This woman is going to make me lose my mind.
“There’s one problem,” Damia says, flicking her dark hair over her shoulder. “Reaching the border is going to be a lot more complicated if we have a big run-in with these clerics, letting the whole country know we’re here with the princess.”
“We’ve killed some of the cleavers before,” Ana points out.
“Yes, but they were hunting smugglers. Which means when they didn’t return, the Temple would’ve blamed their disappearance on common criminals. This is different. There’ll be witnesses this time.”
“So what are you saying?” Alastor asks.
“I’m saying we shouldn’t go in all blades swinging, like the captain here tends to do,” Damia huffs.
I bristle at her suggestion. “I don’t do that.”
“You absolutely do, captain,” Alastor says. “Remember Scletera? Or those lesser lords in Oudis? Fairon spent months smoothing things over with their families?—”
“Alright,” I cut him off, not bothering to point out that those lords definitely got the message they were meant to. “I may favor a direct approach, but I get results. And I was going to suggest a stealth attack here anyway. It makes more sense.”
“So how are we going to do it?” Ana asks excitedly.
“Youaren’t going to do anything. We don’t want the Temple seeing your magic in action if we can avoid it.”
Her eyes burn. “I’m going to be there.”
I know there’s no point arguing. Besides, while I can get her friends out, I can’t make them run to safety. They’d have no reason to trust me. But they’d trust her.
“Fine, but you’re going to stand back and watch while we use our sensic powers to distract the cleavers, and then we’ll sneak the villagers out of the building. If we’re careful, your friends can escape without anyone knowing we helped them,” I say.
My soldiers nod, agreeing to my proposed plan.
“And then we can also be on our way without you causing us any more problems,” I conclude.
Ana narrows her eyes at my words but stays quiet.
“We’ll wait until midnight,” Eryx says, examining the few windows still glowing with lamplight in the street beyond. “When everyone is asleep.”
“Good idea.” The last thing we need is some upstanding citizen spotting us around the sanctuary and alerting the Temple. You’d think people would protect their own, but I’ve seen neighbor turn on neighbor too many times. Fear does that to people.
“Let’s find somewhere to lay low in the meantime,” I direct my unit.
Ana smiles. “I know just the place.”
* * *
I’m glad to be creeping through the streets again after our few hours in the tavern. Despite Ana’s insistence that her friends would offer us sanctuary, it took a lot of persuading on her part for them to even let us inside.
Then we were subjected to a lot of begrudging hospitality, with the serving boy Kit glaring daggers at Eryx the whole time. He hadn’t wanted Ana to go with us and talked about a plan to help his sister with some kind of distraction. I don’t know what she said to get him to stand down, but it was obvious to me his parents were grateful that with us there, they’d be able to keep at least one of their children safely at home tonight.
Now, as we approach the sanctuary, Phaia disappears up a wall, searching for a decent lookout spot, and I stretch my dream magic across the building, searching for minds that feel like they could belong to the cleavers. A few well-placed nightmares are always a good place to start to sow chaos.
People are usually very vulnerable to the power of suggestion when they’re asleep. I learned that the hard way.
I brush past the unconscious thoughts of the villagers, catching flashes of images, waiting to land on something cold and dark and rigid, like the cleavers I saw in the tunnels. They should be easy to locate, like beacons in a sea of normal thought, but…
Nothing. Not a hint of an unusual mind.
“I don’t think any of them are asleep,” I say to the others as we edge along a wall to get a view of the building.
“But they’ve been working all day,” Ana whispers. “They must be resting.”
