Fyra’s fingers flew as she continued to take notes, but Rio looked ahead with eyebrows drawing together. “These are good ideas. Citizens in the cities we’ve visited have been more than willing to help.”
With feet faltering, the unspoken message in his words weighed heavy on Talise’s heart. Her fingers found the hem of her muted blue tunic that had white leaves stitched around the bottom. A gift from Claye’s sister, Poppy. “But?” she asked as her thumb traced over the neat vine-like design.
The question dropped Rio’s shoulders at least an inch. “But we have a lot of soldiers. We’ve gained more in each city we’ve visited, which is wonderful. The more people loyal to you, the better.” His eyes shifted downward now, straight at his own boots. “But it’s a lot of people to take care of.”
Talise started pacing again. “We can figure this out. Tempest’s family owns a business, right? She must know something about making money. Maybe we can task some of the soldiers with making things to sell.”
Both Rio and Fyra offered little nods, but she could see in their eyes what they really thought of her suggestion.
The truth settled inside her, raking away the useless ideas in her mind. She looked at Rio, finally accepting the words as she spoke them. “The bottom line is, we’re out of supplies.”
“We’re running out.” He stood taller, as if eager to coax a little hope into her. “We still have enough for four to five weeks, especially if we can find a way to keep everyone warm at night.” A resigned sigh slipped from his mouth. “But we won’t make it through the whole winter with what we have.”
From far outside the tent, Wendy’s cheerful voice had joined the other soldiers sitting around fires. It brought a sense of strength but also a strong sense of purpose.
Talise turned back to Rio, clasping her hands in front of her chest. “I will help us figure this out.” She glanced back toward the tent opening and swallowed hard. “But we have to rescue the prisoners in Kessoku’s main base first.”
She had promised her best friend they would rescue those prisoners. Since Wendy’s brother, Cyrus, was among them, Talise had no intention of breaking that promise.
They had to rescue Cyrus before worrying about anything else.
TWO
TWIGS SNAPPED BENEATH TALISE’S FEET AS SHE entered the forest. The leaves no longer crunched underfoot because the frost had turned them soggy.
While hovering her hands over a pile of fallen branches, she used her shaping to sense earth in the wood. Luckily, there was none. That meant the branches had nothing living left inside.
She then shifted her shaping senses from earth to water. Reaching out, she found the last remaining droplets inside the branches and squeezed them out. Most of the water rested around the edge of the branches where frost had lingered only an hour earlier.
Once she siphoned the last of the water into a small puddle sitting away from the branches, she picked them up and dropped them onto a wool blanket from her own tent. While she worked, the scent of leather and soil drifted toward her.
Without even turning around, she could envision the smirk that was sneaking up from behind her.
“Are we going to have all our meetings in the forest now?” Claye’s hair looked even messier than usual, which didn’t seem possible. As she had imagined, a smirk accompanied his casual lean on the nearest tree. His eyes widened in mock horror. “What if a squirrel overhears our plans?”
She flicked a spray of water in his face before dropping to gather another bundle of dry branches from the ground. It did nothing to hide the blush in her cheeks that he most certainly saw. “We need more firewood. Quit whining and help.”
He gave a soft chuckle before he let out a series of exaggerated grumbles. “We can’t all shape fire in our veins like you do. I suppose us lesser shapers have to stay warm somehow, so firewood it is.”
She heard the compliment he didn’t quite say and chose to ignore it. Her cheeks were still burning when the others arrived. Rio set to work rearranging the wood on the blanket, so that more could fit.
Wendy began shaping water out of branches and logs. She had always been decent at shaping all four elements, but the time since graduation had only improved those skills even more. Tempest worked right beside her.
Fyra arrived last. It wasn’t strictly necessary to have her there, but after the six of them had stolen back the amulet together, it seemed right.
A jolt when through Talise when she remembered the amulet. It sat in her tent at the very bottom of her trunk. She had wrapped it in a sock and placed it right next to Aaden’s flame-carved dagger that she had yet to dispose of. Wendy would probably try to convince her to practice with the amulet soon. The thought sent a shiver through her every time.
Then again, if Talise could keep everyone busy enough, maybe her friend wouldn’t have a chance to mention it. All the more reason to start this meeting.
Talise stood tall, suddenly uncertain of whether she should put her hands at her sides or behind her back. They landed somewhere in between that definitely didn’t feel natural. “I promised the soldiers I would gather enough firewood to keep the fires burning through the night. So, if you don’t mind, let’s keep gathering wood while we talk about our plan.”
Asking didn’t have much purpose because nobody had stopped gathering firewood. Not wanting to feel unhelpful, Talise marched up to a fallen log and began shaping the water out of it.
“We need to rescue the prisoners from Kessoku’s main base, and we need to do it before three weeks from now. Kessoku gave the emperor three weeks to surrender, which I think we can all agree is not going to happen. Since they promised to kill the prisoners if the emperor refuses to surrender, we absolutely must rescue them before that deadline.”
Tempest narrowed her eyes at a branch, shaping so much water out of it that it looked withered when she had finished. “That’s plenty of time. We’re pretty close to the Ember Gate anyway, and we already know Kessoku’s main base is in a huge forest by the Ember Gate.”
“True, but how exactly are we supposed to rescue those prisoners?” Claye knelt over a log with his palm against it. “We can’t just sneak onto the base like we did by the Vine Gate. The main base will be way more heavily guarded.”
Fyra glanced at Claye as she bit her bottom lip. Her voice came out timid. “And they won’t have fewer patrols because of a vote. If anything, they’ll have more soldiers than we’ve ever seen before.”
After gathering all the fallen branches she could find, Talise twisted her shaping senses along the branches in the tree above her. She could feel earth flowing through the branches almost like the veins in her body. When she clenched her fingers into a fist, the branches snapped away from the tree. They broke away, and she levitated them carefully to the ground.
“We just need a distraction,” she said while drawing droplets of water out of the branches.
Rio rested one foot on a fallen log. “What about a battle? They’re expecting one, aren’t they? And we have an army.”
Tempest heaved a bundle of branches onto her shoulder. “That could work. If we start a battle on one side of the base, hopefully no one would notice when a small team of us enter on the other side. We could sneak in, free the prisoners, then leave the same way we entered.”