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“You are.”

“Perhaps slightly.”

Kesta felt her mouth twitch.

Dreven’s expression softened in answer before he looked back at the tag.

“There is more.”

The humor disappeared.

Kesta leaned closer.

“The caravan was stripped by the time we found it, but whoever attacked it left the clothing behind.”

“Meaning the women might have been taken alive.”

“Yes.”

“Or walked away.”

“Yes.”

“Or died somewhere else.”

Dreven’s jaw tightened.

“Yes.”

Three possibilities.

None of them clean.

Kesta looked at the imperial code and thought of the seventeen women separated before descent.

“They were dropping us here before this transport.”

“I believe so.”

For the first time, Dreven did not sound like a commander offering a conclusion.

He sounded like a man who hated not knowing.

Kesta understood that feeling.

She slipped the packet into her medical pouch. “I want to compare the code with the files I copied.”

Dreven nodded. “After the ashfall.”

Kesta looked toward him.

“Mira,” he said.

She had almost forgotten the time.

Guilt hit immediately.

Dreven saw it.