Gunner and Wren had washed up and changed at Judith’s urging. The blood frightened the children and probably everyone else too. Wren’s hair dripped, and her face was nearly scrubbed clean of the Kbaaki stain, but some of the blue dye still circled her eye. Jurga had said the dye wouldn’t last more than a couple of weeks, especially if we washed. They sat at the kitchen table now, eating soup and telling the rest of us seated around them what had happened, while Rhea demanded that Gunner hold still so she could properly clean and stitch his arm.
“We split up as planned,” Gunner said. Five had come after them, and they assumed the other five went after Priya and Paxton. They managed to stay ahead of the soldiers for a few miles. Gunner knew the forest better than they did and finally reached a rock formation he had been heading for.
“We circled around and ambushed them from behind,” Wren said.
Gunner winced as Rhea scrubbed his wound. “She took down four. I took one.”
“Four?” Tiago asked.
“Imara gave us some fine throwing kniv
es,” Wren explained. “And I put them to good use.”
My mother came back from checking on Kazi. “But no sign of Priya or Paxton?”
“Priya knows the forest as well as I do,” Gunner answered. “They’ll be fine.” But his reply was too fast, like the worry was forefront in his mind too.
We all knew it was about more than just knowing the forest. It was the odds too—and who was fighting them. Gunner had Wren on his side. Priya had Paxton.
I went back to check on Kazi and get a few more drops of water into her. I talked to her, told her the riddle she had asked me to repeat so often, and then told her Wren was here, “In case you didn’t hear her come in.” I brushed the hair from her face. “Hamir, ra shana. Please.”
As I laid her back on her pallet, there was loud banging on the cave wall. In code.
My mother and I got to the door first. I spun the wheel and threw it open.
It was Paxton, and he was alone.
My mother sucked in a broken breath.
“Where’s Priya?” I asked.
“She’s coming. Unsaddling the horses. She lost the bet.”
“Bet?” I said.
“Who would take down the first soldier.”
“You had time for bets?” my mother snapped.
He walked past us and into the kitchen, collapsing into a chair. His face was streaked with dirt, and his whole left side was soaked with blood. “Just a flesh wound,” he said. “I think.”
“He was showing off,” Priya interjected, coming in just behind him. “Tried to take on two at the same time.”
We all stared at her. Her hair was wild and tangled around her shoulders, her face as grimy and blood-spattered as Paxton’s. She shrugged. “Okay, so he’s lousy at knots, but he knows his way around a sword. Up on the table, genius. You’re going to need sewing up. Where’s Rhea?”
Rhea appeared in the doorway. First she sighed and then she cursed. She was weary of patching people back together.
* * *
Late in the night, the next crew rolled in. I thought it would be the last, but it was only Titus, Samuel, Aram, and Hawthorne—along with some unexpected extras—Aleski, Imara, and their mother, Beata. Aleski had been spotted by soldiers grabbing a launcher so they all had to run. Mason and Synové were notably absent from the group. Titus said they had never shown up at the ruin. He suggested that maybe they had a hard time getting out of town. Or they’ve been caught. He didn’t say it but I knew we all thought it. My mother held her swollen belly. In one day, how many sons and daughters would she have to fear for?
I led her to a chair. “Sit,” I said. “Please. You can hear everything from there.”
They dumped their haul onto the table, and we looked it over. As Priya, Titus, and Wren had been shooting soldiers from roofs, the rest had been waiting below to gather up the launchers that had fallen with them. They had managed to hide eight launchers beneath their cloaks. But five of them had no ammo.
“Jackasses,” Hawthorne hissed.
My small bag of ammo would be stretched thin.