Alize needed a plan, but the longer she waited, the more she risked injury to Kell. She had been renounced and returning to the Hrumi meant execution. She could hardly attempt any sort of subterfuge based on disguise. There had to something, some exception to the renunciation that she could exploit. Alize racked her brains until a solution presented itself as clearly as the sun on a cloudless day. With the blessing of the trees she descended and ventured into the forest.

The scouts found her almost immediately and when Alize entered the camp, she did so with her wrists bound. She had not uttered a word to the two captors, one of whom she knew personally. This had the effect of making them visibly nervous. But Alize kept her head high and walked with measured footsteps.

They led her to Celillie’s tent and forced her to kneel prostrate at the entrance. The fabric of the dress she wore pooled around her, provocatively elegant against the exposed roots and coarse dirt. Celillie’s assistant, Essa, stepped forward to catch Alize’s chin, lifting it to expose her neck.

Alize strained to breathe in the position, and her heart thundered in her chest. Above all, she needed to remain calm.

Essa’s voice rang out, “This woman has broken the Hrumi laws!”

From her stance, Alize could see Celillie’s tent flap swing open and the very top of Celillie’s head.

“A willow?” Celillie asked.

“No,” Essa answered. “Come see.”

As Celillie’s footsteps approached, Alize distinctly heard the soft whisper of a dagger being unsheathed.

“Can it be?” Celillie murmured, “You dare return to us, proudly donning their clothing?” Her voice sounded starkly harsh against the silence that had engulfed the camp, “You stalk your death today.”

“I disagree.” Alize answered coolly, her eyes focusing on the tree branches as Essa held her firmly immobile. “After some consideration, clan leader,” here Celillie hissed – Alize had no right to address Celillie as her leader, “I have decided that I do not yet accept your renunciation.”

“My decision does not require your approval-”

“An argument between sisters is addressed through battle,” Alize interrupted her with a voice clear and strong. “I demand my right to assert my innocence before our gods.”

Murmurs flushed through the surrounding the Hrumi.

Essa released Alize, “She is correct, according to our laws.”

Alize brought her face to glower at Celillie openly, “I am a Hrumi until the gods deem it false. You must answer my challenge.”

Celillie had paled somewhat but she recollected herself. Her tone became soft and demure. “You wish to fight me according to our creed?”

Celillie’s instant composure disconcerted Alize far more than her anger. “I can think of no better way to demonstrate my membership to this clan.”

“Very well,” Celillie smiled sweetly. “I will make the arrangements. You will rest under guard tonight, and tomorrow we will petition the gods for judgment.”

Alize shuddered inwardly. That was a pretty way to phrase a fight to the death. But before she could respond Essa forced her to her feet and directed her to a nearby tent. Inside Essa linked Alize’s bounds to the fixture within.

“I have no interest in leaving, Essa, I came here on my own volition,” Alize objected.

Alize had never paid Essa much heed. She often wore her brown hair loose, and even in the wind it always seemed to fall smoothly to her shoulders. Her curved eyebrows gave her a pensive air while her gaze belied restive alertness. She kept close to Celillie, their heads often bent in whispered communions. But despite the politics, Essa’s arms were limber and her boots always caked in dirt. Her voice bore none of the calculated guile Alize heard in Celillie’s, nor her eyes the darting suspicion.

Now Essa watched Alize with resigned sorrow. “You’re crazy then. You know as well as I do that Celillie has never lost a fight before the gods.”

“But I am certain I am right.”

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“Trust me,” Essa spat, “so was everyone else. This is needless bloodshed.”

“Are you trying to scare me?”

Essa only shook her head. “I’m trying to warn you.”

“To warn me and tie me tightly at the same time?” Alize rejoined.

Just then the tent flap opened and another woman entered. Alize narrowed her eyes.

Sosje’s voice trembled. “Essa, a moment if you please.”

“What do you want?” Alize snapped at her. Essa quickly departed.

“You’ve every right to be angry with me, Alize. But at least let me tell you what happened.”

Alize opened her mouth to deny Sosje the privilege, but stopped herself. Instead she considered the high penalty the Hrumi accrued by refusing to listen. Ignorance might shelter her pride, but that in itself rarely provided resolution.

Sosje read her silence as permission. “When I returned without you that morning, Celillie questioned me and refused to believe anything I said. I did not understand her animosity towards you. I feared her retribution.” Sosje rushed forward with her words, “We left camp without waiting you.”

“I tried to let Celillie cool down. After two nights I went to her again and told her the truth about the incident with the Mage. She completely dismissed my story, as if I hadn’t even been there. She said I shouldn’t trust you. The next day,” Sosje choked, “we were attacked by Kogaloks – Kogaloks in the Berej Mountains! It made no sense that they would target a Hrumi clan - the Soul Eaters have never worked through our magic before, nor did that appear to be their purpose. They killed three of our sisters.” Suddenly Sosje’s voice became bitter. “And Celillie told the whole clan that you had sent them to us.”

Alize sputtered her breath. She had never heard of any Hrumi, any person, interacting with a Soul-Eater. Not only was it dangerous, but such an action could not have any purpose, knowing their gruesome task. For Celillie to accuse Alize of such a crime was absolute slander of her character. And for what?

“There was no proof!” Sosje groaned, “and not everyone accepted it - not the women who knew you. But people were frightened and infuriated at the deaths of our sisters. Celillie announced we could not afford division - we must approach the Great Temple with unity, or the gods will not accept us.”

“And that is how she decided to renounced me?”

“Yes. And you need to know there many that agree with her.”

Alize’s eyes flashed at Sosje, but her gaze bore no hostility.

“Not I, sister. You risked your life in helping a Mage injured by my hand, and for that I am owe you a great debt.”

“Not only for you,” Alize said, “I was afraid the Magi would attack the Hrumi everywhere.”

“Is all well?”

Alize raised her eyebrows and blinked. “It was.” She had no idea what the fallout from Mage Amrea’s death would be. Perhaps in the end she had unwittingly exposed the Hrumi to the very threat she had tried to protect them from.

“Adversity seems to have chosen you, Alize. You are so strong.” Sosje whispered, “I knew Celillie was mistaken but I feared ostracism and isolation. I am a coward!” Sosje said haltingly, “I know I dishonor this clan.”

Alize watched her, acutely embarrassed to be hearing the shameful words. At the same time she felt a rush of pity for her sister, “I guess,” she responded, “it must be hard to judge the right course if you cannot both honor your ideals and the person who taught them to you.”

“I chose Celillie.” Sosje raised her chin up. “And I chose wrong. But I won’t make that mistake twice. You acted to save my life, and now I will save yours, my sister.”

Alize blinked and she responded softly to Sosje’s words. “I can’t leave. I am here to resolve this, not run away.”

“Please Alize,” Sosje said, “no one wants to see another incident like what happened with Hesna.”

Alize swallowed. So other people remembered Hesna too. “I know. I know that better than anyone.”

“Then save yourself!”

“What makes you so certain I will lose?”

“Everyone loses to Celillie! She’s an average fighter but it is wholly clear that the gods favor her in the arena! She won’t hesitate to kill you!”

“If the gods favor such a leader for our clan, I wonder if they favor us at all.” Alize muttered. Sosje looked at Alize in astonishment and Alize shook her head, “I am certain I must do this.”

Sosje pursed her lips in uneasiness.

“But listen,” Alize sat up, “I do need to know something. I heard the others speak of a second palace horse. What happened to his rider?”

“You know about the Sargon?” Sosje gasped. “He rode in after Dierdin. She says that he ran the Hrumi prison and tried to corrupt her with lies.”

“Yes yes, but what has happened to him?”

Sosje shifted uncomfortably. “Before you challenged her to battle, Celillie had already ordered an arena assembled tomorrow morning for his punishment. Your trial will delay it slightly.”

“His punishment?”

“We will remove his soul. Not bind it, remove it as he would have done to us.”

Alize nearly gagged as her stomach rolled. “Sosje, I need your help. I’m assuming that I’m going to survive and when I do, that Sargon is only the person who,” Alize paused as she struggled to think how to phrase this to a Hrumi, “can serve me as I see fit. If you want to help me at all, you must protect him tonight.”

“Oh Alize,” Sosje regarded her in disbelief, “There can be no safety for a Sargon here.”

Alize could not abide that image. Of anyone, Kell least deserved to suffer that hatred. “You must protect him, and mend any damage already done.”

“I’m no healer and how could I possibly justify that?!” Sosje asked sharply, “We have confirmation that he personally tortures the Hrumi!”

“Then find Dierdin.” Once Sosje had said her name, Alize placed the Hrumi she had released in the jail. She raised the Hrumi horses, which explained how she had recognized Josoun. “Tell her it is her responsibility to ensure that the Sargon is treated just as she was treated in the government jail, or we’re no better than they are.”

“If that is what you want.” Sosje knotted her brows, rising to her feet. “You are walking a dangerous path. Let us pray that the gods find a resolution that benefits us all.”