I found myself wishing we had kept Nilda with us on this leg of the journey. At this point, Nilda knew without asking that her job was going to be watching out for Kara and me. She was used to it. But Thorfinna took a little more convincing.
"Do you have any magical talent at all?" I asked her.
"No, but—" she started to stubbornly say.
But I interrupted her. "And do you have a particularly close bond with any of these men?"
"I have a close bond with all of these men," she insisted, arms crossed as she towered over me.
But I wasn"t intimidated. "A two-way bond?"
She scowled at me fiercely.
"It"s possible that whatever caused this is going to react to what Kara and I are about to do," I told her. "That"s why it"s so important that you are ready."
"I can"t actually fight magic," Thorf
