"What?" he asked in English, "You think I'm leaving you outnumbered?" Then he looked over at Elijah. "Hello, Ayla's brother."
Elijah was whipping his head between us, yet Tobias dragged him closer. When we were far enough back to let the rest of this group be secured, Tobias dropped all pretenses.
"The code is 2063. Callah says that's the year the compound was closed. April 4th, 2063."
"Four-four-six-three." Kanik recited the code we'd used on the door which hadn't worked. "Is April your fourth month? So that would be day, month, then year?"
"Month, day, year," I corrected. "That's how we write it."
"There's more," Elijah said, daring to reach out and grab my arm.
Pepper lunged, clearly intending to bite him. I barely caught her collar, stopping her a hair away, but the clack of her teeth snapping together proved the bite would've been serious if I'd missed.
"Sit!" I told her. "Wait!"
Holly just whined, clearly not liking this at all.
"These," I told Elijah, "are guard dogs. Their job is to keep me safe, and they do not like Moles."
"Moles?" Elijah looked at Tobias.
"Us," Tobias said. "Things under the ground."
"So no touching," Elijah said. "Got it." And he looked at me again. "The elders want to take women from up here and burn the ones down there - "
"Witch trials?" Kanik said, shocked.
"What?" Elijah asked. "No, instead of banishing the women, they will banish them, then burn them. Their plan is to use the women in quarantine to replace them."
"Why?" I demanded.
Tobias opened his mouth, but paused. Glancing at Elijah quickly, he asked me, "What are the chances of us going back?"
"Poor," Kanik said. "Especially him."
"And you don't think I've figured out Tobias is up to something?" Elijah asked. "Every battle, he goes missing - but he's always wounded or dirty enough to make it look good. He's not with Gideon, so either he was hiding, or a coward, and this man isn't scared of much."
"What?" Tobias gasped.
Ignoring me, Elijah faced him. "You've been too intent on that promotion. Not the luxuries that come with it, but the title. I couldn't figure out why until Sylis died."
"You weren't in my squad then."
"Nope," Elijah said. "But Gideon asked me to keep an eye on you. He thinks I'm scared of the Wyvern so I'm desperate. And I was, but I think you're on to something bigger."
"And Gideon is going to Lorsa!" Tobias hissed.
Elijah's body stilled. "What? Where?"
"Lorsa," I said, trying my best to put a Dragon accent on it. "A place where the sun shines, the flowers grow, and children sing as they play. The houses are small, but bigger than our rooms, and the beds are so soft. Lorsa, where your tummy will never be empty again."
"Mom..." Elijah breathed. "That's what she told me."
"It's real," I said. "Lorsa is the name of the Dragon town." And I reached to my neck, grabbing the collection of things I kept there. "And this was her signet. She was the Serpent, Elijah. We're half Dragon, our father raped her, and we have a sister there."
"And Gideon is going there now," Tobias insisted. "Ayla, I think we were supposed to be the distraction. The idea was to hit the middle of this line you've all made. These men? We're all the mistakes. The ones who aren't good enough, don't listen well enough, or have thoughts the elders don't like. They want to burn the women to make sure no one becomes like you. But us? They're using us to distract you so Gideon can get his team around to Lorsa. They have carts and shackles!"
"Zasen!" Kanik roared, switching to Vestrian. "Lorsa's about to get hit."
