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“Hi, Quincy. Are you seeing us off?”

“Yes.” Nerves almost had him stopping there, but he’d spent far too long backing away from expressing himself to her. “I wanted to speak with you for a moment before you leave.”

“Okay. I’m listening.”

He swallowed, not very encouraged by her unemotional tone. Knowing he was pressed for time, he said, “I hope you’ll take care while you’re gone. You’re very brave for doing this. I’ll worry about you the entire time you’re away.”

She shrugged. “It’ll only be a week, maybe two. You heard Jabari.”

“Yes,” he said, keeping his tone as level as hers. “But the babies will have all been delivered by then.”

Her lips parted. He saw her processing this and the implications of it. Eventually, she closed her mouth and shrugged again.

“I suppose that means you’ll be leaving again for an unknown period of time to harvest more souls?” she said. She could have been commenting on the weather for all of the inflection she put into the words.

“Well…that depends.”

“Depends on what, Quincy?” she asked. “Or are you going to keep this to yourself, too?”

He winced at the sharp point, but knew he deserved it. “It depends on several things, including how everything stands between us. Before you go, I want you to know how I feel about you. You’re right that I’ve kept things to myself, and I know now that I waited a very long time to say this. I can only hope I didn’t wait too long.”

Her face went from expressionless to puzzled. Before she spoke, he went on, “I love you, Sophia. I always have.”

She stepped away from him, her face washing of all color. Moving forward out of instinct to see if there was anything he could do to help, he came to an abrupt stop when she held up her hands to ward him off.

“Holy light, Quincy,” she said, her voice raspy. “I’ve only known since yesterday afternoon that you don’t think I’m an abomination upon all Estilorians after believing that for more than five years. And now you’re springing this on me just before I leave on this important journey?” She shook her head, looking at him as though she didn’t recognize him. “You might just have the worst ability to express yourself of anyone on the plane.”

“I thought—”

“What did you think? That I needed this on my mind right now? That the pressure of coming up with a response to your declaration of love was a great way to send me off?” She tugged her hood back into place, shielding half her face from him. “Well, you’re wrong, Quincy.”

And then she turned with a whip of her cloak to head toward the training paddock, leaving a shattered mass where his heart had been.

She didn’t even tell him goodbye.

Clara Kate found him going an intense round with a sand-filled punching bag shortly after everyone left to retrieve the scroll piece. She was also dressed for training. She walked up to the punching bag and held it in place.

“Thanks,” he said. Then he moved into another series of strikes.

“Got a lot of power in those punches today,” she observed after a few minutes. “Working something out?”

Quincy paused, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “You could say that,” he said before resuming.

Several more minutes passed with the thudding against the punching bag the only sound. When he paused again, Clara Kate caught his gaze. “It sucks to be left behind while the others do this huge thing, doesn’t it?”

Stepping away and reaching for a nearby towel, Quincy wiped sweat off his face and neck. “Yeah,” he said, figuring that was as safe an answer as any.

“It sucks even more when one of those who left is someone you really care about.”

At first, he thought she meant Ini-herit. But the Corgloresti elder hadn’t left, so that couldn’t be right. As he drank some water he had left nearby, he considered her words.

“You know?” he asked at last, catching her understanding gaze.

“I’ve suspected,” she clarified.

Because her eyes and expression reflected no judgment, he relaxed a bit. Shrugging, he put his cup to the side and then sat on the ground to stretch. She sat beside him.

“Your suspicions are spot on,” he said.

“Well, it’ll sure be interesting to see what kind of reaction Zachariah has when he finds out you’re in love with Tate.”

His eyes widening, he turned to her with an aghast expression. She burst out laughing and he knew then that she had been joking. That loosened up even more of his tension. He found himself grinning and shoving her in the shoulder.

“Ha, ha.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, though she didn’t look it. “Yeah, I’ve been pretty certain about your feelings for Sophia since we went on our recent trip together. You expressed far more concern over her when she shifted and left our campsite than seemed necessary.”

“Ah.”

“Then I started paying attention to how the two of you interacted. I could see that carrying her in the harness was having an effect on you.”

Now, embarrassment flooded him. “Geez, C.K. Give a guy a break.”

She reached over and rubbed his hand, then gave it a squeeze. “Look, I just knew that it wasn’t the most comfortable experience you’d ever had. It was easy enough to see that it wasn’t because you didn’t want to be touching Sophia.”

He realized that she wasn’t trying to be funny this time, so he let his defensiveness fall away. Releasing her hand, he reached down to grab his feet so he could stretch his quadriceps. “Yeah, well, Sophia saw it exactly the opposite way.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that up until I talked with her yesterday, she was apparently convinced that I loathed the very sight of her.”

Clara Kate’s expression reflected the shock he felt when he first discovered this. She then grew thoughtful. “Hmm. Knowing Sophia like I do, I’m a little surprised.”

“Why is that?”

“She rarely draws a conclusion with so little evidence to support it.”

He snorted at that. “In her mind, she had all the evidence she needed. When I tried to tell her the truth, she blew up at me. She seems to think that I only told her how I feel so I could make her current trip more stressful.”

“Oh, Quincy,” she said, her eyes full of compassion. She reached up and rubbed his arm. “I’m really sorry. I know this doesn’t help, but I do know how it feels to love someone without knowing exactly how they feel about you in return.”

“It sucks,” Quincy said.

“Yeah, it does.”

They both turned at the sound of a throat clearing. Ini-herit stood behind them. Quincy hadn’t even heard him approach and found that quite unnerving. Also unnerving was the elder’s intent stare. He was focused on Clara Kate’s hand where it rested on Quincy’s shoulder. She seemed to realize this at the exact same time he did, as she quickly snatched her hand away.

“Yes, sir?” Quincy asked, hoping this didn’t turn into yet another awkward situation. He’d had quite enough of those to last him a lifetime, thank you very much.

“I have come to inform you that Amber is in labor.”

Instantly, everything else ceased to hold as much significance. Yes, the others had left on their important mission, but there were life-changing events occurring right here.

Quincy nodded and got to his feet. “Great. Please let her and Gabriel know that I’ll meet them at the clinic.” Glancing at Clara Kate, he asked, “So…you want to see your new brother or sister brought into the world?”

“What are we doing here, Bertram?”

Glancing up from his inadequate meal of a handful of walnuts, Bertram watched Tycho pace. They weren’t really sheltered from sight, so the agitated movement as well as the fairly loud question made Bertram frown.

“Would you keep it down?” he snapped in a loud whisper. “And stop the pacing. The only thing between us and the one we are following is a couple of barren hills. For the love of darkness, any Estilorian taller than six feet could stand at the top of a hill and spot us even without the pacing. So knock it off already.”

Although he hissed in complaint, Tycho dropped to the ground beside his companion. “I do not understand why we were asked to do this scouting by Eirik,” he said.

At least his voice was a few decibels lower, Bertram observed. “It is not our job to understand.”

He didn’t add that he had been having similar questioning thoughts since Eirik’s unexpected appearance. Back when they brought the Kynzesti female to Eirik to earn his favor, their leader made mention of some kind of scroll. Outside of that, they had no idea what he sought, and no amount of questioning had produced the information.

“He tells us next to nothing and now wants us to bring in the Kynzesti and Lekwuesti females for him. I suspect that he will then do whatever he wants with them and shut us out again.”

“Our lord is honorable to his loyal followers,” Bertram argued. “When we do this, we will be indispensible in his eyes.”

Tycho considered this. “Do you suppose he will be inclined to share part of whatever it is the two females can find with their abilities?”

“Probably not,” Bertram answered after a moment. That was why he had been questioning his lord more and more frequently in recent days.

They were distracted when the being they tracked suddenly appeared in the distance, surrounded by Waresti. Bertram waved at Tycho. The two of them quickly flattened themselves in the high grass. They had created camouflaging suits of stitched-together pieces of grassy earth and now hoped their efforts paid off. Lying as still as they could, they watched as the group gathered to depart. Although they were too far away to be heard, they were obviously about to take flight.

“Are you seeing what I am?” Tycho whispered.

Frowning, Bertram wondered what his companion meant. He looked among the group and couldn’t see anything unusual.

Then two of the males parted. Standing right in the center of the others were the two females Eirik sought.

“Yes,” Bertram said.

“Why do you suppose they are bringing the females outside of the protections surrounding their homeland?” Tycho wondered. “All this time, I thought we would have to capture someone and coerce them to get us through the protections.”

Bertram considered the possibilities. They had followed the Wymzesti elder from Kanika’s home, figuring he would lead them to where the two females resided. Once the elder disappeared from their sight, they set up camp, knowing that eventually someone would emerge from the area of protection. They then planned on capturing that individual and convincing him—or her—to either get them within the protected area or bring the females outside of it.

There had been concerns. Waresti patrolled the area, as did a large, black kragen and some fierce looking panthers. But as converted Waresti, Bertram and Tycho had survived many centuries on their abilities to evade detection.

Now, their efforts had paid off. They watched as the group extended their wings to take flight. A huge mass suddenly flew out of the forest. Apparently the kragen would be going with them.

“Is that a pair of red wings I see?” Tycho asked.

Tilting his head, Bertram saw the wings in question right beside one of three sets of deep blue-green wings. When some of the crowd lifted into the air, Bertram and Tycho were able to see to whom the wings belonged.

“Zachariah,” they said at the same time.

“Why would he be within the area of protection?” Tycho mused. “Could he have been taken prisoner?”

“No,” Bertram said as he thought it through. “They would never bring a prisoner within the protected homeland of the Kynzesti. He is in league with them.”

Tycho frowned, clearly not seeing how this could be possible. Bertram was equally perplexed. But he knew that Zachariah was the former Gloresti second commander and, as such, had been relatively close to the Gloresti elder. Perhaps that had allowed him to convince them that he should be permitted within the homeland.

“I have no idea how he managed it,” Bertram said, “but all this means is that Zachariah is another obstacle for us to get through to acquire the two females.”

Tycho glanced at him. “We will be risking our lives to do this.”

“I know.”

“It strikes me as foolish to put ourselves at so much risk for Eirik's benefit.”

Bertram nodded, coming to an immediate decision. “Agreed. I think that if we are going to put ourselves at such risk, it should be us who experiences the reward.”

His eyes narrowing in understanding, Tycho said, “We will draw Eirik’s wrath by defying him.”

Bertram shrugged and began thinking of how they would follow the now-airborne group without getting caught. “Eirik seems to think that whatever scroll these two females can find is worth any price. That tells me that if we get it instead, Eirik’s wrath will not be a concern.”

“Very true,” Tycho said. He got to his feet. “Let’s go.”

Quincy took his time arranging the delivery room to his specifications as Amber walked around to ease her discomfort. Gabriel sat on a stool watching her in case he was needed. As this was her seventh time going through this, they were all very familiar with what worked best. Unlike Olivia, who preferred to rest during labor, Amber preferred action.

“I’m glad you’re here,” Amber said to Clara Kate through the lavender barrier as she walked past it. “Don’t be too surprised if you hear words coming out of my mouth that you normally wouldn’t, though.”

Clara Kate laughed. “No worries, Mom. Better you than me.”

Quincy glanced at C.K. and shared a smile with her. His smile faded when he turned back to his tools and set out a device meant to monitor body temperature. They actually didn’t know yet whether female Kynzesti would be able to reproduce. The exams he could conduct without the scanning equipment available on the human plane told him that Kynzesti females did have the right reproductive organs. However, none of them had ever menstruated.

He knew this concerned their parents. They had hoped, with their daughters being one-quarter human, that they might also be able to bear children. Only time would tell.

Amber stopped walking and grasped the edge of a bedrail, squeezing her eyes shut in obvious pain. Gabriel got to his feet and hurried to her side as she started breathing through the contraction.