Still, their wide grins were welcoming enough, a stark contrast to Atticus’s greeting. At least the rank and file were happy about their arrival.

As the drawbridge thudded to the ground, the men gathered behind it rushed out to greet them.

“Halt!” Marius yelled. “All men but the sentries are to form up in the courtyard immediately.”

The crowd dispersed, much to Cade’s relief.

“Come,” Marius said. “We will bring you food and water. We shall have to work through the night if we are to be ready to leave by morning.”

Across the bridge, log cabins scattered the grounds, with a larger and grander one at the camp’s very center. Marius motioned for them to enter.

“Make yourselves comfortable. I shall instruct the men.”

Despite Marius’s orders to assemble, the men were staring at Amber, Grace, Bea, and Trix. It was then that Cade noted that there was not a single woman present. From the uncomfortable looks of the girls, they had noticed this too.

“Come on,” Amber said.

The inside of the lodge was single story, the walls painted orange by a crackling hearth built into one of the walls. Beams of daylight sliced through the gloom, where shooting slits and broken slats perforated the old shell of the building.

It was a relief to sit on the old logs by the fire, but somehow they had little to say as they stared into the flames. Their long walk had given Cade plenty of time to think, but he hadn’t expected to find this.

Yes, there were soldiers. But the state of them and their camp had shocked him. These men were on their last legs. Two hundred of them against a thousand Grays? It was impossible.

As his mind drifted, Cade saw bundles of purple grass piled like straw beside the fire. Curious, he threw in a handful, and was surprised to see it smolder and feed the flame slowly and steadily, rather than burn up in a flash as he had expected.

Some time later, Marius came back. He sighed and sat heavily beside them, before glancing up at their apparent fascination with the burning grass.

“A godsend,” he said. “Or a curse, depending on how you look at it. The … Grays, you called them … they use this grass for everything. They pulp it and glue it to use as wood. They burn it for fuel, as we do. It is surprisingly versatile, though, sadly, we cannot eat it. We have ranged far and wide on this plain, and there is but grass, and the creatures that live here.”

“Before you go further, can you tell us how you know Quintus?” Cade asked. “Will he be … okay? With Atticus?”

Marius sighed deeply and stared into the flames.

“I knew Quintus when he was a legionary. I looked out for him where I could. We didn’t speak much, for I was his superior. But we were friends, of a sorts. As for Atticus. Who can say? If the boy answers his questions, he will be safe. If not…”