I nodded. We all knew that the Leyak were always watching. We all had to be more cautious now.
"If you hear anything," Roan said, "anything at all, you have a guard call us." I didn't know how any of them would contact Dumadi, or how they could even know he was here, but anything was possible. He did seem to be sincerely cooperating.
Dumadi nodded. "I will."
We said our goodbyes and left. I didn't look back, but I could feel Dumadi's eyes on me the whole time.
When we got to the Junta headquarters, nobody was there. I wanted to go to the school, but we were technically under lockdown, so we couldn't. Zander and Roan paced around the room, waiting for something to happen, for this prophet to show up. I sat on the couch beside Doryu, holding Alex. Zander had already arranged for all the portaling to happen, so there was nothing we could do now but wait.
I must have dozed off, because the next thing I knew, Zander was shaking me awake. Mrs. Grunst stood behind him holding Alex. Geez. I hadn't even felt them take the baby from me.
"She's here," Zander said. Excitement emanated from him. I stood and followed them out the door after blowing Alex and Mrs. Grunst a kiss. We walked down the hall to a room I'd never been in before. It was small, with a window that looked out into the hall. There was a table with two chairs, and a woman sat in one of them.
She was older than I'd expected, maybe in her fifties. She had brown hair pulled back from her face in a severe bun, with a few wisps coming loose. She was wearing a simple black dress and eyed us warily as we entered.
"Thank you for coming," I said as I sank into the chair beside her. Zander, Roan, and Doryu filed in and stood against the wall.
She watched them warily, looking very much like she was regretting her decision to come. "I'm not an Unseen," she whispered. "I can't do anything to hurt you. Please don't hurt me."
Zander held his hands up. "We absolutely will not. You're even safer now that I know you're human."
I looked at her in shock. "A human prophet?" Admittedly, I didn't know nearly as much about the Unseen world as I would've hoped, but I'd definitely not heard of humans with powers.
She shrugged. "We're rare." She relaxed slightly and turned to Zander again. "Why am I here? Why is Dumadi imprisoned?"
"You know he kidnapped Riley and Linna? And the Valkyrie?" I asked. "That wasn't okay."
Amanda nodded once. "My father is a hard man. When he gets it in his head he's doing the right thing, there isn't much that can dissuade him from his path." She sighed. "I cautioned him against the kidnappings. But he was determined."
"And the prophecy?" I asked. "The one about the baby beginning and ending the war?"
She sighed, then said, "The dragon bears the child that will both begin and end the war. The child of The Dragon and The Hidden is The Chosen."
"We assume it means Linna. Is there anything else you can tell us about it?" I clasped my hands together, hoping against hope she had something.
"Well, it's not." Amanda sighed and closed her eyes. We all went quiet and watched her. She rolled her shoulders and sort of went into a trance. "The prophecy is about babies. Many of them. Linna and Alex are only one factor. But I don't know what babies or where they are."
"How do you know his name?" Doryu demanded.
Amanda opened her eyes and chuckled. "Isn't that the point? I know things."
"But if you know that, why don't you know the significance of the multiple babies?" Roan asked.
She shrugged. "I don't know all. I see a lot, but there's a big grayness when I try to go further than the prophecy I already made."
"There is a faction of Leyak, presumably who have lived for many years away from Earth, who have created an army out of fetuses." I unclenched my fingers from around each other and flexed them. "The fetuses are half Leyak and half Sárkány. They plan to raise them to become soldiers.”
Amanda's eyes widened and she sighed. "Now it makes sense. Those babies. They'll end the war."
"How?" I asked. "Does that mean we have to wait for them to be grown?"
She closed her eyes again and went into that trance-like state. Several minutes passed. I was just about to prod her when she opened her eyes and looked at me.
"It's not that simple." Her voice was weary. "I only see babies, though. I don't see them as adults."
Her words made me sigh in relief. "Is there anything else you know?" I asked. "Anything that will help us?"
One more time with the trance. I shot the guys a look. This would get old fast if we had to be around her constantly. I shouldn't be so snarky, though. She was helping us.
