a scarf into a doll and handed it to Rosa, who, delighted, held it to her chest, murmuring to it in Spanish.
I met Olivia’s eyes. “She’s not the only one,” I said. “What about you? What are you going to do when this is over?”
“I know,” Olivia said, a note of pain in her voice as she watched the two of them laughing together. “I know that whatever happens, the Goddesses won’t be happy, and I’ll probably never see him again. But we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. Until then, I’m just gonna take what happiness I can get, and prepare to give them the fight of my life.”
We settled in, putting Olivia and Rosa in one of the upper bedrooms, Asa went back to the Robertson house, and all drifted into slumber, lulled to sleep by the rumbling of our temporary earth.
The next morning, we were awakened at dawn and taken to a barn on the south side that I had never seen before. It was empty, save for a long table, three feed sacks hanging from ropes, which were probably intended to be used as punching bags, and boxes of ammunition and weapons. It had an acrid, dusty man smell to it.
“All the guards trained in here,” a short, pimply guard said to me. “But we cleaned it out as well as we could last night.”
“Where’s Mother Morevna?” I asked.
But before either guard could respond, Mr. Jameson came through the back door of the barn with fifty men behind him. Some were tall, broad, experienced, and some looked younger and scrawnier than the two who had been our escorts this morning, and they shook in their boots as Mr. Jameson assembled them in two straight lines before us.
“This is it?” Zo said, leaning over to whisper to Judith.
“Good morning, girls,” said Mr. Jameson. “These here are all the guards and builders and volunteers I could muster in a day, but I’ll try to get some more. They’re ready, willing, and eager to learn everything y’all have to teach them about fighting Dust Soldiers, right, boys?”
“Yes, sir!” they said, some more enthusiastic than others.
“We’ve been here in this desert for as long as any of us want to be here,” he said. “And even if this is a long shot, we’re prepared to give it all we got to get out of here.”
He wasn’t just following orders, I realized. He really believed we could do this. For once in ten years, we’d offered him the chance to go back to his family, to make a difference, and he was going to pursue it with his whole heart.
“Now let’s get started,” he said, and with a gesture, he gave us the floor.
We exchanged glances. Then Olivia pushed me forward.
“Um…” I said nervously. “So as it is, the plan is to build a bunch of horses like the ones we have. The magic in them—Asa’s magic mixed with some of our own—is deadly to the Dust Soldiers when combined with weapons, so… we’re going to power the horses up with magic, and, when—if!—the Dust Soldiers come for us, we shut the doors of Elysium behind us and fight them as long as we can. If we can extend the Game to ten years and one day, we’ll break it, and…”
I swallowed. It was strange to be in front of everyone again, speaking to them like the leader I’d always hoped to be. I felt my heart had begun to speed.
“And we may have a chance to finally get out of here,” Olivia finished, coming forward to stand next to me. “So the plan is: While the builders build the horses, the soldiers learn to fight and the witches practice magic so they can serve as an artillery, kind of. So… builders! Come forward.”
About fifteen scruffy, hard-looking men came forward, and I could see how rough their hands were. Many of them had burns on their forearms from working with hot metal.
“I’m Susanah Mihecoby, inventor of the horses,” said Susanah, going to greet them. She was almost comically short compared to the tallest of them. “If you show me where the metal is, we can get started right now.”
Mowse ran out from behind Judith and came to stand by Susanah.
“I’m going too,” Mowse said. “I know how to build these.”
“Sure you do,” Susanah said. “But I had something different planned for you.” Susanah turned to Mr. Jameson. “Hey! Do y’all have a school here?”