That same evening, they camped along the river, some miles north of where the councilguards fought the bruyas. They passed by the familiar clearing, the smell of blood heavy and metallic in the air. The group walked in silence, skimming the outside of the clearing and averting their eyes.

Some wild animals had already claimed the councilguards as a meal. Alara’s stomach twisted, and a wave of nausea crashed over her. Then she remembered the one councilguard’s cruel face and felt a small pang of satisfaction. She hadn’t seen him die after he had been shot, but she knew he had laid among the dead.

Quenti walked beside her and Alara felt her stumble as they passed the clearing. Her thoughts were undoubtedly on Khuno. Alara swallowed a click in her throat and reached for Quenti’s hand, giving it a tight squeeze.

They had left only a few hours after their meeting with Quil’la. Plans still half-formed, they packed food and weapons, and Lili and Runeo said their goodbyes. Alara had looked up at Arbol as they descended on the lift and wondered if this would be the last time she saw it, something that wasn’t relief twisted in her gut. Far from the feeling she’d expected. She still longed for home, but the warmth that the Haven represented in her mind had gone cold.

“What’s Lili doing?” Quenti asked Runeo, setting down the fish she caught for supper.

Runeo glanced over at Lili, who sat cross-legged at the edge of camp, face toward the sky.

“Saying a prayer for the dead. Councilguard or no, she wants their spirits to make it to Dead Plains.”

Quenti nodded at this, but Alara just gave a silent shudder. How would the councilguards feel about being sent to somewhere as ominous sounding and blasphemous as the Dead Plains?

“Have some tea.” Quenti took a mug from Runeo and shoved it into Alara’s hands. “It’ll warm you up.”

“I’m not cold,” Alara said.

“I meant metaphorically. You look pale.”

Alara didn’t argue. “Did you know councilguards acted like that?”

Quenti gave a small shrug. “I always heard the rumors. Mama taught me to be very careful if I ever wandered outside the village. They don’t act like that within the borders usually, but there are always a few exceptions.” Quenti’s eyebrows raised at what must have been Alara’s pinched face. “There are good councilguards, I’m sure. Your friend back at the Haven seemed nice.”

Beside them, Runeo grunted at this statement, but didn’t shift his attention from the fish he was cooking.

Alara took some comfort in Quenti’s words and pictured Ardo’s face in her mind, his smile crooked and bright. There were good people in the councilguards. No matter how hard the Council tried, there would always be bad apples. But still… to see it in practice…

If anything, Alara could report back to Emaru about what she saw. Clearly, the councilguards on the borderlands needed to be reprimanded and retrained. Perhaps a different approach could assuage some of the violence between the mages and bruyas.

“There were just so many pointless deaths.” Alara’s hand had unconsciously wrapped around the cuff on her wrist.

Quenti bit her lip, noticing the move. “It was terrible what happened to your family,” she said. “But I don’t know why you let it rule your life.”

Alara’s face reddened, and she noticed Runeo stiffen at Quenti’s words. “It’s not that simple.”

“I dunno what happened, but it seems to me like you’re still punishing yourself for something a child did in a moment of fear.” Quenti’s words were soft, her eyes warm.

“It’s not about punishing myself. It’s about protecting others.”

“That’s why you still wear that cuff?”

Alara didn’t answer.

“But imagine,” Lili said, walking up to the fire, her hazel eyes almost glowing in the orange light, “what you could have done to protect yourself without all the bloodshed had you allowed yourself to use your powers freely?”

“It’s easy for you to say,” Alara said. “You’re a healer, a tierren. Your powers are literally about giving life.”

“I spent most of my childhood wishing I had something closer to what you have,” Lili said, picking at one of the fish on the fire before Runeo slapped her hand away. “Sometimes we don't get what we want.”

“Hands off,” Runeo snapped.

Lili rolled her eyes and sat back on her heels. “Anyway, your powers can bring more than just destruction. If you learned control, you could stop fire from spreading, douse it even.”

“It’s not that easy,” Alara said.

Runeo picked up the fish from the fire and distributed them to the others. He practically dropped the last fish in Alara’s lap. “Nothing in life is easy. But you can’t expect to get anywhere hiding from your problems.”

Alara picked at the meal in front of her. “That’s ironic, coming from an Aboreli. All your people do is hide.”

“Which is it, then?” Runeo said. “Do we hide all the time, or do we murder villagers on a whim?”

Alara glared at him through the flames that stood between them. They reacted to her anger, a wisp inching toward Runeo, before snapping back to the embers.

“We don’t murder for fun, you know. We do what we need to survive and protect our own. We fight when we need to and hide when we can.”

The flames danced sharply again as Alara opened her mouth to respond, but Lili laid a soft hand on hers.

“I think perhaps we should rest for the night.”

Runeo grunted, shoving another bite of fish in his mouth, but didn’t protest. Alara closed her own mouth and took a calming breath, trying to disconnect herself from the fire. It took a few seconds to untwine the threads of magia that had knotted in the heat.

Being around the bruyas was messing with her control.

***

The next morning when Alara awoke, the first thing she noticed was the faint gray light of dawn filtering through the trees. The forest was thinner here near the river, and the sky was visible between the branches. The second thing she noticed was Runeo’s grim face looking down at her from above, eyes sharp and lips thin. The third was the spear pointed at her head.

Alara’s eyes flew wide open, and she jerked.

“Don’t move,” he bit out. A second later, the spear came soaring down, catching the dirt just behind Alara’s left ear.

She turned slowly and jumped back at the sight of the large snake skewered on Runeo’s weapon, inches from where her head had just been.

“Breakfast?” He said, grinning at the green tinge of Alara’s face as the snake convulsed.

“No thank you,” she said. She tilted her head and looked at Runeo, eyebrows furrowed. “You keep saving me.”

Runeo said nothing, instead lopping off the head off of the dead snake with his dagger.

“Does this mean you no longer want me dead?”

“I haven’t quite decided.”

The corner of Alara’s mouth twitched slightly up. Was that a joke?

“Thank you,” he said, not looking at her, but examining the snake with some care, “for volunteering to help Micos.”

All humor dropped from Alara’s expression. “It’s my fault he got captured. He didn’t deserve that.”

“You could have left with the councilguards,” Runeo said, finally looking at her. His dark eyes seemed to bore into her soul, and she looked away quickly.

“I just…” She stopped. She wasn’t completely sure herself why she hadn’t stepped out that morning and turned herself over. “I’m still planning on going back. Once we get Micos and Khuno, I’ll help you all escape. I still end up back home, which is all I’ve ever wanted. But Micos and Khuno getting caught was my fault.”

Runeo nodded and turned.

“Had you been the one kidnapped,” Alara said. “I might have just walked away.”

Runeo almost smiled. Almost.

“I think we all would have.” Lili was beside her, Quenti some steps behind, holding, to Alara’s great disappointment, more fish.

“Breakfast?” Quenti said grinning.

Runeo and Alara both groaned, and Lili let out a sharp laugh. “My feelings exactly.”

***

They made it to the edge of Sombria two days later, climbing to the top of the cliff Alara and Quenti had jumped off of what seemed like a century ago. Two short days it took them to make it here, which really drove home just how slow and meandering their pace had been on the way to Arbol.

Now they walked fast and long, taking advantage of every moment of daylight. Alara only complained in her head about the aches in her feet, but she knew from the look of cold determination that stayed on Runeo’s face that she shouldn’t vocalize it.

“If we take the roads, we’ll get there at least two days sooner.” Runeo argued with a frustrated Lili.

“If we get caught on the roads—which we most definitely will—we’ll never get there at all,” Lili said. “Or we’ll get there in shackles.”

The group had stalled their progress in order to indulge in this debate, which had been going on for over ten minutes now, and neither side appeared ready to budge. Alara knew Lili was speaking logically. They had been lucky to not run into any councilguards so far on the trip, in part thanks to Alara’s abilities. But even her mind-stalking magia wouldn’t save them from the mass of folks who would likely be on the main roads, blameless and mage alike. Plus, as she had learned in her brief encounter with the councilguards, their clothing wasn’t something the average soldier would overlook.

“Catch,” Quenti said, tossing a flurry of brown cloth toward Alara.

The magite didn’t even have the chance to raise her arms before it smacked her in the face. “What?” Alara looked down at the clothes that had just hit her: a simple brown tunic and black skirt. Village clothes. “Where did you get these?”

Lili and Runeo had stopped fighting and had turned their attention to Quenti.

“We’re near Attalea. I may have snuck into a yard and helped relieve a family of some clothes.”

“Relieved them when?” Runeo said, eyes wide.

“Just now,” Quenti said, a lopsided smirk on her face. “Thanks for keeping yourselves busy while I was gone, by the way.”

Runeo glared at the mischievous bruya.

“I wasn’t seen,” Quenti said, answering the unasked question. “There was a house on the edge of town and things are quiet. They were hanging in the yard. This solves the problem of sneaking up the road, doesn’t it? It’s what you wanted.” She handed a black dress to Lili, who frowned at the dour material.

“One problem,” Quenti continued. “I couldn’t find pants for you.”

Runeo’s eyes darkened slightly and his lip twitched. “So this solves nothing. What, we steal more clothes, then?”

“We’ll have to wait until night fall, if we don’t want to be seen,” Quenti said. “All the other houses are farther in. I didn’t see any easy clothesline targets.”

Runeo shook his head. “I’m not waiting. We need to keep going now.”

“Well, we can’t very well just wander into the town midday and kindly ask for a pair of trousers, can we?” Quenti snapped.

“Why not?” Alara said, her smile wide.

Quenti and Runeo stopped arguing and looked at Alara like she had gone crazy. Which, she realized, she might just have.

“I mean, Runeo can’t wander into town, but we could.” Alara said, motioning to Lili and Quenti, and the clothes in their hands. “You said it seemed empty. What are the chances it’s a market day? Otherwise, at this time of day, there would have been people working in their yards.”

“You want us to walk into the market and steal pants?” Lili said, feet shifting uncomfortably.

Alara didn’t speak for a moment, searching her bag before letting the tension from her shoulders drop. She pulled out the small leather pouch. “Not steal, buy.” Carefully, she opened it and let the bronze coins fall into her other hand.

No one spoke. Finally, Runeo stepped forward, eyes studying the coins with trepidation. “It seems risky revealing ourselves, even in disguise.”

“No more risky than trying to steal clothes in daylight or wandering down the road in bruya clothes,” Alara replied.

“She has a point,” Lili said, looking between them.

“I’d be recognized in Attalea,” Quenti said. “And I don’t know what the villagers have been told about me. I couldn’t do it. And they’d recognize you for sure, Alara.”

“I shouldn’t go alone,” Lili whispered.

Alara shook her head. “I’ve only passed through the village a handful of times and never even interacted with anyone. Lili and I can go. We can meet you both back here.”

“I don’t like this,” Runeo said.

“I don’t think we have a choice,” Quenti noted. “Unless you want to waste another half-hour arguing.”