“No! I won’t stay here.” I glanced down the street, but Kael and Gwen were gone.

I had to calm my nerves at the thought of being poked and prodded with needles. I stepped just outside of the building into the street with no clear direction in mind. I had no idea where Kael had run off too. He was home, near the woman he used to love. My body was tense, so I began to pace and think over everything I had just learned. I needed to escape, to get out of here and fast.

Alek gently touched my arm. “We need you. We have no way of understanding what exactly was done without you. You are the other piece of this puzzle. Kael was reckless in his decision-making when he left our sanctuary and it came after a very emotional time for him. He was feeling trapped and betrayed—justly so.”

“So you are justifying his actions?” I steamed.

“No, it’s in our blood—a desire to be bonded and to protect the weak. Now we are but a shadow of what we once were. We have all at one time or another wished for the glory of the old days and being bonded. He left and his journey has brought him to you. Now he is the first to be bonded in many years.” He shrugged his shoulders and I stared at him.

“What about me? I have no desire to be a part of this. And when I do come here what do you do? You attack me, imprison me, trick me, and throw me in a pit. Now you want me to stay?” I scoffed.

Alek blinked. I had momentarily stunned him. He stepped forward and tried to reason with me. “We are not the enemy, Thalia. It’s been a very long time since we’ve had outsiders in our camp.”

My anger didn’t diffuse at his words, but built up in power like a volcano about to explode. He was about to witness the full fury of the Valdyrstal Clan.

“You’re right. You are not the enemy, but there is a far greater enemy out there.” I pointed beyond the hills, toward what I hoped was the city of Haven. “Instead of hiding away dreaming of days of old and acts of honor, how about protecting those that can’t protect themselves? The innocents.”

People overheard me and a crowd began to gather around the infirmary. I didn’t care. I actually raised my voice even more. “The Septori are out there. They are a plague, an evil that preys on the unsuspecting. They live in the darkness and walk among us in the light of day. And we can’t find them. They are the ones that did this to Kael and me. True acts of honor don’t limit themselves to time of action and war, or to kings and queens, but become greatest when the need is the greatest.”

Alek looked taken aback. But I didn’t let that stop me. I turned to address the crowd of people walking by.

“I know about the creed, about how you are bound by oath to die protecting those you have sworn an oath to protect. But what about now, when you refuse to lend your sword to a crown? What about the innocents? The children, the poor, the people, whether of Calandry or Sinnendor? This country that you have lived in peacefully for generations—you don’t think they deserve help when help is due? When there is a common enemy that has struck out at one of your own, you do nothing. How can you even call yourselves SwordBrothers?”

I stared down the crowd and watched in amazement as more than a few eyes looked away from me in apparent shame. A few shuffled their feet nervously, but the ones I studied were the men and women who showed no emotion at all. There were quite a few. These were the trained SwordBrothers. Like Kael, they hid their thoughts from me. A discussion started among the crowd about what was going on in Calandry. Alek stepped forward and answered some of their questions as best as he could relay from what he’d learned from Kael. I used this short distraction to let Alek clean up the heated mess I had caused.

My eyes caught movement by the steps, and I looked up to see Kael and Gwen walking farther down the street, their heads almost touching as they leaned into each other. I felt a bubble of apprehension surface, and I could feel myself becoming lightheaded. I couldn’t handle either the thought of being an experiment or the idea of a lovesick reunion between Kael and Gwen. It was time to see myself out…of the sanctuary.

I turned to leave and ran into a wall of broad chests covered in black—more SwordBrothers. “Move please,” I lashed out. Surprisingly they moved out of my way. I stopped, looking up and down crowded street, unsure which way to go.

“Your horse is this way.” A SwordBrother waved me over and I followed him to a stable, keeping a careful distance. His hair was peppered with gray, his face tanned, and I could see faint scarring across his knuckles from years of working with weapons. He opened the door and pointed to the back.

Sure enough Faraway was there, happily munching away on feed. He was groomed and fed. His leg was even bandaged from his scrape on the fall. Though I was reluctant to give the clan any respect, they sure knew how to take care of animals.

You’ve been awfully quiet, I accused. Faraway had been decidedly absent from helping me lately and I had to wonder if once again, he knew more than he let on. Was this his way of helping me learn to not rely on his strength and power so much?

And you’ve been awfully noisy in your thoughts. Maybe less talk and more eating would solve more of your problems.

Food won’t solve these kind of problems, I remarked.

You’d be surprised what it can solve.

I found his saddle and began to prepare Faraway to leave. He wasn’t in any hurry to leave his shelter and full feed trough.

I heard a noise behind me and spun around to see that the same SwordBrother that had led me to my horse was gathering a pack full of supplies. He walked over and handed me a leather knapsack.

“Thank you,” I said meekly.

“No, thank you,” he answered back. He touched his chest and gazed at me with earnest eyes. He looked to be about my father’s age, which in SwordBrother years could be…who knows, four hundred? “It’s been a while since I felt a stirring here,” he tapped his chest. “I think you leave us with many things to think about.”

I sighed in weariness, dreading the question I needed to ask. “Am I even going to be allowed to leave? Or is your clan going to kill me as soon as my back is turned?”

His eyes crinkled up in the corners. “I think you know that answer already. The knife that kills you has a double edge.”

I dropped Faraway’s reigns and leaned my head against his furred neck. Of course they couldn’t kill me. How could I have forgotten already?

“So I’ll be allowed to leave?”

“If that is your wish, then no one will stop you.”

“Yes, I want to leave now. Coming here was a mistake. All I’ve done is lost time when I should have been tracking the Septori.”

It wasn’t long before I was saddled and on the road headed out of the village, leaving Kael behind. Any moment, they could come after me and detain me, try to imprison me again. They probably should. If I were them, I would lock me away in a cell and throw away the key.

But before I made it to the edge of the village, Alba stopped me. This time she was wearing a lavender robe covered with the same silver bells. She had a small velvet bag in her hands.

“Here. To remember me by.” She held up the bag, and I had to lean down quite far to reach it. I opened the pouch and pulled out a single round bell on a string.

“Thanks,” I said, feeling disheartened and sad.

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