“Now.” The harness loosened around me and I shoved the ropes off my shoulders and stomach, shoved aside the blankets, too. Hardly realizing what I was doing, I hopped onto Acid Breath’s foreleg and slid down, then ran toward the wreckage.
Inside the building was even worse. There was the kitchen area where Sam and I had burned so many meals because we’d been kissing and lost track of time; now the contents of the cupboards lay scattered on the floor, crushed and spilling open.
There was the screen where I’d watched videos of my father experimenting on sylph; now it was cracked and hollowed out.
There was the sleeping area where Sam had sat next to me one afternoon and, for the first time, told me that he loved me; now the mattress was shredded, its foam and wool like snow on the floor.
In the back, the upper story had collapsed into the lab, crushing machines and crates filled with Menehem’s clothes and old gear. The cracked screen of a data console shimmered in morning light, which shone through holes in the roof and the open mouth of the rear door.
“Ana?” Sam’s voice made me turn to find him standing in the doorway, framed by light. “Are you okay?” He had our bags and my flute case, and behind him I could see Acid Breath peering suspiciously.
<Humans live in squalor,> he muttered to one of the other dragons.
“Yeah. No.” I shook my head and tried to focus my thoughts around the exhaustion, the shock, and the constant ringing that came whenever dragons were near. “I wasn’t expecting this. But of course Deborl destroyed the lab. Of course.”
“There were earthquakes, too.”
I motioned at the springs ripped from the mattress, the whole thing sliced open like a prize waited inside. “Some of this was deliberate. And there were drones.”
Sam dropped our backpacks and laid the flute on top, his movements stiff under the dragon’s scrutiny. “It’s okay. Come back outside.”
Even as he spoke, the building gave a low groan and shuddered. He was right. It wasn’t safe to be in here, not after the earthquakes, too.
I trudged outside to find Stef and Whit off their dragon and removing the harnesses in silence. Buzzing filled my head as Acid Breath studied me.
<You said you had a poison. Was it stored here?>
“No.” I gazed north, toward the cave where I’d hidden the twenty canisters. “I’m going to check on it, but it should be safe. The ones who did this wouldn’t know where I hid the poison.”
Acid Breath huffed. <Then our deal is still on. We will gather an army. Where will you be?>
I gazed around the ruins, snow and ice and metal shining in the sunlight. “Here for a little bit, but not long. Maybe a night or two. Then we’ll return to the city. We can walk.”
“And if Deborl left someone to watch for us?” Stef asked.
“We’ll deal with them if it comes up.”
Sam nudged me. “The canisters. How will we carry them?”
With four people and twenty canisters as big as my torso, it would be impossible. I’d hoped to have more, though. Twenty . . . I couldn’t see how it would be enough.
Acid Breath narrowed his eyes. <Take me to the poison. We will leave it outside your city.>
That could work. “We’ll have to get them into the city somehow.”
Whit nodded. “And right now we don’t even know how we’ll get ourselves inside.”
<When will Janan ascend? We can bring the canisters into the city when it begins.>
Sam, Stef, Whit, and I glanced at one another. “When does Soul Night officially begin?” I asked.
“Sundown.” Sam’s voice was low and sober. “Soul Night begins as soon as the sun sets.”
Eleven more days.
<That is when we will have your canisters ready. Where should we put them for now? Where should we bring them at sundown?> Acid Breath asked.
I glanced at the others for suggestions, but when no one spoke, I said, “For now, put them in Templedark Memorial. The field of black obelisks.”
<They’re all fallen.>
From the earthquakes. Yes. “I know. Put the canisters there, anyway. Can you do it at night so no one spots you?”
<They will hear us.>
“You can be quick, can’t you?”
<Yes.> Acid Breath’s voice grated in my head.
“Then you’ll be fine. The darkness is so they won’t see what you’re doing. Most people in the city want Janan to ascend. They don’t want us to use the poison against him, because they’re afraid. They’re terrified of the unknown—what happens if Janan doesn’t ascend.”
“They don’t know what happens if he does, though,” Whit said.
I nodded. “But someone they trust—Deborl—told them it will be good.”
The dragon blinked slowly, and the other two swung their heads around to look at me. <Will the other humans try to kill us during the spring equinox?>
“Maybe.” Or maybe they’d be too busy with Janan and whatever the cage was for.
<I suppose you don’t want us to harm them, regardless?>
“That’s what I’d prefer.” Though if he wanted to drown Deborl in a glob of acid, I wouldn’t mind.