Later that night, well past sunset, Nin-Chamer arrived at the house, and over the next hour, so did several more. Rudiger had met a couple of them before, but had not interacted much with them. At previous meetings, he’d let Zandrue do all the talking as his command of the language was still poor. He would have to do the talking this time, though.

One of the men clasped Rudiger’s arm. “Good to see you again, Rudiger.”

“And you,” Rudiger replied. He couldn’t remember the man’s name at all, though he did vaguely recall seeing him at previous meetings. He was a short, wide-set man, muscular but also underfed like so many Ninifins.

“Getting better with the language, I see,” the man said.

“I’ve been doing my best to learn,” Rudiger said. “When the people around you only speak the one language, it forces you to learn, I guess.”

The man leaned back a little and looked at Rudiger. “You do realise, don’t you, that both Fra-Mecatl and her brother speak your language?”

“They do?” Rudiger looked over at Fra-Mecatl, who had taken a seat in the centre of the kitchen. She was looking at him, a smirk on her wrinkled, tattooed face. He sighed. “That figures.”

The man laughed and slapped Rudiger’s arm. “Like you said, it forces you to learn.”

“Right,” Rudiger said.

Another man came in the front door and put his arm around the first. He was a little taller, though similarly built. They both had matching sun tattoos on their arms. Now Rudiger remembered them. “Something funny?” the second asked. Rudiger still couldn’t remember their names, though.

“Just some gentle ribbing,” the first said.

Once everyone had arrived, they all crowded into the kitchen building, fourteen people total, including Rudiger. Fra-Tepeu started things off by going over the situation regarding the Youth Guard. When he was done, everyone looked to Fra-Mecatl for her opinion first.

“Fra-Ichtaca is clearly making a move for power. It is a concern, yes, but so is just about everything that happens these days. We are not ready yet. We will have to wait and pray for the best.”

“I’m sorry, Mecatl, but I disagree,” Fra-Tepeu said. “I think our hand is being forced. We need to act soon, or we may not be able to act at all.”

“Where is the other outsider?” one of the women there said. “The young woman. Is she ready for her inspection?”

“No, she is not,” Fra-Mecatl snapped. “She is meditating in the wilderness. It will be a few months at least before an inspection can be arranged.”

“Do we have a few months?” someone else asked.

“As I said, we will just have to pray for the best,” Fra-Mecatl answered.

“There has to be something we can do,” the shorter of the two men with sun tattoos said. He was standing beside Rudiger, his taller partner on his other side. “Our numbers are growing.”

“Not by enough,” Fra-Mecatl said.

“Kianto and I can round up at least half a dozen sympathetic people. If we could all do the same...” Several of the others nodded and murmured their agreement.

“The concern is more than numbers,” Fra-Mecatl said. “It is skill as well. Ses-Patli is our only experienced warrior. How far are the rest of you in your training?”

“I can fight,” Rudiger said.

Fra-Mecatl waved her hand at him. “Yes, fine, you and Ses-Patli. What of the rest of you?”

“They’re making progress,” a muscular woman said. “They’re not highly skilled, but I think we’re in a better shape than you may realise, Reverence.”

“We’re not suggesting we attack the Palace in force or anything like that,” the short man said. “Just that we make a few calculated strikes. Start creating some disturbances.”

“Still too risky,” Fra-Mecatl said.

The taller of the two men with sun tattoos—Kianto? though Rudiger didn’t know if there should be an honorific in front of that—spoke up. “What about Eleuia? She has trained warriors with her.”

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“Her name is Ses-Izel,” Fra-Mecatl snapped. “Do not ascribe a sacred name to a normal woman, no matter how good or accomplished she may be.”

“Apologies, Reverence,” Kianto said.

“At any rate,” Fra-Mecatl continued, “she doesn’t have the kind of numbers we would need.”

“But as we said, we are only suggesting something small,” Kianto said.

“It doesn’t matter. Ses-Izel is not here, and not due back for months. Even if she were here, she would agree with me. She may not be Eleuia reborn as you and others have somehow begun to believe, but she is wise and experienced. She knows when to act and when to wait. She would know to wait.”

The conversation went on in this vein for some time. The others made various suggestions for how they might take action, and Fra-Mecatl shot them all down. Rudiger, however, was more concerned that it could be months before Eleuia—Ses-Izel, rather—returned, meaning months more of no Borisin.

He did manage to pick up on a few names though. The shorter of the two men with the sun tattoos was Acat. Neither he nor Kianto seemed to have an honorific, so they were either too low a social class for one, or they had given theirs up, something some Ninifins were doing in protest of the despotic rule of the priesthood.

The broad-shouldered, muscular woman was Ses-Patli, who had some contacts in the military she offered to speak to. Fra-Mecatl agreed to it, as long as it was kept surreptitious. She agreed that the time to act would come some day, and it was good to know their options.

After a couple hours, however, there had been little other progress. Fra-Mecatl was determined to keep to her plans with Zandrue, even if it took a year or more before they were in a position to take any action. This produced a great deal of frustration. It all assumed, too, that Zandrue would even come back, but at least the others didn’t know she might not.

It was well past midnight when the meeting began to break up. Each person there asked Fra-Mecatl one-by-one for her blessing before heading out into the night. After Acat received his blessing, he came over to Rudiger and said, “Rudiger, any chance you could show me and Kianto the horses? We’ve heard good things about your work from Fra-Tepeu.”

Rudiger glanced at Fra-Tepeu, who nodded his approval.

Outside, he and Acat were joined by Kianto and Ses-Patli. Rudiger led them across the darkened field to the barn. Once he’d gotten the doors open and they were all inside, Acat said, “You’ve probably guessed this isn’t really about seeing the horses.”

“I had a feeling. Is this about arranging something behind Fra-Mecatl’s back?”

“It’s not that we want to go behind her back,” Kianto said, putting an arm around Acat.

“We just think something needs to be done,” Acat said.

“We’ve waited a long time,” Kianto continued.

“And there’s not much time left before things get even worse,” Acat concluded.

“And if Fra-Mecatl finds out?” Rudiger asked.

“Fra-Mecatl is a good woman,” Ses-Patli said. “Wise and respected. We owe her a lot. But she is old and overly cautious. You said you know how to fight. We were wondering if you’d help.”

“Do what exactly?”

“We don’t know yet,” Ses-Patli said. “At the moment, we just want to be sure what support we have.”

Rudiger walked over to where Mulac was sticking his head out of his stall and began to stroke the horse’s nose. “I don’t know. Fra-Mecatl and Fra-Tepeu have been good to us, giving us a place to stay, food, a job.”

“We understand,” Kianto said. “And we don’t ask this lightly. But it’s for her good, too.”

“Can I ask a question, Rudiger?” Acat said.

Rudiger turned back to them and nodded.

“Why did you and Zandrue come to Ninifin in the first place? It’s not completely unknown for outsiders to come here, though it’s rare. But what’s really unusual is outsiders who come straight to the resistance. Why is that?”

Rudiger wasn’t sure how he should answer. How much could he trust these three, especially as they were already keeping things from their other allies? Zandrue would be a better judge of this, but she wasn’t here. He had to make the decision.

“We’re looking for someone,” he said. “Someone we think is somewhere in Ninifin.”

“And how did you wind up with Fra-Mecatl?” Kianto asked.

“One of Zandrue’s contacts is also one of Eleuia, I mean Ses-Izel’s contacts.”

“And you’re willing to wait months to find the person you’re looking for?” Acat said.

Rudiger sighed. “I honestly don’t know what to do. I can’t deny I’m getting anxious, though. We haven’t made any progress since coming here.”

Acat and Kianto nodded. “You don’t have to make up your mind right now,” Acat said. “We can’t do anything right away anyway. We don’t want to wait as long as Fra-Mecatl does, but we acknowledge we have to wait a little.”

“What if I tell Fra-Mecatl?”

The two men shrugged, and Ses-Patli frowned.

“That’s your choice,” Kianto said. “If you do, we’ll admit to everything and beg her forgiveness.”

“The way we see it,” Acat said, “you can’t win a revolution without taking a few risks, so we’re taking a risk with you.”

“I’ll give it some thought,” Rudiger said.

“That’s all we ask,” Kianto said.

“Thanks for showing us the horses,” Ses-Patli said.

After they were gone, Rudiger remained in the barn for a while longer. Was it wise to get involved in a conspiracy within a conspiracy? Acat’s words remained on his mind, though.

You can’t win a revolution without taking a few risks.

They weren’t going to find Corvinian without taking a few risks, either. So perhaps it was time to take one.

Gods, he wished Zandrue was here.