“You think?” Anika frowned.
A movement behind the Arrow caught Sabine’s eye. Anika wasn’t alone.
“I mean, I know I need your help,” Sabine said quickly, “but I don’t know what the protocol is when it comes to a missing Searcher.”
“Missing?” Anika’s brow knit together. “You’d better come in.”
Sabine entered the Arrow’s quarters and Anika closed the door. Without Anika obscuring her view, Sabine was surprised to discover that the second person in the room was Tristan Doran.
“Sabine.” Anika was still frowning. “How did you come to know that Sarah Doran is missing?”
“Sarah is missing?” Sabine shook her head in surprise. “I didn’t know that. I’m here because I can’t find Adne. No one seems to know where she is.”
“Adne is missing?” Anika rocked back on her heels. “Are you sure?”
Sabine nodded. “I’m sure.”
“Do you think that Sarah and Adne could be missing for the same reason?” Anika asked Tristan.
“I don’t know,” Tristan said. The man’s face was haggard. He looked worse than Connor had.
“Do you have any idea where Sarah went?” Sabine asked him.
“She left a note.” Tristan opened his palm to reveal a crumpled piece of paper. “It’s not particularly helpful.”
Sabine took the note from Tristan and smoothed it open.
I had to try. Please forgive me.
“‘I had to try’?” Sabine murmured, mostly to herself, but Tristan sighed.
“I have a few guesses,” Tristan said. “None of them are comforting.”
Sabine nodded. She could guess too. Sarah Doran hadn’t been reluctant to broadcast her hopes for bringing Shay back from his life as a wolf. But how she thought she might accomplish such a thing was difficult to say.
“You don’t think she’d go up onto the mountain and try to snare him?” Sabine asked.
“I think that might be a best-case scenario,” Anika replied. “I sent a team up to Haldis to see if that’s what happened, but Sarah isn’t ignorant—she knows how Shay’s transformation occurred. If she wanted to undo what’s been done, she’ll pursue specific channels.”
“Magic,” Sabine said quietly.
Anika nodded and Tristan’s jaw clenched.
“But it’s not possible,” Sabine continued. “Right? Bringing Shay back is not something Sarah could actually do.”
“No,” Tristan said. “She can’t. But she won’t accept it. I’ve tried to convince her so many times to let it go. I tried.”
Anika put her hand on Tristan’s shoulder. “We both tried.”
“Sorry for being behind the curve,” Sabine said. “But if there’s no way for Sarah to bring Shay back, then what are you worried she’s doing?”
“It’s the ‘trying’ that presents a danger,” Anika told Sabine. “Sarah has been spending a lot of time at Rowan Estate.”
“I know.” Sabine nodded. “I’ve seen her there.”
“We’re worried she may have taken some books from the library,” Anika said. “The collections at Rowan Estate skewed heavily toward the occult.”
“Sarah can’t bring our son back,” Tristan said quietly. “But if she uses certain spells to try, even in vain, there could be terrible ramifications.”
“But the Rift is closed,” Sabine said, more to comfort herself than to argue with Tristan. “Doesn’t that kind of mitigate the damage any Keeper spells can do?”
“To the world, yes,” Anika answered. “In cases like this, harm doesn’t usually extend beyond the caster.”
“Oh,” Sabine said, feeling foolish. Of course they were trying to protect Sarah from herself. “But maybe that’s the connection between Adne and Sarah. What if Adne went along to try to keep Sarah safe?”
“And how would a young Weaver manage that?” There was more spite in Tristan’s question than Sabine liked, but she let it go.
“You don’t know Adne,” Sabine told him. “She’s a force to be reckoned with.”
“Sabine’s telling the truth,” Anika agreed. “Adne’s an exceptional young woman. But as much as it’s comforting to imagine that Sarah’s not alone, I’m not certain they’re together. Are you aware of any relationship having developed between them?”
“No,” Sabine admitted. Adne hadn’t talked about Sarah Doran, but then Adne hadn’t been inclined to talk much about anything lately.
“For now I think we have to treat the two cases as distinct,” Anika told her. “Thank you for bringing Adne’s absence to my attention. I’ll assign a team to pursue the matter.”
Realizing she’d just been dismissed, Sabine nodded and showed herself out of the room. No sooner had she opened the door than Sabine ducked to avoid being struck in the face by a red-faced Striker, who’d been about to knock on the door.
“Watch where you’re throwing those fists, friend,” Sabine grumbled, pushing past him into the hall.
The Striker ignored her. “I need the Arrow. The Arrow! Is she here?”
Anika was already at the door. “What is it, Mackie?”
“It’s Holt, ma’am,” Mackie blurted. “He’s called an assembly.”
“What?” Anika frowned at him. “When?”
“Now!” Mackie told her. “Right now. In the dining hall.”
“Damn that man.” Anika called over her shoulder, “Tristan! You’d better come with me.”
The halls of the Roving Academy were filled with Searchers, flowing as if they were being carried by a current: Strikers, Weavers, Scribes, Elixirs, all streaming toward the dining hall. When Anika, Tristan, Mackie, and Sabine reached the crowded room, they had to push their way through the mass of bodies.
Above the gathered Searchers stood Holt, who had climbed atop a table and was exhorting the crowd.
“See for yourself what they’ve done,” Holt shouted. “The Arrow claims their crimes are all in the past, but I tell you the Keepers have always been and will always be murderers.”
A buzz of voices, some agreeing and others disapproving, filled the air.