He shivered, pulling the blanket tighter around him. For the first time in the longest time, his stomach was truly empty. He was in control of himself again. The “Calvin” persona was gone, and he was Chester again. He sighed. It felt so good to be himself again.

  When the snakes had left him, the venom they’d left behind had paralyzed him. He realized now that the intent of that paralyzation was so the snakes could easily kill him for rebelling and ejecting them. But his crew hadn’t given them the chance. They’d fallen on the snakes like lightning, and now the forest floor was piled with Tikray snakes. A restorative spell from Shale had relieved Chester’s paralyzation, and they proceeded to give the same treatment to Pelias.

  “Thanks again,” Chester said. “Thanks a million.”

  “Yes, thank you,” Pelias said, “and I apologize for almost killing you, Shale. Though I will say that I did intend to miss.”

  Shale raised an eyebrow. “Those were some pretty near misses. Seems to me more like a brag than an apology, if not a cover for missing in the first place.”

  “Yeah,” Chester said, “how could you intend to miss and not freeze up? I feel like the snakes in me punished me for thoughts.”

  Pelias shrugged. “I suspect my thoughts have some natural defense against the snakes. Elves’ minds are generally more difficult to control than humans’.”

  Chester shook his head incredulously. “I’d thought you were right in their pocket.”

  “I was. I learned early that I could not escape on my own, so I decided to bide my time.”

  Chester snorted. “When? Surely you would’ve gotten out before now if you’d had all your faculties from the start.”

  Pelias looked down. “I confess it was not long ago. I was a slave to Tikray for a long time before my idea occurred to me.” He met Chester’s gaze. “It was when you told me about Ruven. When you told me Cambiador had murdered him.” His expression softened into sadness. “Ruven was my brother before Tikray. We were druids. He was Folluin, and I was Vyran.” He brightened a little. “I’m Vyran again, now.” He smiled.

  Chester smiled, too. “Your old name feels good, doesn’t it, Vyran?”

  “Yes, Chester. It does.”

  “As touching as all of this is,” Shale said, “I think we’ve still got some cultists to deal with. And I don’t mean them.” She stuck her thumb at Bob and Martin. Dorothy had healed their wounds, and Julius and Arg had tied them up and gagged them.

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  Julius looked between the two unhappy captives and Shale. “Who do you mean, then?”

  She pointed at the carpet of dead snakes. “As bad as the cults we’ve faced have been, this one seems the most egregious. Don’t you agree?” she asked Chester.

  Chester nodded, then paused. “You’re saying you want to take them down?”

  She nodded.

  “But there are hundreds of them.”

  “Julius,” Shale said, “do you think freeing hundreds of slaves from a snake cult would earn you a place in the stars?”

  Julius smiled. “If it didn’t, I don’t know what would.”

  “It won’t be easy,” Calvin said. “Killing the leader won’t be enough.”

  Arg rolled his shoulders. “Like I always say, there’s no glory in an easy fight.”

  “When have you said that?” Shale asked.

  Arg glared. “Perhaps I don’t use those words every time, but I know you’ve heard me express that idea multiple times.”

  Calvin bowed his head. “Well, I wish you success.”

  Shale raised an eyebrow. “You’re not backing out, are you? You that scared of them?”

  “You don’t want my help. The things I did in their service… I didn’t only ‘recruit’ cultists from other tribes. Most were innocent.” He clenched his fists, remembering his crewmates. “And many are dead now.”

  “Even so,” Arg said, “you retain your knowledge of the cult, yes? We shall need that intelligence if we’re to have any hope of success. And unless your masters made your past plans for you, I’d bet my axe that you can come up with an excellent plan for achieving our ends.”

  Bob made a noise through his gag and twisted against his bonds.

  “Let him speak,” Chester said. “His venom’s dry.”

  Dorothy undid the gag, and Bob said, “Let me help, too.”

  Shale glared suspiciously at him. “Yeah, I don’t think so.”

  He glared back. “Tikray destroyed my life and my tribe. I want to see them punished.”

  Martin’s shoulders shook, and he turned to hide his face. Dorothy slowly undid his gag, too, revealing a wry smile. “Do you have something to say?” she asked.

  “Hark’akuy is more than destroyed. It’s united with Unichi.”

  “What?” Bob asked.

  Martin nodded. “The Grandmaster is trying to set himself up over as many tribes as he can. I don’t know how he got Hark’akuy, but he sent embassies to my master, the Undershaman Escultor.” He grinned. “He knew you would target Rikchay next, so he offered Escultor his aid to replace Pintor as Shaman. I was stationed here to help you.” He chuckled. “But your plans have clearly changed.”

  “So you’re out of a job,” Shale said, grinning. “They’re not going to be happy you failed, are they?”

  “I didn’t fail.” Martin wrinkled his nose indignantly. “You guys changed your minds. Still, I think we can help each other.”

  “And what makes you think we’ll trust you?” Shale asked.

  “Our interests were aligned before,” Martin said, “and they are still. You want to destroy Tikray. Unichi and Hark’akuy want the same. My master wants to lead Rikchay in joining them. I see no conflict of interests.”

  “I do,” Chester said. “You would kill the people controlled by Tikray along with the snakes. We want to save those people from the snakes.”

  Martin wrinkled his nose again. “I’m sure we could come to some arrangement.”