Page 97 of The Verdant Cage
All five of us glue ourselves to the side of the building. I can’t be the only one whose knees have suddenly turned to water.
“I said, who is that?” Tomris appears to our left, about thirty feet away. She’s shining a torch down the alleyways, working her way toward us. “Identify yourself!”
We’re done for. If we move a single inch, she’ll grab that whistle around her neck and blow. We’ll have a half-dozen Guardians surrounding us in under a minute. If we stay put, we’re only seconds away from her exposing us with her torchlight.
“Over here!” Leonidas calls out from behind her.
“You find them?” Tomris hollers back.
“Yeah,” he says, his voice sounding weird, like he’s being strangled.
I turn to Meryl, intending to hug her in relief, but her face is screwed up.
“Hurry!” Leonidas says. Except it’s not Leonidas. It’s Meryl throwing her voice in a near-perfect imitation of him.
Her Entertainer House training has saved us.
When Tomris marches in the opposite direction, we dash across the open field, loamy grass perfuming the crisp night air. Stumps of harvested hay swallow our footfalls, and in no time, we’re safe inside the forest.
Lozen counts heads, then, “Good. Here’s where we split up.”
“No way!” Oscar protests.
“Yes way,” Lozen says, firmly. “We need a failsafe. The only option is to make two teams. Meryl and Oscar, you’re with me. Sal and Eero, you go with Rose. We’ll divide the explosives.” She tugs two objects out of Meryl’s bag and holds them up in the shadowy moonlight. The first is a ball of metal the size of an apple. “These explosives are deadly and effective, so don’t take risks with your safety.Thankfully, even you nerds would struggle to set one off on accident. Pay attention.” She points at a depression in the metal orb’s side. “Two people touch the bomb here to activate it. Once it’s planted, youbothhave to press the thumbprint detonator”—here she holds up a black square with a red button at its center—“for it to go off.”
I shake my head in wonder. Brown-nose Rose, learning how to set a bomb.
Lozen drops the explosive and detonator back into Meryl’s bag. “Whichever team reaches the training barn first places their bombs. Get atleastthree hundred feet away before you set them off. That’s about a minute’s walk. But don’t walk it.”
“I still don’t understand why we have to separate.” Oscar sounds worried, and who can blame him?
But Lozen only rolls her eyes. “If both teams end up at the barn safe and sound, I’ll apologize, okay?”
“It’s fine,” Meryl says. “She’s just being cautious, and she’s right. This is our only chance to get rid of Jarek’s stockpile.”
Lozen nods grimly. “Oscar, Meryl, and I will follow the west path to the training grounds. Rose, Eero, and Sal take the east. First group to reach the barn and lay their explosives, whistle like this.” She blows out three quick chirps. “If you’re answered with the same, that means the other team is too close. Count to twenty before you set off your explosives. If you hear nothing, you’re in the clear. Blow that building sky-high and return to this spot. Got it?” She smiles, holding out her fist.
We put our hands on top of hers, pushing down, then up.
“Got it,” we whisper.
Lozen offers me four explosives plus a detonator. I stuff them into the deep pockets lining the cloak’s interior. Oscar’s really created a marvel.
We’re about to break into two groups when Eero whispers, “This one’s for Jonas.”
We all hear him. My heart squeezes.
“For Jonas,” we solemnly confirm.
61
Sal, Eero, and I hurry through the forest. Without needing to speak, the three of us pause at the lip of the training field, staying to our cover. The woods are eerily quiet. All the Guardians must be in the village, maintaining martial law for Jarek. Even so, the empty training field drenched in moonlight makes the hair along my arms stand up.
I squeeze Eero and Sal’s hands. They twitch, then nod. I touch my chest and point at the west side of the barn, Sal and the east side, then Eero and the lookout hill fifty feet ahead. Next, I twirl two fingers and point at the ground, indicating we should meet back here. They nod again. I hand Sal two of the explosive devices and keep the other two for myself; together, we press a finger into the depression of each to activate them. Sticking to our cover, we dash around the perimeter of the training ground until we reach the storage barn.
She drops an explosive at the southeast corner. I run in the opposite direction and do the same at the building’s southwest edge. I glance back at the lookout hill and tell myself I can see Eero’s outline. Then I nestle my second explosive in the northwest corner.
I can’t see Sal, but I trust she’s completed her job. I’m immensely grateful she cannot discharge the bombs without me. That means it’s safe for me to run inside the barn and grab a few explosives to use on the Verdant Beast before we destroy Jarek’s stash.
