“And get herself shot down by arrows?” Exasperation leaked from Rosalind’s voice as she rocked to a halt, her sword still gripped tightly. “Can’t you see how nervous those archers are? They’re only waiting for an excuse to let fly at anything that moves.”

“Then she’ll turn into a bug instead! Something so small that no one will ever notice—”

“And she’ll reach Mother’s cell in a week.” Rosalind shook her head impatiently. “It doesn’t matter what kind of animal you choose, Giles. I know you hate the idea of fighting, but if all Cordy had to do was change shape to save Mother and Connall by herself, do you really think she’d still be standing here with the two of us?”

Giles slumped in place, letting out a low sigh of surrender.

Cordelia wrapped her arms tightly around her trembling body, trying to focus through the waves of received panic washing over her and the turmoil of her own emotions. “I wouldn’t just leave you two behind without talking it over first,” she muttered. “Not anymore.”

“Hmmph,” said Rosalind.

Giles’s ginger eyebrows rose meaningfully.

“It’s true!” She’d learned that lesson at Raven’s Nest, and in the long, painful days beforehand. Secrets had nearly destroyed her family. She had promised herself never to keep them anymore.

She had also promised herself never to take her triplets for granted again … even at moments like this one, when they gave each other looks so annoying that they practically deserved to be abandoned.

“I’m not leaving anyone behind,” she said more steadily, “but we have to win this battle for everyone’s sake—and it’ll take all three of us together.”

“To get Mother out of that awful collar?” Giles asked.

“Oh, no.” Rosalind’s lips curved into a fierce smile as she met her sister’s eyes and started back toward Cordelia and Giles. “That’s not the battle she’s talking about now. Is it, Cordy?”

“But—”

“We will get Mother out,” Cordelia promised, “and we’ll free Connall and Alys, too. But they’re not the only ones who need us now.” Taking a deep, shuddering breath, she loosened her arms and pointed at the stone walls beyond the sea of soldiers. “That city is full of people like the ones we met outside our forest. They have nothing to do with this stupid war! But they’re going to be killed by it anyway, and the land is going to be hurt even more badly—unless we do something to stop it now.”