hand in the cold leaves, turning his head, only to see Fenn’s face an inch from him as the priest bent over him.

“Our temple in Fire City is all but deserted. Our priests there scattered to the winds. And thus, the king and his men are now aware that it is Go’Doan who was behind the attack on the palace,” Fenn informed him.

This couldn’t be.

“What?” Seph asked, feeling the blood seeping from his nose, just as he felt it drain from his face and his stomach pitched nauseatingly. “That can’t be. I told them not to flee.”

“You told them, and you beat them, and you whipped them,” Fenn returned. “Have you not learned in the years of carefully carrying out our strategy that it is the carrot, not the stick that induces loyalty? Discipline is only for extremes. If you train a dog using pain, you train him only to fear and hate you, and when the time comes he has had too much, he will strike. But we are not training dogs, Seph. We are training and recruiting men. They have conscious thought and they have free will, and if they no longer understand and support a cause, they can,” Fenn landed a vicious, closed-fist blow on Seph’s cheekbone, causing him to grunt in pain, before he finished, “walk away.”

Seph dragged himself from his fellow priest only to run into something.

He looked behind him and up.

His back was against a set of legs and another priest that had traveled with Fenn was glowering down at him.

Fenn’s voice came back to him.

“You are relieved of command.”

His gaze snapped toward Fenn. “You cannot relieve me of command. You don’t have the authority. Only the Golden Thomas has that authority.”

Fenn tipped his head to the side.

“I do not?” he asked. “That is most odd, considering I was dispatched on this journey for that purpose by Thom. Though not solely for that purpose as I’ve also been ordered to take up your command and find some way to repair the damage you have wrought.”

Seph scooted away from the man who was blocking his path and pushed himself to his feet.

“I heard no word of this,” he declared, his eyes on Fenn, but his attention was also on the four priests with him.

He should not have come alone.

Though how could he know he’d face such as this?

It was unthinkable.

“Yes, you did. I just told you,” Fenn replied.

Seph lifted his chin. “It is not you who communicates my orders. I get them from Thom direct.”