Chapter 29
TWENTY-NINE
Sloan
“Do you really think this is the best thing for your daughter?” Sloan wouldn’t let Croft’s domineering attitude intimidate her from asking the question. “She’s in a cage.”
“And what would you have me do?” Croft looked over at Sloan with a glare. “She’s too dangerous to just let out and allow to run wild through Azra. The body count would be horrific.”
“I understand that, but there has to be another option than this.”
Sloan and Croft stood on the opposite side of Croft’s long room, the same room Sloan had woken up in when Croft had entered her dreams and given her the blood to quench her thirst.
Vampire and witch stood on one side near Croft’s large bed at the opposite side of the room of Elizabeth’s steel cell. Abigail had brought a stool and sat with her sister on the opposite side of the bars.
Sloan’s heightened hearing allowed her to listen to the one-sided conversation.
“I don’t know how this darkness took hold of you so fast,” Abigail said in a soft calm voice, “but I’m here now. Whatever you think happened, whatever wrongs you feel I’d committed against you, I’m sorry, Liz. Please, forgive me, and give me a chance to make it up to you.”
Elizabeth sat quietly in her cell, staring up at the ceiling. She looked horrible. A red head full of tangles, baggy eyes as though she hadn’t slept in days, and dark clothes so crumpled it was obvious she hadn’t changed for as long as she had been in Azra.
“Do you remember when we were kids in Burrow Den?” Abigail chuckled to herself and shook her head.
Her laughter was sad. “What I’m saying is we’re still kids.
Do you remember when we were younger? You found that kitten in the woods.
Dad hated cats and would have made you put it back where you found it, so you hid it in your room? ”
Elizabeth’s eyes drifted toward her sister for the first time. She still didn’t speak.
“It smelled so bad in your room.” Abigail laughed again, but this time there was actual joy behind her words. “Every time it made a mew, you would cough or sneeze to hide the sound. You had Dad convinced you were coming down with a flu.”
“He made me go to the doctor’s.” Elizabeth smiled against all odds. “I had to convince the doctor I was fine, but Dad was convinced I was coming down with black lung disease. And my room reeked of cat poop and piss.”
Both girls talked in low whispers as they continued sharing their memories.
“She’s close,” Croft interrupted Sloan’s eavesdropping. “She won’t be ready to fight with us for the war that’s knocking on our door, but a few more days with Abigail and I think we can take her out of her cell, under supervision, of course, and with restraints that will hamper her magic.”
“Of course she’s not going to be ready to fight in this war.” Sloan looked over at Croft in disgust. “She’s a child and she’s been through more than both you or I. Give her a break. Let her take her time.”
“I don’t need advice on how to raise my daughters.” Croft looked menacing in the morning light that shown through her wall-sized windows. “And you can’t tell me the thought hadn’t crossed your mind of how much of an asset she could be if she were ready to fight on our side.”
Sloan remained quiet. The possibility had come to her, but she’d remained silent about it; as soon as the thought came about using Elizabeth as a weapon, she had silenced it. The youngest Ahab had been through enough.
“I see.” Croft read Sloan’s silence like a book. “When Leah comes, she will be beyond any of you, even Jack. I’ll deal with her. We’ll keep Jack in reserve if I falter. He’ll be the only one with a chance of taking her down if I fail.”
“You won’t fail.” Sloan shook her head. More than anything she understood warfare. There would be no room for doubt. “Have you heard back from the riders you sent to the other cities in the Outland?”
“I have. They’ve taken word to the cities that Azra will soon be under siege.
We sent out the call for aid to everyone we can.
The message has to travel in whispers, though.
Leah already has her vampire soldiers controlling Term to Burrow Den.
If we can convince any of those people to come, they will have to escape their own occupied city to come to ours. ”
“And you’re still convinced that allowing them to besiege Azra is the right move?”
“They’ll have the numbers and the weapons. We have to keep the high ground.” Croft hesitated for a moment. “What do you think? You’re the former captain. How will they come?”
Sloan remained quiet for a moment, thinking on everything she knew of Leah Eckert. The woman was swift and decisive. She would use her new vampire army as such.
“They’ll come quickly. Once we see them, they’ll attack at once.
” Sloan remembered the mage engine and the yellow eyes of the wolf head on the front of the machine.
“She still hasn’t showed us what her engine can do.
I think she’ll use that against our gates first. If she breaks them down.
I don’t know how long we’ll be able to survive inside the walls. ”
“Agreed. Cherub has ordered the gates reinforced and the walls raised. Still, that may not be enough, and we might not be able to get all of the work done in time.”
A harsh knock came on the door closest to Sloan and Croft.
“Come in.” Croft directed her attention to the door.
“Excuse me, but you asked to be informed of any troop movements.” Sasha walked in dressed in the Azra colors of white-and-gold.
Steel plating that looked like dragon scales hugged her body, with a white tunic showing off the Azra symbol in gold.
“We have reports that the vampire army left New Hope this morning. They’re traveling quickly with Leah.
They have the mage engine carrying a line of cars behind it this time.
We guess it’s full of supplies and weapons. ”
“How many days does that give us before they’re at our walls?” Croft looked to Sasha and Sloan for the answer. “How much time do we have left?”
While worry etched into the lines around Croft’s eyes, Sloan saw her glance at her two daughters on the opposite side of the long room. As much as this woman wanted to act like a hard case, it was clear her first concern were her daughters.
“The vampire soldiers are capable of covering miles in minutes.” Sasha looked at Sloan for a consensus. “Two, maybe three days?”
“I think you’re right.” Sloan shared the information she had been thinking about since she understood the attack was coming. “I’d say two days. Leah will push them hard. They’ll attack during the night when their soldiers are their strongest.”
“How many soldiers is she bringing?” Croft had asked the question as if she actually didn’t want to know the answer at all. “Scouts say nearly ten thousand.”
Sloan’s heart dropped in her chest. She knew Leah had been turning humans into vampires day and night; still, to turn so many in such a short amount of time was mind-boggling.
“We’ll be outnumbered nearly three, maybe four to one.” Croft took a moment to look each woman in the eyes before she continued. “It’ll be up to us as leaders to inspire courage. Two days. Two days left to prepare for a war the likes this world has never seen. Let’s make them count.”