eyes flickering from Mr. Jameson’s surprised eyes to mine, Lucy’s, and Olivia’s, then back to mine, where they stayed. “I have done what I can for this city, whether you realize it or not. Now I wash my hands of it. Leave me.” And Mother Morevna turned then and crept back up the stairs, shutting the door behind her.
Olivia and I blinked in astonishment. We’d expected a fight—my hand was never far from my components belt. We didn’t think it would be that easy, that she would just withdraw.
Anger welled inside me, dark and rolling as the mightiest dust storm. How ill is she? I thought, looking up at the closed door to her room. However ill she was, it wasn’t nearly cruel enough of a fate for someone who could set something like Dust Sickness loose on her people. I wanted her to hurt. I wanted her to suffer as my mother suffered, as Lucy suffered beside me right now.
“What’s the first order, Sal?” Mr. Jameson said. A jolt went through me. That’s right. We were in charge now. The safety of all of Elysium was on our shoulders.
“Um…” I started. Then Lucy squeezed my hand, and I stepped aside as she came to stand beside me.
“Let’s shut down the Dowsing Well first,” Lucy said. “That way we can at least slow the spread of the Dust Sickness.”
“Right,” Olivia said. “And we’ll get the horses finished as quickly as we can. I’m Olivia, by the way.”
“Lucy Arbor,” she said.
“So you’re Lucy!” Olivia said. “Sal’s told me a lot about—”
“And we’ll set up another line of defense,” I said. “Magical defense. So if they break our lines, we can still have a chance of holding them off.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Mr. Jameson said. The ground rumbled beneath us and almost threw us off our feet. “And now we don’t have a moment to lose.”
CHAPTER 24
5 DAYS
REMAIN.
The following day, the sky had already begun to darken. It was a dry, unnatural sort of cloudy that rumbled like stones sliding together, just as the earth rumbled below us, making the cattle nervous and setting the chickens into flight.
The Dowsing Well was closed, as per our orders, and people milled all around the other wells, carrying buckets and Coke bottles brimming with clear, un-cursed water.
In the barn, we separated ourselves into witches and fighters. Downstairs, Susanah and the builders hammered and sawed, welded and soldered, and we could see each horse being finished and put in a line behind the barn. Almost fifty now. Half of the hundred we’d need.
On the walls, Zo was with Mr. Jameson and the other sharpshooters, practicing with rifles we would try to enchant later. Their gunshots sounded rhythmically, bang bang bang bang, then stopped for them to load their guns full of whatever shrapnel they were using for bullets. Then again, almost loud enough to drown out the sounds of Judith teaching the guards to use javelins.
“You gotta hold it like this, see?” she was saying. “No, no, no! What are you, a grandma?”
And up in the loft, Cassandra, Olivia, and I pored over our books as, back at the house, Asa watched Rosa and gathered spell components for us.
“This isn’t any good, and neither is this!” Olivia said, pushing another book to the side. “We need something they can’t break through if they get past our line!”
“Here.” I handed her a napkin marked with my blood. “Try out whatever you want.”
Without looking at me, Olivia took the napkin, mumbled something from under her folded arms, and sent a whirlwind scattering papers and dust all around the room.
We spent the rest of the afternoon studying. But no matter what we did, no matter what we tried, the spell we needed seemed to elude us. We simply couldn’t find anything big enough, anything that covered the area we’d need. And what could stand up to a creature sent by the Goddesses to destroy us?
“What about Dust Dome?” Cassandra said suddenly.
“Uh, were you not there last time we cast that?” Olivia asked. “The Dust Soldier walked right through it.”
“Well, I just thought that it covers the right area,” Cassandra said.
“You have to be inside it to cast it,” Olivia said. “We’re looking for something we can cast behind us that can keep them from getting past us.”
“But what about Asa?” Cassandra said.
“Asa?” Olivia cocked her head. “He’s already set to power up the horses.”
“Last time we did Dust Dome, he was unconscious,” Cassandra said. “But his magic is like