Page 270 of Phoenix's Fire

Guns were everywhere. Ayla wanted to keep collecting those, but would she still feel the same now? They had grenades. For all I knew, they'd won, but had they taken our dead this time, or just killed us? And if they were no longer hunting us for food, then what?

Something had to change. We couldn't keep repeating the same tactics over and over, thinking we'd stop them. All these fights were doing was destroying our friends, families, and homes. The Moles had to be worried about food, but we were worried about surviving.

But a glimpse of gold up ahead banished my worries from my mind. Ayla had a few guns slung over her shoulder and was crouching to pick up another. Beside her, Holly's brindle color was almost invisible against the trees and leaves around us, but both of them were fine. Healthy.

Safe.

"Ayla," I breathed, smothering her in a hug as soon as I reached her. "Is everything okay?"

She nodded. "Yes. They were able to tell me a lot."

"And?" I pressed.

"They don't have the code," she admitted. "It's four numbers, but neither is high enough to be trusted with it. I do have a letter from Callah, but Tobias said she's staying."

"What?" I gasped, pulling back to make sure she wasn't trying to tell some kind of joke.

"Zasen!" Ayla hissed. "We grew up the same way, seeing the same things, and complaining about the same problems. Women aren't inferior. We're the ones who keep the men alive. I've said it, but so has Callah, and now she's doing something. She wants to help, and she's in a position to destroy them."

"How?" I asked, trying to wrap my mind around what she was saying.

Those perfectly blue eyes of hers locked with mine. "Rebellion. If women work together, the entire system down there stops, and Callah says she's the one person who can do it. She has me out here, Tobias to go between us, the girls know her, and she's about to be one of the wives." But Ayla's lower lip trembled slightly. "They lowered the marriage age to eighteen."

"Is she safe?" I asked.

Ayla jiggled her head in a nod, but it didn't look like she completely believed it. "Tobias will be her husband. As a friend, he said - but what if he's lying?"

"Then I will show you how to cut off his balls, and I'll hold him for you."

She nodded once. "Okay. But we need to get the guns and leave, because they said the Moles will come back to get their things from camp. They have to, because they'll burn without the shelters."

"Let's go," I said, wrapping my arm around her shoulders and moving her to my side. "Holly, guard Ayla."

Which made Ayla flash me a smile of appreciation, but I'd also put myself between her and the direction the Moles had gone. I wasn't much of a shield, but she wasn't a large woman. Combined, I hoped it would be enough to get us far enough away before they came back.

But the groaning of a man made both of us pause. "There," Ayla said, pointing.

A Mole. I'd hoped for a Dragon, but of course it was one of them. Sighing as if annoyed, Ayla pulled an arrow from her nearly full quiver, then marchedover to him. Completely ignoring her bow, she looked down at the man and smiled.

"You are not Righteous, and I hope this hurts," she said before stabbing the arrow into his leg. The poisoned arrow.

Then she turned and continued on the way we'd been going without remorse. Even I felt more guilt than that, but I hadn't survived twenty years of hell with these people.

Sadly, not everybody we found was one of theirs. We came across a blue man with yellow stripes, but he was gone. Ayla helped me drag his body into the bushes and cover it. Hopefully we'd be able to come back for him, but simply keeping the Moles from getting him would have to be enough.

We were just finishing up when something rustled. Immediately, we both froze, but Holly began to growl. Ayla followed her dog's eyes - then tensed. I leaned to see what she was looking at, and saw a black-clad leg.

"Mole," I said, pushing to my feet to finish off what must be a wounded man.

Slowly, Ayla stood. The man thrust his arm forward, but then he saw her. "Ayla, help?" he begged.

"She's not here to help you," I said, giving my tail a flick to extend my stinger fully. "You want him, Ayla?"

I made it two more steps without her answering. This man had clearly dragged himself an impressive distance. Too bad for him, he'd gone the wrong way. But something about her silence made me pause to look back.

She was simply staring.

"Ayla?" I asked.