Chapter 76

I focused my mind back into Topaz’s. “Not to alarm you, Priestess, but your goddess has an arsenal of explosives, which she probably already planted, at least a portion of, around the island, probably with the help of the traitor. This, it seems, was the real reason she attacked just before you came and got me, apart from getting me to come in the first place.”

“Not to alarm me, though.”

I shrugged, at least inside my head. “Um, okay, to alarm you then. And, I’m guessing, the rest of the arsenal is aboard the boat she arrived on today, perhaps being planted even as we, uh, speak.”

“Fuck,” said the priestess.

“Yeah,” said I. “Been there, done that.”

Again there was a pause in our communication. When she returned, she told me, “Blondella is done with her speech. The islanders now believe she’s returned to lead them.”

“Yeah. Lead them to their doom, that is.”