Horde (Razorland #3)(86)

I pulled him out of his current match and sat him down. He glared at me with green grass eyes, furious in his dirty face. “What? I was holding my own. And he’s bigger.”

This boy couldn’t be more than fourteen years old, and his small size made me wonder if he was younger. “How old are you?”

“I’m over the recruiting age. You set that at thirteen.”

“I know. Just tell me.”

“I’ll be fifteen in a few months,” he muttered.

He seemed so young, maybe because the Topside world tried to protect its young more than they had done down below. It felt like much more than a year and a few months separated us. I guessed his world had been very different before the Freaks changed so much, Winterville panicked, and Dr. Wilson spread his poison.

I made my tone hard because I knew he wouldn’t respect me if I was tender with him. He didn’t want that, and couldn’t handle it. This boy was after blood, not kindness. “If you get yourself killed fighting like a cow with two left hooves, you won’t live to see the Muties in the ground. Is that what you want?”

“No, ma’am.”

“Sir,” I corrected. “In this army, it doesn’t matter what people have in their pants. Now get back in there and use your head, not just your fists.”

“Yes, sir.”

Tegan came over to me as practice tailed off. “He reminds me of someone.”

She had been less obvious about her anger, kept it locked up inside her, but I’d seen her fury when I first found her in Gotham. She’d let it out with each blow of the club; Tegan hadn’t fought smart back then, either. The staff suited her better.

“You stay back,” I cautioned.

“I know. I’m second line of defense and full-time medic. I won’t be in the vanguard.” She stared into the fields, watching the wind blow across the leaves. “It’s unnerving to be out here, isn’t it? Not knowing exactly where our enemies are.”

I knew what she meant. The wilderness was quiet apart from the chirps of birds and the chitter of insects, the burbling rush of the river behind us. Springtime had greened the grass as far as the eye could see, but just over the next rise, could lurk violence and death. Despite myself, I shivered, hoping the scouts returned soon.

By noon I had my wish. They had done their work well and Morrow made the report. “They’re moving northeast of here. From what we can tell, they’re heading for Lorraine.”

“Then we need to follow them, wait until they camp, and strike when they’re asleep.”

“Let’s fight fire with fire,” Fade said.

“Did we bring along any liquor?” Tully asked.

Since drinking left soldiers sloppy and careless, the answer should be no, but when we searched the packs, we found six jugs. I left Thornton verbally reaming the men who had violated the code of conduct while the others carted off the contraband. Tully popped the cork on one and sniffed it.


“It’s strong,” she said. “This will do nicely.”

“For what?” I asked.

“We can make fire bombs. And with some rags, I can set my bolts on fire. These will scatter the Muties, induce panic, especially if we strike while they’re asleep.”

The remainder of that day we marched according to the scouts’ directions. At Morrow’s orders, they were constantly running back and forth, carrying messages about this portion of the horde. It wasn’t the whole army I’d seen camped in the fields outside Salvation, but they didn’t need all of their forces to take smaller towns. It made sense for them to protect the territory they’d already claimed—and at the moment, I didn’t have sufficient numbers to take back Appleton, but I could keep them from overrunning Lorraine. Come nightfall, we were three miles from our intended target.

“Tonight, it’s critical that you follow orders. Kill on the perimeter and fall back. Make them chase you. Anything that increases confusion and decreases visibility, do it. And run if you need to.” I raked away the grass until I had a patch of dry dirt to serve as a map, then I etched some directions. “This is where we’ll regroup. They may follow, trying to force a fair fight. We won’t give it to them. This is where our forest starts, and if necessary, we’ll fight in retreat. Ideally, though, we’re going to hit them, kill as many as we can, then vanish. That’s the plan.”

“Any questions?” Thornton asked.

There were a number and he fielded them as I strode away. I hoped I sounded confident and prepared when my heart was pounding like a drum. So much depended on my instincts being right; I had no doubts that this needed to be done, but maybe I had no business attempting it. Who am I to lead these men?

“I’m with you,” Fade said softly.

I wanted so badly to turn into his arms, but I was afraid he’d recoil—and it wouldn’t be a good way to behave in front of the men, either. No doubt Tully and Spence were deeply in love, despite the fact that she was a good ten years older, but they never touched, never kissed where anybody could see. I just saw it in the way he gazed at her, like he’d fall over and stop breathing if she ever quit looking back.

“It’s normal to be scared,” he went on, “and I’m glad you are. It makes me feel better about the butterflies in my stomach. This will be the biggest battle we’ve ever fought.”