79

Vaelia

Sometime later, after they’d fed me and dressed me in the coarse, plain clothes of a lowly servant, a group of rogues came to retrieve me. Their presence filled the room with tension.

“It’s time to leave,” one of them barked,

Outside, the scene is chaotic but unnervingly organized. Two vans, the vintage Rolls-Royce I arrived in, and several motorcycles were lined up, engines idling.

Without