at Simon again. For all his exhausted appearance, his arms were still knotted with muscles. The leather-wrapped handle of his ax was stained black, and I remembered the smell of blood that had filled the island’s crater, and knew it wasn’t only sweat that darkened the leather.
“I haven’t come here to grovel.” Piper was looking at Simon, but he made sure to speak loudly enough for the assembled guards to hear. “I stand by my decision. You’ve seen what the Council’s capable of—they were never going to spare the island, whether or not I handed over Cass and Kip.”
“We paid too great a price for one seer,” said Simon.
“The minute you start thinking of people in terms of price, we’ve already lost,” I said. “And it wasn’t just me. It was Kip, too.”
“What difference does it make?” Simon said.
“He killed the Confessor,” I said. “It cost him his life, but he did it. And we destroyed the machine they were using to keep track of all of us, and to decide who lived and died, and who should be tanked.”
Simon turned to Sally. “I’d heard the rumor that the Confessor had died. Is it true?”
Sally nodded. “I believe them. She’s dead. And the machine that relied on her—it’s finished, too.”
“But you still betrayed the Assembly,” Simon said to Piper. “Killing the Confessor, or dragging Sally along now, doesn’t change that.”
Sally shrugged Xander’s hand from her arm and stepped closer to Simon. The ring of weapons around us lowered slightly as she spoke. “I’ve fought for this resistance since I was fifteen, Simon, and in that whole time, I’ve never been dragged anywhere. I’ve seen and done things that you can’t imagine, and I’m no stranger to hard choices.” She paused for breath. “Piper made a hard choice on the island. It was the right one. I’ve come here to vouch for him. But it makes no difference that I vouch for him and Zoe.” I noticed that she made no mention of me. “That doesn’t matter. What matters is that you need them.”
“She’s right,” Piper said to Simon. “I have information for you. There’re things we need to talk about, and things you need to do.”
The woman close to me tightened her grip on the sword hilt.
“You don’t get to tell me what I need to do,” said Simon. “But I’ll hear your news.” He turned away. “You’d better come inside.”
There was a pause, and then the guards around us stepped back. The scraping sound, as they sheathed their weapons, was protracted, reluctant. Simon kept his ax in hand as we followed him farther into the quarry.
In the deepest part of the excavations, among the low trees that clustered there, was a handful of tents, staked out wherever the trees and boulders provided shelter from anyone looking down from above. Simon and his guards had been here for some time; long enough that the paths between the tents were worn down to shallow trenches of boot-clutching clay.
When Simon led us to his tent, I noted that the guards took up positions at the door before it had even fallen closed behind us.
Inside, both Piper and Zoe had to duck under the sagging roof. Simon, ax in hand, stood by the lamp at the far side of the tent and waited.
As soon as the door was closed, he sprang at Piper. Zoe drew back her throwing arm quicker than my intake of breath, but Piper’s laughter disarmed us both. Simon was embracing him, the two of them chest to chest, and patting each other resoundingly on the back.
“I’m sorry about that,” Simon said, with a jerk of his thumb outside. “But you saw how most of them feel. If I’m to keep my authority, they need to see that I don’t just lay down the red carpet for you.” He squeezed Piper’s shoulder once more. “I hoped you’d be back.”
“So that you could punch me in the face again?” Piper said, one eyebrow raised.
“Sit,” said Simon, waving us to the side of the tent, where a table and benches had been cobbled together from fresh-hewn wood. “And eat something. You look like you need it.”
“We didn’t come here for a tea party,” said Zoe.
“Speak for yourself,” said Sally. The bench creaked as she slumped down onto it and reached for the food.
Simon left us alone until we’d finished helping ourselves to the flatbread and water on the table. I made myself eat, but I was so tired that my head felt