Chapter 45 Ezra
We had spent the evening planning every detail meticulously.
We would take ten of the strongest girls with us.
Liv and I would each lead a pair of girls while Raf and Helena would lead a trio each.
We divided the girls based on ability and readiness.
The less prepared ones would go in the larger groups, giving them more experienced fighters at their sides.
There were ten left in Verith, so the extractions would be divided accordingly.
Liv and I would secure three each and the remaining four would be split between Raf and Helena’s teams.
We mapped out the final locations of the girls using the original information that Helena and Raf gathered from the dream and the confirmation that Elsbeth had given us that there had been no whispers of girls being moved within Verith.
We tried our best to keep the extraction points for each group as close as possible.
Our goal this time would be to get in and out without incident.
The trips we had already taken into Verith had been slightly confrontational, and we could not afford that this time.
Our only hope was that whoever was feeding information to Stanhope would not know of this mission.
But if they did, we needed to get it done as quickly as possible, before the enforcers could find us there.
Our strategy was different this time. We did not speak of the mission beyond those who were going, and Margaret, of course.
Christine was not even allowed to be in the room for the planning.
We instructed each girl that they were not to speak of the mission.
This time we were certain that word would not get to Stanhope as quickly.
Our approach to travel was also different than every time before.
We did not travel near the wall or through the canal via sea.
This time, Helena led the line. She carved a tunnel far beneath the earth as we walked so we could pass under the wall.
The tunnel began on our side of the forest and would dump us into the shadows of the forest just outside of the city on Verith’s side.
“Alright, you will go here.” Helena pointed to a spot on the map.
“You here.” She pointed to another. “And the last two here and here.”
She had branched four different tunnels from the one we would emerge from.
We all had separate rendezvous points so that if we were seen exiting the tunnel here, they would not be able to catch us on our way back.
The four smaller tunnels would lead into the larger one where we would all travel back together and Helena would seal it behind us as we went.
“Please,” I took Liv’s hand in mine. “Be safe, do not do anything reckless.” I cupped her face in my hands and kissed her forehead. “Come back to me, Stellina.” She held my wrists and smiled up at me.
“I should be telling you the same.” She placed a soft kiss on my lips.
“But we both know that we will always find our way back to each other.”
I felt her along our soul bond. The warmth passed between us like a wave.
It should have calmed me. No matter how many times we did this, it never felt any better.
The anxiety clawed at me viciously. Liv gave me one last smile before turning and following Helena out of the tunnel.
Her words echoed in my mind, the same ones I had calmed Raf with.
‘I will always come back to you.’ I forced myself to continue believing her as I climbed out of the tunnel.
The forest was completely calm. Crickets chirped, and a light breeze rolled through carrying a winter chill.
We waited for one moment, two. There was nothing.
Liv held up a hand and reached with her powers, searching for the enforcers’ life forces.
Then, she silently shook her head. There was no one here.
If Stanhope did know we were coming, word of exactly how we planned to get here had not made it to him yet.
We arranged ourselves in our groups, gave a silent nod to signal that we were ready, and I allowed my shadows to seep across the forest floor and cover our paths into the city.
My heart thundered in my chest as we turned each corner and snuck through each alley.
I held up my hand to stop the girls behind me and pulled out my map where I had marked the locations of the girls.
One was just ahead. We only had to cross the street.
The second was a block from there, and the third only a little farther.
I reached with my shadows and searched the street for any sign that someone was waiting just beyond the darkness to ambush us. Again there was nothing.
The first girl’s house was quiet and quaint.
The parents let us in without question, having heard of the rebels who came to rescue the previous girls.
We waited only a few moments while they gathered their items and followed us out into the night.
There was no trouble collecting the second one either.
Her father acted strangely at first, though I could not blame him.
He said that he would not allow her to go without him and of course I did not refuse.
All family was welcome at the sanctuary.
I answered each of his questions and then stressed the urgency of our departure.
Then we collected the third girl. By the time we faced the forest’s edge some of the tension of the mission had eased.
So far, our planning seemed to have worked.
The true test would be whether the others were able to execute their extractions with as much ease.
I removed the brush from the mouth of the tunnel Helena had dug for us.
One by one the girls and their family members slid down into the darkness.
The dirt shifted beneath me as I followed them down.
We were completely blind and used the walls to guide us through the tunnel into the main chamber where we would meet with the others.
I felt Liv before the light flooded the space.
The last of the tension left me and my taut muscles loosened.
She had made it here before us and used her magic to light torches throughout the chamber.
Standing beside her were the fighters who left with her, three more girls, and two more family members.
It was not long before Rafael stumbled out of the dark hole that led to his tunnel.
He helped two small girls out of the hole and brushed the dirt from their nightgowns as he set them on the floor and his three fighters climbed out behind them.
Now we waited only for Helena. The ground rumbled before she crashed through her own tunnel followed by her fighters.
Two girls and their parents followed them.
“I already closed our rendezvous tunnels.” She smiled brightly as she dusted herself off.
I counted and then counted again. Fourteen of us had entered Verith, and not one of our own was missing.
None of us had even a scratch. Everyone looked genuinely happy.
Beside us stood all ten of the remaining girls and six of their family members.
I froze. We had actually done it. I pulled Liv into me and slammed my lips into hers, allowing our powers to tangle along the bond for the whole of the breathless kiss.
Perhaps this was what happened when we stopped reacting to Stanhope and started trusting one another.
Perhaps we had finally learned how to fight this war.
We traveled back quietly through the tunnel, Helena sealing it behind us.
When we resurfaced in the forest on the Torezian side of the wall, I could not help the sigh of relief that escaped me.
The remainder of our journey was joyful in a way the others had not been.
Liv and I walked hand in hand as we led the last of the at-risk girls away from Verith with our family beside us.
Raf and Helena joked and laughed, and the girls let out celebratory whoops that echoed through the forest.
When we got back to the manor, the moon hung high in the sky and the stars seemed to twinkle a little brighter.
They lit up the grounds and the front steps where Margaret waited with Christine and Eliza to welcome our new girls and get them settled in.
“I knew everything would work out.” Margaret smiled and nudged Helena with her elbow. We all retired to our rooms knowing that this was far from over, but for now, everyone was safe. I held Liv a little tighter than usual as we drifted to sleep.