Donotyr's friends had laid down their plans to protect him.

The first step was to safe-keep Donotyr's cadet uniform.

Vinith went to the drying room where the uniforms of the cadets were stored after washing.

She carefully examined the cadet uniforms to know which was Donotyr's.

After knowing which uniform belonged to Donotyr, Vinith took it off the drying racks and sneaked it to Donotyr's room where it would dry without being stolen by the bullies.

The next day, Zena fetched Donotyr from his room, already wearing his cadet uniform so they could work together in the fields of Yirrim.

Although very afraid at the thought that the Ignominies would find him and send him back to the horrible fate that awaits him there, Donotyr was excited about the prospect of working outdoors with Zena to avoid humiliation from the bullies.

Deng and Vinith, on the other hand, had discovered a dead body of a ranger lying on the floor.

"Who might be the killer?" Deng wondered.

"I don't know," Vinith replied. "Fugmius' killer had gotten away before we could catch him. This may be connected to Fugmius' death."

"How about we call Zena and Donotyr to help us investigate this case," Deng added.

Deng stayed behind to take care of the case while Vinith left to call Donotyr and Zena.

Vinith returned to the crime site, disappointed.

"Donotyr and Zena are nowhere to be found," she reported.

"It's probably that they had already left and went to work in the fields," Deng replied. "It was one of the plans that we had discussed yesterday as Donotyr was being harassed by a group of cadets, right?"

"We'll try to ask them later."