Adrian reached the infirmary before Cassian did. That told me more than any announcement from the gate.

He came through without knocking, saw Nora beside my bed and the sealed envelope on the table, and stopped. "What did you send out?"

Not *Are you all right?* Not *

Twenty minutes before moonrise, Nora came to change my dressings and asked exactly what we'd agreed.

"Are you still going?"

"Yes."

She glanced at the wheelchair by the wall. "I'll come back in ten minutes. With the recorder."

The door closed behind her.

I was alon

The hall stayed silent after Adrian's command failed.

He looked at me as if my stillness had betrayed him. It hadn't. My body had simply stopped obeying.

I rested my wrists on the wheelchair arms. The red restraint marks were bright enough to see from the