Chapter 27 (out of prophecy)

                                    

                                          
We walk, reaching the tents by early afternoon. Beyond the ravine--filled with shimmering blades jutting from the dirt--lies a wide stretch of bare stone before the night warrior camp, which has been reduced to smoking ruins of black tents, silver barricades.
	Kael launches another signal from the edges of our camp, in case Zadia didn't see the last one. We've been on the lookout for a return signal from her, in the event she can't come to us, but haven't seen one.
	"You're late to the party," a group of white clad-but-dusty people tell us, lounging around a metal fire pit, fingers vaguely pointing at Kael's light burst. "We scared them all off."
	"Yeah, we know." Kael keeps walking.
	"Then what was--"
	We march through haphazard aisles of tents, in a subtle triangle formation that's got me in the center. I can't decide why they've done it--Berrtie's never been to the battlefront either.
	Nomsa and Kael test the tent openings; rounded doors set in pyramids of canvas, white and gold and magenta.
All the tents we come across are occupied.
	"Why is Chondra camping here?" Berrtie whispers, in the back of our triangle, hands steady on her sword. "She started with an advantage, now the daylight's just fading and she's doing nothing."
	"Maybe she's waiting for the counterattack?" Nomsa prods a curtained tent entrance. A wall of mist tries to smack her away; a sign someone has claimed this pointy pavilion for themselves. She punches it back with a misted-fist and we keep walking, through gray-dirt trails totally bare of grass--these walkways have probably been here for years. Leveled-flat porches with chairs and fire pits have even formed around some tent doors, and the stakes holding the tents down have nearly submerged into the dirt.
	"Waiting for a counterattack doesn't make strategic sense," I whisper.
Kael prods a tent door, and needles of mist launch out at them. They exhale a cloud that catches the needles and they keep walking, and all the vapor dissipates.
	"Time is on the night warriors' side now," I say. "Chondra already played her cards by attacking them, now the sun is going down, and the night warriors aren't going to hold back once that happens. If she just sits around waiting for a daytime counterattack, the night warriors are never going to actually attack. They'll just dangle that possibility over us until it gets dark, then they'll push with everything they have."
	"True that." Berrtie nods.
	Nomsa smacks a tent door and mist bulges out, forcing her to stumble away. "Why don't we just have a tent labeled 'changing room?' Goodness."
	By changing room, she actually means, place to sneak into the tunnels to wait out the night and potentially summon some dead spirits, but she's still pretending it's a secret the tunnels exist.
	"Does every tent have an entrance into the..." Berrtie asks.
	"The place?" Kael nods. Then shrugs. "No, but you can't tell from outside."
	Never mind, everyone's pretending it's still a secret.
	"Are these all taken by people already?" I peer down the winding trails of tents. "How?"
	"There were people here before Chondra showed up." Nomsa swats a tent door. It doesn't try to kill her. "Oh, hey." She lifts the flap, slipping inside.
	"Maybe Chondra quit attacking," Berrtie mutters, "because nobody here knew she was in charge, so she had to set up a meet and greet."
	We both squint at the sky, hunting for the red messenger flag. Kael snorts at us. I glower at them; peaked tents block our view of the rest of the camp anyway.