“Are you sure?” We’d heard that rumor days ago and nothing had appeared to come of it. Maybe she was wrong. She had to be wrong. I needed more time.

“He’s tired of his soldiers dying in the desert,” Latia intoned. “He knows Cion cares about these people. Your father’s counting on the fact he’d rather give you up than watch them all die of thirst.”

Cion was lost in thought. “We’ve been in worse situations before.”

“We’ve never had all access to the wells cut off like this,” Latia said.

“The people will revolt,” I said.

“It won’t do them any good,” Latia replied. “The wells will be empty unless we can break the controls.”

Cion paced back and forth, running his hand through his hair. “He’s flushing us out. It feels like a trap to me.”

“Of course it’s a trap,” Latia said. She pulled at the end of her braid, and for the first time since arriving that night she resembled the unsure girl I was used to. “Kateri should just give herself up now.”

Cion shook his head. “That won’t help anything. We need a plan.”

“We don’t have time for a plan,” Latia replied.

“Then we have to go tonight,” Cion said. He eyes swung to the sky, heavy with stars. “If we left now, we could break into the palace and search for the controls.”

“It’s suicidal,” Latia said. “You can’t get into the palace. It’s not like the city wall that’s unguarded. Its main gate is manned, and the only time the palace wall is fully patrolled is at night. I can get in, but I can’t get the rest of you in with me.”

Cion dug his foot into the sand.

I stared off toward the city lights and the arena that rose above them.

“The arena,” I whispered.

Cion and Latia turned their attention to me.

“What?” Cion said.

I pointed. “The arena has an access tunnel to the palace to transfer the tigers in and out. It’d be a lot easier than trying to make it over the wall. It would bring us in on the lower levels.”

Cion studied the shadow in the distance. “How many guards would we be facing?”

“There aren’t any soldiers guarding the arena.” No one was stupid enough to want to go in. “There are maybe one or two locked doors we’d have to pass through, and there might be some tiger trainers in the small prep room off to the side of their cage. Once we’re past that, it’ll be pretty quiet down there.”

Cion looked to Latia. “What do you think?”

“It’s too risky,” Latia said.

I stepped forward. “All we have to do is pick the lock and face a few soldiers.”

“We?” Latia asked. “I didn’t know you could pick locks too.”

“Dimic,” I said, remembering how he opened the lock on my shackles. He’d said he was the best lock picker out of all the boys. I switched my focus to Cion. “He could do it. I could take the Desert Boys through the tunnel in the arena.”