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Kerikos’ senses were telling Vito that Prince David and the other non-combatants had all made it through the hole and were running together. That was a relief, but he also had to be concerned about other enemies scattered throughout the castle. The reaper could sense so much chaos around Livingston, right now. It was difficult to parse through it all, but for the moment, their escape path seemed clear.

If they ran into trouble, would he be able to reach them in time? His hands were quite full here, but even if they weren’t, the growing distance might become an issue.

It was time to go for that previous strategy he’d thought of. He needed to steer this fight toward potential allies.

“Why so quiet all of a sudden?” said Barnabas. “I was enjoying our conversation!”

“As was I,” said Vito. “Apologies. Might you be willing to tell me what your goal here is?”

“Goal?” said Barnabas with another mild laugh. “Don’t know, don’t care. You’d have to ask the bigwigs about that.”

Kerikos had to wonder if that was the truth. Clearly, this fellow had enough authority to make all these other Abolishers listen to him, so it seemed unlikely Barnabas here would be that uninformed about whatever this current operation was.

Playing dumb, perhaps?

“I’ll tell you my name if you tell me your motive,” tried Vito.

Barnabas’ brow twitched. “You hard of hearing, friend? Can’t tell you what I don’t know.”

Hmm. “Then maybe you could tell me who is leading this attack, instead.”

“Now why would I tell you that?”

“Because you like me?”

“Heh. Not that much.”

“Shame. What if I tell you my name in exchange?”

“You were so protective of that before, but now you want to use it as a bargaining chip? Not just tough, but wily, too, eh? Somethin’ tells you’re trying to take advantage of my amicable nature, right now. Probably feed me some bullshit alias, instead, hmm?”

“Same could be said about you,” said Vito. “You wouldn’t lie about your leader’s name?”

“Of course not. I’m an honorable fellow, as you yourself have already pointed out.”

“True. But if you’re really so honorable, then you should trust me to be honorable in return.”

“Aha. Unfortunately for you, I’ve made that mistake before and learned my lesson. It’s a fine line between honorability and gullibility.”

“Don’t be like that,” said Vito. “If we can’t trust each other’s word, then what are we even doing, right now?”

Barnabas rolled his shoulders. “Good question.”

Aw, shit.