with a new scarf. He met my gaze for a long moment. Unlike the Reamer, I couldn’t read his thoughts. Was he angry? Hurt?
“Blow it,” Torrin called to his brother, who stood to the side, surrounded by others whose names I didn’t know yet but who had come for me. So many of them had! People I didn’t know, who didn’t know me. They must have had unquestioning faith in my men. Or love for them.
Nox helped settle me in the middle of the transport bench, and like Torrin, he didn’t address the elephant in the room of how I’d run off on a mission without them. But he didn’t seem any less careful or considerate in the way he treated me, either. If I’d hurt him, he didn’t show it. I wanted to talk, but it wasn’t the time.
Someone set Rae next to me on the bench, and I didn’t think about it, just slipped my arm around her. She was shaking, poor kid. I wondered if she’d gotten a chance to eat before she’d been rescued.
As the vehicle lurched forward into the night, taking us all home, I looked down at her. “You don’t need to be scared,” I told her, squeezing her narrow shoulders. “These men are kind. Also, that one”—I pointed to Astor. He was facing away from me, so he didn’t see my gesture, but of course he could probably hear—“is a healer of great skill. He can get you healthy in no time. They all will take care of you. I promise.”
She seemed to relax a little, but her voice cracked a little when she replied, “But he couldn’t heal you. And none of them could keep you safe.”
“Rae, all of those things I was telling the Reamers were just to delay them so my rescuers could get there. I am not diseased. I’m…fine. Just like you’re going to be fine. All the bad stuff is over now.”
I wasn’t sure she believed my lies, but she did eventually fall asleep. I was tired, too, but also maybe too keyed up. Terror will do that to you.
And there was that other thing. The secret thing.
Because no matter how convincing I’d made myself sound, no matter how much I protested, I knew there was plenty more bad stuff coming. And none of us could stop it.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Torrin and his rescue team had come out in some other conveyance. I didn’t know exactly what until we arrived back at the City-State right around dawn. But even if I had known, it still would have been a thrill to watch Torrin and Nox at the head of their company come riding into town on the backs of what I can only assume were Howlers, giant red-furred creatures that looked part bear, part wolf. They were like something out of myth, both the beasts and the men.
All of us were tired, except for maybe Rae, who’d slept most of the way. I guessed we’d all been too tired to talk.
Or, in Torrin’s case, too angry? And in Nox’s, too hurt? Neither approached me, and that stung a little, but I wasn’t deeply afraid. Torrin had been so gentle with me back at the Reamer camp. And Nox.
When we rolled to a stop, Mattis reached for Rae. For such a big man, he was amazingly gentle. She didn’t even wake up when he gathered her in his arms.
“I’ll get her inside and make sure she’s comfortable,” he whispered, and I smiled back at him.
“Thank you,” I mouthed.
There was activity in the hangar where we parked the transport, but the mood wasn’t tense. Most people seemed genuinely happy to see us. All of us, which was the weird thing. I could understand why these people would be thrilled to have their leaders and warriors back, but they treated me with the same awe and respect. It was so bizarre. No one had ever looked at me like that before. Like I was some kind of hero.
Near Astor’s lab, Dreama found us. To my shock, and maybe a little bit of horror, she wrapped me in a fierce hug.
“Good thing they fetched you back safely,” she said, “else I’d have to kick their asses.”
“Um—” I started, but her low laughter cut me off.
“No, you know I wouldn’t really. I love my little brothers. All of them.”
That was just a tiny bit startling to hear. Little? These guys? But I guess if Torrin and Astor were twins and their mom had died shortly