“Let us focus on one thing at a time,” Iannis said, not unkindly. “We’ll eat now, and then you’ll take us to this hidden bunker. Once we get there and I can assess the lay of the land, we’ll decide our course of action.”

“Very well,” Elnos said, reaching for his portion of pie. We all dug in silently, and I tried my best to push away the heaviness that settled onto my shoulders. I’d be damned if I was going to sit here and act like this was our last meal together. Iannis and I had faced ridiculous odds in the past—we would do it again, and get my friends home safe.

I just wished I knew whether or not I could still call Noria one of those friends.

13

Still disguised as humans, Iannis and I left the inn with Elnos and made our way to the hidden Resistance compound. As Iannis had predicted, it was on the northern outskirts of town. Technically, that was walking distance, but it was a good five miles from the inn, and it took us longer to get there than I would have liked. We could hardly take the carriage and remain inconspicuous, and though Iannis and I could travel much faster than a brisk walk, Elnos had no such ability.

“This is where Annia and I made camp,” Elnos said quietly, leading us into a small clearing halfway up a hillside covered by dense forest. The trees provided cover, while allowing us to spy on the enemy. “I put up a special ward that repels the attention of patrols, so we shouldn’t be discovered.”

“Well done,” Iannis murmured as we carefully crawled up the hillside to get a better view. We’d trekked through the forest to avoid the guards patrolling the wire fence that surrounded the large plot of land before us. Within that plot sat a plain greyish building, about two stories high, and I counted twelve windows that I could see from the side. The rest of the building disappeared into the cover of the trees, making it impossible to see exactly how large it was without getting closer.

“There don’t seem to be many guards,” I said, taking stock of the security. One man sat inside the booth outside the main gate, munching on a bag of snacks as he kept an eye on the road. I spotted two more guards making their rounds across the perimeter.

“There are more than you’d think,” Elnos said. “Especially at night. The patrol that caught Annia prowls the surrounding forest. They also have guns on the rooftops.”