Page 156 of Phoenix's Fire

Tobias

Not even an hour later, the doors to the meeting room opened and a line of men began to file in. I entered among them and took a chair near the back, where I hoped to go unnoticed. Fungus farmers, bullet makers, quartermasters, and repairmen filled in the seats around me.

Then someone said, "Pardon me. I need that chair right there."

I looked up to see Sylis, the young hunter I'd met on the way to the Dragon's town, shuffling his way to the chair beside me. He sat, then jerked his chin toward me in greeting. I grunted to show I'd seen him, but my eyes were looking him over.

"Get healed?" I asked.

He nodded. "Sewed up by your girl after another cleaned it. The green-eyed one's yours, right?"

"Yeah."

"Think she'll accept your proposal?"

I huffed out a dry laugh. "I think having the elders give me permission means no one else will bother to court her. So yeah, she'll have to."

Not that I wanted to force Callah to marry me, but that would be better than her other options. My goal was still to get her out, but I couldn't figure out how. I'd hoped to learn the code on our way in. Instead, Gideon had refused to share it.

Sneaking her out would be nearly impossible. Both Meri and Ayla had beenthrownout. They'd broken one of the Ten Commandments. The only way for Callah to do the same involved stabbing me. Not exactly something I wanted, but if I could tolerate the pain of the bite on my arm, I could deal with being stabbed to save a girl I liked.

"I just hope you'll allow her to keep healing," Sylis said softly. "Too many of us aren't making it back."

"I intend to," I assured him. "Might be for selfish reasons, but I like knowingshe can put me back together when things go - " The rapping of the gavel made me pause before finishing, "- wrong."

Mr. Saunders continued to hammer the gavel on the table he and the other elders sat behind, calling the meeting to order while reminding all the men in the room to stop talking. Tonight, it took longer than normal. I was pretty sure pulling men from their evening relaxation with no warning might have something to do with that.

Then Mr. White pushed to his feet. "Unless you all want to starve to death, listen up! The hunters have returned!"

That made the massive room fall silent. Mr. Saunders nodded in approval, but waited until Mr. White sat back down before he started speaking.

"Once again, our hunters were defeated by the forces of Hell," he announced. "Seven men -seven!- returned."

"Out of how many?" Mr. Carter asked.

"Fifty."

There was a rush of murmurs that ran through the crowd. Men began to look around, likely trying to check for friends or enemies who may not be there. Like them, I looked, easily spotting the men I'd walked back with. All of us sat in small groups, no different than Sylis sitting beside me.

"What's worse," Mr. White said, taking over, "is those seven weren't able to get any meat."

My head twitched at that, because we had. Not much, but that wasn't the same as none. Granted, saying one carcass led to questions of what type, and that could get inconvenient for the elders.

Mr. Becker tapped his finger on the table. "That's nearly eighty men killed in the last month."

"Just under," Mr. White corrected, "but yes. The surface is a dangerous place, as we've known, but it seems to be getting worse."

"And we do not have the men to combat it!" Mr. Saunders snapped. "The wild men have overrun our farms. The demons have attacked our men. We have more widows in the compound than ever before, and no children being born to replace the lost fathers. We cannot continue on like this!"

"We need more children," Mr. Becker said.

"We need more hunters!" Mr. Peterson called to them.

"We can put the older boys into training," Mr. Myers suggested. "That has already been discussed."

"We need more than that," Mr. Saunders insisted. "After this loss, we need those boys out there hunting. We barely have any veterans left."

Mr. Morgan was nodding. "So we graduate them from sermon at eighteen. Mr. Cassidy, are they prepared for manhood?"

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