Luna and Sofia were already gone. They had slipped out in the confusion, one after the other, without anyone noticing. Ren saw the edge of a vine slither across the floor near the doorway, and then it was gone. A moment later, he felt something else, a faint presence passing near him, so quiet and so light that he almost missed it. It moved past the back wall and out the door, and nobody else in the room reacted at all.
Ren's eyes narrowed. Kibo.
He turned his head slightly toward Saijew. The General was talking quietly with the King, his back to the room.
A slow, thin smile crossed Ren's face. He took a breath.
•••
The palace roof was warm in the afternoon sun.
Luna's vines had carried them up the outer wall in a matter of seconds, curling around the stone and pulling them higher and higher until they reached the flat roof above the throne room. Sofia crouched at the edge, looking out across the city. From here she could see the long streets of Babylon spreading out below, the canals glinting in the light, and, far to the south, the distant line of the great wall with dust rising behind it.
"This is better," Luna said quietly. She had a long green vine coiled around her arm like a rope. "We can see everything from up here."
"We can see the wall." Sofia squinted. "I can't see anything past it."
"Neither can I."
"Then we're not high enough."
"We're on a roof, Sofia."
"Then we need a bigger roof."
Luna almost laughed. Then she stopped. "Do you think they noticed we left?"
"Maybe. Probably not." Sofia glanced back at the door they had come through. "Everyone was staring at Valentina."
"She was amazing."
"She was." Sofia's voice was flat, but there was something in it that wasn't entirely cold. "I hate that I'm jealous."
Luna looked at her in surprise. "You're jealous?"
"A little." Sofia shrugged. "We're supposed to be Squad Two's assault specialist and field support, and we've spent three days being told we're a reserve. And then Squad One's vice captain walks into a room and drops a dozen Greek soldiers in half a minute."
"Naram-Sin said we hide too much of ourselves," Luna said.
"Naram-Sin says a lot of things."
"He's usually right."
Sofia sighed. "I know."
"Boo."
Both girls shrieked.
Sofia spun around so fast that her foot slipped on the edge of the roof. For one terrible moment, she was falling backward with her arms flailing, and Luna lunged for her. A vine shot out and caught her around the waist, hauling her back onto the roof, where she landed in a heap.
Kibo was standing behind them, grinning.
"That wasn't funny," Sofia hissed. Her face was bright red, and her heart was pounding. "I almost fell off a roof."
"I know," Kibo said cheerfully. "But it was a little funny."
"Kibo!" Luna pressed a hand to her chest. "How did you even get up here?"
"I walked." He shrugged. "Nobody noticed. They never do."
Sofia stood up, brushing dust off her clothes. "What do you want?"
"Same thing you do." Kibo walked to the edge of the roof and looked out at the distant wall. His relaxed expression had changed. "You want to see what's out there. I want to see what's out there. We're all bored of standing around."
"We were told to stay put," Luna said.
"We were told to stay with the reserve. That's different." Kibo glanced back at them. "Nobody said we couldn't help."
Sofia crossed her arms. "What are you planning?"
Kibo looked toward the wall, then at the two of them, and a slow grin spread across his face. "I need a favor. Can you both use your contracts for a second?"
"For what?"
"A launch." Luna and Sofia exchanged a look. "Explain," Sofia said.
"Easy." Kibo held up one finger. "Luna makes a long vine, pointing toward the wall." He held up a second finger. "Sofia, you slow it down. Way down, almost stopped." A third finger. "I jump on. And when I'm ready, you speed it up. All the way."
Luna stared. "You want us to throw you."
"I want you to launch me."
"That's the same thing."
"It's more dignified."
Sofia was silent for a moment, working through it. "Slow the vine, let you step on, then speed it up so you shoot forward." She frowned. "Can I even speed things up?"
"You slow things down and stop them. I'm guessing the other way works too."
"That's a guess."
"It's a good guess."
"It's a terrible guess," Sofia said. "If I do it wrong, you'll hit a wall."
"Then don't do it wrong."
Luna was looking toward the distant army. "And then what?"
"Then I disappear," Kibo said. "I'm good at that. I'll get a look at their numbers, their commanders, anything useful. Then I come back." He shrugged. "Recon."
Neither of them said anything for a few seconds. Then Sofia exhaled. "If you die, I'm going to be very annoyed."
"I won't."
"Luna?"
Luna was staring at her hands. Then she nodded. "Okay."
She raised one arm, and a long green vine rose from the stone, stretching out across the rooftop and arching high into the air toward the southern wall. It was thick, strong, and perfectly steady. Kibo stepped back and stretched his arms over his head.
"Sofia," he said.
Sofia held out her palm and narrowed her eyes. The vine slowed. It didn't stop, but it moved so slowly that it seemed to hang in the air, drifting forward like it was underwater. Luna's vine barely trembled.
Kibo jumped. He landed on the vine and crouched low, balancing perfectly, and looked back at the two of them. "Ready."
"Go slow," Luna whispered.
"I know."
Sofia clenched her jaw. She could feel the strain building behind her eyes, a headache already creeping in. She focused on the vine, on the speed of it, and the weight of it, and then she pushed.
The vine snapped forward.
It happened so fast that Luna gasped. One moment Kibo was crouching on the slow- moving vine, and the next he was a streak of motion, shot across the sky like an arrow, his dark hair streaming behind him as he flew high above the streets of Babylon. The wind roared past his ears. Below him the city blurred into a smear of color, and then the wall appeared, and then the wide plain beyond it.
He hit the apex of his flight with a grin on his face. Then he went silent.
The sound of the wind vanished first. Then the sound of his own breathing, and then his presence itself, fading from the world like a candle going out. He dropped through the air and fell into the middle of the Greek army, and nobody saw him land.
Back on the roof, Sofia lowered her hand and swayed on her feet. Luna steadied her. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." Sofia wiped her forehead. "That was harder than I thought."
"He's gone," Luna said, staring at the distant plain.
"He's out, huh?"
Both girls whirled around.
Ren stood a few steps behind them on the roof, brushing dust from his sleeve. A faint shimmer of light was still fading from the air around him, like heat rising off stone. He had come up the vine they'd left on the wall, and neither of them had heard him.
"Ren!" Luna said.
"You're slow," Ren said, but he was smiling. "I've been here for a minute."
"How did you…" Sofia stopped. "Your mirage."
"I left one beside Saijew. It's standing there with its arms crossed, looking angry." Ren looked toward the southern wall. "It's a good copy. I've had plenty of practice looking angry." He glanced at the two of them. "Nobody's going to notice for a while."
Luna looked uneasy. "Won't Saijew be furious?"
"Probably." Ren's blue and gold eyes were steady. "They told us to wait. They told us we weren't ready." His jaw tightened. "We're going to show them they were wrong."
Sofia looked at him for a long moment. Then she nodded slowly. "Fine."
"Fine," Luna agreed.
Ren turned toward the wall and the dust rising behind it. "Let's see what Kibo finds."
•••
Inside the throne room, Sous was standing very still.
He had been listening to the King and Saijew discuss the soldiers with his arms at his sides and his face as calm as ever, but something felt wrong. He couldn't have said what it was at first. Then he turned his head and looked at the empty space beside him, where his sister had been standing a few minutes earlier.
She wasn't there.
Sous's expression didn't change. He raised his right hand and placed it against his left elbow, pressing lightly, and closed his eyes. He had done this a hundred times before. A faint vibration moved through the floor and up through his bones, the quiet, constant signal of everything moving around him. It took him a moment to sort through the noise.
There. A single point of weight above him, light and steady, standing very still on the stone.
His sister was on the roof.
He opened his eyes and slowly lowered his hand. His chest felt tight for half a second, and then it loosened. She was safe. She was above him, alive and unhurt, and she hadn't gone far. His expression stayed exactly as calm as before, but his shoulders dropped half an inch.
"Four," said a voice next to him.
Sous glanced sideways. Abraham was standing with his notebook open, adjusting his glasses with one finger, looking around the room with a frown. "Four recruits are missing," he said quietly. "Luna, Sofia, and Kibo. And that isn't Ren."
Sous followed his gaze. Near the throne, a figure in Egyptian recruit clothing stood with its arms crossed and its jaw tight, next to Saijew. It looked exactly like Ren. But Abraham was right. There was no shadow beneath it. The light that fell across its face didn't quite match the window behind it, and it hadn't blinked once in the last minute.
"Clever," Abraham muttered.
"General," he said, louder. "We're missing four recruits."
Saijew turned. His eyes moved from Abraham to the empty space where Luna and Sofia had been standing, then to the figure beside him. He reached out and tapped the mirage lightly on the shoulder. It shivered and faded like smoke.
For a moment, nobody spoke. Then Saijew pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a long, tired sigh.
"They told me they were bored," he muttered. "I should have listened."
"Should I go after them?" Poison asked.
"No." Saijew straightened and looked around at the remaining recruits. His expression was hard, but there was something almost like resignation in it. "I can't spend my time chasing four children across a city. And if I'm being honest, I can't keep eight of you standing around either." He took a breath. "Go with your squads. Even if you're down a few men."
Magnolia blinked. "You want us to go out?"
"I want you to do what you've been trained to do. Squad One, take the north side of the palace. Hold the streets and watch for any more infiltrators." Saijew turned. "Squad Two, take the front gate. That's where they came through. Make sure nothing else does."
"Understood," Poison said.
"Don't go past your assigned areas. Don't engage unless you have to." Saijew's eyes moved from one recruit to the next. "If you see the four, tell them I'll deal with them later."
A few of the recruits almost smiled.
Magnolia stepped forward, and his voice was steady. "Squad One, with me."
Valentina fell into step beside him. Matthew, Amelia, and Emma followed, and the five of them moved toward the northern doors of the throne room, leaving the unconscious Greek soldiers and the water-slick floor behind them.
Poison grinned and stepped to the front of the others. "Squad Two, you heard the man. We take the front." He looked at Abraham and Sous. "Don't touch anything I tell you not to." "You have no authority over us," Abraham said.
"That hasn't stopped me before."
Sous glanced up at the ceiling, then followed without a word.
•••
On the ridge south of Babylon, the young hunter went still.
He had been crouched on the same outcrop for over an hour, watching the distant wall, with his hawk perched on a rock beside him and his cloak pulled around his shoulders. The army below him was quiet, waiting for the signal. But something had changed. He couldn't say what.
A moment ago, there had been a soft whisper of movement somewhere in the formation. Not a sound, exactly. It was more like the absence of one.
His golden eyes narrowed. He turned his head slowly toward the southern companies, scanning the rows of bronze shields and crimson cloaks. Everything looked normal. The soldiers stood where they had been standing, shields grounded, helmets gleaming. Nothing was out of place.
Yet something had passed through them. Something swift.
The hawk shifted uneasily. The hunter reached out and laid a hand on its back. "I felt it too," he murmured.
He picked up his bow, set an arrow against the string, and drew it halfway back. He didn't aim at anything in particular. He simply watched, waiting, listening for whatever had slipped between the ranks.
For a moment he thought he saw a gap in the noise, a patch of silence where the soldiers' voices should have been. Then it was gone. He frowned. A hunter could track almost anything, a footprint, a broken twig, a scent on the wind. But this left no trace, no sound, and no shape.
Whatever it was, it was fast, and it was quiet. He would find it.
He drew the bowstring back a little further and kept watching.