“Zoe!” thundered Jared. He’d just noticed her talking to us. “Get over here and—”
“I’m getting a report in,” exclaimed the Alchemist on communication. She was sitting beside a guardian who was sharing the monitoring duty. They were both in headphones, with laptops in front of them, and he gave a nod of agreement. “Both teams are in—but there are apparently mines on the property.”
Sydney clenched my hand, and a terrible silence descended on all of us as we waited for more. Alicia’s face came to mind, taunting that we’d never get through to Jill.
“Mines have been bypassed,” the guardian said several minutes later. We all exhaled in relief, only to tense up once more. “They’re engaging the enemy combatants now.”
Even with the headphones’ dampening, I could hear the crackle of urgent dispatches from those raiding the compound, as well as what sounded like gunshots. Sydney leaned against me again, one of her hands resting on the little wooden cross necklace I’d painted for her long ago. Minutes felt like hours, and through it all, I just kept thinking, I should be there, I should be there.
Why? sneered Aunt Tatiana. What good would you be without spirit? Your wife wouldn’t let you use it there, remember?
A grin suddenly broke over the guardian’s face as he listened to the latest message. “They’re in. The upper levels of the compound have been seized. All combatants detained.” He paused as more information came in. “No casualties on our side.” In a surprising moment of solidarity, he and the Alchemist high-fived, but I couldn’t share their joy, not yet.
“Do they have Jill?” I demanded. “Do they have the princess yet?”
The guardian shook his head. “They’re going for her now. She’s being held in the basement, but they did some heat sensing, and there’s only one person there. All evidence points to a Moroi of her size.”
I drew Sydney to me in a crushing embrace, burying my face against her hair. “It’s over. It’s finally over.” I wasn’t one for tears, but I felt them coming to my eyes at the thought I’d soon be reunited with Jill.
“I— Yes. What’s that?”
I turned to the Alchemist in headphones and realized he was talking to someone on the other end, not to us. A frown creased his features, and then he looked up at us. “Someone wants to speak to you, Mrs. Ivashkov.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sydney’s father glare at the name.
“Me?” Sydney asked, accepting the headphones handed over to her. She put them on and sat on the chair, joining a conversation we could only hear half of. “What do you mean? I see . . . are there any markings? Any objects? Okay . . . no, you could be right. Just wait . . . I’ll come. Yes.”
She stood up and took the headphones off. “What’s going on?” I asked.
“That was Eddie,” she said. “He was with the group about to raid the basement, but then, at the last minute, he made them stop at the entrance.”
“Why?” asked Zoe.
Sydney met my eyes. “He said it smelled like Ms. Terwilliger’s house.”
For a minute, I thought she was suggesting Jackie was there, and then I caught on to the inference he’d made. “You think there’s some kind of magic use going on down there?”
“Alicia was the one who caught Jill for them,” Sydney remarked. “It’s possible she left some kind of trap in place. It would also explain why there were no Warriors on guard down there.”
“Probably because they all ran up to fight in the initial assault,” her dad said.
Alicia’s words echoed back to me: You’ll never get to her! You’ll never get through to her! A feeling of dread settled into my stomach. “No, there’s something there.”
“They’ve suspended things until I can get out there to look,” said Sydney. Her eyes met mine. “You coming with me?”
There was no need to ask, and we both knew it. A guardian drove us out to the site, which was outside of the city proper. No surprise there, as fanatics tended not to build their strongholds in civilized areas full of other people who might call the police. Desert terrain dominated, albeit in a different way from Palm Springs. The rocks and ground were a red that looked striking in the setting sun, with little patches of scrubby vegetation here and there. The compound itself was a wide, one-story building surrounded by barbed wire. Alchemists and guardians patrolled the area side by side, and I could see where they had rounded up and contained the enemy Warriors. Dimitri met us as we got out of the car.
“This way,” he said, gesturing forward. “We think there are still mines in the area. I’ll take you on a path I know is safe.”