The bright light of a torch made it difficult to see who stepped into the room. At first, the only thing I could be sure of, as I squinted towards the light, was that our visitor was too tall to be Kassia.

Castin turned his back on the doorway and popped open the vial. "Finn—"

"Wait." I knew suddenly who the man was. Not Kalvahi. Not any regular guard. It was Vali.

Vali shut the door behind him. When he turned, his eyes landed on Castin. He held up his free hand, like he was showing us that it was empty. Apparently, even beaten and half drowned, Castin still looked like a threat.

"Calm, please," Vali said. "I do not wish to hurt you."

Castin clenched the vial in his hand. "Who are you?" he snarled.

"I am Val... I..." he hesitated, his gaze dropping to his feet. I knew he could speak Teltish fairly well, as he had managed to keep up with Kassia and Kalvahi in throne room. When he looked up again, it was at me. "You, they call pet of Lord West Draulin. This is like his little animal that he keeps?"

I nodded. "They've called me that before. That's what they call you, too, isn't it? For King Deorun?"

Vali winced. "I do not wish to speak of it. This is not why I am here."

Castin shot me a questioning look, like he was looking for some sort of instruction. He was still ready to pour the poison into my mouth, but a glimmer of hope had ignited in my chest.

"So then why are you here?" I asked.

"King Idavari wishes you to be trapped, so Teltans will pay for you. If you are to..." He fumbled over the word 'escape' and instead said, "leave, the king will be angry."

There it was. Something I could work with, an offer of help. "Ransoming me—making the Teltans pay—will help your people. I understand if you hate the king, but don't you want to war to end? What about your people?"

Vali's expression hardened. "Killing the king will help my people."

The harsh edge to his voice was nothing like how I had heard him speak in the throne room. I had assumed him to be timid and nervous. Maybe it was an act. Maybe there was more that connected us than just being labelled pets.

Castin spoke before I could, doubt evident in his voice. "You want to kill the king?"

Vali turned to him. "Idavari is not kind to me, and he is not kind to Deorans. He is a bad king."

"Then Kalvahi will be king," I said.

Vali's eyes flickered over to Kovin, who had gone quiet. "Kalvahi is cruel," Vali agreed. "But he is not stupid. He can see that Deorun is losing the war. He will..." he paused and moved his hand like he could draw the word he was searching for out of thin air. "Speak. To the Teltish king and Queen Avaloni."

"Negotiate," I said. Kalvahi did like to talk. As much as I dreaded him having power, Kalvahi did seem like he might be easier to negotiate with. King Deorun had King Edarius assassinated in an attempt to shake up Zianna's leadership. Maybe his death would shake up Kalvahi, at least long enough for Tandrin and Queen Navire to force him to surrender.

"That's great," Castin said dryly. "But does it help us get home?"

"I have this." Vali pulled a key from his pocket, and offered it to Castin. "You need this, for secret door. You know way?"

"The river door? I can find it." I nodded, and as I did, the vial in Castin's hand caught my eye. "Would you use mokartice on the king?"

"Yes," Vali said, without hesitation.

Bits and pieces of an idea were coming together in my head. "Cast, give him the vial."

Castin pushed the cork back in place and held out the poison. He watched Vali take it, and I knew he felt like he was giving away our one chance of some sort of freedom. But things had changed, and I could almost grasp a way for us to get true freedom.

Another piece fit into place when Vali replaced the vial with a small folding knife. "It will help you?"

I could see Castin's doubt melt away. He unfolded the knife, the ghost of a smile flickering across his lips. He always felt better with a knife in his hand. With a quiet click, he folded the knife closed and looked at me. "You've got something?"

"It isn't good," I said. "But yes, I have an idea."

Vali couldn't stay for long. He listened to the rough skeleton of my plan, agreed that it was about the best we could hope for, and left. We were once again stuck in the dark, but having a plan had done both me and Castin wonders. With some prompting, Castin even managed to coax Kovin into sitting up and agreeing to his role.

We couldn't do anything aside for wait, and trust that Vali would set the whole plan into motion. Castin fiddled with Vali's knife, clicking it open and closed over and over again. When he started talking, it was obviously an attempt to settle his nerves.

"Finn, before all of this, before Kassia and Tannix and all of that, where did you think Siour's chariot would find you?"

"In prison." My chained wrists kept me on my feet, and they were starting to ache from standing for so long. I shifted from one foot to the other restlessly. "Not much has changed there. Except for the country."

"I thought Arow might finally get me," Castin replied. The knife clicked open, or closed, I couldn't tell the sounds apart very well. "Or someone like him. I thought I'd step between Baisan and a knife."

"Baisan?" I asked. "Specifically?"

I could almost feel his thoughts in the pause before he replied. "Any of you. Baisan just... he's always come first, and you know that. And I always thought that if anyone was going to get attacked, it would be Baisan or you. Provoking someone, or just doing something reckless."

"But you never imagined stepping between me and a knife?"

Castin huffed, it was almost a laugh. "I knew you could handle yourself. Remember what Kassia said to you on the ship? On your own, you could get out of anything. She was right, you know. Baisan and I have always known that. Tufa," he swore in old Ziannan, "it was annoying. Before you joined us, you were just this unstoppable thief, climbing around the upper city and bragging about it. Then, when you joined us, you dragged us into all those crazy acts and tricks. At first we were sure you were going to get one of us killed. Or that you'd realize you didn't need us and leave." The knife clicked. "It was annoying because we needed you more than you needed us."

"That isn't true," I interrupted. "I just didn't know I needed a family until I had you."

There was a long pause before Castin spoke again, and he didn't address me. "Sailor, what about you? How did you imagine it would happen?"

"Crelans tend t' drown," Kovin muttered hoarsely. "But'm good swimmer, so... dunno."

"Drowning," Castin grumbled. "Isn't something I used to be afraid—"

He cut himself off as we all heard the bolt sliding. It was time.

As the door swung open, I ran the plan thought my head again, even though I had the easiest part. As soon as a guard appeared in the doorway I started talking.

"Come here, please, something's wrong. I need help."

It was a pair of guards. They exchanged a glance and spoke to each other in Deoran. Then the first shrugged and walked across the room. He was resting his left hand on the pommel of his sword, and the reminder of Tannix's habit nearly distracted me. Then the guard spoke, and his broken Teltish was enough to bring me back to the task at hand. "What wrong?"

"What's wrong?" It was hard to stop myself from looking over his shoulder. I didn't want to draw attention to what was happening behind him. "What's wrong is that I've been on my feet for hours, and I know Kalvahi's going to kill me, but in the meantime, I'd like to at least be a little comfort—"

The guard's eyes went wide, and he stumbled forward. His right hand flew to his sword, but he was too slow. He collapsed to the ground, pulling Castin down with him. There was a brief struggle, then they both froze as Castin's little folding knife bit into the man's neck.

"Cast, wait. He's just a guard. He wasn't here earlier, and..." My words drifted away as I finally looked towards the doorway. Kovin was bracing himself against the wall and holding the torch with his right hand. He was holding his injured arm against his chest. His left forearm was a bloody mess where Kalvahi had sliced away skin. At his feet, the second guard was already dead, blood pumping from a slash across his throat.

While I was distracted, Castin pulled a keyring from the guard he was pinning down. The keys jingled together as he held them up. "Sailor?"

Kovin had to put down the torch to take the keys. After trying out a few, he found the one that unlocked my cuffs. Then he helped Castin pull up the second guard and attach him to the wall in my place. He did it all without making a single sound, but it was clear he was in quite a lot of pain. His clenched jaw showed how hard he was forcing himself to not make any sound.

Castin took the sword from the man we were leaving alive. Somehow, until that moment, it hadn't really occurred to me that Castin would have to actually kill people. The knights had killed plenty of people during our escape, but it had felt different. He caught me looking and offered me a brief, weary smile.

"Finn, I know you're used to being in charge, and you are going to lead us out of here. But I need to know that you'll trust me."

I recognized the words. It was what I'd asked him on the ship. I took a deep, steadying breath, and nodded. "I'm with you, Cast."

He held out the folding knife, and as I reached to take it, we heard faint bells echoing down the hallway.

"And there's our distraction," I said. Which meant, that if all had gone according to plan, Vali had poisoned the king.

Castin hoisted the sword onto his shoulder. "Let's go."