“Call your Minister,” Tamara said.

“I… What? Really?”

“Call your Minister,” she said again, and advanced to meet the manikins, her club upraised like a bat.

I didn’t waste time. I turned to face that distant blue glow, cupped my hands around my mouth, and bellowed, “INDIGO!”

The light turned. I raised my flashlight and turned it on, flashing one of the few words I knew in the Light language at him: Go!

Tamara let out a cry, the sound weirdly muted by the rain; the manikins had converged around her. Indigo knew where we were; he’d come or he wouldn’t. I drew the ridiculously long knife Tamara had given me and waded over to help her.

Or so I tried. I’d barely gone two steps before another creature emerged from the rain, its snarls lost to the roar of the water. The mud underfoot was all that saved me; I slipped when I turned, and fell, and the manikin overshot me. It spun around on the ground, trampling the long grass, eyes glinting. I lifted the knife between it and me like I knew how to use it, like I could stand to use it even if I had. God of Blood, forgive me.

And then a dark blue light filled the air above me like a sweet smell, and Indigo’s blade swept down and through the manikin’s neck.

I scrambled back up, mud clumping to my side. Indigo’s dark hair was sleeked down with water, and his glance was cool. He left me in the mud to join Tamara, shrieking furiously beneath the weight of a bloodied manikin. Indigo’s blade sliced through its ribs, black blood bubbling viscous in its wake, and Lantern-Eyes got to her feet, grabbed her club, and bludgeoned the skull of a manikin that was creeping around to flank Indigo.

There was nothing I could do to help them with that battle. I fumbled with the hilt of Tamara’s massive knife, and hurried back to the little door. If it were rusted shut, maybe I could break through. If it were locked—

It was locked; the seams of the door were free of rust, though dripping with wet. There was a keypad beside the door, electronics long since shorted out. I glanced behind me to the field of battle. The manikins were fast, as fast as Indigo, almost too quick for me to track. I saw Indigo slice at one, catch another’s teeth on his wrist gauntlet. Lantern-Eyes’ club caught a third in the gut when it came up on Indigo from behind, slowing it long enough for Indigo to move smoothly out of its way. Indigo moved quickly, keeping himself between Lantern-Eyes and the main force of them, while the lieutenant crouched low and swung at any that tried to flank him.

There was more than one way to open a door. I felt along the edges of the door by the knob, found a gap between door and jam. I pulled out my notebook, hunching over to protect the paper from the rain, and slid the stiff plastic cover between door and jam, jerking it down.