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He couldn’t keep the shock from his voice. “Half? To the church?” He looked back at the meadow filled with what looked to be an army. Keyanna suspected that those in her cabinet were behind the attack, because of her desire to change the laws, but she’d thought it had been about the subjugation of women. Perhaps it was on one level, but not completely. It was about money. “If the government isn’t funding a militia like this one, who could afford it?” Lachlan asked, though he was pretty sure he knew the answer.

“The church,” Mattias and Jessamine said simultaneously.

“Then what’s funding the collectors? The hunters? The convents?”

They both shrugged. “We’ve always thought it was the church.”

“Know what happens when a woman gets turned over to one of those convents?”

“She’s supposed to be cared for,” Mattias said.

“But?” Lachlan asked, hearing the unfinished thought in Mattias’s voice.

“If rumors are true, women are being sold–”

Lachlan shook his head with disbelief. “To whom?”

“Whoever can afford it, I suppose: skin houses in the capital, lords, other kingdoms. Jast isn’t–”

Lachlan shook his head. “Absolutely not. Refugees have crossed the border, but we didn’t know this.” But did he know that for sure? What did happen to refugees after they crossed? He looked at the other two men. “Did you map the whole camp during your reconnaissance?”

“Yes, Your Highness,” Jude nodded.

“What’s in the pen? The opposite side of the camp?”

Jude’s eyes flashed with rage, but he shuttered it for duty and said, “Women, sir. And children.”

“Children too?” Jessamine paled. “You left them?”

“Couldn’t raise the alarm. Not yet,” Brendsen explained. “Not if we want to get your sister out.”

Jude and Brendsen stilled, each of them holding up a hand. They moved, placing themselves near Lachlan.

“Someone’s coming,” Jude whispered. “Get down.”

Brendsen lifted his bow and notched an arrow.

They heard the rustling of footsteps, though the shadows under the trees concealed whoever was approaching. Lachlan’s fingers flexed around the cutlass at the ready, grateful this was an area he was skilled in thanks to Johesha. His heart raced, pounding the rhythm in his neck and ears. Then, as if a shining sun in the dark forest filled with dark circumstances, a Jast soldier appeared, followed by another, then another, their movements as measured and stealthy as possible in a mass of people.

Jude rose.

“Stand down,” one called. “We’ve come to help.”

And from the throng, Lachlan’s eyes connected to one he recognized.

Lachlan stood. “Father?”

Mallor’s gaze connected with his. “We saw…” He stopped, clearly shaken. “The horses.”

Tomas Fareview stepped up to Mallor’s side, strangely quiet for such a large man. His pallor hinted at his fear for his daughter.

“Father!” Jessamine hurried through the thicket to meet him.

“Have you found her?” Tomas asked as he folded Jessamine in his arms. “We saw the body–” He tightened his hold around her. “It isn’t–”

“Tarley’s here,” Mattias told him.

Tomas blew out a breath. “Alive?”