All night.
Now, though, the raid was turning out to be far more complex than thought.
“We… don’t know where the weapons would be stored in East S’Kir,” Drez began. “We have ideas, but our maps are from before the Spine rose. How they haven’t crumbled to dust, I don’t know.”
Roran coughed. I put a hand over my mouth to stop the smile. They had both sworn me to secrecy about their real ages. Dorian, Bebbenel, and Ophelia were the only temple masters who had been there longer than they had, and no one, aside from Dorian, knew the twins were literally older than the Spine.
“Perhaps you could explain how you haven’t crumbled to dust, brother,” Rilen mumbled.
Roran elbowed him.
Drez was unaware of our quiet exchange and continued. “But like our own land, things have changed, and we don’t know what they have done. Since every time we drop our shield, they fire their guns, we can’t even talk to them.”
“We’ve decided to split our team up. We know they have attacked North Landing.” Staviz pointed to a spot on the map, far, far north. “I’m inclined to believe they must have some kind of weapons’ cache nearby. We merely need enough guns to arm a small contingent.”
“It’s going to be better if we send two separate teams in to see what we can do.” Drez picked up where Staviz left off. “We need one that will go to North Landing and one that will cross just north of the city to see if they can either distract the vampire or find another cache.
“Because of my familiarity with North Landing,” Rilen said from my side, “I will be leading that group.”
I turned and looked at him. “What?”
“It makes sense,” Roran agreed. “I’ll be going with the middle passage group.”
“I don’t like this idea at all,” Dorian grumbled.
Argo leaned forward. “For once, we’re in complete agreement, Master Dorian. I don’t like this. There must be a more direct way to deal with this. Can’t we just walk down the Chasm and speak with them?”
I shook my head. “Master Argo, with all due respect, they shot me. Without a word, without warning. They pulled out their guns and shot me. They are not going to listen to us.”
“We have to show them the same force,” Staviz said.
“We can’t do that without weapons,” Roran agreed.
“You’re all fools.” Argo stood. “We haven’t even tried, not really. We owe ourselves and them that much before we start a war.”
Argo turned on his heel and marched out of the tent.
“Is he—” Vitas looked around.
“Yes.” Ophelia nodded and sat back.
“He’s going out to try to talk to them?” Drez was shocked. “Hadn’t we better stop him?”
Flash. Red.
I gasped and snapped my head to Dorian’s gaze.
He shrugged. “You can try to stop him. He’s an old fool.”
Vitas, Rilen, Roran, Carolee, and I stood and headed after Argo. I passed close to Dorian and hissed in his ear. “He’s not the only old fool I see here.”
Before I could cross out to the field, he grabbed my arm and pulled me to him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
I stared up at his shocking blue eyes. “It means we’re about to fight a war, and you’re letting him commit suicide, depriving us of a master magic wielder.”
“He’s a fool, Kimber.”
“We should suffer fools who make good warriors, don’t you think?”
