"Then she left you to starve." Gray said without compassion. "Arabella only cares about Arabella. Now, tell us what you know."
"I don't know the whole plan, but she was going to let the virus weaken the population of Palumbra, then a few days later she planned to attack."
"Did she really have an army to use?" Tristan asked.
Elton shook his head. "No. She had a hundred soldiers or so, but she figured that would be enough."
"Against an entire city of people?" Gray looked bewildered. "That's insane."
Elton twisted his wrists against the rope restraints. "You didn't see the way the virus ripped through Bellus. So many people died. It would have been easy to overpower Bellus with just a handful of troops. She's betting the same thing happens in Palumbra."
Tristan returned to the bench where Ginger lay and looked out the window where he could just make out the other hovercar. His gaze lingered on the shallow rise and fall of Ginger's chest. "Why would they stop out here? It doesn't make sense. There's no strategic value to these woods."
"How many soldiers did she have with her?" Gray asked Elton.
Elton shrugged. "Maybe 10? She sent most of the other soldiers on ahead of her to stake out positions outside Palumbra, but nothing was supposed to happen before she was here to oversee the attack."
Gray pointed out the window. "Why would she stop here?"
"I have no idea. That wasn't part of the plan, as far as I know."
"What are we going to do?" Emery asked. "Ginger still needs help."
Gray pondered their options. Ginger had to be their first priority, but could they just leave the enemy hovercar without investigating it? What chance did they have if it was Arabella?
"We should press on into Palumbra and get Ginger the help she needs. We can let Cleo know that we think Arabella is out here."
Tristan nodded, but Emery objected. "What about those screams? We should at least get close enough to make sure no people are in danger."
Gray raised his eyebrows at Tristan in a silent question. Tristan once again studied Ginger's still form then nodded his head slightly at Gray.
"OK, Emery. We'll get as close as we can."
###
Maeve's mouth dropped open. Across the clearing, wielding a gun and looking triumphant next to a hovercar stood Arabella. She motioned to the guards next to her, and they warily approached the now silent and still plagorans. Maeve closed her mouth and fisted her hands in anger that Arabella had gunned down the creatures she had tried so hard to keep from harm. Once more, Maeve started toward Arabella.
"Maeve, you can't go out there." Amelia grabbed her arm, but Maeve shook her off and kept walking. Amelia hurried to catch up.
"What are you doing? You can't let her know we're here." Amelia pulled on Maeve's arm again, digging in her heels and forcing Maeve to stop.
"She killed them. She killed them for no reason."
Patrick jogged up to them. "She had a reason. It's the same reason we wanted them."
Maeve turned to him. "She wants their venom? Why?"
"She probably needs it for a vaccine. Can't have her troops catching the virus by accident, can she?" Patrick grabbed Maeve's other arm. "But you still can't go out there. We have to get that venom back to Palumbra."
Before Maeve could respond, Amelia dropped her arm and twisted to look back into the clearing. "What is she doing?"
"Who?" Patrick asked.
"Private Campbell. Why is she crossing the clearing?"
The three of them watched as Private Campbell got halfway across the clearing then shouted something to the guards around Arabella. The guards parted and Arabella stepped forward. She said something that Maeve couldn't hear, and Private Campbell continued across the clearing, stopping to speak to Arabella when she reached the other side. Private Campbell gestured toward the tree line where they were standing, and Maeve, Amelia and Patrick shrunk back into the shadows.
A guard handed something to Arabella who raised it to her mouth and began speaking. Her magnified voice echoed through the clearing.
"So, Maeve, you somehow survived. Too bad it won't be for long." She let out a cackle that sent shivers down Maeve's spine. "I'm going to need you and your friends to come out of those trees."
No one moved. As long as Arabella and her guards couldn't see them, she couldn't shoot them.
"Tsk. Tsk." Arabella's voice rang through the clearing again. "Are we really going to play this silly game? Come now, Maeve. We all know I hold the key to making you do whatever I want." Arabella reached behind her and pulled someone forward. One of her guards pointed a gun at the person's head. "Do you want him to live?"
Maeve rushed into the clearing. "Thomas!" she screamed. "Don't hurt him, Arabella!"
"Tell your friends to come out of whatever hole they're hiding in."
Maeve gave an apologetic look at the tree line as Patrick, Amelia and Private Thompson emerged from the trees with their guns raised over their heads. Patrick shot her a murderous look as he moved to stand next to her.
"Great strategy," he muttered as Arabella directed them to put down their weapons. They threw their guns down in front of them.
"I couldn't let her kill Thomas."
"She's not going to kill him, Maeve. He's her only leverage over you. That would be a stupid move. You gave up any advantage we had."
Maeve said nothing. Patrick's words made some sense. Arabella was clearly holding onto Thomas for a reason, and she wouldn't get rid of him until he had served his purpose. She replayed Patrick's words in her head. Something didn't make sense. Arabella thought she was dead, so she didn't need Thomas as leverage over her; that was just a happy coincidence for Arabella. What else could she need Thomas for?
"What do we do now?" Amelia asked. Private Thompson stared at the ground, and Maeve looked around for Rufus. Where had he gone?
"I guess we wait to see what she does next. Be ready to run when I say so."
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
Gray stopped the hovercar in the trees on the opposite side of the clearing from the other hovercar. Arabella's voice rang through the air, but he couldn't make out her words.
"Can you see what's going on?" Gray asked Emery who was perched on the seat next to him.
She shook her head. "They're too far away." She squinted then pointed slightly off to the right. "What is that?"
Gray followed her finger and saw a large shape loping through the underbrush toward the hovercar. It was large and dark, and Gray hoped it wasn't another genetically engineered creature for them to fight. As the shape came closer, Gray's hand hovered over the controls.
"It's Rufus!" The cry came from Tristan who had twisted around to look out the window with Ginger's head still cradled in his lap.
Gray hit the control to open the door and clambered out of the hovercar, closely followed by Emery. Even Elton lifted his head to take in the scene. Rufus jumped up and put both paws on Gray's shoulder, licking his face.
"Hey, boy." Gray rubbed Rufus's ears. "How did you get out here?"
Rufus dropped to all four paws, then tugged on Gray's sleeve and started pulling him forward. "What is it? Do you want us to follow you?" Rufus continued pulling on Gray's sleeve so hard that the fabric began to rip. Gray gently pried Rufus's mouth off his sleeve, and said, "OK, boy. We're coming." He turned to look over his shoulder. "Emery come with me. Tristan, can you have the hovercar ready to go?"
Tristan nodded. "Be careful."
Emery and Gray followed Rufus, who had picked up the pace when he realized they were following him. He ran ahead of them, doubling back when they fell too far behind. Finally, they reached the edge of the clearing, and the sight in front of him left Gray feeling both horrified and relieved. Maeve and some other people were standing on the side of the clearing waiting for Arabella's guards to cross the clearing to them. Arabella stood in the doorway of the hovercar with a tight grip on Thomas's shoulder.
With Arabella's guards fast approaching, Gr
ay motioned to Emery and Rufus to stay where they were. Emery grabbed Rufus's collar and told him to sit. Gray crept forward until he reached the edge of the tree line, careful to remain hidden in the shadows.
"Maeve," he said in a loud whisper.
She started but didn't move otherwise.
"I'm behind you. We have a hovercar. We can make it back there, but you're going to have to move now."
Maeve's head bobbed slightly to let him know she had heard him. He saw her take a deep breath, then she and the others sprinted for the tree line. Bullets rained around them. The man on Maeve's left stumbled as they reached Gray, but Maeve grabbed his arm and pulled him along. Emery and Gray sprinted with them, Gray taking over Maeve's spot helping Patrick. Rufus ran to the tree line, then back to Gray, whining, then sprinted off into the woods.
"Rufus!" Maeve cried. She started chase after him.
"Maeve," Gray said sharply. "We can't. Follow Emery. We have to get back to the hovercar."
A bullet plunked into the tree next to him, underscoring the urgency.
Maeve looked sadly in the direction Rufus had run but nodded to acknowledge Gray's words. The hovercar came into sight, and Gray heaved Patrick's arm over his shoulder and urged him onward.
Emery reached the hovercar first and scrambled into it, followed by Private Thompson, Amelia and Maeve. Maeve turned to help Patrick and Gray through the door. Gray hit the button to close the door as a black streak came flying out of the woods and into the car.
"Rufus," Emery exclaimed. She threw her arms around him and buried her face in his fur.
Gray rushed to the front of the car and traded places with Tristan, pushing the car to its limits of speed and maneuverability to get them away from Arabella's guards. "Get down," he yelled as bullets plunked the side of the car. Gray worked the controls and pulled away from the guards following them. No one spoke as they huddled on the floor, heads below the windows. After several minutes, the plunking sound stopped, and the only noise was the hum of the hovercar engine.
Gray turned his head to see Maeve climbing to her feet and making her way across the car to stand next to him.
"Hi," she whispered.
Gray took a careful look at the landscape in front of the hovercar, then pulled her into his embrace before dropping his lips to hers. He could feel her sink into him and relief swept through him that she was alive and back in his arms. Reluctantly, he pulled away from her but kept his arm wrapped around her waist as he turned back to the hovercar controls. She leaned into his side and looked around for the first time since they had entered the vehicle. Her eyes widened when she saw Ginger's still form on the seat, her head once again cradled in Tristan's lap. She pulled away from Gray and took a step toward Ginger. Gray held his breath as her eyes landed on Elton. She turned back to him, disbelief written across her face.
"What is he doing here?"
Elton raised his head, and his tortured eyes met Maeve's. The silence lengthened. Maeve clenched her fists and looked back at Gray. "Why is he here?"
Gray opened his mouth to answer, but Tristan spoke first. "I found him at the oasis when we stopped to look for Thomas. Arabella left him behind."
"So what?" Scorn dripped from Maeve's every word. "You took pity on him and brought him back with you? He didn't show any concern for us when he was turning us over to Arabella."
Gray placed a hand on her arm. "It's not ideal, but Arabella betrayed him, too."
Maeve shook off Gray's hand and marched over to stand directly in front of Elton. "You killed Shalara. You almost killed Emery and me. Emma is still sick, and if we don't get this," she held up the plagoran venom, "back to Palumbra soon, she will die. Thomas is still with Arabella. And you expect me to feel sorry for you because Arabella abandoned you after she had no use for you?"
Elton refused to meet Maeve's eyes and instead stared at the floor. "I'm sorry. I don't have a good excuse. I was so caught up in my own issues that it never really made much difference to me what happened to anyone else. As long as I was safe, everything seemed justifiable."
He shook his head. "I know that's not enough, and it never will be."
"You're right. Nothing you do will ever be enough." Maeve turned her back on him and took the two steps across the car to where Ginger lay unconscious in Tristan's lap. She watched as he gently stroked Ginger's hair and tucked a wayward strand behind her ear. The gentle look in Tristan's eyes made Maeve wonder if there were some unexplored feelings between the two. She fell to her knees next to Ginger and asked, "What happened to her?"
Tristan explained how she had fallen off the cliff, and how Gray had rescued her. "Do you know where her injuries are? Do we have any medical supplies?"
Tristan nodded his head in the direction of Ginger's leg. "Her leg is broken, but she might have internal injuries, too. We did the best we could to splint her leg. We're just trying to keep her warm until we can get back to Palumbra."
Emery settled on the floor next to Ginger. "Can you help her?" she asked.
"I'm not sure there's much more I can do for her than you guys did without any kind of medical supplies. Let me look at her leg."
Tristan pulled the blanket back. Ginger shifted restlessly, but Maeve couldn't tell if it was from pain or from the dissipating warmth now that the blanket had been lifted. Gently, she examined Ginger's leg, then motioned for Tristan to pull the blanket back into place.
"You guys did a decent job. There's not much more I can do for her until we get her back to Palumbra."
"Is that where we're going?" Patrick asked in a pained voice, and Maeve turned her attention to him. Private Thompson had used his shirt to bandage Patrick's leg.
"Can I look at it?" she asked.
Patrick shook his head. "It's fine. The bullet didn't hit anything important, just grazed my thigh." Maeve took another look at the bandage and noted that the bleeding seemed to have stopped, so she moved back to Gray. Despite their circumstances, he smiled down at her and pulled her back up against him as if he needed to touch her to make sure she was real. "Want to introduce me to your friends?"
Maeve made the introductions, then Patrick limped over to Gray.
"What's your plan, soldier?"
Gray looked up, a question on his face, when Patrick called him soldier. "Even if I didn't know Maeve, I would know who you are. There are lots of questions about why you and he," he pointed at Tristan, "went AWOL. Lots of rumors that you were on some top secret mission, which apparently turned out to be true."
"I guess so, sir," Gray replied.
"So," Patrick reiterated. "What is your plan?"
Gray glanced over his shoulder before returning his gaze to the terrain in front of him. "We need to get Ginger some medical help, and we need to turn Elton over to the authorities, so we're heading back to Palumbra. There's also the matter of that venom." He looked at Maeve. "Can you tell me what's going on? You said Emma is sick."
Maeve nodded. It took her a minute to answer Gray as she choked back her guilt and worry. "She got too close to me. John had seen this virus before, and he found one dose of the cure in the New Government's storage." She closed her eyes and swallowed. "Emma insisted that he give it to me." Maeve couldn't continue. A huge lump clogged her throat when she thought of the sacrifice Emma had made to keep her alive.
Patrick picked up the story. "We can make more of the cure, but we needed plagoran venom. Maeve is the only person who has seen a plagoran recently, so she joined our group to find them. We got the venom, but then Arabella showed up and killed the plagoran. One of my soldiers betrayed our hiding place."
"A Palumbran betrayed you to Arabella?" Tristan asked. "Why?"
"Because Arabella either has something to hold over the soldier's head or she promised them something they couldn't resist." Elton's quiet voice answered the question. All heads turned toward him. "It's how she works. She got Maeve to do what she wanted by threatening her friends. She got me to do horrible things because she understood my need for sa
fety and power. She'll use any form of threat or manipulation to get her way. That's why she's dangerous."
No one spoke, but Elton's words lingered in the air. The thought that maybe Elton had learned a lesson flitted through Maeve's head, but she pushed it aside. She noticed the view outside the hovercar had changed from the hilly land outside Palumbra to more closely resemble the woods that ringed the city. The hovercar came to a silent stop.
"Why are we stopping?" Patrick asked, turning to look out the window in front of Gray.
"I think this is as far as we can go," Gray said, pointing at a line of soldiers ahead of them. They were far enough away that the soldiers hadn't seen them yet, but they could tell that these weren't Palumbran.
"Anyone interested in a return trip to the tunnels?" Gray asked with a wry smile.
CHAPTER FIFTY
Maeve looked at the battered group assembled around the old well. They needed to get into the tunnels before they were caught by Arabella's troops, but as her gaze scanned from Patrick and his wounded leg to Tristan carrying Ginger's limp form in his arms, she wondered how they would all get down the ladder.
"I'll go down first and make sure the tunnels are clear," Gray said. "Send Emery down next."
"I should go first," Patrick said. "This is supposed to be my mission."
Gray motioned to the blood now seeping through the makeshift bandage on Patrick's leg. "You're wounded, and we don't know what's down there. I'm familiar with the tunnels, and I'm all in one piece."
"Which is a change from the last time we did this," Maeve said. The edges of Gray's lips twitched upward. "But how are we going to get Ginger into the tunnels?"
"I'll carry her over my shoulder," Tristan said. "Probably not the best thing for her leg, but it's the only way."
"We need to get her some real help soon." Maeve chewed on the side of her thumb, trying not to let her concern for Ginger overwhelm her. She didn't want to worry the others, but the longer Ginger was unconscious from fever, the more troubling her condition became.
The Lost City: The Palumbra Chronicles: Book Two Page 28