The old man looked up at me, startled. He shook his head.
“Please,” I begged. “If I don’t make myself useful, the supervisors will whip me again.”
The man’s face softened, and he handed me his bucket. I took it gratefully and waited until he’d shuffled back the way he’d come.
The bucket was full of sparkly sunstone bits. I blinked at it. Father would’ve locked this in his vault or sold it for hundreds of gold coins.
It’d been worth more to him than the lives spent to attain it. And now Renwell continued that tradition on a grander scale.
I scowled at the sunstone and carried it into the forge cavern.
Nikella was limping slightly in her heavy boots as she sprinkled fireseeds around the glowing furnaces. Then she strategically tucked her bomb tins throughout the cavern. Ruru helped her coil the fuses out of sight.
Maz growled between clenched teeth, while Aiden slowly sliced through his remaining shackle. “Gods damn it, go faster.”
“Hold still, or you’ll lose more than just skin,” Aiden said, his gaze focused.
The metal clanked to the ground with Maz’s sigh of relief. I emptied the sunstone bucket into the glittering pile of night sky.
“I’ll use this as my cover,” I said, waving the bucket.
Aiden nodded. “Since the Wolf ship hasn’t arrived?—”
“They’ll be here,” Maz snapped. “They’re just late. We can stall until then.”
Aiden’s face hardened. “When you hear my whistle, Mazkull, you will run up to the soldiers and tell them there’s a breakout—whether that ship is here or not. I’ll fight our way onto one of their warships alone, if I have to.”
“Don’t be stupid,” Maz snarled. “I’m not letting you fight alone, and I’m not saying to wait that long. Just give them a minute to get here, Aiden.”
I glanced between the two of them staring stone-faced at each other while I strapped Mother’s knife to my leg. I slipped the rest of my small knives into my waistband. Uncomfortable, but hopefully they wouldn’t be there long.
Ruru and Nikella also hid weapons on their person, trying to ignore the tension.
“I’ll give them as much time as I can,” Aiden finally said.
Maz nodded stiffly, turning back to the forge.
Nikella tucked several canisters with their fuses into my bucket, covering them with a cloth.
Aiden slid a few more into his pockets, then marched into the tunnel. “Let’s go.”
Ruru hurried after him. I followed more slowly, glancing back at Nikella and Maz, suddenly worried I would never see them again.
Maz’s scowl softened. “Go on, lovely. This isn’t goodbye.”
I smiled tremulously and whipped around before I lost my nerve. I had to hop awkwardly to catch up with Ruru. Stupid fucking shackles.
We descended deeper into the mine. I could almost feel the press of the earth around us. Earth that would come crashing down soon.
Aiden led us into a huge cavern. My jaw dropped at the enormity of it. The sunstone. The pillars. Thepeople.It seemed too much, too many.
This mission suddenly felt almost impossible. Especially without our ship of allies.
That familiar edge of panic began slicing into my calm.
Focus, focus. One thing at a time.
I recognized the supervisors from Aiden’s descriptions. All with helmets and sunstone clubs. A few with ledgers and signal horns. But I only cared for the keys dangling from their belts.
