“No,” Kenzie said. “Nuh uh. It would suck more being not here than being here. Prison riots aside.”

“I’m sure you could debate for some time, but I don’t like that bleeding, so I’ll bring you up to speed,” Citrine said. “Briefly put, we’re pulling strings. We expect to have you out soon.”

“I’m covering the financial side,” her husband said. He looked like an accountant, wearing a peacoat, scarf, a light blue dress shirt, black slacks, and thick-framed glasses, his hair short and pressed down from the hat he’d had on. “Jeanne is covering everything else. We do have ways to apply pressure.”

Citrine looked us over, as best as she could with the guards standing in the way. “It’s good you bled, but you need medical care.”

Weird, to have her so concerned.

“I wondered if the bleeding was in our favor,” I said. I glanced at Vista. She’d hurt herself at my recommendation. Her one hand was pressed down over the back of the other hand that she’d sliced.

“How badly was the opposition hurt?”

“One woman was hurt by her own weapon. A prisoner hurt a guard by accident in the fracas.”

“Good. As close to ideal as we could hope for,” Citrine said.

“Us not being attacked would be ideal,” Vista answered.

“True,” Citrine admitted.

“Are you safe to go? The less injured could stay,” Kurt said.

“Safety in numbers might be best,” I said. “But we’d have four people in each group, at least.”

Citrine looked at my hand, then looked at Tristan, her eye falling on the bloody towel he’d wrapped around his arm. She said something in Spanish.

Tristan responded.

“No,” the guard said. He put his hand out. “Not that, change to the Goddess tongue.”

“I was asking if his family knew he was here,” Citrine said. “He said they don’t. I’ll tell them.”

“Thank you,” Tristan murmured. The guards were focused on Citrine. While they told her something, Tristan leaned his head over and murmured to me, “She was asking if it was guards that attacked us. I said some did.”

I nodded, turned to Sveta, and passed on the message.

“We have to strike a balance,” Citrine said. “They will keep their deal, but they won’t necessarily be kind in the meantime. We’ll do what we can to pressure them to leave you alone. I could elaborate, but I’m worried every second counts with that bleeding.”

“You should go,” Sveta said. “Take some of us with you if you need.

“I’ll go. We’ll go,” I said. “You fill in my teammates, they’ll fill us in. Golem, Capricorn, me? Vista?”

“I’m fine. Shallow. Bring me a bandage or something after, or I’ll grab something.”

“Sveta?” I asked.