"Go!" Lansin said, stepping forward. "I speak English well enough to handle this. Leave me the big guy to help, and we'll haul them to our summer camp."
"Then what?" Rymar wanted to know.
It was a woman from another camp who answered. "We'll lock them up and see what they're willing to say. I just need someone who speaks English!"
"I do!" a Dragon woman called out.
"I do too," Lansin promised. "So go. Take a cart."
"Take all of them!" a Reaper called. "We need drivers! Any Dragon who needs to defend Lorsa? Go with Zasen!"
"Let's move, people!" Zasen roared.
And positions were traded. Reapers took over the captives. Dogs were moved in to make up for the numbers they were losing, even though most of the men were already bound. The carts that had been assigned to each camp were brought up, but all of that took time. Just enough time for me to tell Tobias one last thing.
"They'll want to know everything. Tell them. Do not fight, because they already hate you for taking their women."
"I know," Tobias assured me. "Just know Callah's waiting for something yellow. That's how she'll know I'm alive - and that you got the code."
"I'll send something back." I told him before I looked over at Elijah. "And I'll deal with you when this is over."
"You, little sister," he said, "are just like our mother. Please don't die?"
"I won't, but don't think that makes up for admitting you were spying on Tobias." Then I pointed back to the group.
This was Tobias's real test. He had to go over there and let them detain him. He had to be tied up with men who likely hated him now. Most of all, he had to trust me a little longer.
"Let's go!" Chlo called out as she moved the cart close enough to be seen. "Xav!"
"They won't hit until sundown," I said. "We should have time to set up defenses."
"I'll alert the other camps!" a Reaper called out.
"We can tell them as we head east," someone agreed. "Send a dog west! Let's get them headed to Lorsa!"
There were suggestions being yelled in all directions, and people were moving. We knew it was coming. We had time. We could handle this! I kept telling myself that as the carts were filled, but once they started moving, I looked over at Zasen.
"They'll hit at sundown."
"Yeah," he agreed. "Or thereabouts."
"Tobias said Gideon has three teams of men. That's..." I quickly did the math. "Right about seventy-five hunters, all with guns. Can we handle that?"
"No," Kanik interrupted. "Ayla, we don't need to 'handle' it. We need to kill them all. If we wipe out their hunters? That's it. The compound will be done. They'll have no choice but to give up!"
"But do we have enough people to make it happen?" I asked.
"Paper," Zasen begged, looking at everyone in the cart.
It was Chlo, the driver, who passed him a small pad of it. "Will that do?"
"Yeah," Zasen said, digging in his pocket for a pen. "Ayla, I'm going to need your fastest dog."
"Holly!" I called. "Up!"
She leapt into the bed of the cart while it was still moving, then wobbled. The man at the back steadied her, earning a wag, but there were too many legs for her to come closer. Zasen didn't seem to care. He just kept writing, scrawling an entire letter on the half-sized paper he had.
Then, "Put this in her collar." He passed the paper to the man beside my dog. Then he looked at me. "Ayla, send her to Farin. She's the Reaper at the next camp up. Not the camp beside us, but the one after."
