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He was asking her to go with them and...what, murder people? Innocent people? Sure, she didn't doubt that he was right about the privilege priests and priestesses had in this world, but that didn't mean every single one of them deserved to die. Oleander? Nira? The thought of Kel's niece made her feel ill, and she had to take a moment to wrack her mind and try to remember if she had mentioned anything about her in their presence. Would they be willing to kill a child whose only crime was being able to see gods?

She didn't think she had mentioned her. She had told Loreas about her, but she hadn't had any reason to bring the girl up with Erik, Milo, and Luke. She needed to be more careful. Depending on how accurate their educated guesses were about how many people with holy blood were left in the world, it sounded like Nira might be one of the youngest. The fewer people who knew about her, the better. She was just a kid, she deserved to have a normal childhood for as long as she could.

They were waiting for her answer. Milo kept the pleasant smile on his face, and Erik seemed disinterested, as if he already knew what her answer would be. Only Luke looked nervous. He kept glancing at her, then at the others, and when he saw her look at him, he gave her a tight smile and nodded his head, as if urging her to say yes.

She felt like an idiot. She had told Kel she trusted these people, and she had, back when she said that, but she wasn't naive enough to think they would let her walk out of here after telling her all of this. What should she do? Agree to go with them, then flee as soon as she got the chance? Should she just make a break for it now and try to hide herself in the darkness? She hadn't taken her backpack off, so all she would need to do was get out the door and run into the trees. How easy would it be for them to track her down when the only light source they had was lanterns?

Picking up her bread again, she broke a piece off and popped it into her mouth to give herself some time to think. Erik let out a long sigh through his nose. She fought the urge to shoot him a glare. Outside, one of the horses snorted, and he looked toward the door, frowning.

She swallowed the bread, then coughed into her elbow when the dry crumbs got caught in her throat. With another heavy sigh, Erik rose to his feet.

"Enough," he said, pausing to let Luke translate. "Give us your answer. We can't go any further than this without knowing what you choose, and I don't want to be here all night."

"I'll come with you," she managed to choke out, because what else could she say? "But can I go back to town first and–"

"No. We'll help you replace whatever you left behind, within reason, but that man you're traveling with isn't going to stand back and let you ride off into the sunset with us. You're as rare and valuable as a mountain full of gold to the natives. You have to disappear, tonight, and get rid of that tunic too. From here on out, you aren't a priestess. You're just another mercenary, a normal person trying to eke out a living by helping us paladins hunt blood gods."

"Okay." She wondered if she had capitulated too easily, because his eyes narrowed.

"Let's go. You might have been followed, and I don't want to take our chances fighting that man in the dark. Luke, carry the lantern. Lyra, you'll ride with me. Luke, ride with Milo. You know the drill."

"Yes, sir," Luke answered, far more deferentially than she had heard from him before. He grabbed the lantern and everyone stood up, the sound of the chairs scraping across the rough wooden floor loud in the comparative silence of the night. Lyra grabbed her own lantern and rose to her feet, shrugging her shoulders to make sure her backpack was settled comfortably.

As soon as she got the chance, she was out of here.

Milo left first, calling out over his shoulder for Luke to hurry up when he lingered, to give Lyra an uncertain glance. Before following Milo, he said, "It won't be so bad. At least you'll be with people from home, right? We're making a list of everything we can teach the people here. Not just science and math type stuff, but also games and stories. Milo and I have been writing out what we can remember of The Hobbit–"

"Luke," Milo called out. "We don't have all night, my man. Let's go."

He fell silent and followed the other man outside. Lyra paused, wondering if she should try to go out last and then run away when their backs were turned, but Erik held the door open and gestured her through it.

"Go on. I'll be right behind you."

She stepped through the door. Milo was leaning against the fence near one of the horses while Luke fiddled with the saddlebags on the other. It felt darker out here than it had before, somehow. The flickering light of their lanterns made the shadows jump and dance. The horses were huge, not just taller but also bulkier than Aeliana, with broad hooves and muscular, arched necks. They shifted, clearly sensing that they were getting ready to set out again, and their large forms were intimidating in the dark. She faltered, but Erik took her shoulder and pushed her toward the one Milo was standing near. "That's my horse," he said. "Put your lantern down by the fence post, one of us will hand it up to you after we help you into the saddle."

Hoping the horse didn't take exception to a stranger approaching it in the dark, Lyra sidled up alongside it. She wanted to object, to say she didn't need help getting into the saddle – she had gotten a lot of practice with it over these past couple of weeks – but this horse was tall enough she wasn't sure her foot would reach the stirrup even at its lowest setting. Trying not to startle it, she approached the fence post near where it was tied and bent over to put her lantern on the ground carefully, not wanting the flammable oil inside to spill.

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A strong hand grabbed the back of her head and slammed her forehead down into one of the fence rails. Pain exploded across her head and face and it was sheer instinct that when she felt fingers tighten in her hair to pull her head back up, likely to slam it down again, that she swung her fist back at whoever had grabbed her. She didn’t even realize she was still gripping the lantern's handle. She heard the glass break when it hit someone, and with vision that was dotted with stars, she had just enough time to twist around and see flaming oil spread across Erik's heavy leather armor before something wet and warm flooded her eyes, temporarily blinding her.

She tried to stumble away from him, but bumped into the fence. Dazed, she wiped at her eyes. One of the horses whinnied, and Erik let out a shout of panic, but since it didn't devolve into screams of agony, she figured he had probably either doused the fire or was getting his armor off.

"What are you doing?" That was Luke, who sounded shocked. “She said she would go with us!”

“Sie meinte es nicht so. Ich konnte es in ihren Augen sehen. Sie wollte uns verraten.”

Something hit the ground. She wiped at her eyes again, realized that it was blood that was pouring down her forehead, and pressed her hand over the wound to put pressure on it. Shock and adrenaline were keeping the worst of the pain at bay as she used her other hand to wipe the blood away a final time and saw Erik's chest piece smoldering on the ground. Milo had a knife in his hand, it looked like he had cut it off of his friend at the buckles.

"But you can trust me?" Luke shouted. He was standing maybe a foot away from Milo, his hands clenched. "I didn't want to come with you either."

“Du hast keine Wahl! Du brauchst uns. Das tut sie nicht. “

"You can't kill her! She didn't do anything wrong!"

Milo put a hand on his chest and shoved, sending Luke stumbling back. One of the horses snorted again and pulled back against the reins that were looped around a fencepost. She felt dizzy; she had never taken such a hard hit to the head before and worried she might have a concussion or worse, but she began fumbling her way along the fence line. Before she made it more than a few steps, Milo grabbed her shoulder and pressed her back against the wooden railings. The knife in his other hand glinted in the dying light from Erik's smoldering armor.

"I'm sorry," Milo said. He didn't seem sorry. His eyes were understanding, maybe a little pitying, slashed her with its claws. "I'll make it quick. It's better this way; you won’t have to be a part of something you don’t believe in."

Erik had turned away and was getting something out of his saddlebag, holding one of his arms gingerly. There was an angry pink patch on it; the flaming oil from the lantern must have burned him. Lyra felt a warm drop of blood slide down her temple. She had to keep pressure on her wound or her own blood would blind her again, but with her other hand, she gripped Milo's wrist and tried to push the knife away.

"Please, don't," she whispered. She hated how weak she sounded, but she was weak. She was going to die here. "Don't do this. I don't want to die. I just want to go home."

Erik found some sort of ointment in his saddlebag and undid the top, his foot bumping into the broken lantern as he shifted. He kicked it back without looking and it skittered across the ground into Luke's boot.

Milo sighed. “It will be easier if you don't struggle." He moved his hand as if all her strength was nothing, and she felt the sharp tip of the knife bite through the fabric of her tunic into her skin. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Luke bend over and pick up the broken lantern. Only the glass was broken, really. It was still a hefty chunk of metal. He looked down at it, then at her. She closed her eyes. Maybe this was all a dream. Maybe she was in a coma and when she died, she would wake up in a hospital bed.

She didn't really believe that, but it was nice to have something to hope for.

Then she heard a dull clang and Milo jerked backward, and the pressure of the knife vanished. She snapped open her eyes and saw Milo stumbling back, with his hand pressed to the top of his head. When he moved it, it came away bloody. Luke was holding the broken lantern, now even more bent and battered, in his hand, and looked terrified at what he had just done. "

Run," he told her. "You have to–"

Coming up behind him, Erik slammed a hand into the back of his skull, then when his head snapped forward, he grabbed his shirt and jerked him backward while kicking at the back of one knee. Luke crumpled, landing hard on the ground with a pained grunt. Wasting no time, Erik drew his sword from the sheath at his waist.

“Dafür wirst du büßen, Arschloch. Man braucht keine Beine, um nützlich zu sein. Aber ich werde mich zuerst um sie kümmern.”

Lyra turned to run, but out of the corner of her eye she saw the flash of his sword swinging directly at her neck. Then, everything seemed to happen at once. There was the sound of hooves pounding across the dry earth, and with a flash of pale golden fur, Aeliana thundered past inches away from her, Kel mounted on her back. His sword glinted in the dying light as he brought it up in an arc aimed directly at Erik's sword arm. She heard the dull, sickening sound of impact, and then Erik started screaming. Aeliena snorted, her hooves barely missing Luke where he was trying to scramble out of the way on the ground. Yanking on the reins, Kel forced the panicked horse to a stop and and leapt off her back, raising his sword for another strike, this time aimed at Luke.

"No!" Lyra shouted. She felt like she was trying to speak around marbles, but she forced the words out anyway. The world swayed and she had to reach out for the fence for support. "He saved my life."

She heard Milo swear. Aeliana was blocking her view of him, but by the sound of his fading footsteps, she guessed he was fleeing. She risked a look down at Erik, who was frantically trying to staunch the flow of blood from the stump of his arm. She saw his hand on the ground, his sword where it had fallen a few inches away from it, and whether it was the gruesome sight or the blow to the head, she didn't know, but she leaned over and emptied her stomach on the ground.

Kel looked livid as he sheathed his sword so he could grab her around the waist and throw her into Aeliana’s saddle. She bellyflopped onto it, the blow knocking the air out of her, but even with blood pouring into her eyes again, she struggled to swing her leg over her horse and find her seat.

"Wait, take me with you," Luke said. Through her blurry vision, she saw him grab at her leg. "They're going to kill me!"

She held out a hand to him silently and he took it, using first her weak grip then the back of the saddle to scramble up behind her. She opened her mouth to ask what about Kel, but she saw him yanking on the reins of the closest of the two horses – Erik's horse, she thought. As soon as they came free of the fence post, he flicked them over the horse's head and swung himself into the saddle.

"Go!" he shouted, already driving his heels into the horse's side to urge it forward. It surged ahead, and Aeliana followed it without any direction from Lyra. All she could do was hold on as the horses raced through the darkness, with Erik's agonized, shouts fading into the distance behind them, and Luke threatening to unbalance them both with every stride the horse took as he struggled to hold on behind her.