Gunner shook his head. “The soldiers won’t back off. Between me and Wren, and Paxton and Priya, we left a whole squad of them dead not far from here. Not to mention our little heist of Kazi yesterday. They’re like packs of rabid wolves out there, and they’re after our hides.”
It was Montegue who was driving them, the lead rabid wolf, who was probably frothing at the mouth by now. Did he know it was me? I didn’t think so. In my few seconds on the skywalk, he was huddled beneath a shield, his courage on display before the entire town. He was beating his chest now to make up for it.
“Don’t butcher the goat. Not yet,” I said. “We’ll go out when—”
Suddenly the shelves in the storeroom vibrated.
The ground shook.
The walls shivered.
Dust fell from the ceilings.
I heard some shouts.
Children screamed.
“What’s going on?” Gunner wondered aloud.
We went into the kitchen.
Most everyone had jumped to their feet, looking around. Others came in too. Titus, Aleski, my mother, and Samuel. The shaking seemed to have quieted as fast as it had descended, but then the ground quaked again.
“Devil’s hell,” Paxton said. “He’s blasting.”
“He told me he would,” Kazi added. “He’s blasting through the mountain to get to us.” She said only the valuable papers he wanted from inside the vault had kept him from blasting in the first place.
“Papers?” my mother questioned. “What kind of papers?”
“Ones that contained another fomula that Phineas had created. If anyone here has them, now would be a good time to hand them over.”
There was a stir of talk, confusion, but no one knew anything about any papers, and in these close quarters, it would have been impossible to conceal much of anything.
Another rumble shook the ground.
Paxton hissed. “It’s not papers he wants anymore. He just wants us dead.”
“We have to get everyone out of here,” Gunner said.
“Out where?” Mason asked, throwing up his hands. “Out the back entrance onto the mountain where all the soldiers are patrolling?”
“That’s exactly what that lowlife wants,” Synové growled.
“No,” I said. “Everyone stays put for now.” I knew with so many injured and weak, we wouldn’t have a chance. My mother was moving slow, and Tiago could never navigate a steep mountain with his injured leg, much less run if he needed to. They’d be picked off like lambs, not to mention those in the sickroom like Aunt Dolise who couldn’t move at all. We couldn’t just leave them behind. “We still have a huge mountain of solid granite around us,” I said, trying to reassure them. But the truth was, I didn’t know if time was running out. Food definitely was. The choice was being taken from us. We had nine launchers. Nine of us could make a run for the arena. At least one of us would make it. Without ammo, the king was powerless. “We have to get to the arena and destroy the munitions. Today.”
“Today.”
“I’ll go!”
“Yes, let’s make this an even fight.”
Everyone murmured agreement.
Except for Kazi.
“No,” she said. She stood and rubbed her head like she was trying to remember something.
“What is it?” I asked.