My sense of betrayal was powerful and, rather than stirring my anger fully, drained me to the point of despair. Not Vasek! He couldn't have been complicit to Samuel's plans. And yet, from the look on his face and the smugness returning to the sorcerer Brindle's, Vasek had, in fact, been part of it from the beginning.

I turned away from him, saw the hurt in Josephine's eyes and, for a moment, felt a ray of hope. Hadn't we assumed she'd betrayed us that night on the train when ...