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hundreds to thinking Iago and his red robes were the last of them… only to discover that Iago’s people were a nasty offshoot of an original, relatively peaceful sect. What if there’s another offshoot out there? And what if they got to one of the rebels?”
    “I don’t see how that could be possible. Rabbit scoured the area a couple of years ago looking for information about his mother, and then did the rounds again when the
xombi
virus hit, trying to find a cure. If there were other magic users out there, he would’ve ID’d them by now.”
    “We’re not in the highlands.” Dez gestured to the compound surrounding them. “What if there’s another group like us, more peaceful than Iago’s crowd, but that believes in the underworld as strongly as we believe in the sky gods?”
    “We would’ve seen something by now, and you know it.” Sven paused. “So why are you hearing horses and trying to talk yourself into zebras?”
    The king exhaled heavily. “Because we know how to fight the Xibalbans, and we could even handle a traitor or two… but the
Banol Kax
scare the crap out of me. If that’s what broke through here today, we’re in deep shit. So right now, yeah, I’m hoping for stripes.”
    Sven wished he had a joke at the ready, one of the quick toss-off lines that used to come so easily for him. But those days were gone. Now he could only shake his head and say, “Better not let the others hear you talking like that. You’re our crazy-brave king who’s not afraid of anything.”
    “Unless we get some more weapons in our arsenal, crazy-brave isn’t going to be enough.” Dez’s expression fell back into its usual resolute lines. “But we’ll soldieron and keep pushing the boundaries. It’s all we
can
do, right now.” He paused. “Which brings things back to you. Are you willing to lean on Carlos and Cara for intel on the
winikin
—especially the newcomers—without letting them know what you’re up to?”
    Shit. He didn’t want to… but he could see the king’s point. “You’re not making it an order?”
    Dez shook his head. “The way I see it, they’re the only family you’ve ever known, so I don’t want to force you to spy on them.” His lips quirked. “Besides, the last time I gave you a
winikin
-related order, things didn’t go exactly the way I had planned.”
    After telling Cara that she was Jox’s chosen successor, Sven had given her the opportunity to bolt and she’d taken it. Then, a few weeks later, she showed up at Skywatch with the rebels… on her own terms.
    Sven shrugged and pointed out, “She got here eventually.”
    “Yes, she did, and I’m far better off with her willing cooperation than I would’ve been if I had forced her into the position. That’s why you’re getting a choice now.”
    “What happens if I say no?”
    “I’ll use Rabbit to eavesdrop. I don’t want to, though.”
    “Christ,” Sven muttered, though Carlos had boxed his ears more than once early on for calling on the son of the Christians’ God. “It’d be a fucking train wreck if they figured out you mind-bent them to get information.” Bad enough if they caught wind that the king suspected them of treason. If they realized Rabbit was using his magical talents to spy on them telepathically…
Shit.
Twenty times worse. A hundred.
    “Like I said, I don’t want to do it. But we can’t afford to have this blow up.”
    Then don’t ask me to do it,
Sven almost said, because gods knew he’d fucked up major assignments before, like the time he’d fumbled a translocation spell during a museum heist and Patience had wound up hurt. He’d gotten steadier since bonding with Mac, but he hadn’t been given any really sensitive tasks since then, either. Most of his assignments had been of the slash-and-burn variety. Or tracking. He and Mac together were hell on wheels finding shit, and it kept them on the move. But spying? And using Cara and Carlos to do it? He didn’t know about