As Devin and Grigor stared each other down, Milo’s voice came over Party Chat.

  Milo - The Prelate is hiding in the crowd. They’re afraid of what he’ll report back to the Patriarch.

  Devin glared into the crowd. “Prelate! I know you’re here. Come up and talk to me or I’ll come in and get you.”

  There was a commotion, and a man was shoved to the front. He wore lavish green robes over silver chain mail and pants. A raven pendant hung around his neck, and a silver mace hung at his belt. He glared at the crowd, sniffed, then drew himself up.

  “I am Percival Mumford, Prelate of Horgoff,” he said. His accent was even snobbier than Milo’s.

  “Good for you,” Devin said. He looked at Milo. “Sounds like you two went to the same prep school.”

  Milo ignored him. Mumford glared. “How dare you …” His eyes narrowed. “You’re wearing my formal court clothes. They’re worth more than ten of you.”

  Devin held up a garishly colored sleeve and looked at it.

  “I think you got cheated,” he said. “If you really want it, you’re welcome to try to take it back.”

  Mumford frowned. “You mock the gods, Warlock.”

  “No, I’m mocking you. I don't care about gods.”

  “That’s quite a claim, after you desecrated my temple.”

  “I came here to get healing,” Devin said. “Your guards attacked me, and I defended myself.”

  That wasn’t quite true, but this guy didn’t know that.

  “You’re a Warlock,” the Prelate said. “Your very existence is an affront to the gods. And you’re taking something that isn’t yours.”

  Devin raised an eyebrow. “Your clothes?”

  “The healer, you heretic!” The Prelate snarled and pointed at Casey. “Give it to me and surrender yourself. The Patriarch may choose to be merciful.”

  “Did you call Casey ‘it’?” Devin said.

  “That’s what I am to him,” Casey said. “A thing.”

  The crowd gasped. The Prelate’s face paled.

  “It can speak!” he said. “What have you done to it, Warlock?”

  “Listen up, Muttonhead,” Devin said “I’ve had about enough of you talking to my friend like she’s not a person. Don’t do it again.”

  “You can’t threaten me!” the Prelate said. His voice became shrill. “I’m a member of the holy priesthood of Wermer!”

  “Whatever,” Devin said. “We’re leaving now. Don’t try to stop us.”

  “We’ll stop you,” the Prelate said. “Every man here knows what happens to them and their families if they don’t.”

  Devin glanced at the blacksmith, who’d stood silent throughout the exchange.

  “What’ll happen?” Devin said.

  “They’ll kill us all,” Grigor said. “Our wives and children, too.”

  “These loyal people know better than to abet a Warlock, or to cross the Order,” the Prelate said.

  “They’re not abetting anything,” Devin said. “They’re being smart.”

  He turned to Grigor, who seemed to be the village leader. “I don’t want to fight you.”

  Grigor shrugged. “I don’t want to fight either. But if we don’t fight you, our families will be slaughtered. I’ll fight you to the death, and so will every man here.”

  “She’s not an object, and I’m not ‘taking’ her,” Devin said. “She’s a person, and she’s decided to come with me.”

  Grigor shrugged. Devin glared at him.

  Casey put her hand on Devin’s shoulder and gently moved him aside. She stepped forward. The crowd stilled.

  “I know none of you asked for this,” she said. “I didn’t ask for it either. The Order of the Caduceus took me from my parents when I was a little girl. I was never allowed to see …”

  “Don’t listen to it, my children,” the Prelate said. “It lies.”

  “This is the last time I tell you,” Devin said. “If you open your mouth again, you’d better be ready to draw that mace, because I’m going to pull your arms off.”

  The Prelate gaped like a fish. Devin smiled and nodded at Casey.

  “I was never allowed to see my family,” she said. “They kept me locked up until I learned to use my healing powers. Then I was sent out to serve the Order. My services were sold to the highest bidder.”

  Devin scanned the crowd. Casey had their full attention. Even the Prelate was listening.

  “I was never left alone. There was always a guard with me, even when I bathed.” She shivered. “The Enforcers wouldn’t dare touch me, but they always watched. The only time they let me go outside was when an important person needed healing, and they couldn’t travel to me. Then they stuck me in a closed carriage.”

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  She paused. The crowd was silent, glued to her words.

  “But that’s not the worst of it. None of you have seen me without the mask they make us wear.” She held up the mask that Devin had seen hanging in the clinic. It was bent from impact with the Enforcer’s skull. “Here’s why.”

  Casey pulled back her hood so everyone could see her scarred face and empty eyes. The crowd gasped. A few men shouted. The babble of a dozen conversations rose. Casey stood tall, hood back.

  “You see?” the Prelate shouted. “It’s a demon, corrupted by the Warlock. You can’t listen to its lies …”

  Devin scooped up a rock and threw it in one motion. It crunched into the Prelate’s jaw. His neck snapped back, and he fell.

  People drew back. Someone bent over the Prelate.

  “He’s dead! The Warlock broke his neck!”

  The crowd erupted into shouts and wails.

  Devin shrugged. “I warned him,” he said. He hadn’t meant to kill the idiot, but he wouldn’t shed any tears either.

  Nobody was paying any attention to him except Grigor. He met Devin’s eyes, shook his head, then turned to the crowd.

  “Quiet!” Grigor shouted.

  The crowd fell silent again.

  “Steven and Quin,” Grigor said. “Take Lord Muttonhead to the sty and feed him to the pigs. Burn his clothes.”

  “Grigor,” one man said. “We can’t. The Patriarch will …”

  “The Patriarch will what?” Grigor said. “A noble is dead, Quin. You know the punishment for that. Crucifixion for the men, slavery for the women and children. It doesn’t matter what we do now. We’re outlaws.”

  The two men hesitated, then carried off the body. Grigor approached Casey. Devin tensed, but Casey held up her hand to stop him.

  Grigor studied Casey’s face. “The Prelate’s men did that?” he said.

  “No. The Order did this to me. They do this to all their healers.”

  “Why?” Grigor said.

  “Control,” Casey said. “The Order ensures that healers are under control by cutting out our eyes and sewing our mouths shut. It’s hard to escape when you’re blind and can’t talk.”

  Grigor’s eyes narrowed. “You can see and talk.”

  “Yes,” she said. “Rainford has blessed me.”

  He studied her a moment longer, then stepped back.

  “Listen up,” he called. “Priestess Casey wasn’t finished speaking.”

  Casey held up her hands and addressed the crowd. “According to the Order, I’m not a priestess. I’m just a healer. A slave. I’ll die before I go back to that life.”

  “You and that Warlock have turned us all into criminals!” a man said.

  “That’s not our doing,” Casey said. “We aren’t the ones who made it a crime to look at a noble the wrong way. We aren’t the ones who take all the grain you’ve harvested and tax your business so you can barely get by. We don’t make you bow and scrape to soft-handed nobles who have never done a day’s labor. We don’t work your men to death and abuse your wives and daughters.”

  “That doesn’t matter!” someone else said. “The nobles have all the power. We can’t fight the knights. We can’t even fight the common soldiers.”

  “That’s in the past,” Casey said. “Everything changed today. Someone stood up to the Patriarch and the Order, and they won.” She put a hand on Devin’s shoulder. “Devin beat a detachment of elite Order Enforcers, and he barely took a scratch.”

  “He’s a Warlock!” someone called.

  “No, he’s not,” Casey said. “He’s a man. A man with abilities like those that the knights have, and he’s on our side.”

  Devin nodded.

  “What can one man do?” Grigor said. “Even if you’re as strong as a knight, there’s only one of you. The Patriarch has a lot of knights.”

  Devin thought that was a great question, and one he couldn’t answer. Casey had a response.

  “Do you think this is some kind of coincidence?” Casey said. “I’m a faithful daughter of Rainford, and I’ve prayed every day for him to send us deliverance from this nightmare. Now he’s answered.” She lowered her voice, and the crowd leaned forward to hear. “None of you have ever seen my face before today, but I know you. Quin, Robert, Lukas … all of you. I know your families. You’re good people. You pray out loud to Wermer during temple services, but I’ve heard your whispered prayers to the true gods when your loved ones are sick and dying. Most of you still follow Rainford and the Dragonfly Pantheon, like your parents and grandparents did.

  “Are you telling us that the Pantheon sent this man to free us from the Patriarch?” Grigor said.

  Casey drew herself up. “Yes.”

  Silence descended like a blanket over the crowd.

  “Heresy,” someone said.

  “Shut up, you idiot!” It was the man named Quin. “She’s a priestess of Rainford. And …” He looked at Casey. “She saved my Connie and the baby last winter when they came down with the cough. How many of our mothers, wives and daughters has she tended to?”

  Mutters washed over the crowd.

  “I wouldn’t ask you to sacrifice yourselves for me,” Casey said. “If I didn’t think Rainford was with us, I’d turn myself in rather than see anyone here hurt. But this is bigger than all of us. This is the first step on the road to freedom. You can fight us and be swept aside, or you can join us, and we can all take that step together.”

  “So, what do you expect us to do?” a man said. “Stay here and pray for the gods protect us?”

  Casey looked at Devin. He swallowed, then stepped forward.

  “I can’t tell you what to do next,” Devin said. “This isn’t my land, but Felle can’t have troops everywhere. There must be someplace where you can go where he can’t get to you.”

  “You’re wrong!” a man said. “There’s nowhere to go!”

  “We could hide in the northern forest,” another man said.

  “We’re farmers! How are we supposed to survive out there in the wilderness?”

  “We'll take shelter with the rebels,” Grigor said. His words cut through the noise of the crowd like a knife.

  “It’s too far,” someone said.

  “We’ll cut north through the pass,” Grigor said.

  “What if they don’t have room for all of us?” another man asked.

  “Then we’ll be no worse off than we are now,” Grigor said.

  “We’ve got elderly and children! There’s no way they can make it.”

  “They’ll have to.” Everyone went quiet as a man pushed his way forward. He was clad in leather armor and carried a club, but he didn’t even glance in Devin’s direction. “Grigor’s right. We don’t have any choice. Do you really think we can go back to the way it was, after this? We can’t keep what happened here today quiet. Somebody would talk.”

  The man turned to look at Devin.

  “I’m Randy,” he said. “I’m the town constable. I keep the peace around here.”

  “Do you think I’m disturbing the peace, Randy?” Devin said.

  Randy spat on the ground. “Nope. Seems to me like you’ve made it more peaceful than it’s been in years.”

  Devin fought to keep a smile off his face as the townspeople continued to argue.

  “Will the rebels help us?” someone said.

  “They will,” Grigor said.

  “He’s right,” someone else said. “My cousin Murray joined them last year. He says they’ve got plenty of food and supplies. They’ll take us in.”

  “Ha!” someone else said. “I knew Murray didn’t fall down a well.”

  “You hear that, Sid? Hope Murray doesn’t find out you’ve been sniffing around his ‘widow!’”

  Everyone laughed and the tension of the crowd broke. A few men still argued, but it was obvious even to Devin which way the wind was blowing. He approached Grigor.

  “Thank you, Grigor,” he said.

  “I don’t want your thanks, youngster. I know you didn’t mean to do what you did, but that doesn’t change the fact that you rolled in here and wrecked our lives like it was nothing.” His hands clenched into fists. “My sister Genevive has twins. They’re thirteen. Do you know what the Patriarch’s thugs will do to them if they catch us?”

  Devin met his gaze. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t know this would happen. I was hurt, and I needed a healer. I was going to sneak in and out. The guards attacked me.” His eyes narrowed. “I can promise you this, though. I’ll do everything I can to keep your people alive and free.”

  Grigor studied him, then nodded. He turned and raised his hand for silence.

  “I want all of you to gather your families and some supplies,” Grigor said. “Nothing too heavy. I don’t want anyone taking any beds or stove pots. Necessities only – food and clothes, whatever else you need. Randy, can you take charge of that?”

  The constable nodded. “I’ll organize a crew to get everything useful from the manor,” he said.

  “Thanks,” Grigor said. “I’ll take a group, and we’ll figure out what to do with the livestock and grain. The rest of you, get your families ready to move. Let’s go, people. We don’t have much time.”