“So, what now?” Servility asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I know people look to you. I remember what Mister Best said in class: he dodges arrows. That’s why I came here instead of trying to get back there. When it comes out, they’re trapped.”

  “It was a good plan,” Dalliance said. He wasn’t sure who he was trying to comfort.

  Immaculate wiggled a hand. “It was a plan.”

  The rain fell. It pattered on the stone. It ran in rivulets down Dalliance’s face, pulling his hair into his eyes.

  “Time for a new plan,” Dalliance said. “What can you do? You already know I’ll be looking for it and calling it out.”

  Servility nodded. “I can [Rally]. That’s not a secret, you knew that; and I can [Evade].”

  “You didn’t have to tell me the name of the skill.”

  “No, I didn’t,” he said. There was silence for a moment.

  “I figured you got yours on account of your father,” Immaculate said after a moment, with a glance toward Dalliance's maimed hand. In the low light from the silvery fire in the courtyard, Dalliance couldn't read his expression very well. “I got mine on a caravan.”

  “What happened?”

  “Seen the wolves? They came for the horses. They had a leader, a dire wolf, big as a horse himself. They weren’t scared. Didn’t run when Dad started shooting them. I saw which way the wind was blowing, jumped on one of the horses, cut it free, and rode away. Hard ride, but I escaped. Got to the gate at Galton, told them Dad was being mobbed, my family was in the wagon. Broke down crying, actually.” The boy didn’t look ashamed. “They sent ten men. Asked me where the wolves were. I got back on the horse and rode with them. And I showed them. Scariest thing I ever did in my life.”

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  Dalliance nodded.

  “So when I turned twelve, and the System initiated, it gave me the option of [Outrider], which I took. Haven’t got to do anything on horseback yet. Probably won’t during the Hunts. It’s a real shame. Could have been carrying this group.”

  Dalliance filed that away for future consideration.

  “Now you know,” Servility said. “So what are we doing?”

  “I have to be close enough to see it,” Dalliance admitted. “I think I have to get on the inner wall tops, maybe.” The buildings inside the courtyard were less substantial than the walls and towers themselves, but still stonework and of a height—fifteen or twenty feet. Something inside him was very reluctant to give up his privileged perch where he was probably, actually, safe.

  “So you call it out,” Immaculate said. “I can lead it away.”

  Dalliance nodded. “Woebegone is down there somewhere.”

  “I saw him. He’s in the magazine.”

  Dalliance pictured it: the long, thin room with only one door that he’d seen from the wall top. It had had a door. He got lucky.

  “He’s just quiet. It’s easy to underestimate him,” said Immaculate. “I think he picked it as a checkpoint along the way to scouting the courtyard anyway.”

  “Okay,” Dalliance agreed. “I’ll call it out. You lead it away. I’ll get him out. We’ll regroup.”

  “I can do that.”

  Servility’s smile gleamed in the scant light. It wasn’t a genuine smile, more a valiant attempt. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. About . . . before. With Sterling.”

  “You’re gonna squire for his dad. You have to live with him.”

  Shared nods. A shared understanding.

  And off Dalliance went, back into the dark hollowness of the stone staircase and plotted down the age-worn steps, grateful to not be alone.