Roden shook his head back at me and said, “It’s safer here than out in the open. They’re protecting us.”
Mott jumped off the wagon and began shouting orders at each of us for what to unload from the wagon and where to put it, mostly blankets and, I hoped, food. I was assigned to remain in the wagon and hand things to the others on the ground.
“Afraid I’ll run away?” I asked.
“Any trust you get here will have to be earned,” Mott said. “And I’d say you have a great deal more to earn than the others.” He nodded at a sack near my foot. “Hand me that.”
Although Conner was the master of our group, Mott was clearly the one keeping our show running. He was no ordinary, useless vigil. At least, I noticed that he didn’t need to ask Conner’s permission for everything, and when Mott issued orders to Cregan, Cregan did as he was told. While we worked, Conner stationed himself on a fallen log to peruse a tattered leather-bound book. Every now and then he’d glance up, studying each of us with more than a casual examination, then return to his book.
Cregan got a fire going, and afterward, Mott instructed us to gather around so that Conner could talk to us.
“Talk to us?” I said. “When do we eat?”
“We eat after the talk,” Conner said, closing his book and standing. “Come, boys, sit.”
I jumped out of the wagon and squeezed onto the edge of a log Roden and Tobias had dragged near the fire. They weren’t too pleased to have me there but didn’t complain either. Latamer squatted on the ground. I considered offering him my seat, since he was still coughing, but I guessed he wouldn’t take it anyway.
Conner coughed too, although his was the kind meant to get our attention. The cough wasn’t necessary. We were already watching him.
“I haven’t said much as to why I’ve collected you boys,” Conner began. “I’m sure in your heads you’ve created every sort of speculation, from the likely and plausible to the wild and impossible. What I have in mind is closer to the latter of those.”
Tobias sat up straighter. I already disliked him as much as Roden, even though there had been far more time for me to learn to dislike Roden.
“I can’t deny there’s danger with my plan,” Conner said. “If we fail, there will be terrible consequences. But if we succeed, the rewards are beyond your imagination.”
I wasn’t sure about that. I could imagine some fairly big rewards.
“In the end, only one of you can be chosen. I need the boy who proves himself to be the closest fit with my plan. And my plan is very demanding and very specific.”
Tobias raised his hand. A sign that he’d been educated. At the orphanage I came from, a person only raised a hand if he was about to hit someone with it. “Sir, what is your plan?”
“Excellent question, Tobias, but it’s also a very secret plan. So what I’d like to do first is offer any of you the chance to leave now. You may leave with no feelings of regret or cowardice. I’ve been very up-front about both the danger and the rewards. If you don’t feel that this is for you, then this is your opportunity to leave.”
Roden looked at me. I arched my eyebrows in response. He wanted me to leave, that was clear. And I would have stood right then, except for a nagging voice in my head that told me something was wrong. So I kept still.
Latamer raised his hand. Not because he’d been trained to, but because it had worked for Tobias. “Sir, I think I’d like to leave. I’m not fit to compete with these other boys, and frankly, I’m not one to face danger, even for great rewards.” Apparently, the nagging voice hadn’t visited Latamer’s head.
“Certainly you may leave.” Conner politely raised a hand toward the wagon. “Why don’t you get back in there and I’ll have Cregan drive you to the nearest town.”
“Tonight?”
“The rest of us have more to discuss tonight, so yes, go right now.”
Latamer gave an apologetic smile to us and thanked Conner for understanding. I nodded a good-bye to him, and wondered, like I’m sure Roden and Tobias did, if it’d be smart to make the same choice. Conner hadn’t said what would happen to the boys he didn’t pick for his plan. Nor just how dangerous things might get.
Then I realized what my instincts had been trying to tell me. Mott was ahead of us, motioning Latamer toward the wagon. Where was Cregan?
I stood and yelled, “Latamer, stop!” But my warning only gave Latamer time to turn from climbing into the wagon. His eyes widened as he saw what I had sensed. An arrow whooshed past me and pierced his chest. Latamer yelped like a wounded dog and fell backward on the ground, dead.
With a furious cry, I leapt toward Cregan, who was still partially hidden in the shadows behind us, and tackled him to the ground. Cregan went for the knife at his waist, but one hand still held the bow he’d used to kill Latamer, so I got the knife first. With my body crossways over Cregan’s, I started to crawl off him, but Mott lunged at me from behind and I collapsed facedown into the dirt. Cregan took a deep breath, then sat up and easily wrested the knife from my hand. That was probably a good thing. I don’t know what I would’ve done with it if Mott hadn’t stopped me.
“You killed him,” I growled, getting a taste of dirt into my mouth.
Conner knelt beside me and lowered himself so that I could see his face. His voice was eerily calm. “Latamer was sick, Sage. He wasn’t going to get better, and I think he proved a good lesson for the rest of you. Now you can get up and rejoin the other boys, or you can take a wagon ride with Latamer. It’s your choice.”
I thrust my jaw forward and glared at Conner, then finally said, “I suppose Latamer won’t be much company now. I’ll stay here.”
“Excellent decision.” Conner clapped a hand on my back as if we were old friends. He nodded at Mott, who let me go, then added, “I’m sure Latamer’s death is a shock to you, but it was important for you three to understand the seriousness of what we are doing.”
When I sat up, Cregan’s leg brushed roughly past me as he went to help lift Latamer’s body into the wagon. Normally, I’d have kicked him in return, but for the moment I was too stunned to think.
“Bury him deep,” Conner said.
Still on the log, Tobias was pale and perfectly still. Roden looked as if he was having trouble breathing. My breathing wasn’t working any better. It didn’t help that Mott had rudely pressed his knee into my back for the last couple of minutes.
Conner’s smile was a thin line on his face. “Sage, I believe your question earlier was why we had the meeting before we ate. This is why. So we wouldn’t waste our food.” His eyes passed over to Roden and Tobias. “How about it, then? Does anybody else want to leave?”
Mott laid out a sack of fresh fruit and salted meat, but other than him and Conner, none of us touched it.
“It’s your last chance until breakfast,” Conner said. “You’ll want to keep your strength up.”
Roden shook his head at Conner. He didn’t look like he could stomach a bite of food anyway. Tobias had been nearly frozen since Latamer was killed. He’d barely even blinked. I’d gone numb. Literally. I felt nothing.
Conner and Mott ate their meal while the rest of us sat. Slowly, the shock wore off and we began to accept that as long as we did what we were told, we’d live to see another morning. Conner offered the food to us again.
“We have more traveling ahead of us, so you’ll only hurt yourselves if you don’t eat.”