Flashback ( PDFDrive )

More important, though: Keefe’s stalling had given Wylie, Tam, and
Dex a chance to make progress on dismantling the force fields holding
them. So Sophie asked Gethen, “Nobody could think of an easier way
to get into Everglen? I can think of five off the top of my head.”
“And they all take, like, two minutes, right?” Keefe asked her.
“Probably less,” Sophie corrected.
Vespera shrugged, knocking one of her golden sleeves off her
shoulder. “If someone is willing to jump through ridiculous hoops to
prove their loyalty, who am I to stop them? Alvar created the plan
himself.”
Keefe turned back to the eldest Vacker. “So, wait. You said, ‘Hey, I
know! Why don’t you slice me up with a shamkniv—’ ”
“That was his punishment for the problem he created,” Vespera
corrected, “which I was very generous to allow him a chance to
redeem himself for.”
“Sure,” Keefe agreed, rolling his eyes. “Full body torture seems like
a totally reasonable punishment for . . . What was the problem again?
A locked gate?”
“It was not any locked gate,” Vespera argued. “It was a locked gate
that he would have had ready access to, had he kept his identity hidden
the way Ruy and Umber did, rather than following Fintan’s foolish
lead. So I told him that I did not care how he fixed it, just that he did
by the night of the festival.”
“What does the festival have to do with anything?” Biana asked.
“You’ll see soon enough,” Gethen told her. “And we’re wasting too
much time. Go ahead, Alvar.”
“SERIOUSLY?” Sophie shouted as Alvar reached for the gate’s
sensor. Even if he had chosen his side—maybe she could change his