Etana was going to Mount Crog.

Tying the laces of her walking shoes, she sat down on her bed and glanced at her fancy watch. It was a quarter to eight. Everything had been taken care of.

Almost.

After finishing her day’s work, she’d warned Dame Gokk she was going away for a short while. Dame Gokk had said of course without asking why.

Next, Etana had given the housekeeper a heads-up so that a replacement laundry maid could be brought in.

“When will you be back?” the housekeeper had asked.

“Soon.” Etana gave her boss an apologetic look, well aware that “soon” wasn’t exactly a helpful answer.

The housekeeper raised an eyebrow. “Dame Gokk knows about this, right?”

Etana nodded and rushed to the room she shared with Padefa. All that remained was for her to change out of her uniform, tuck the watch under the mattress… and pray for the best.

Granted, it was a risky plan. But Etana didn’t know what else she could do with the tracker. She’d considered asking Geru to carry it around in his pocket, but that was risky. He’d ask questions. He’d get even more involved than he already was.

If Ultek questioned or tortured him, would he have the strength not to break?

Geru was young. Gently raised. Kindhearted. Dragging him into her mess more than she already had was wrong.

The door opened just as Etana was unfastening her watch.

“May I try it on?” Padefa pointed at it, sitting down next to her roommate.

“Of course.” Etana clasped the watch around the other maid’s wrist.

“So beautiful.” Padefa gazed at it lovingly. “We’re forbidden from asking you about it…”

Etana smiled. “But you’re dying to know.”

“I am.”

“Chief Ultek gave it to me as an extra encouragement to cooperate,” Etana said.

It struck her that, in a twisted kind of way, her words were true. If she hadn’t suspected there’d been more to it and gotten Lippin’s confirmation, that was exactly what she would’ve believed about Ultek’s gift. Because that was how he had explained it for her.

Padefa pouted. “How unfair! You tried to help a convicted traitor. But instead of getting punished, you cut a deal, and the police reward you with something as precious as this.”

An idea hit Etana.

She gave Padefa a nonchalant shrug. “You can keep it, if you like.”

It was a risky game, but it would buy her more time than leaving the watch under her mattress. Several days, maybe a week. Padefa spent most of her time in the Gokk house. When she wasn’t here, she’d be at her Ma’s who lived in the same edge of Iltaqa as Etana’s parents. Come to think of it, she couldn’t have found a better hiding place for her watch.

Padefa squinted at her. “What about Chief Ultek?”

“I’ll cooperate with the police because I want to live,” Etana said. “Watch or no watch. That’s all Chief Ultek cares about.”

Padefa pondered Etana’s argument, her fingers caressing the bejeweled dial of the watch, lingering on every gemstone.

“Why are you doing this?” she asked.

A legitimate question. To which Etana had no answer. Until she remembered what drove Padefa.

And, just like in Ultek’s office, the right words came. “You’re Dame Gokk’s maid. She listens to you. If I get in trouble again, I’ll expect you to put in a word with her.”

Padefa’s face brightened. “I will, but only once, and—obviously—I can’t promise she’ll listen.”

“Fair enough.” Etana stood and picked up her cape. “I’m off to my parents’.”

“Again? See you tomorrow, then.” Padefa nodded absent-mindedly, absorbed by the watch.

“See you tomorrow,” Etana said, opening the door.

* * *

When she pushed the garden gate, Prioress Eckme and her steward were already there, talking to Rhori and glancing at Mount Crog.

“What are you doing here?” Rhori asked Etana while she bowed to the vestal.

Prioress Eckme bowed back. “Hello, Etana. I was sure you’d show up.”

“I’m coming with you,” Etana said.

The prioress nodded, as if there’d never been any question about it and pointed to her steward. “You haven’t met Leehash.”

The burly man in his late forties or early fifties brow-and-bowed. Etana did the same.

“Did you leave the watch at the Gokk House?” Rhori asked.

She nodded. “But not like you think. I gave it to another maid, and I’m sure she’ll wear it a lot.”

Rhori shook his head in disapproval.

Etana shrugged.

“What do we do, Your Royal Grace?” Leehash turned to the vestal. “Leave now or wait until it’s darker?”

Prioress Eckme smiled, chewing on her lip. “Summer days are much too long, aren’t they?”

“We can wait,” Rhori said. “I went up the goat trail last night and located the clearing. It won’t take us more than an hour and a half to get there even if we’re slow.”

Prioress Eckme nodded.

“Ma and Pa?” Etana turned to Rhori. “Mayka?”

“Ma’s working late—some big party at the Usadory House. Pa and Mayka went to bed early. At my request.”

Etana itched to pop into the house so she could sneak a look at their dear faces and whisper a goodbye. But she forced herself to stay where she was. If she inadvertently woke them up, they’d be surprised to see her. They’d ask questions. They’d worry…

Better this way, she told herself.

Prioress Eckme opened a big backpack on the bench and took out a small device.

“For you.” She offered it up to Rhori. “It’s a commlet.”

Rhori studied the object.

“You’ll be able to talk to Areg and send written messages from anywhere on Hente and in Xereill. You’ll also be able to communicate with anyone else who has a commlet as long as you know their contact number.”

“Amazing,” Rhori muttered.

She showed him how to operate it.

“I’ve procured one for Areg and another one for myself,” Prioress Eckme said, before giving Etana and Leehash an apologetic glance. “Unfortunately, my funds didn’t stretch for two more.”

“I don’t need it, Your Royal Grace,” Leehash said. “I’m around you at all times.”

Etana smiled, shrugging. “I can use Rhori’s.” When I’m not around Areg.

An amused look flashed in the vestal’s intelligent eyes before she turned away.

“We should go now,” Leehash said to the vestal, picking up the backpack. “If Lord Sebi doesn’t show, we’ll have a chance to be back at the temple before daybreak without raising anyone’s suspicions.”

The group set out immediately. At one in the morning they reached the clearing. Areg wasn’t there. Leehash pulled a thick cloak out of the backpack and spread it out. They sat down on it. No one spoke, unwilling to voice their distress.

They waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Leehash looked at his watch. “It’s three. We need to head back, Your Royal Grace.”

Her expressions pained, the vestal turned to Etana. “I’m sorry… His absence doesn’t necessarily mean…” Her chin quivered and she clenched her teeth for a moment. “It doesn’t mean Areg didn’t make it.”

“Well said,” a familiar voice came from behind them.

All four jumped up and peered into the dark.

A shape emerged from the group of trees they were staring at. As Areg came nearer, limping ever so slightly, Etana noticed he wore farmers’ clothes. He’d lost weight. His hair was longer, and his face was gaunt. He had a short beard.

The closer he got the harder it became to keep her joy inside. Murmuring his name, she ran to him and threw her arms around his neck.

“You’re alive! Thank Goddess, you made it!” She traced her hands over his face as if to add another layer of sweet confirmation that he was, indeed, alive.

“Sweet pea.” Areg took her face between his hands and pressed his lips to hers in a brief, but oh-so-eloquent kiss. “I hoped you’d turn up. That’s what kept me going.”

When they let go of each other, and the rest of the company greeted Areg warmly, awareness of her lack of decorum heated Etana’s cheeks. Prioress Eckme would no doubt be shocked. Rhori would disapprove of their indiscretion.

With their marriage null and void now, she wasn’t supposed to act as if she were Areg’s wife. She wasn’t his bride, either. Not even his sweetheart.

Such mundane things seemed completely out of place. But would she let him kiss her again in front of disapproving witnesses?

In a blink.

“Ladies, I apologize for my disheveled appearance,” he said. “Been hiking the past five days. Keeping clean and tidy was a challenge.”

Prioress Eckme waved dismissively. “Oh, please.”

“I promise I’ll wash, comb my hair and discipline my beard at the first opportunity.”

“I like your beard,” Etana blurted.

There was tenderness in Areg’s eyes when he glanced at her.

She pointed to his legs. “You’re limping.”

“Not to worry. The wound is clean and it’s healing.”

Nodding, Etana reached for his ouroboros around her neck. “I promised you’d have it back.”

Prioress Eckme gave Areg a commlet and three fat wads of drinars.

“You need to give the commlet a half hour in the sun every day so it doesn’t die,” she said. “But if it runs out of energy and turns off, it’ll need a much longer time in the sun to wake up again.”

Areg inspected the device. “How long?”

“Hours.”

“Should I expect it to turn off every night?”

“I was told it shouldn’t, unless you use it all evening,” the vestal said. “Try to send your transmissions during the day.”

“They are older, secondhand models,” Leehash said. “But they were the only ones currently available on the black market.”

Rhori showed Areg some functions he’d just mastered.

“I wish we had these toys during the war,” Areg said before pushing the money toward Prioress Eckme. “I can’t.”

“Don’t be silly.” She shoved the wads in the pocket of his jacket. “I’m a vestal now, remember? I’ll never be able to spend all the rent from my family’s royal lands, even with everything I give to charity.”

Leehash laid out the rest of the contents of the backpack, which included a change of clothing, a towel, soap, hairbrush and scissors, a flask, and a sack filled with cured meat and plum bars.

Areg eyed everything appreciatively as the group sat in a circle around the stash. “Much better than the supplies we received during the war.”

Leehash grinned, visibly pleased.

“Lord Sebi, what happened after we left you in that cottage?” Rhori asked.

Areg gave them a summary account of that night and the rest of his week.

“I know Duko!” Rhori said. “He’s a funny guy.”

When Areg got to the part where he was apprehended by two soldiers, Etana found herself transfixed with fear.

He made it, she reminded herself. He made it.

Rhori stared at Areg. “How on Hente did you get out of that bind?”

“As they marched me to Iltaqa, I got thinking—vain as I am—about the legacy I was leaving behind. So, I asked my escort if they believed I was a traitor.”

“And?”

“They hesitated to answer my question at first, and then the sergeant said he didn’t. He said he knew several men who’d served under me during the war, and those men swore I’d never betray my people.”

Rhori leaned forward. “And then?”

“The private said the whole ‘treason for money’ plot never made any sense to him, seeing how rich my family had been, and that I was the only surviving heir.”

Prioress Eckme grinned. “They let you go.”

“They did, after some dithering. Even returned my blaster.” Areg smiled. “I had to backtrack. That’s why I got here so late. But, luckily, you lingered.”

Leehash checked his watch and gave the vestal a meaningful look.

She nodded to him, before turning to Areg. “Please ping me after you’ve met with Timm Itkis, so I know it went well.”

“Will do.”

She turned to Etana and Rhori. “Are you coming with us or hanging around a little longer?”

“We’ll go with you,” Rhori said. “It would be a shame to miss the chance of sneaking back before daybreak.”

Everyone stood up.

Etana gave Rhori a hug and dashed to Areg. “I’ll stay.”