Page 96 of The Verdant Cage
I grab my cloak and slip into the night.
60
“Took you long enough,” Oscar says, separating from the shadows.
My stomach somersaults as four others emerge.
Sal, Meryl, Eero, and…Lozen?
My fists fly up, ready to fight, but Sal steps in front of me. “She’s with us,” she says. Then she hugs me as fiercely as our wounds allow. It takes me a moment to recover from my surprise, and then I’m returning the embrace. I try to pull away, but she holds me for a moment longer.
“We need to get out of here,” Lozen whispers. Her hand is hovering over her sword hilt, and she’s glancing uneasily toward the square.
“We’re followinghernow?” I ask the others.
“Have to,” Oscar says. “She broke us out. Plus, she brought the bombs.”
Meryl holds up a canvas sack that looks like it’s full of potatoes. A tiny grin plays across her lips. “Gryphon said he could buy us an hour, maybe more. We do this in two stages. Step one, we destroy all the stockpiled weapons inside the training barn and get back to where we’re expected to be—you to Gryphon’s, us to the chapel basement—before they notice we’re missing.”
“And step two?” I ask, wondering what barely camouflaged torment Misia is going to inflict on me once she wakes up and realizes I’ve poisoned her twice.
“Step two is tomorrow night.” Sal’s eyes spark in the moonlight. “Augustus says he’s gathering the villagers he trusts to overwhelm Jarek. Once they do, we can fight the green beast. All of us. Together.”
“Noah’s Valley, united again!” Oscar whoops quietly.
I blink rapidly, ordering the tears to stay in my eyes, but it’s no use. I’ve finally found my fellowship. Too bad I’ve got less than a day left with them.
“If you don’t mind weeping later,” Lozen says, her tone unimpressed, “this is sorta time sensitive.”
I swipe at my face. “Sorry.”
“Here,” Meryl says, slipping Lucky Bunny into my hand. “Maybe this’ll help.”
I don’t want to admit how happy I am to see the wooden toy, but my fresh wave of tears tells on me.
“He helped me out of that awful basement,” Meryl says, “but he was very clear he wants to return to you.”
As long as you’re exchanging gifts”—Lozen peers around a corner, watching for Guardians—“someone give her a cloak.”
“I’ve got one,” I say, tucking Lucky Bunny into my pocket.
“Not like this, you don’t.” Oscar yanks his hood over his head. The cloth is sewn to look so much like night and stone that if I hadn’t been staring straight at him, I would have thought he disappeared. He tugs his hood back down and grins, handing me my own. “I sewed these months ago, back when we started training. Thought they might come in handy. Of course, if I’d known they’d be lying across our bloody shoulders, I might have gone for a lighter fabric.”
“Quit bragging,” Lozen hisses, leading us away from the Tzu house as I don the cloak. She’s got an uncanny eye for keeping to the dark spots. “So, who knows where the Guardian training grounds are?”
“Me,” I say, keeping my voice low to match hers. I call up a rough image of the route Gryphon took me on. “Mostly. But aren’t we just following you?”
“With luck,” she whispers, holding up a fist indicating we should stop. Leo crosses in front, a few feet away. If not for Oscar’s smartly crafted cloaks, I’d bet the greenhouse he would’ve noticed us. Lozen counts to five fingers, starting with her thumb. When her pinkie pops up, we begin moving again. “But if we get separated, someone still needs to reach the barn and destroy the rest of the explosives. This mission is too important.”
She leads us to the edge of the village unseen. A broad expanse separates us from the cover of the woods. If we make it to the forest, we’re home free.It’s dark enough that we can do this, I think. A split second later, a pregnant moon bursts through the clouds, illuminating the ground.
It’s all I can do not to groan.
“When I say go,” Lozen says in a low voice, “you go. Be as noiseless as you can, but don’t sacrifice quick for quiet. Got that?”
We nod, but she isn’t looking at us. She’s staring at the open field. Her shoulders bunch up, like she’s about to take off.
Then, “Who goes there?”
