“He’ll come when he’s ready.” I still needed Warden.

“Then relay him a message. He is to meet us in the clearing as soon as you are gone. We will be waiting.”

Just as quickly as they’d arrived, they were gone, heading for the fences. They disappeared into the darkness, like dust into shadow, fleeing the inevitable retribution of the Sargas. I turned and made my way toward a training platform, where two lanterns burned in stained glass panes.

Getting here had been the easy part. Now I had to get these people into the tunnel and onto the train.

The stragglers had gathered on the edges of a concrete platform—but not the right one. This was rectangular. Nick was checking Dani’s face. There was a deep gash above her eye, but she shrugged it off. At the back of the rectangle, Jaxon gave the city a cold stare. No sign of Julian. Swallowed by the fire, just like Finn. I hoped it had at least been quick.

“We have to leave,” I said. “No more waiting.”

“There’s no point.” An amaurotic boy gripped his hair with white-knuckled hands. “The NVD are coming.”

“We got here first.”

A few sets of eyes grew brighter. I pulled a torch out of my backpack and switched it on. “Follow me,” I said. “Move as fast as you can. Carry the injured if possible. We have to reach another marker—an oval. We don’t have long.”

“You’re with the Rephs,” said an embittered voice. “I’m not going anywhere with a leech.”

I turned to the man that had spoken and I pointed to the city. “You want to go back there instead?”

He was silent. I brushed past him, ignoring the twinge in my side, and broke into another painful run.

Once we were past the scrying pool, it was easy to remember the right place. Warden stood where we’d trained all those months ago. “The entrance is here,” he said when I was close, indicating the concrete oval. “Nashira rather liked the idea of having the train beneath the training ground.”

“Do you think she’s dead?”

“That would be too much to hope.”

I pushed the thought aside. I couldn’t think about Nashira now. “They’re waiting for you,” I said. “In the clearing.”

“I do not intend to go with them yet.”

The words were a relief. I looked down at the oval. “There’s no guard,” I said. “They didn’t just leave it open.”