"And if they come?" that person asked again.
"Then we will have an early warning system," I said. "Because those helpers? All of us will be armed. I'd like as many dogs as the Reapers can spare.Spare, people, not bring. I'll take my militia, which gives me..." I looked at Kanik, who nodded. "Nine of those people right off the top. Rymar will stay here - "
"Nope," Rymar said. "I'm going, Zasen."
"Okay," I relented. "Make that ten. You Reapers do not need us to guard your camp for a few hours. Plus, if the Moles come out of their compound, they'll have to come through us first. The Phoenix will send her dog back to Lansin if that happens. You will be armed, ready, and defensible before they have a chance of making it here."
"And us?" Xav called out.
"We know how to disappear," I assured him. "We also kill more of them than they kill of us. The best-case scenario here is that theydocome out - so we can get inside. However, I'd like to get there in the middle of the day - because that is their night. The lights underground will be out, the people will be sleeping, and no one will be hunting anything."
"We aren't going to let the Dragons do this without us, are we?" Eriska called out.
A chorus of Reapers yelled back, "No!"
"So who's brave enough to go that far?" Eriska taunted. "The Dragons have two dogs - "
"Three," I corrected. "Ayla has two now."
"Well, look at you," Eriska beamed at Ayla. "Sounds like you should've been a Reaper instead of a Dragon, girl." Then she lifted her voice again. "So, three dogs. I'd like seven more. Lansin will be here as point, but who else is willing to make the walk?"
Hands shot into the air. Far too many of them. I'd expected more people to stay quiet, but that was foolish of me. These werethe Reapers who'd stayed. The guardians of their clan. The ones who wanted to get a little revenge.
"We will go armed," I said. "You'll need a bow, plenty of arrows, and blades of some kind. When we get there, all of you will need to help unload the meat and stack it up. The Phoenix, who many of you know as Ayla, will be in charge of that part. She's the one with the knowledge of what goes on in there, and when we get close, wewilllisten to her. If you have a problem with any of that, please lower your hands."
Only four hands dropped.
"I'm also going to need drivers for these carts," I said. "I'm not sure if the owners of them are willing to go into enemy territory, and I will not ask that of them. So, do we have four people willing to take their horse and equipment into danger?"
Six hands shot up.
I just waved them all down. "I'm not going to pick you. I refuse to make that decision for anyone. I will say that drivers with combat experience would be the better choice. Also, if things go bad, those drivers will need to make a quick retreat - hopefully with carts full of Reapers."
"We aren't going to run away without the Dragons!" someone called out.
"We appreciate it!" a Dragon yelled back.
I ducked my head to chuckle. "Okay. Tomorrow, after breakfast, I want to meet right here. Eriska wants seven more dogs, but I won't complain about more. I will complain if the camp is left without its own protection. This will likely be a long, boring, and tedious walk, nothing more. But if things go wrong, will you be leaving someone behind, missing you? Will someone else have to raise your children for you? Consider all of this before you show up tomorrow!"
"How will we know it worked?" a woman asked, pushing to her feet so she could be seen. "If we give them all of this, howdo we know we're not just making our enemy stronger and us weaker?"
Ayla shot to her feet and turned. "We don't!" And she slashed a hand through the air to make that clear. "That's the problem. No one knows what they will do right now, not even the men they send to kill us."
"Tell them about the compound," Kanik told her.
Ayla nodded and pulled in a breath. "No one up here can understand the life they lead down there." Slowly, she turned, looking at everyone. "They call themselves the Righteous! They use religion to justify everything from beating women to death to eating people! They are the Righteous, so their needs matter more than ours. With those doors closed, most people down there have never even seen the surface except for pictures shown to us as children. This?" She gestured around her. "It's a myth!"
In the crowd, people had hands pressed to their mouths and wide eyes. They were listening, though. No one was shouting her down, and that seemed to give Ayla more courage.
"Their entire community is built on a group of old men who are in control. They are the elders, and their decisions rule everyone else. They do not get voted in, or picked. They choose the next man to take their place, and those men? They get more than anyone else. Down there, they barely have any light. Clothing is all worn and thin. Colors are faded. Food has no spices. Gossip is heresy, individualism is evil, and theonlyway to survive is to do what you're told! That means everything depends on what safe, secure, spoiled old men want - and none of us can predict them."
"Fuck me," a man breathed.
"So," I said, "our hope is that feeding them will cause enough confusion to create chaos in there for a bit. It will fill their bellies, shift their focus, and give us the time for our man inside to getus access. Then, and only then, will we be able to destroy them forever."
"Or," a man said, kicking his legs out as he leaned back, "we could just let a few of the tailed sting that meat."
Ayla gasped. "No!" And her head whipped around to look at me. "Callah isn't immune!"
