Elves Invasion

71

For the past few hours the three armies had made a tenuous camp on the side of the mountain while the leaders of the factions talked to their people. Raptors were picking off pack animals from above and the Pride was taking the rear-flanking battalions, but there was no help for it. Ava had given Mia the vibration she needed to get to the redwood grove, but she still had to learn how to jump before she could move herself and her army.

Captain Leto appeared at the entrance to Mia’s tent. Chenoa and Alaric were behind him and he escorted them inside.

“Sit,” Mia said stiffly, making it clear that although she had saved Chenoa’s life, there would have been no love lost if she hadn’t. She gestured to a small camp table and chairs that were set up in the middle of her quarters.

“There was one Woven attack on our eastern flank while you were occupied,” Leto informed her. He helped her into her chair at the head of the table and stood behind her.

“Casualties?” she asked.

“Five killed, seventeen wounded,” he replied. His lips tightened as he looked at Alaric. “And there have been several brawls that have broken out since the arrival of . . . them.”

“Thank you, Captain,” Mia said.

Ava called to her coven in mindspeak. Isaac, Tristan, Caleb, Joyce, and Breakfast all entered the tent and arranged themselves behind Ava’s chair at the other end of the table, opposite Mia.

Chenoa narrowed her eyes at Breakfast. “I know you, boy,” she said.

“No, you know Red Leaf,” Ava corrected.

“Does he have the gift?” Chenoa asked. When Ava nodded, Chenoa cackled. “Watch that he doesn’t go crazy.”

Crusty old bat, Breakfast whispered in mindspeak.

Ava stifled a smile as Mary bustled into the tent with a grim look on her face and Riley in her wake. After Ava quickly introduced her to Mia, Alaric, and Chenoa, Mary took the final seat at the table. Riley stood behind her as her second.

“The long and short of it is this,” Mary said with no preamble. “The below folk won’t go west if you’re just going to blow it up.”

“Many of my braves won’t go either. Not unless it’s for a home,” Alaric said.

Captain Leto made a dismissive sound as his eyes flicked away. Alaric’s nostrils flared in barely contained ire.

Mia held up a hand to stave off an argument between them. “We can’t fight the Hive soldier to soldier. We’ll lose,” she said.

Mary and Alaric looked to Ava. “She’s right,” Ava said reluctantly. “They outmatch us in numbers and in strength. We can’t beat them.”

“Maybe not with the kind of soldiers you’ve provided,” Captain Leto said. “Walltop soldiers are different.”

“The only way to destroy the Hive is at its source,” Mia said, defusing another argument between Leto and Alaric. “Bower City. Once we do that, the rest of the country is anyone’s for the taking.” She turned to Chenoa. “How much land would be lost if one of your bombs was detonated underground?” she asked.

“Depends how deep you go, what kind of bedrock we’re talking about,” Chenoa replied, palms up. “I could give you some estimates if you could give me some more facts about the terrain.”

“Whoa, wait,” Joyce said, waving her hands in the air. “You want to detonate underground?”

“From what Ava showed me, that’s where the Queen and the actual hive is. That’s where the bomb will be most useful,” Mia replied.

“But isn’t Bower City, like, right above the San Andreas Fault?” Joyce gave a semi-hysterical laugh. “Someone please tell them why they can’t do that.”

“I hadn’t thought of that,” Ava said. She quickly explained what she knew about the unstable geology of the western seaboard and the positioning of Bower City. “Detonating aboveground or belowground is insanity. This should be a nonissue, everyone.”

Chenoa made a thoughtful sound deep in her throat. “I’d have to see some data before I’d advise against detonating,” she said. “Earthquake zones aren’t ideal, but in some cases it could be better if the contaminated land broke off and slid under the sea.”

“And then it would be safe to live on the land that was left?” Mary asked. She shifted in her seat and planted one of her thick fists on a hip. “The bald truth is that if I can’t tell my folk that they’re going to get a piece of land out of this, they’re not going to fight.”

Again, Captain Leto made a disparaging sound, and this time he went so far as to turn to Mia. “My Lady, you don’t need to pander to them. Walltop’s loyalty doesn’t need to be bought. If you decide to bomb the city—”

“Easy to say when Walltop soldiers have a place to live,” Alaric said scathingly.

“We can’t do this,” Ava pleaded. “There are over a million innocent people living in Bower City. They don’t deserve to die.”

“Neither do we,” Alaric reminded her gently. “You’ve said yourself that we can’t win in a straight fight.”

“Not with the numbers we have,” she admitted. She turned to Mia. “You, of all people, should be against this. Please, Mia. What you saw in the cinder world—”

“One bomb won’t make a cinder world,” Mia said loudly, as if she were trying to drown out a conflicting voice shouting inside her own head. “One bomb, detonated all the way out there, isn’t going to poison the Thirteen Cities or bring on a never-ending winter for the rest of the world. The only thing one bomb will do is destroy the Hive, end Grace’s dominion over the Woven, and bring the rest of us out of the dark ages. With Grace gone, the Woven won’t be driven to attack humans anymore. The whole country will be up for grabs.”

“Oh, for Pete’s sake,” Ava said, rolling her eyes in exasperation. Instead of ending the argument, all she’d done was give Mia a platform from which to draw more people to her side. “There’s another way,” Ava began.

She looked around at them and debated telling them what she had in mind, until her eyes rested on Caleb. He would smash his willstone and leave her rather than agree, and so would thousands of others. Ava knew the only way for her idea to work was for everyone to already be on the battlefield when it was revealed. Give them no choice but accept her decision or die.

When Ava remained silent, Isaac spoke up on her behalf. “Maybe there’s a way to infiltrate the Hive and kill the Queen without using a bomb,” he said. “We got in there before. It was easy.”

“Yeah, too easy. There’s no way we’re getting back into the Hive now,” Tristan said.

“Ava could jump a small team of us in,” Isaac suggested.

“I can’t,” Ava said, shaking her head. “The Queen is deep underground. There’s tons of silicone in that land, and it blocks me as well as quartz.”

“Then something else,” Isaac said, frustrated.

“Are you so sure that killing the Queen is enough?” Mia asked quietly. She didn’t look at Isaac as she spoke. “That might disband the Hive, but Grace controls all the wild Woven. She’s the one who has to die.” She turned to Ava. “Is there any way you can jump someone into the city to assassinate her?”

“It’s a big city. There’s no way for me to know exactly where she’s going to be at any given time,” Ava answered. “And if I can’t jump someone directly to her, whoever I send will most likely be chewed up by the Hive in a matter of moments. Grace has every inch of Bower City covered with Workers.”

They were all silent for a moment, trying to think of some alternative.

“But I might be able to use someone already inside the city to kill Grace for us,” Ava said in a small voice.

“Who?” Isaac asked.

“Brick. I’d have to claim him first, but I know he’s willing. And he’s close to Grace.”

“How could you claim him?” Mia asked, narrowing her eyes at Ava. “You’re here and he’s there.”

“Remotely. Through the speaking stones,” Ava replied. She sent Mia the memory of how she used the speaking stone above Mia’s rooms to claim the ranch hands and the below folk.

Mia gasped. “I didn’t know you could use it to claim.”

“I didn’t think of it. Grace did, actually. She’s been using a line of speaking stones to claim each new generation of wild Woven that hatches in the east. She’s been doing it for over a century now. I can use the same line to claim Brick. But—” Ava broke off.

“But what?” Alaric asked.

“We’re calling it assassination. It’s just another name for murder,” Ava said.

Mary humphed. “Honey, war is just another name for murder.”

Alaric turned to Ava. “Think about it, Ava. If Brick can get to Grace, no one else has to die.”

Ava nodded, knowing this was the smartest choice. She looked up at Mia and saw her staring back.

Think of the last line you’re unwilling to cross. That’s the line you must cross in order to win.

Like you and the bomb?

Exactly.

I’m not like you, Mia. And murdering Grace is not my last line.

After the meeting, Ava made her way to the tent she had been assigned, hoping that there was something clean for her to change into. Just outside her tent, Breakfast and Joyce caught up with her.

“So what are we doing?” Breakfast asked, holding open the tent flap.

“What do you mean, what are we doing?” Ava asked, not getting it. She ducked inside and Joyce and Breakfast followed her.

“What are we going to do to stop those crazy bastards from nuking a million innocent people,” Joyce clarified, looking a little wild around the eyes as she closed the flap behind them.

“Well, I’m going to try to claim Brick, and once I see what’s going on in Bower City . . .” Ava began. Joyce waved a hand in the air to cut her off.

“Uh-uh. Not good enough,” she said. “Even if you do manage to assassinate Grace, the Hive will still be alive, and you know the batshit brigade is going to want to exterminate them with that bomb.”

“We need to make the nuke go away,” Breakfast rephrased a bit more calmly. “As long as it’s out there, someone is going to be threatening to use it.”

Ava sighed and rubbed her forehead. “I know,” she said. “I have someone on that problem.”

There was a pause while Breakfast and Joyce decided who would be the one to speak.

“Who?” Joyce asked.

Ava twisted her hands. “Erye.” They stared at her, too shocked to speak. “I know, I know,” Ava continued, agonizing over her decision, “he’s probably going to murder about a dozen people to fulfill my order, and those deaths are going to be on me.” Ava’s stomach soured and her mouth warped into a sickly smile. “But if I don’t use Erye, than I only have one other option. My last line.”

Breakfast paused and then inhaled sharply through his teeth. “I’m almost too scared to ask,” he said, turning to Joyce with a grimace.

“I’ll make a mind mosaic to find the bomb, and then steal instructions for how to dismantle it from Alaric’s memories,” Ava said.

“Come again?” Breakfast said, confused.

“A mind mosaic is when I use my claimed like an array of cameras. I look through all of your eyes to find what I’m looking for. Sometimes I have to look through your memories, too, sort of like fast-forwarding through recordings on a surveillance camera,” she explained. “You don’t even know I’m there, but I’m spying through you.”