Page 60 of Shadow Master
“We’ll find a solution, babe. Once the fucking war is over …”
If we survived.
If we won.
Odds were not in our favor.
We all knew it. It was in the slump of shoulders and the darkness in every eye. Yeah, we knew we were screwed, but no one verbalized it. Verbalizing it would mean accepting it was a possibility, and accepting it was a possibility went halfway to making it true.
No.
We would fight, and we would win.
The realist could take a sabbatical for a while.
“Up ahead!” one of the league men shouted.
Lights appeared in the darkness, hundreds of tiny, glowing, yellow lights.
The pounding of hooves signaled Hyde circling back toward us. “The militia is up ahead,” he said. “They have an army.”
“How many men?” Harmon asked.
“Four hundred or so, but more are coming.”
Laramir’s army was a thousand strong. Four hundred was nothing. But if more were coming …
Hyde locked gazes with me. “It’s a possibility, Justice. Their men combined with ours … We may be able to fight the fir bolg.”
But we wouldn’t be combined. We’d be split into two armies. We’d be weaker. Unless …
An idea bloomed in my mind. “The fir bolg aren’t affected by the mist.”
“That’s right,” Hyde said.
“But the fomorians are.”
He frowned. “Yes.”
“The mist is keeping our allies from fighting alongside us …”
Hyde’s mouth popped open as realization dawned.
“Motherfucker,” Harmon said.
I grinned. “There’s only one solution. We shut off the mist.”
* * *
The militia campstretched as far as the eye could see. Fire sconces were rammed into the earth periodically to illuminate the night. Tents had been set up, and campfires burned. The smell of cooking meat tickled my nostrils as we wove our way past fomorian men dressed in leather armor and boots. The glint of swords and axes was a comforting sight.
Balan rushed to greet us. “You made it.” He looked over my shoulder to Lugh and Abram, and then his shoulders sagged. “No luck?”
I shook my head. “We’re headed back to base now.”
Balan walked beside me and Hyde as we made our way toward the border. I quickly gave him a rundown of our plan to shut off the mist.
“You believe your council will allow you to shut down the posts?” he asked.
