We probably could have made it out, if we’d left the moment the alarm was raised. Jack certainly should have been the first to go; this was no place for children. Unfortunately the caretakers weren’t about to abandon the Sanctuary, and Jack wouldn’t abandon them. Rust wouldn’t abandon him, and so on and so forth. We were all staying.
Sarah took us to some very important controlling room at the center of this tunnel network. She showed us more televisions there, but these weren’t displaying people so much as lines. I thought I recognized one of them as a map of the mesa itself.
“We have infrared sensors set up at points all around the mesa,” she said, as if that meant anything to me. “Each red dot is a person.”
I took in a slow breath. There were hundreds of dots converging on the edges of the mesa. They were also encircling it, getting close enough to find its edge, and then spreading out to make sure there were no ways out.
“In less than a day, there will be thousands of soldiers here,” Rust said grimly. “If Sterling knows anything about your magic, he’ll want it for himself, and he won’t hesitate to sacrifice his entire army if it means gaining the power here.”
“Don’t worry; we planned for this,” Sarah said firmly. “It’s a backup plan, sure, but it’s still one we thought of ahead of time. Aru is getting an injection right now. In a few hours his sight will return, and a few hours after that, he’ll take the plane out for a flight.”
“What good will that do?” I thought about some of the wonders I’d learned about in the past two days. “Hugh told me about weapons from the old world. Uh, guns, he called them. Does the plane have guns on it? Or, you said the plane makes a lot of noise. Do you think it will scare the Torgans away?”
Rust let out a snort, and Sarah shook her head. “We’re a peaceful people. I know you do things differently- blood and fighting and death are all part of an ordinary day to you- but that’s not our way.”
I wanted to object- I hadn’t been doing this for very long, and I didn’t enjoy having to kill Torgan soldiers- but Sarah went on. “We have no guns at all, here or on the plane. And Rust knows that the Torgans are more afraid of their Governor than they ever would be of us. We’ll try to negotiate first, and speak to them. If that fails, we can use our knowledge to stop the attack.”
“How?” I insisted, and Rust followed up with a similar demand.
“It would take a while to explain, but you don’t have to be here for this. If you want, Aru can fly you two, and Jack, out of here. The land is flat in many directions. He can land you somewhere outside the desert, drop you off, and then fly back here.”
“I’m staying,” Jack’s voice put in, from right behind us, and I jumped again!
“Dammit, Jack!” I said exasperatedly. “Being sighted has only made you sneakier!”
I couldn’t really blame him, though. I was off my game today, and I should have known he’d want to listen in on this conversation.
“Mama risked her life to protect this place,” Jack said firmly, his brown eyes narrowing. “She didn’t even know everything that goes on here, and she still knew it was important enough to keep alive. I’m here, now, and I may be able to help. I’m not leaving, and you’ll have to tie me up and haul me away to make me. I wouldn’t try, if I were you. I’m a biter.”
Despite my shock, and amusement at his statement, I knew he meant it. He never did things in half-measures. I could see Sarah coming to the same realization. Eventually, she reached out and patted him on the shoulders. “All right, you can stay. But you have to promise to follow our instructions. If any of the caretakers, or these two, give you an order, you have to follow it right away, understood?”
Jack grinned. “You got it!”
“All right. Rust, you know more about the Torgans than all of us combined. How would we negotiate with them, if that’s even possible?”
Rust hesitated. “Well, I wouldn’t mention me, for one. They hate me pretty severely, and for good reason. But as for actual face-to-face diplomacy, they really only treat with people of equal power. Until you can prove your strength to them, they won’t even consider you worthy of conversation.”
“A show of strength, then,” Sarah responded, with a slight smile. “I think we can do that. Who would we be talking to? The Governor himself?”
“Not yet. His seat of power is to the east, in the city of Everyday Waters. Even if he left as soon as he got word about the kidnapped mulkurr, he would still be at least a day away. The officer in charge for now, is Lieutenant Marsden.”
His tone was sour, and I knew what he was feeling. If he’d killed Marsden when we’d had the chance, it might have delayed or disrupted this army. I grabbed his hand. “They can’t stay out there forever, though. They don’t have a water source, so they have to haul in water and food from outside the desert. Eventually, there will be too many soldiers and not enough water.”
“By then they will have broken in here. I felt that door out front, and it will hold for a while, but they will knock it down eventually. They’ll kill everyone, plunder your resources, and take your magic for themselves. It’s what Torgans do, or at least it’s what the Republic does. Before, they might have been willing to talk, but not for the last eighty years or so.”
Someone came in through the one entrance, hesitantly. It was Aru. “Sarah?”
“I’m here.”
“Sorry. Still can’t see just yet. I just got word from Hugh- their latest tests have been successful.”
“Wonderful! How long between deployment and effectiveness?”
“About four hours, so far. He’s working on making it faster, but he’s not optimistic.”
Sarah let out a breath. “It’s not ideal, but it should work. Tell him to start mass-processing immediately. As soon as you can take the plane up without crashing it, I want you out there.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said wryly, and she gave a smile of her own before he found his way back up the tunnel.
“Now we wait,” Sarah said into the quietness. “And hope.”
I was about to ask what exactly we were waiting for, when a loud horn-call sounded in the distance. Rust groaned, and then ran his hands along the wall as he left the room. We all followed him, up to the window. “Rust, what is it?”
“That’s the Governor’s announcement horn. He’s here. I guess he’s not willing to wait.”
