An Act of Peace
chapter six: second world, ruins of ekez

Isaac leaned on Owen for most of the trip to the Ruins. The pulsing pain in the back of his head had dimmed enough that he only fell to his knees once or twice to retch. He could feel Kiu, but she was still sleeping, untouched by the terrible headache. He tried not to hate her.

“You are fortunate that he wasn’t killed,” Tyr said to Dew. She was walking ahead, beside the old priest, and every once in a while she looked back at Isaac with a little girl’s remorse: complete and soul-tearing for the recipient of such a stare. Isaac kept his eyes on the ground for the most part and his face turned in towards Owen. Even despite all the work they’d done that day, Owen smelled good. It was something to focus on to ignore the pain.

“I didn’t know that the coro-spheres would hurt him regardless,” she said quietly, but Isaac caught the words. “I meant to help him.”

“His mind is not like your own. He is Goddess-touched, remember.”

“Are you feeling any better?” Owen whispered into Isaac’s ear. Isaac shivered and nodded slightly, wincing at the slight increase of pressure in his brain at the movement. But he didn’t think he was about to fall over and start throwing up again, and he could open his eyes a bit further. But that might be because it was darker; the sun had nearly set. It was cold, but he was almost uncomfortably warm. Another side effect from the coro-sphere, perhaps.

“The Ruins aren’t far,” Tyr said again. He’d been saying that for the last half hour or so. “Are you tiring, Owen Lyreling?”

“Not at all,” Owen grunted. Isaac grinned faintly, letting his eyes close. His arm was wrapped around Owen’s shoulders and Owen’s arm was wrapped around his; he didn’t really need to concentrate on where he was going.

It was fully dark by the time they reached the Ruins of Ekez, but the clearing in which another old temple stood was fully illuminated by a bright full moon. It wasn’t anything impressive enough to warrant the ominous name, Isaac felt, peering at the space.

The clearing was large, flat, circular, and covered in long brown grass. The temple itself was exactly the same as the one he’d first shown up in, Isaac realized. That meant that if Tyr had been living here, he had been sleeping out in the open, with no ceiling and no door to guard him from the elements.

“This is where I was called,” Tyr said sadly, leading the way to the temple. “Where I was brought into the service of Ekez.”

“I thought,” Isaac stopped, trying to keep from another vomiting session. “No one… could say the name… of a god—“

“Who has died?” Tyr finished, sounding amused. “I belong to Ekez, in life and in death. I say his name without fear. I will go to him before the white moon sets.”

They made it to the steps and Isaac eyed them warily, but made an attempt. Lifting his feet was suddenly an effort beyond his strength; Dew joined Owen in helping him up to the temple proper. Tyr had already gone through the doorway.

“Enter under your own power, Isaac,” Tyr said in that same mild tone. Owen and Dew backed away, moving down the steps. Isaac listened to them go, swaying slightly as he stood in place.

“Isaac,” Tyr said again, his tone unchanged. Isaac blinked, realized he was just standing there, and finally staggered forward. The door itself showed little more in the room but blank walls, bright in the moonlight, but once he stepped through—

—it was all light and entirely white. The white moon, the moon of final realization. It was beginning and end and everything in between, because it was all-encompassing. The light streamed into his eyes and broke up the pain, drove it away, reaching back into the shadows where Kiu slept and waking her.

Waking a Goddess.

“Words shape thought. Words have a great power.”

It was Tyr’s voice. He was almost all white, almost all used up and ready to sleep. Isaac remembered that he had a body and looked down. He was blocking the light. He was casting a dark shadow.

“Your duty is to speak. Give your Goddess her path in this world and in any other. You must choose the task she is to undertake in her years among her people.”

He blocked the light. It streamed through Tyr. He, Isaac, was still real and vivid alive. He hugged his body and felt his heart beating. Kiu was waking.

Waking the Goddess.

“Choose, Isaac.”

He cast a rich, dark shadow. He looked back at it and was comforted. Kiu was stretching white-golden along his brain’s nerve endings again, skipping along the synapses and waiting. He had to say something.

But who was he to tell a Goddess what her task should be? Shouldn’t she know, much better than him? He didn’t even know what was going on in this world that was causing this war…

“Make things better,” he said suddenly, his voice almost unrecognizable in his own ears. “Help these people find peace and… and help them to make everything all right again.”

For a split second, Isaac felt a rush of shame: what kind of task was that to give a Goddess? He sounded like a stupid child, ad-libbing a speech or a monologue in a school play. And then Kiu’s presence seemed to shatter in his mind.

“Kiu!”

The light was overwhelming now; Tyr was almost lost in it. He was almost lost in it, his shadow being swallowed. The light was—oh it was—

Make things better, Kiu said, testing each word for any possible meaning. Her voice was the light, everywhere and everything, and it was too bright for Isaac to keep his eyes open but when he closed them, the light hadn’t dimmed in the least.

Help them. Peace and things all right again.

Isaac tried to speak, but he no longer had a mouth or even a body, it seemed. Even his thoughts were being lost within Kiu’s light, dwarfed and then taken, made a thousand times stronger and sacred, his and then her own.

Help them, she said again. Yes.

In an instant, the light was gone, without leaving even an afterimage.

Isaac? Do you hear me?

“Yes, Kiu. Clearly. Don’t shout.” Isaac opened his eyes and saw second that he was in the considerably darkened temple, on his knees. He saw first that Tyr was lying peacefully on the floor, empty eyes staring up into the sky.

Sorry, she said. I’m not used to this anymore. You’ve got a lot going on inside your head, you know.

“Leave it alone, then,” he muttered, crawling forward. He checked Tyr’s pulse; definitely gone. But his expression—

He’s all right, Kiu said softly. Isaac felt her gentle warmth in his mind like a hug and had to smile in spite of everything. He’s with his God now.

“He’s dead,” he replied with the same hush in his tone. “Do we take him outside and bury him?”

Leave him here. We’ll burn the temple down.

“It’s solid rock!”

Kiu was amused. I’m a Goddess. I think I can handle burning down a temple.

“Isaac?” Dew called, her voice shaky. “Are—are you all right?”

The white moon’s set. We’ve been in here for a couple hours, Kiu explained, sounding sheepish. I think I took a while to finish, well, everything. We should go out so your friends don’t think you’re dead.

“I’ll have to tell them that Tyr is dead,” Isaac muttered, following her advice.

They know. Tyr was Ekez’s last priest; he only stayed around this long to get you started.

He walked out of the temple, ducking through the door and stepping out into the dark, windy night. Dew was staring up at him with wide, glittery eyes and Owen was out in the clearing, kneeling on the grass.

The healthy, green grass.

It’s the start of the green moon, Kiu said. She was smiling. Isaac got a mental image of a young girl, short and skinny, with wide gray eyes and long black hair. Her skin was dark and her teeth flashed very white. That’s when things are born anew. Like me.

“Don’t get a big head just because you’re a Goddess, now,” Isaac muttered. It wasn’t what he meant to say, but he couldn’t quite articulate his real feelings.

The grass was green. It was alive. It was one thing to hear voices in his head, but quite another to see the outside world obviously affected.

“Isaac,” Dew said again. She stood, looked as if she’d like to walk up to him, but remained on the steps. “The Goddess?”

Owen turned to stare at him as well, waiting to see another sign that the Goddess was finally there. Isaac shifted uncomfortably and whispered, “Kiu?”

She was peering at Dew curiously. So this is Ardewa. Funny; I thought you’d be for the other one.

“What?”

“The Goddess,” Dew repeated, twisting her hands nervously. There was a sheen of sweat on her face. “She is awake?”

Nah, the grass turned color by itself.

“She’s awake, yes,” Isaac said, fighting the urge to hit his forehead in an attempt to chastise Kiu. “And she, uh, took care of the grass, I guess.”

We’ll go with them to the Crimson Pillars, to make sure Ardewa gets to her body guards safely, Kiu said suddenly, with a businesslike air. Then we’ll split off and head for Viryne. We can always meet back at the palace later, when Ardewa’s taken it back.

“We’ll, um, go with you, to the Crimson Pillars,” Isaac repeated witlessly. Owen and Dew nodded, both looking a bit relieved. “Uh, ready to go when you are?”

“Could we camp out here tonight and move on tomorrow?” Owen asked, stepping forward. Isaac felt Kiu turn her inspection to this new person, not so much ignoring the question as not hearing it. This time he did thump his own forehead and smirked a little when he heard Kiu squeak.

Oh, yes—

It was a much lesser explosion of light, but that didn’t help overmuch, as Isaac wasn’t ready at all for the shattering of his Goddess’s presence in his mind and subsequent takeover of his senses. The world was suddenly all light, different colors streaking by like offshoots of a prism, and then the light was gone.

“It would be fine,” Isaac said numbly. Kiu was slowly pulling herself back together in his head, whimpering in surprised pain. “There’s no one on this side of the sea searching for you yet.”

“Then I will find us some firewood,” Owen replied, hurrying off into the trees around. Isaac looked at Dew, who was staring at him in a strange mix of awe and horror.

“You were all alight, like a star,” she whispered.

An Act of Peace
chapter seven: second world, outside daol

Isaac had woken up as a mess of aching muscles and caffeine-deprived nastiness and, two hours of hiking later, had shown little improvement. Kiu, with her ceaseless and detailed study of anything in the world that caught her eye, wasn’t helping his mood at all.

Her current object of contemplation was the sea. They’d trekked back to the shore at the crack of dawn, meaning to follow it all the way through to Hanya, a small coastal town a sixth-moon away from the east-west Jaska hier.

Isaac had yet to understand what their travel plans really were, despite an intense discussion about just what a hier was and how much distance or time constituted a sixth-moon. Owen had nearly brought out his sword again and Isaac had found himself clutching the siryth more than once.

You have boats! Submarines. The people here have nothing like that and wouldn’t it be lovely, to see what’s in there and under there and—

“Stop it, will you?” Isaac demanded through clenched teeth. “Tell me what a hier is.”

Kiu was hurt and annoyed and still thinking about fish. Owen already told you.

“It didn’t make any sense. I got a mental image of something like a bus depot and a closet.”

He had tried speaking to Kiu with his mind, but she couldn’t seem to distinguish his conscious thoughts from his subconscious thoughts, much less which thoughts he actually wanted her to hear. On Isaac’s end, he was aware of her movement along his nerves and the constant flare and flicker of her thoughts. If he closed his eyes, he saw it as fireworks.

Think like a train, Kiu said, reaching through his memories for something to compare. But the compartments are really small. You get one all to yourself, or you would, if I wasn’t here. And you sleep the whole way through to wherever you’re going.

Isaac made some small sound in acknowledgement as he noticed that his traveling companions were somewhat unnerved by his conversation. Dew was watching him with a kind of superstitious fear on her face, and Owen’s expression was pinched.

“How much farther to Hanya?” Isaac asked again, trying to divert attention from his conversation with Kiu.

“We should be there at the rise of the blue moon, if we keep a steady pace,” Owen said tersely, his dark look saying clearly that he wasn’t impressed at all with Isaac’s attempt. Isaac resisted the urge to say something rude, but just barely.

Fish makes for a good diet, right? But we can’t get any kind of big ships out there. Maybe we could start those— those fish farm things—

“What are you talking about?” Isaac whispered.

The fishing industry! Kiu said, beaming. Fish is healthy and plentiful and we could really fire up the economy, not to mention make up for the lack of regular farming due to war-time.

“You’re a Goddess. You should be planning holidays or—or miracles or something.”

Getting these guys back on their feet after this war is going to be a miracle. They’ve been destroying farmland and food stores all spring and summer! Just wait ‘til autumn, when there’s nothing to eat and the far northern cities are in real trouble. Kiu sounded huffy. Peace is only the first part of the battle.

Isaac shook his head and stepped up the pace, wincing at the pain in his legs. “Is there any way you can hurry this trip up?”

Until someone’s crowned, I’m running on your power, buddy. That’s not a lot of energy. Better to leave it until we need it.

Isaac sighed, unable to keep it in, and Dew looked like she was trying to turn her entire head around backwards to watch him. Owen was walking faster and pointedly not looking back.

“Wonderful,” he murmured.

They stayed just outside the farthest borders of Hanya. Dew and Isaac waited out on the shore, near the rocky cliffs that sheltered the town, while Owen ventured in to buy some more food. According to Kiu, they were well into the blue moon.

“How do these moons work?” Isaac asked, choosing to speak to Dew rather than Kiu. Dew got a strange gleam in her eyes whenever he spoke to the Goddess that, at times, almost beat out the awed terror.

Dew scratched at the cliff wall listlessly, staring at the niyath towers that weren’t too far away. “There are four moons: the green, which begins before dawn, the blue, which goes through the noon, the yellow, which leads into night, and the white, which lasts through the darker hours of night.”

“And each stands for something?” Isaac remembered. “The green for beginnings-“

“The green moon is past and present for childhood, the blue is past and future for adulthood, the yellow present and future for ripe age, and the white is all times, the time of the Goddess,” Dew said flatly, as if reciting. She was still staring at the towers with an expression of loathing.

Isaac followed her gaze and watched as a group of niyath took off, a fairly large net in their grip. Kiu was considering carving out holds into the cliff face for the niyath that would be accessible by elevators of some kind; her designs were rapidly becoming more and more outrageous.

When Owen had made it back and they had eaten bread and fruit for a quick lunch, they began a careful skirting of the town; climbing some of the craggier sections of the cliff as they hiked up to the far end of Hanya. They would be waiting for a yeir to arrive, Isaac found out, and taking it out to Morayn, which wasn’t far from the Pillars.

The yeir is like the train, Kiu said cheerfully. The hier is the line. Jaska Hier is like the company. They’re big, too, because they decided to take the risk and employ anyone, instead of just siblings.

They were very big, Isaac saw in no more than an hour. A huge crowd containing hundreds of people was in front of them, standing on a long granite platform, waiting. A long track of some clear crystal that Kiu identified as diamond stretched to the right and left, east and west, as far as Isaac could see. It was a single, six-inch thick line of diamond that glittered coldly in the morning sun.

“This isn’t like any train station I’ve seen,” Isaac muttered, staring in awe and perplexity.

Most of the people standing around were dressed like him and Owen, in loose-fitting shirts and those strange tight pants. A few women were wearing long, loose skirts. But a small subset were dressed in what appeared to be brightly colored spandex in shades ranging from neon green to cherry red, and each person dressed as such had a golden circlet around his or her head with diamond chips in it.

“What—who are they?” Isaac asked Owen, having to almost shout his question to be heard.

“Hieyen,” Owen shouted back. “They run the hie.”

Conductors or operators, Isaac thought. They run the train.

Dew was keeping very close to Owen, Isaac noticed suddenly. She was hunched, hiding her features and doing her best to keep right in Owen’s shadow.

“This isn’t a good idea, is it?” he asked. “It’s too public.”

“There’s no other way to get to where we’re going with any kind of speed,” Owen said simply. Then his eyes narrowed and focused on something behind Isaac. Isaac turned and caught sight of their transportation, surprised by its ugliness after the simple beauty of the hier. It looked like a long train without windows, made of some oily, greasy metal that was turning a corrosive green.

A door opened at the front and people began to file in. Owen pushed Isaac ahead of himself and Dew, urging him to the door. It didn’t take long for them to reach the front of the line; the mob of people was surprisingly quick to load itself.

“Stop?” a young, dark-haired woman in neon pink asked. Her eyes were hard and emotionless; Isaac stared at them in a strangely surreal horror. They were as flat as Tyr’s had been, when he was dead—

“The three of us will be stopping at Morayn,” Owen said, leaning forward to cover Isaac’s lapse.

“Fourth compartment,” the woman said expressionlessly. Owen pushed Isaac forward again and they were inside the train, where the floor was lit by the cold white light of diamond strips.

“Go on, go on,” Owen muttered. Isaac walked slowly, looking around himself in removed terror. The corridor they were walking in was narrow and lined with metal doors, all of which had a triangle made of diamond in the center. On some, the diamond was glowing blue-white; on others, it was dark. A man ahead of him got into one of these dark diamond doors and, when it shut, the diamond began to glow.

Isaac was pushed through the first three compartments hurriedly, not getting a chance to peek into any of the rooms, but in the fourth he was shoved into the first open compartment by Owen and shut in. And there were no windows. It was completely dark.

“This is not okay,” he said, his voice shaky. He’d never known claustrophobia before this, but now he could definitely sympathize. “I can’t travel like this. I’ve got to get out.”

You’re supposed to sleep through the journey, Kiu explained reluctantly, as if she could already tell how little Isaac liked this idea. Your energy helps fuel the yeir.

“No, no, no,” Isaac said, trying to find a door knob or even a small line where he could dig his nails in and try to force the door open. “No. I can’t do this. Let me out!”

You’ll fall asleep soon enough. They induce it, you know.

“I want out of here, Kiu! You’re a Goddess! Open this fucking door!” He attacked the smooth metal and only succeeded in bruising his fingers and arms. It wasn’t going to open.

You’re only hurting yourself. Calm down and let the hieyein do its work. You don’t want to be left behind, anyway, Kiu said reasonably. Isaac fell back against the far wall, breathing hard. There were seven small diamonds on the door, sparkling dimly with their own inner light.

It’s not bad, I promise. Isaac had a fleeting impression of Kiu wringing her hands nervously. They make sure you have good dreams, too.

The diamonds began to sparkle in a strange, hypnotic pattern. Isaac tried to close his eyes and turn away, but it was suddenly too much effort to move.

A good dream. I’ll make sure of it, Kiu promised.

An Act of Peace
chapter eight: second world, crimson pillars

“They’re all dead!” she shrieked, throwing something at the far wall. Isaac couldn’t see what it was; he was on his knees, puking.

A pile, they’d been thrown into a pile in the middle of the canyon, eyes open and staring at the sky. Rather, their eyes had once been staring at the sky; there had been crows all over them when Dew had walked in, stopped, short, and started shrieking. Now their empty sockets were tilted upwards, almost accusingly.

“Dead! They’re dead!”

Owen was trying to calm her down, get her out of there, out of sight of all those bodies and those damned crows that just couldn’t be chased away but Dew’s hysteria was out of control. Isaac was almost grateful that his mind had called for denial and vomiting instead.

Kiu was hiding somewhere in his mind, silent and cold. She wouldn’t speak. He could feel just how far she was distancing herself from this—this monstrosity.

Dew’s shrieking had elapsed into weeping; Owen was holding her close and rocking her back and forth, murmuring something. When Isaac listened closely, he found the mantra to be something along the lines of killing everyone responsible.

Maybe it was because they weren’t his bodyguards, they weren’t people he knew, but Isaac found very little comfort in the thought of further murder.

“Kiu,” he tried again in a scratchy whisper. “Can’t we—“

He fell silent, not knowing what he was trying to ask, and Kiu wasn’t answering, in any case. Dew pushed away from Owen and stood up, drawing herself up to her full height.

“Your sacrifice will not be in vain,” she said to the pile of bodies. Her voice was rich and full, but shaking now in anger. “You will be known to this world as martyrs, and you will be celebrated as such. I swear it.”

Isaac wondered if it was supposed to sound impressive, coming from a little girl in little more than rags. Owen seemed to be of the same opinion; he took Dew’s arm again and pulled her away, towards Isaac, who wiped the last bit of vomit from his lips and stood up.

“What do we do now?” he asked, trying not to look at Dew. She’d taken refuge in rage, and he knew what her idea of “what’s next” would be.

Owen, for the first time, seemed lost. “I was to deliver her to her guards here. I don’t know of any place to hide her—“

“We will continue on,” Dew interrupted, tearing her arm away from Owen. She chewed viciously on her lip for a moment, eyes flashing with thought. “Isaac is to recover the crown, is he not? We will go with him.”

Kiu was suddenly very present in Isaac’s mind. She wants to what?

“We’re recovering a crown?” Isaac asked in return.

She can’t go to Viryne! It isn’t safe!

“Did you miss the part where we found all the dead bodyguards?” Isaac demanded, missing Owen’s flinch. “I don’t think there’s anywhere that’s safe.”

But Viryne is among the least safe of—of anywhere! Kiu snapped. Isaac grimaced and held his head in both hands as Kiu went on a sort of rampage in his brain. They’ll be looking for us along that way! You’ll be safe enough, but her? And Owen! She can’t go with us!

“Then what, exactly, are they supposed to do?” Isaac finally asked, tired and in pain. Kiu’s voice faded away along with her presence, and he sighed in disgust.

“The Goddess?” Owen asked hesitantly, taking Dew’s arm again. She didn’t appear to notice; she was staring hungrily at Isaac. Isaac closed his eyes and sighed again, finding it the best way to give vent to his frustration.

“It’s going to be dangerous,” he said tonelessly, “and some people will be looking for us—me and Kiu, anyway.”

“Mirelle’s people,” Dew said viciously, her mouth twisting. “Of course they would be hounding the road to Viryne, vultures that they are.”

At the mention of vultures, Isaac swallowed against a sudden resurgence of his stomach and tried not to look over at the pile of corpses. “Like I said. Dangerous. It might be better if you and Owen—“

“We have nowhere to go,” Owen said simply. He managed a faint, bitter smile. “This was the last of Dew’s army. The rest is dead, imprisoned, or… me.”

Isaac understood, suddenly, why Kiu had left. He wanted to run away, too.

“Would you leave me here to die?” Dew asked. Isaac looked to Owen’s bleak expression and, finding no help, shook his head slowly and with finality. They would all continue on together.

After taking care of the dead, Isaac amended in his own mind.

They were trusting to Isaac now, or to Kiu, rather. It seemed that the way to Viryne was fairly well known, but only because it was best to avoid it. Kiu, in any case, was now hiding out somewhere in the nether-regions of Isaac’s mind, having surfaced only once to give terse directions to the nearest town.

Dew was silent, lost in her own thoughts, walking between Isaac and Owen along the path that led out of the canyon. She would look up at Isaac ever so often with an almost hurt expression, but he was ignoring it in favor for learning more about their destination.

“Viryne is a godless city,” Owen explained, smiling humorlessly. “It is a pit of demons with a monastery at the very center.”

“Monastery?” Isaac repeated, wondering if they were thinking of the same thing: a place where monks, presumably spiritually minded, lived and worked and chanted nonsensical things.

“The tale is that Viryne sought independence from their god,” Owen said softly, apparently not hearing Isaac or ignoring him. “The entire city was composed of individuals who would rather face fate on their own terms.”

Kiu was suddenly in the forefront of Isaac’s mind, listening intently. Isaac tried to concentrate past her brilliance.

“They were cursed, of course. The tale says both that the god withdrew all protection, which is why the Outside broke in, and that the god broke the fabric of the world of its own accord, in order to punish the people of Viryne.” Owen paused, darting a quick glance at Isaac. “The more accepted version being that the Outside forced its own way in.”

Not accepted by you, Kiu murmured, but she sounded sad and unsure.

“The Outside is what?” Isaac asked them both, and was surprised to hear Dew answer.

“That which is outside of our world. Where chaos breeds.”

The canyon they had been walking in was opening up, and finally fell away into the huge bluffs covered in a kind of tree with red leaves. Isaac shivered as they stepped out into the open and the wind howled around them.

Dew pointed up at the stars and Isaac followed her gaze. “There are those who would say that the stars are demons, for being outside, but they do not understand what the world is. The world is anything that belongs to us, anything that is in some way ours, if only because we look at them in the night and see them with our own eyes.” She sounded incredibly sad.

Owen stepped up next to her and shot another quick, worried glance at Isaac. “There is perhaps a ten mile radius around the city is completely abandoned but for the hunters. There is a road through to Viryne, and that is what will be guarded by Mirelle’s people.”

Isaac thought about that for a moment. “By hunters, you mean…?”

“They are more aptly called looters, I suppose,” Owen said, then he shook himself and looked around in surprise. “We should be moving.”

“Or hiding,” Isaac said, pointing back along the shore to where a very silent, but rather large group of people were making their way to the Crimson Pillars. Owen caught Dew close with one arm and ducked out of sight, pausing only to grab Isaac’s arm and pull him into the shadows as well.

“Plan?” he whispered harshly into Isaac’s ear. Dew struggled away from Owen and peered at the visitors, not seeming to notice when she dug her nails into Isaac’s shoulder. He noticed, though.

Sit tight, Kiu ordered, suddenly thunderous in his mind. They aren’t Dew’s enemies, but they won’t hesitate to sell information.

“I think Dew would consider them enemies, then,” Isaac murmured.

“What?” Owen hissed.

“Sit—we stay here.” Isaac tried to shrug out of Dew’s increasingly painful grip. “They’re just regular people—“

“We have to leave,” Dew whispered insistently, trying to pull him up. Owen was half-standing, having also been pulled up by a strong, long-nailed hand.

“We have to stay here!” Isaac hissed back, trying to pull her back down. “They’re not looking for us, but if we move they’ll see—“

“I said, we are leaving!” Dew looked down at him with an incensed expression and Isaac remembered belatedly that she was a princess, that she was very used to getting her own way, and that she wasn’t thinking of him as a person right now, but as a subject. Isaac took a deep breath and followed the only suggestion his addled mind was making: he slapped her across the face.

Dew’s eyes went wide and before Isaac could blink there was a sword at his throat.

“Do you mind?” he croaked, pushing at Owen’s hand. Owen blinked and looked from him to Dew before lowering the sword in some confusion. “Be quiet, and don’t move. If you can’t listen to me, listen to Kiu, will you?”

Owen was staring at him again in horror. “I—“

“Enough!” Isaac whispered, giving up on words and just slapping his hand over Owen’s mouth. Just a few more moments and they could be on the move again.

“Whatever happened, it is done now,” someone said, passing no more than three feet from where they were kneeling in the darkness. Dew’s hand found Isaac’s leg and Isaac barely held in a yell.

“How much are they offering for information?” another man asked, following just a step behind. The voices fell back into soft murmurs, and Dew’s hand finally relaxed its grip. Isaac rubbed it, checking surreptitiously for blood.

“We will have to run now,” Dew whispered into the eventual silence.

………