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“Was it elves?” Farhana asked, slapping her hands on the table. Her eyes were instantly alight with excitement.

“Maybe,” Tahir said. “Maybe not.”

“Who, then?” Farhana demanded.

“Maybe someone who needed medicine,” he said. “Maybe someone who was afraid we’d say no if they asked for it.”

The door opened again. Zara didn’t turn around to look, but she heard heavy boots on the wood floor. “Basira, get us something to eat, will you?” came Theron’s voice.

Zara was very still as he sat down beside her. He was followed closely by Naika and a few other Paladins. He unrolled a large map of the Shield Mountains and spread it over the table so the group could discuss their ongoing war with the Varai.

He looked tired, but nothing else was unusual. He didn’t look like someone who’d spent the night shamelessly rifling through Tahir’s things. He still had scratches on his neck, though they’d gone very faint. He’d used the wound sealer on them.

He looked up at her. Zara realized she’d been staring at him. “Doing well, Zara?” he asked, without his usual friendliness.

“Fine. And you?”

He looked down at his map. “Well enough.”

She stared for another moment. It was bizarre watching him behave as if nothing had happened. Zara glanced over at Naika, who raised a questioning eyebrow at her.

Zara quickly finished the rest of her food and took her plate to the kitchen.

* * *

That afternoon,a body was found just outside the village.

It was a human woman. She’d been a traveler, not someone anyone knew, which was a relief to everyone, but the event still cast a dark mood over the entire village. Not enough of a dark mood to prevent every single person in town from showing up to get a look at the corpse, though.

They said the body looked gruesome. The boy who’d found her was so disturbed that he hadn’t spoken a word since. There were whispers from the crowd as everyone speculated.Night elves,Zara heard more than once. It was a foregone conclusion.

The body was wrapped in a white, bloodstained sheet when they brought it to the graveyard to be buried. A few carrion birds gathered in the trees nearby to watch. Several men had been working at digging a grave and were almost finished.

Basira told Zara that Ardanians felt it was very important for bodies to be buried. To leave them above ground, burn them, or damage them in any way was considered disrespectful. During funerals, some kind of prayer was supposed to be said, preferably by a priest. It appeared that Theron was the closest thing the village had to a priest, so he stood beside the corpse in the center of the crowd and loudly said a long prayer to Paladius in which he promised justice for the dead woman. Zara wondered if anyone had asked him to do it, or if he’d just volunteered himself. She was under the impression that most Ardanians would have wanted a prayer to Astra, the goddess of the earth and stars and mother of everything, but no one said anything about it.

“Now, perhaps, you all truly understand the threat we’re facing,” Theron said. He reached out and pulled the sheet away from the body, and there was a collective gasp from the crowd. A young woman in the crowd started sobbing, and Zara was suddenly glad Farhana had stayed at the inn with Tahir. More than a few people turned away. Zara frowned and stood on her toes to get a better look.

Blood had drenched the woman’s clothes. She had been stabbed probably a dozen times through her stomach and chest. The wounds were large, made by a sword or a dagger. It was an absurdly overzealous attack. One or two strikes would have killed her, and the rest had likely been made after she was already dead.

One thing was clear to Zara: this woman had not been killed by Varai.

Theron turned to the crowd, his expression grim. “This is what we’re up against,” he said. “This is what they’ll do to us if we don’t kill them first.”

The crowd was quiet, but Zara could feel their agreement. Unease twisted through her.

The Varai did not waste strikes. Even if they’d had some reason to kill this woman, their style of fighting was concise and economical, and they were not so emotionally volatile that they would want to stab an unarmed stranger so many times instead of just slitting her throat. It was the sort of thing Ardanians only imagined Varai did.

But would anyone believe her if she said anything about it? Theron was a pillar of the community. Zara was still mostly a stranger here.

“We’ve decided to implement some changes as of today,” Theron went on. “There will be a curfew. No one is to be outside after sunset. This is for everyone’s safety.” He looked in Zara’s direction as he said this. It was no secret that she wasn’t as fearful of the dark as everyone else was.

A murmur of confusion rippled through the crowd. Zara glanced over at Basira, who was raising an eyebrow. “Does he have the authority to do that?” Zara asked.

“He has a sword and a lot of friends,” Basira muttered. “That’s enough authority, I suppose.”

“In addition, I will issue a warning,” Theron said. “We will not tolerate any fraternization with the elves. Anyone found to be aiding them will be dealt with severely.” He left the threat of punishment ominously open-ended.

He was no longer looking directly at Zara, but the statement still felt targeted. She was the only one who had ever spoken in defense of the Varai. A few people turned to glance at her, apparently thinking the same thing.