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The men grow wary as we close the last few yards to the shoreline. Their hands swipe at the sweat flowing down the sides of their faces.
White noise. Crashing, rushing, splashing sounds. A rough breeze carrying the aroma of salt, murky water, and fish.
Warrose leans into Ruth and me. “That’s the sound of the ocean.”
Wow. It’s so loud.
“I’ve never seen the ocean,” Niles whispers under his breath.
None of us have.
Dessin and Aurick crouch low, reaching the thick tree line that separates us fromthem. We gather around quietly. Warrose, Niles, Ruth, and I squat behind Dessin and Aurick.
The wall of vines and weeds acts as a curtain to keep us hidden, but we can still see through the peepholes. A gray sky, crystal clear water that goes on to the horizon, never ending. I focus on where the sound is coming from. Waves roll on top of each other, crashing onto the sandy shore over and over again. If I wasn’t trembling with adrenaline and crippling anxiety, I might smile, laugh, celebrate that I’ve made it this far.
Dessin points to a ship on the horizon. A large wooden beacon with a black-and-red flag. Then I see what he’s actually pointing at. The soldiers scattered across the shore like organized ants. They’ve prepared for a fight. Weapons hanging from metal racks, shields stacked in the sand, and flaming wooden stakes spiked around an iron cage.
DaiSzek’s cage.
They’ve made a fortress of ten feet tall bonfires around him. Keeping everyone out of his circle. Keeping us away from him, unable to reach our boy without being burned.
“We can attack from their left and right. Not head-on. And someone has to release DaiSzek; he’s our best bet at a quick slaughter,” Dessin says quietly, only speaking to the five of us.
“I can get him out,” I say.
They look at me with wide eyes, like the helpless little doll has finally spoken.
“No.” Dessin turns his head to continue watching. Ending the debate before it has even begun.
I point over his shoulder to a bucket by one of the small boats. “If I can fill that bucket with water, I can extinguish one of the fires. I can get it.”
Dessin turns to me, eyes surrounded by heavy dark shadows and reddened brown eyes. I blink in surprise. How have I not noticed how drained he looks? How much stress he’s taken on because of me?
“Even if you managed to get it, there’s a huge brass lock on that cage.” He points to it. We all lean in to see the massive chunk of metal hanging in place. “We need a skilled soldier to get there.”
That burns. But he’s not wrong.
“I’ll go with her,” Niles offers. “If someone gives me a dagger, I can pick the lock. I had to learn when I was a kid.”
I whip my head back to Dessin. “You need every skilled soldier fighting. Let us do this.”
Dessin blinks slowly, clearly not comfortable with this.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Aurick hisses under his breath, nudging Dessin to look at the formation of soldiers again.
We all shift in our squatted stances, squinting to see what he’s upset about.
I nearly fall over. Every muscle locks up.
Babies. There’s a boat lined with babies.Ourbabies.
“They’re smuggling them from the city.” Aurick is shaking, his pale face now red with horrified shock and hatred.
They’re taking the babies to raise as one of them. Psychopathic soldiers in the Vexamen Breed. I can’t close my mouth.
“We need three to five men that will get the babies out of here while we fight. They need to bring them out of harm’s way, into the forest.” Dessin works out a plan, mapping it out in his mind.
“If they get them to me, I’ll keep them all together, stay with them until DaiSzek is freed and the fighting is over,” Ruth offers, her featherlight voice contrasting with the masculine grumblings. At least she’ll be out of harm’s way too. And she’s right, someone has to stay with them.
