The first thing I did with my plan was ask Nora for a pen.

She looked at my legs, then at me. "No. You've been awake for six hours."

"I'm not asking to walk."

"And I'm not giving you a medal for finding a loophole."

Despite myself, something in my chest loosened. Not

Adrian reached the infirmary before Cassian did. That told me more than any announcement from the gate.

He came through without knocking, saw Nora beside my bed and the sealed envelope on the table, and stopped. "What did you send out?"

Not *Are you all right?* Not *

Twenty minutes before moonrise, Nora came to change my dressings and asked exactly what we'd agreed.

"Are you still going?"

"Yes."

She glanced at the wheelchair by the wall. "I'll come back in ten minutes. With the recorder."

The door closed behind her.

I was alon