“No one else has done it because they don’t have an ace up their sleeves like I do.”
“What do you mean?”
Alex pointed to her eyes. “You kill the lights, I can lead us out of here,” Alex explained. “I don’t need to see anything. Old habits die hard, I guess. I’ve been memorizing every corridor since I’ve been here. I can get us around the orcs.”
Brath nearly sneezed and caught himself. “Have you seen what the orcs are wearing? They have night vision for sure.”
“But we have another ace up our sleeve. Manny can cast Darkness, right?”
The Beholder nodded. “I can.”
“Night vision or not, they’ll be blind, and unable to navigate the corridors like I can.”
Brath nervously tugged on his beard. “Okay, but that only solves one problem. How are you going to get around the orcs? If we accidentally bump into one of them, we’re dead.”
Alex pulled out her blindfold and wrapped it around her eyes. “Trust me,” she assured Brath. “I lived my entire life moving through darkness. I can do this. We get out of the room and make our way to the stables. Then we take back the Nest.”
Gill and Brath exchanged glances before Brath nodded.
Taking the cue, Gill spoke up. “All right, you heard the lady. Let’s do it,” he said before pulling his visor back down and starting the hack.
Manny floated forward, his tentacle eyes moving about rapidly. “I’ll cast Gloom. That way, it won’t be total darkness. Then I’ll link everyone’s eyesight together so you can see through my eyes. We should be able to make each other out. That way, we can follow Alex easier, but we’ll have to stick together. Real close.”
Gill cleared his throat and said, “I can help too. Drows have darkvision. Mine isn’t that strong since it matures with age, but I should be able to pick up on the heat signatures of the orcs if they’re close by. I’ll take the front with Alex. And you guys better get ready. It’s going dark in three, two, one.”
The lights in the hallway flickered again and then went off. There were startled sounds from the orcs outside, followed by another flurry of words that Alex couldn’t make out.
Manny floated in the middle of the circle of kids. “All right,” he whispered. “Jollies, Brath, you two ready?”
“Ready,” they both replied.
Manny’s body started to vibrate, and beams of light shot out of his eyes. The same beams shot out of Jollies’ and Brath’s eyes.
Brath leaned forward, his hands out in front of him, and yelped as he caught himself. He slammed his hands over his mouth and tried to keep his balance.
Gill stood up from his seat and walked over to Alex. He slid his hand around Alex’s and squeezed tightly. “This way, we won’t get separated,” he whispered in her ear.
Alex’s heart was racing. She wouldn’t have thought it could have beaten any faster than when she’d first seen the orcs, but she was wrong. “Yeah, that works perfectly,” she mumbled.
Get it together, Alex, she thought . You can have a crush later if you survive this.
Alex reached out as she had her entire life and inched toward the room door. She knew exactly where it was without realizing it, since her and Jollies’ room was the same. Glad to know that muscle memory didn’t go to waste, she thought as she instinctively concentrated on the door opening slowly.
The crystal door pulled apart, hardly making any noise. To the untrained ear, it was probably not even noticeable.
Alex scanned the hallway. It was a habit she’d acquired since she had been able to see, but it was pointless in this situation. She knew the orcs were close. They hadn’t been too far off in the video feed.
Alex didn’t need to see to know exactly where the orcs were, though. She could smell them since they didn’t smell like anything else in the Nest. A sour, acrid scent rose off of their skin, and Alex was happy she didn’t have to see them up close.
It only took the slightest tug on Gill’s hand to guide him. The drow stepped lightly as if the lack of light didn’t bother him at all. Alex could hear Brath struggling to walk forward behind Gill.
Alex assumed that whatever Jollies and Brath was seeing, it wasn’t too different than the sight Manny had first given her. It should have been more than enough to make their way through the hallway.
But Alex was saying that as someone who knew how to navigate the dark.
Brath and Jollies were probably struggling to pick up what little detail they could using Manny’s vision. You’d think for someone with so many eyes, his vision would be better, even in the dark, Alex thought.
The smell of the orcs faded as Alex guided Gill and the rest of them down the hall. Alex had a fairly good idea of where they were. Even with how mazelike the Wasp’s Nest was, she had been able to develop a sense of location and proximity by walking down the halls due to the crystal walls.
Hopefully, the confusion of the Nest would work to their advantage. Cadets had a hard enough time moving around and finding where they were trying to go. The orcs must have been having an even harder time navigating the Nest.
What were they here for, though? The only thing Alex had seen was murder. Jollies had said orcs had attacked training camps before, but was it really as simple as murdering all the new cadets? They could be here for the dragons, Alex thought.
But what good were dragons to the Dark One? It wasn’t like any of them would have followed him, even though Alex had been told he’d had at least one dragon. Maybe he was trying to get more.
Alex squeezed Gill’s hand, signaling for him to
