A whisper hissed through the monsoon that battered the tent.
Listen.
Kalb jumped to his feet, barking wildly at the entrance.Ellie jerked, startled by the sound.
The woman was gone.It was Adam who stood in the rain.
The water slicked his shirt to his skin.His gaze was hollow.For a moment, Ellie wondered if he was just another product of her tired, wandering mind, but then Kalb wagged his tail in frantic greeting, dancing at the threshold.
Ellie pocketed the firebird bone as she stood, joining the dog just shy of where the rain crashed down.Adam met her there, lingering in the downpour.
“Adam?”Ellie prompted, instinct softening the word.
“I’ll get everything wet.”
Adam spoke as though answering a question Ellie hadn’t asked.The helpless despair in his voice cut her like a blade.
She reached out through the rain to take his hand and draw him into the tent.
In the dim light of the lamp, his golden hair was darkened to bronze, plastered to his head with the damp.Water streaked down his jaw.
Kalb jumped at him, whining.
“Down, buddy.”Adam’s gentle rebuke was duller than usual, but he gave the dog a token rub between the ears.
He pulled his soaked shirt over his head and stuck it outside, wringing it out with an angry, powerful twist of his arms—and then lingered there, stalled on the threshold as though lost.
Kalb sat down at Adam’s feet and huffed up at him worriedly.
Ellie took the shirt from his hands, hanging it from one of the poles to dry.She drew him from the flap, pulling it closed, and then turned to face him, worry quickening her pulse.“What happened?”
“Vanika’s under guard,” Adam reported in a clipped, flat voice.
“Why?”
Adam closed his eyes as though her question was a blow.“Because I told Borthwick she was lying.”
Shock jolted through her.“Why would you do that?”
“She was trying to lead him off track.Borthwick asked me to validate her route.I told him it was wrong.”
He threw the words down like stones, sharp and harsh.
“He was testing you,” Ellie deduced.
“Of course, he was testing me.But she doesn’t know that.She’s twelve years old.She thinks I betrayed her.Ididbetray her.”
Worry rose at the acid in his words.“Adam—“ Ellie began to protest.
Adam cut her off, his voice raw with guilt.“He was going to hit her with that goddamned whip, and I said nothing.I stood there and watched while he threatened that kid with something that could rip the skin off her back.”
Ellie’s heart skipped uneasily.“You wouldn’t have let him do it.”
“There were four armed men in the room.”
“You wouldn’t have let him do it,” she cut back with fierce certainty.
Adam was bleak with despair.“Vanika doesn’t know that.Not anymore.”
