She’d run over a trench.

  One that was just deep enough that the front wheels were just spinning while the front of the vehicle was suspended by the sand.

  Aelin floored the accelerator, which threw a little bit of sand out, but we didn’t move.

  “We’re not close enough, are we?” Justia pointed at the tree, which was still over a hundred feet away.

  “Probably not.” I looked at the center console. The Minotaur was barely jogging as he closed the distance on the RV. The two cats on top of the RV jumped off and began to circle around it with the other three.

  I counted the birds in the tree. It was dark, so I couldn’t tell if it was just the lack of light or their actual color, but they looked like black vultures. They also weren’t very large even if they were hybrids; I doubted if the seven that I saw would be able to take on the five plains cats and the Minotaur.

  “What do we do now?” Justia looked at me.

  I took a deep breath as the other two women looked at me too.

  Fray slid Ether down on the couch as she stood up. “Do we suit up?”

  The others would be fighting basically at even strength with whatever was left. I’d hoped that there would be enough of whatever monsters we could find that could kill our pursuers, and then there’d be few enough of the survivors that we’d be able to finish off the hybrids. But without Ether, Fray was going to have to keep the hybrid’s attention and that was going to get her torn up.

  And that was only if we could get the birds over here, get them to fight the Minotaur, and win. Which were a lot of ifs that didn’t look possible at the moment.

  “Get geared up.” I nodded. If nothing else, it would give them something to do to take their minds off our situation. I headed to the door.

  “What are you doing?” Justia grabbed my arm.

  “Someone has to talk to him.” I nodded at the center console. “Maybe I can buy us some time.”

  “You don’t know that he won’t kill you if you walk out there.” Justia glanced around the vehicle. “At least we’ll be safe in here for a little while.”

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  “I can try to figure out how to get us unstuck, or maybe convince him to let us go.” I shrugged. “But I know if we stay here, we’re going to get caught.”

  “Use the speaker.” Aelin reached over and flipped a switch next to the screen, then pointed at a red button that had lit up. “There, push that and you can talk to him without going outside.”

  “Okay…” I sat down in the driver’s seat as she went back into the bathroom with Justia and Fray. For a moment I thought about suggesting that we try to use the return stones that Trent had made for us, but those had to be close enough to the Dungeon they were keyed to. Even if we had stopped at Gar to key the stones there, we were too far away from there for the stones to work.

  The main purpose of a return stone was to get people out of the Dungeon when they were in a situation where they were about to die. Which usually meant a boss that they hadn’t fought before.

  Using them on the surface was a good way to get into the Dungeon if you were someone who wasn’t going to be allowed into a city. For that reason, most stones were crafted with a very limited radius to keep Bandits or other outlaws from getting into the Dungeon and then camping out on one of the floors. The ones that Trent had made were capable of connecting almost a hundred miles away, but that still left us outside of the range of Jyscor, which was the closer of the two Dungeons.

  I took a deep breath and pushed the button that Aelin had pointed at. “Hey, I’m Atlas Vowler. What do you want with us?”

  The Minotaur walked over to the driver’s side and tapped on the window. “Get out.”

  “I told you my name; how about you tell me yours?”

  The black-furred bullman growled as he bounced his axe off his shoulder. “Achilles Ferrous. A Lunatic of his lord, Aeraelly.” Achilles tapped on the glass. “You’re en route to pick up one of the unborn. I can’t let you do that.”

  “Your God has no jurisdiction in this Ward.” I shook my head. “You’re invading—”

  “Gar is dead.” The Minotaur motioned behind him. “The plains are free for whoever wants to be out here until another claims her throne. He chuckled as he turned back to me. “Slece has also decreed it to be a dead zone, so if anyone tries, they’ll have to deal with her and her Warlords.”

  “You still—”

  “Slece and Aeraelly are allies.” The Minotaur interrupted me again. “No one is coming to save you…”

  A bright light in the direction we’d come from shot up into the air, then a wave of force blasted out in every direction. By the time it reached us, there wasn’t enough force left to do anything more than bend the grass, but it did startle the birds, sending them fleeing.

  My heart fell as I watched the object of my gamble fly away.

  “One down…’ Achilles chuckled. “Gibborim don’t pop like that, so you must have had another unborn with you.” His golden eyes narrowed. “I wonder how many more are in there.” He bounced the axe off his shoulder and gripped it with two hands. “If you don’t come out right now, then I’m cutting my way in.”

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