Which would take him four days’ out of his way.

He glanced at the other women.

Moira knew what he was thinking, all of it, for she said, “We will go with you.”

He looked back to Moira and replied quietly, “You know we must get them home.”

“I know those men had you for whatever purpose they had you, though as they seemed to be saving you for last, I can only imagine it was worse than what they did to those girls, which is impossible to fathom,” she retorted.

He did not know if she was right. The Beast seemed to dispense with the men without delay.

Whereas what Thom and Fenn had done to those women…

“You got yourself loose,” she continued, “and you did not run. You helped us. And after you’d freed us, you made sure we’d escaped, positioning yourself to block the path between them and us. But when you returned to us, you looked like the Beast had been awakened and you shared with me you had to make haste to Notting Thicket.”

He blinked at her, for her words took him aback as he had not shared the Beast had, indeed, awakened.

It came to him slowly that this was what many people said. It was akin to, “you looked like you’d seen a ghost,” but worse.

And as sayings go, that one was true. He’d cope with a thousand ghosts before he again had to witness the Beast risen.

“Tedrey?”

He came back into their conversation when Moira called his name.

“Did you hear me?” she asked.

“I’m sorry?” he queried in return.

“I was saying, as those villains were there for nefarious purposes, it obviously must be reported immediately as they are Go’Doan and they must be of this Rising.”

“They were that,” he affirmed.

She regarded him closely. “If this is so, I do not know why we need to go all the way to the Thicket when we can find a local constabulary and report to them. That is what King True wishes us to do.”

“They were, er…higher ups in The Rising.” He was pleased with the words he shared that he did not have to lie.

“And who were those who came up from the ground?”

And again, he was pleased he did not have to lie.

“I do not know two of them, but one was a Go’Doan priest.”

He had found in the short time he’d been in Moira’s company, she was most canny, and she demonstrated this again by asking, “Is there something you’re not telling me?”

And now Tedrey found that he could no longer utter an untruth.

But for her sake, should she actually believe the true, but fantastical tale he had to tell, he could prevaricate.

“I do not know who the woman was. But the man was not…right.”

“Not right?”