She knew more of him, much more, but left it at that.
“They want the city, Hargrove, and as many key officials as they could take. But equally, they want the magickals, dark and light, in containment there. They want the locations of other containment camps. However much White wants D.C., its symbols, its structure, and whatever’s left of its resources, his reason for being is still to destroy us.”
“He’s going to die disappointed.”
She smiled at her father. “Yeah, he is. Because he’s not going to take D.C. We are.”
“Whoa.” Jonah picked up the beer he’d set aside. “Even if we managed to hook up with the resistance there, we’d be outnumbered a hundred to one. We’ve treated escapees from D.C. in the clinic. It’s a daily bloodbath.”
“Today we’d be outnumbered. We won’t be when we take it, and we will take it. It starts here.” She turned back to the first map. “With Utah, South Carolina. And Arlington.”
* * *
Fallon waited until full dark before she walked away from the house with Tonia and Flynn. Lupa walked by Flynn’s side.
“I wanted to leave him with Joe and Eddie, but…” He laid a hand on Lupa’s head. “He wouldn’t have it.”
“He’s welcome.”
Flynn had a rifle strapped over his shoulder, a knife on his belt. Tonia had her bow and quiver, her knife, and Fallon her sword and shield.
When she lifted her arm, the white owl glided out of the dark to land on it.
“Okay. Who’s better at scouting than an owl?” Tonia decided. “You know, we shook them pretty good tonight.”
“I wish we had more time, but we don’t. Flynn, you’ve been with them from the beginning.”
“And younger than either of you when we started. They’ll handle it. It’s hard, you’re their children, but they’ll handle it.”
He’d never taken a mate, Fallon thought, though she knew he’d taken lovers here and there. She wondered why.
Nobody’s rung the bell, he said in her mind, and added a half smile when she winced.
Sorry. “Then let’s get started,” she said out loud. “Before we do, I’m aiming for a spot about a half mile from the base. I’m estimating, as I couldn’t risk going into the crystal, leaving a trace to pinpoint it more exactly.”
“Won’t we leave that trace tonight?” Tonia asked.
“I’m going to use a cloaking spell.” She took charm pouches out of her pocket. “Keep them on you,” she said, then laid her hands on their arms.
“From friend and foe alike, we are hidden from their sight. Though within us burns the light, it leaves no trace upon the night. They may look but will not see. As I will, so mote it be.”
“We’re going to be invisible?” Tonia slipped the pouch into her pocket, patted it. “So, so cool.”
“Not invisible—though very cool. More like shadows, shapes. Magickal searching spells should pass right over us.”
“Should?”
“There are spells to counteract cloaking spells. We have to risk it. Any trouble, we flash out. We can’t risk the whole mission. Ready?”
They flashed onto a deserted road that cut through a stretch of empty houses. Some had been burned to the ground—a waste of resources and shelter. Someone more enterprising and practical had dismantled others to the foundation, and a handful more still stood, window glass smashed, doors removed or hanging open.
As she scanned what had been a neighborhood before her birth, she felt it.
“They left the dead,” Fallon stated.
“Where?” Hand on her knife hilt, Tonia scanned the area.
“In the houses. There are still remains from the Doom in some of the houses. Children would have played here once. Friends would have gathered on patios, like we did tonight. Now there are rats.”
She watched one tunnel through the high weedy lawn as they walked.
“A half mile,” Flynn said. “And still some housing, easily repaired. When we take the base, we could use this as an outpost, a checkpoint.”
They followed the road, then into what had been a small park. Now the trees had thickened and wild things grew in a kind of mad splendor.
“Probably snakes,” Tonia said.
“Probably.”
They saw deer, a red fox, a lumbering possum, crossed a thin stream clogged with debris.
Both Fallon and Flynn stopped, heads cocked.
“Elf ears,” Tonia muttered. “Both of you. What do you hear?”
“An engine.” Flynn glanced at Fallon, nodded. Lupa stayed by her side as Flynn blurred away in the dark.
“He’s going to look. The base should be just a couple hundred yards to the east, and the engine’s coming from the road that leads