I rub the back of my neck. I try to hold back the grin, but Lictor’s not looking at me and there’s no reason to hide the pride I feel.

  My team!

  It sounds like I’m not just part of the team. It’s my team. We’re heading to the room where the others have been waiting on all the previous Rides. I shake my head, pull my thoughts together. Maybe he has said the same thing to everyone else as well, been through each of us like this. We all may have been the last member of the team to be introduced. At one point or another. But maybe not for real?

  I squeeze my eyes shut as my temples throb. Trying to track what is real, what has happened, what is going to happen, is too much. I stop in my tracks.

  Lictor is already drawing the gesture to unlock the door, but stops when he notices I’ve been left behind. He turns to me. “Locke?”

  “I can’t deal with this. I need to get out,” I say.

  He doesn’t hesitate, just nods. “You might be correct.” He pauses, runs a hand through his hair. Breathes in and out. “Still, this is the last one. Once we’re back, we’re back for real. You have to remember that. No retries after this.”

  I nod.

  He nods. “You want to go and grab the gland? Or will I handle it?”

  I feel a shiver run down my spine. I nod and swallow. “Not teleportation.”

  “There’s still three hours before the Weave is in place.” He yanks the amulet pinned to his chest into his hand and squeezes it. A lid pops open and reveals a circle of golden runes inlaid into the black iron. Lictor presses his thumb in the middle of the runes and they light up blue. I watch as the amulet itself starts to glow bright white. The light stings my eyes and then the white explodes to engulf me.

  The glow of the pyramid fades. We’re back. Lictor releases my wrist.

  I pat my clothes and blink my eyes. Again, there’s no sensation left of what happened. This time it was basically as quick as with the gland. Useful, I think, before realizing he’s walking around with a bomb pinned to his chest.

  Lictor rubs his chin and considers something for a while. He then rearranges his face in a way that I haven’t seen yet. His eyes dart from one corner of the hall to another, attentive and alert. He rolls his shoulders and pulls himself up to his full height. “Ready? This is where we begin for real.”

  I take a deep breath. “Let’s go.”

  He marches toward the door. I nearly bump into him, as I expect him to walk right through. Instead, he stops and knocks on the door. He waits for a moment and pushes the door open.

  The clerk looks at us and smiles as we step in. The quill is in the inkpot. “Welcome back, sir Janitor. Found your man, eh?”

  “I did, indeed,” Lictor says. He beams at the clerk. “All proceeding well on this end?”

  “Yes, sir Janitor. The teams are gathering and will start the training runs in an hour. Just as it was planned.”

  “Exemplary Liam, as always! How’s the knee?”

  “Much better, thank you. I appreciate the chance to rest it.”

  Lictor smiles and waves a hand dismissively. “Of course, don’t mention it. Tell your parents I said hello.” He then turns to me. “Let me introduce you to Locke before we go. He’s the last member of the special team.”

  The clerk stands up and bows at me.

  My mouth is hanging open. I don’t know if I feel nauseous or delighted. So the Liam that would have gotten stabbed is the same clerk we’ve run past so many times. He really has the worst job, doesn’t he? But does it really count if he gets stabbed or ignored if it happens on a Ride?

  Lictor nudges me with his elbow. “The boy is a bit shell-shocked. First time he’s in a big city. We took a couple of Rides to show him around.” He glances at me and squints his eyes momentarily in warning.

  “Oh, it can be a lot. Don’t worry about it,” the clerk says and smiles at me.

  “Oh,” I say. I gather myself. “Yeah, it was. It’s great to be back. Pleasure to meet you…”

  “Liam,” he says and smiles. “We’ll see each other around, Locke. Good luck on the mission!”

  I bow to him. Lictor nods at the man and starts walking toward the door.

  I expect we’d go back to the room with the assortment of fruits and the gland, but Lictor walks past it. I glance at the door in confusion.

  “It’s for Rides,” he says without slowing down. He continues directly to the room where we’ve met the rest. Everyone is already there. The positions are slightly different as we’ve arrived yet again at a different moment.

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  Mandollel looks like he’s just about to start speaking when he notices us. He rises up and bows low. ”You must be Locke,” he says.

  I flinch as I remember how he reacted that one time. I hesitate before saying anything.

  Mandollel watches me for just a moment and continues talking after the briefest pause before it has a chance to turn awkward. ”Pleasure to meet you. We’ve heard much about you from Lictor. I believe we’ll make a great team,” Mandollel says and smiles at me. It’s the most disarming smile I’ve ever seen. I wouldn’t feel awkward hugging him. ”My name is Mandollel.”

  I blink a couple of times. I bow to him hastily and turn to bow also to Rworg and Finna.

  Rworg bows to me like he did the first time, sitting and fists planted on his knees. Finna grunts.

  “We all know what’s at stake,” Lictor says.

  I breathe out, beyond relieved he’s taking the lead this time.

  “The Kertharians will escalate the war this night. We will beat them back, but only tonight. Tomorrow, Velonea will descend into war and fire and death.”

  “We know this,” Rworg says, his guttural pronunciation making him sound even gruffer than the words are in themselves.

  “It’s even worse than what I’ve told you so far. Teleportation will be made impossible this night.”

  “What!” Mandollel shouts. The smile has been wiped off his face, replaced by visible shock. “Why? How?”

  “The ether will be trapped. Nothing can move through it without getting shredded. Silloin has been informed, and they have accepted the cost.”

  Mandollel leans back and breathes out. His face still carries doubt, but the elven name mentioned seems to have calmed him down. I wonder if it’s a person or a place, but I’m not about to ask right now. I feel enough of a country bumpkin to begin with.

  “This is a new development. Kerthar has too many powerful mages that could destroy half of Velonea without us being able to do anything about it if we let them run loose. Stopping teleportation makes them much less of an immediate threat, but after this night, our reach is limited as well.”

  Rworg clears his throat. When he does it, even that sounds dangerous. “Irrelevant! We will walk.”

  Mandollel is thinking something over, hand rubbing his smooth chin. “Wait, Rworg. I’ve never seen powerful wizards care about any war efforts. Why do they take part now?”

  “We don’t know,” Lictor says. “They never have, and the ones on our side still won’t. Yet we’ve seen nearly every noteworthy Kertharian magic user take part in the invasion.”

  I feel a cold shiver coming. It’s all starting to make sense. I turn to Lictor, even though I’m not sure if I want to hear the answer. “You think we’ll lose the war. The Etherthorn Weave won’t solve anything. It’s a delay. You’re buying time.”

  He nods. “For you to do your part.”

  I shiver in earnest. Mandollel grimaces and nods as well. I hear a muttered curse from Finna’s direction.

  “Do it we will,” Rworg says. “Our madness will burn the world. We will stop it.”

  “Do the rest of you know the plan already?” I ask. I thought I had been told more than the others, but it seems that’s not true.

  “Everyone knows something,” Lictor says. “It’s hard to keep people like Mandollel or Finna in the dark.” He looks like he’s about to roll his eyes but catches himself.

  Finna snorts.

  Mandollel crosses his arms, his face grave. ”I would normally never agree to this, but I’ve seen enough to know this is not a normal border dispute. Conduct of war does not apply here.”

  ”Agree to what?” Rworg asks.

  Lictor clears his throat. ”We have built a magical device that will amplify and diffuse the effects of a spell to cover the whole of Kerthar.”

  Rworg grumbles something and throws a look at Finna.

  She groans and sighs and squirms on her couch. ”It’s a bomb. They’re going to blow them all up.”

  ”Nothing so crass. The device is painstakingly artificed to affect only Kertharians, leaving anything less intelligent than humans alive.”

  I frown as I put together everything I know of the war. ”Painstakingly artificed? When?”

  ”Well…” Lictor stretches the word out. He puts his hands in his pockets and fiddles with something with his right hand. ”This morning. We got the last piece for it only today, thanks to Mandollel. It would be more accurate to say it was extremely hastily artificed yet painstakingly tested. It will work.”

  I nod. It seems to be how things work here.

  Mandollel glances at the ceiling, but also nods after a moment. He runs a hand through his shiny hair, tossing it over his shoulder. ”If there was any other option—”

  ”Yet there isn’t,” Lictor interrupts him. ”We’ve spent years working this out. All predictions point to total mutual obliteration if the war is allowed to continue. The only way to guarantee peace is to nip this in the bud.”

  ”Just so,” Rworg says.

  At least someone sounds like they’ve made up their mind. Can he really be ok with destroying his own people?

  ”As long as I get my pardon. And paid,” Finna says. Her voice trembles just slightly and she glances at me from under the tangle of her hair. She notices I notice and turns away, jaw clenched tight.

  ”Tenorsbridge will be in your debt. We will—” Lictor stops as he sees the face Finna’s making. ”100 gold, as agreed,” he says flatly.

  Finna nods, even if she doesn’t seem happy about it.

  I raise an eyebrow at the amount, but hearing a creak makes me turn to Mandollel. He’s tensing all over, the leather of his bracers straining as he pushes his arms to his chest. His face is tight, matching the tone of his voice. ”Janitor, I’m prepared to do what’s necessary, but there are actual children on this team. You can’t saddle them with this. Let us at least talk with the council—”

  Lictor interrupts him again. I wince. The way Mandollel snapped that one time flashes in my mind. ”There’s no time. There’s no use. The plan and the device have been perfected over hundreds of tries. Please, this is the only route that makes sense.”

  ”Sense?” Finna asks.

  Lictor nods and turns back to Mandollel to answer. ”Any other option just prolongs or delays the inevitable. Nothing can be done to save the Kertharians. They’ve done something to themselves.” Lictor’s eyes are wide open, his teeth bared. He takes out his empty hands from his pockets and shows them to the two men. “It’s out of our hands.”

  ”I’ve seen it,” Rworg says. ”The Janitor speaks the truth.”

  Mandollel turns away, sighing deeply.

  I get a weird feeling. Like something’s missing. I turn to look where Finna was sitting.

  She’s still there, but completely still. Her eyes are tracking Lictor’s face, her whole face focused on him.

  Lictor pays her no mind. He steps toward the two men, talking about what the city strategists have predicted for the next days and weeks. Talking about the atrocities the Kertharians will perpetrate and how far they anticipate they will push in the coming weeks. About the death toll.

  Finna glances at me. For a moment, the mask slips and I see it. She looks lost, terrified. The hardness returns immediately. She draws her mouth into a thin, pale line and her nostrils flare.

  For a moment, it looked like she might need someone to comfort her, but now she looks again like she would probably bite me if I tried to pat her on the shoulder. Still, I edge toward her. I give her a questioning look and glance at Lictor, still talking with Rworg and Mandollel.

  She glances up at me. “He’s full of crap,” she murmurs.