If my head had been confused before, it was nothing compared to now. After Vi’den had made his visit, I spent several days in a fog, unable to focus and completely obsessed over Venan’s fate. It did not occur to me until the next day after I had learned the trial would be hastened, that Venan may never have gotten my message, or never would get it. Now that his trial had been moved up, it seemed unlikely Feq would be able to get word to him.

I supposed it was irrelevant now as far as asking him to rescind the request, seeing as the Elders had already agreed to grant it, but I still wanted him to know I was preparing non-negotiable evidence in his favor. I did not want him to ruin himself in hopelessness and regret. Then again, he was the kind of personality that, like me, would do something if he was determined to do it, and nothing I or anyone else could do would stop him.

Several days later, nearly a week after Vi’den had come to the hospital, I woke just before the sun broke the horizon. It was around the same hour Phoebe and I had first held a conversation, sitting together on the patient bed in the hall before the Novai had arrived. I felt a hint of nostalgia and wondered if I ought to wake her to reenact the memory, but the beds were occupied, and I had a task to perform. I had not awoken so early by chance.

Every day, warriors from Ka-lik’et arrived before the break of dawn to deliver food for the team. Their journey to and from the city was not nearly as lengthy or uncomfortable as it had been for Phoebe and me because they traveled by way of an uhudu caravan. Why they made a trip daily rather than weekly, I did not know. I presumed it was because they were only able to carry so much and our team was not a small one, but I could not be certain. Either way, it did not matter. I needed to speak with them, so I rose from my bed, exited the room without waking Phoebe, and waited for them just outside the front door.

I saw them coming one by one. First, a head appeared over a dune followed by a torso and then the head of an uhudu. Behind him came two more heads of A’li-uud and two more heads of uhudu. I waited silently. I did not know if they saw me, but I did not make an attempt to gather their attention. They would see me soon enough.

When they drew near enough, I opened the door to allow them easy entrance while they carried in the goods. They dismounted their uhudu, unlatched the sacks and crates of food, and began transferring them inside as they murmured thanks to me in A’li-uud. After they had stacked everything at the front of the hall, they turned and bowed their heads in goodbye.

I stopped them.

“Do you have a moment to spare?” I asked politely.

They turned toward me, looked at one another, and then looked to me with nods.

“Thank you,” I said. “I need to ask you something.”

“The crate on the bottom is the meat,” said one. I glanced over at the pile, my eyes finding the crate on the bottom, and then shook my head.

“No, that is not the answer I seek,” I replied. “I want to ask you if you have seen Faro around Ka-lik’et.”

I did not know these particular warriors, though I had seen them once or twice, and I did not know if they were familiar with Faro. It seemed by the way they exchanged confused glances they did not, but I knew they would know him, if not by name, then by description. I rambled off brief details about his appearance and added that he was known to be intoxicated much of the time. I felt guilty saying it, as if I were speaking ill about a good friend behind his back, but it was the only thing that made their eyes light up with recognition.

“He is Feq’s father,” the middle warrior said.

“Yes,” I confirmed. I was surprised they knew Feq and not Faro, but I was not going to question it. “Have you seen him around?”

“We have not seen him,” said the last, the one nearest the door, “but it has been rumored he has recently suffered grievous injuries and is confined to a hospital bed.”

I pulled my head back as if a terrible stench had suddenly wafted over my nose. “What? What has happened to him?”

They all jerked their heads simultaneously to indicate they had no further information. “We only know the drunkard has been hurt,” the first said. “There has been no more news than that.”

They bid me goodbye, which I responded to respectfully, and I closed the door behind them. Alone in the hall with no one but the Novai, I stood frozen. It had to be Terrik’s doing. Faro may have been a drunkard as the warriors had said, but not so much so to perilously injure himself. If he was hospitalized, it would be at Terrik’s hand, and it would have been in revenge for Faro’s interference in the scuffle with me in the lair.

I felt guilt wash over me. It no longer mattered if Feq had even heard that I asked for him to pass along a message. It was too late anyway; the trial had been moved. And Faro was fighting for his life because he had come to my defense. Now, more than ever, I understood how important it was that I never went back to my old ways again.