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Pietro’s body hurt from his attempt to hold it still, to keep his hands open and relaxed on the table. His stomach had clamped down to a small hot mass of boiling pain. It could not be true. And yet a part of him knew it was. If the quakes were not stopped, the entire continent could be destroyed.One life to save millions of lives,Harlo had said.
If Aussen’s death could protect the world—
No.
Pietro finally managed to speak, keeping his voice as even as possible. “You have a very hard choice. I do not envy you.”
Harlo studied him. “And yet you judge me.”
“It is not my place to judge.”
“You forsake me.”
That suddenly they shifted from the apocalyptic to the personal. It was almost a relief. “I could not endure what I had learned about you.”
“And I was not sure I would endure your leaving.”
Pietro’s voice was sharper than he wished. “Yet I hear you have found ways to console yourself.”
That surprised a crack of laughter from the older man. “What, you won’t sully your pure soul by coming to see me of your own free will, but you’ll gossip about me with strangers?”
“I didn’t ask for information,” Pietro said stiffly. “Someone supplied it in the course of conversation.”
“I hope the description was sufficiently titillating. Of a handsome young man eager to please a powerful old cleric. I hope you had a hard time dismissing the images from your mind.”
Pietro was stunned. “You’re angry.”
Harlo spread his hands with his usual graceful elegance. “Angry! Hurt! Bewildered! You wereeverythingto me! And you told me you despised me and you vanished without a trace. That is a wound I will carry with me to the grave. Forgive me if I cannot help wanting to wound you in return.”
Pietro rested his elbow on the table and dropped his face in his hand. He was so weary. He was so sad. He was so confused. “You don’t have to bother with that,” he said in a low voice. “I have never recovered from the blow I suffered that night.”
“Damage done to all contestants,” Harlo said. “And no victors in sight.”
They were silent for a moment. Pietro wanted to demandWhy are you still here?Yet part of him wanted to pleadDon’t leave.He couldn’t think clearly with Harlo in the room. Maybe he didn’t want to think. Maybe thinking had always been his problem.
He straightened up and said, “So what are you going to do now?”
Harlo shook his head slowly. For a moment, he looked even older than Pietro felt. “I have no idea. I cannot see my way clear. And—it’s even worse than you know.”
“I don’t see how that could be possible.”
Harlo said simply, “They’re back.”
No explanation, no details, but Pietro instantly knew what Harlo meant, and he felt the bony hands of dread coil around his throat. “The Reversionists?” he managed.
Harlo nodded. “And they’re trying to kill her.”
“I thought they had all been identified and disbanded!Yearsago!”
“So did I. I thought the histories had been erased from our archives. Yet someone must have told someone who told someone who passed the knowledge down.”
“Do you suspect a member among the priesthood?”
Harlo shrugged, his face showing infinite weariness. “Possibly, although there are only a handful of us who know the full truth. Maybe a dozen members of the Council families also know, and they may have told others. Whether inside or outside the temple, there appear to be fanatics on the loose.”
“But do they know—do these Reversionists understand the consequences?”
Harlo’s smile was bitter. “That they would be bringing about the end of the world?Youdo not truly understand, and you are more educated than most. I have no idea what they think they know or what they believe or even which god they honor. I know only that they could destroy us all, and I have no idea who they are.”
