I told you, Aria thought.
"Expand where?" another person asked.
"As of now, the plan is to stay on the palace grounds. When the others join us..." Warren looked around, "We will clear the village below us and make homes there."
"What about the people who already live there?" another voice asked.
Aria looked for the source, hoping it wasn't one of her own. She'd given them explicit orders. They had to be convincing.
But the source was an older woman about Katy's age. Aria didn't recognize her.
"They will evacuate the premises," Brent's mother said from beside Warren, "If they know what's good for them."
Aria turned to look at Brent. He caught her gaze for a second before looking away like he was ashamed.
"When will the guards go back?" Aria asked.
"We need to assemble a team. The rest will be waiting, and since there are quite a few of them, I can't send many people. We need all the space we can get to bring the others. I hope one trip back will suffice. So with that in mind, we need about five people to go. Any volunteers?"
About ten hands went up. A few people looked at Aria, silently asking if they should raise their hands. She discreetly shook her head no. They all needed to stay if their plan against Warren would work. They had to attack before the group left.
Warren chose five people.
"When do we leave?" one of the men he picked asked.
"Tomorrow morning."
Aria's stomach dropped. Tomorrow morning? Aria looked towards her mother. But she was looking at Hunt. The look on their faces mirrored Aria's. Tomorrow? That was way too soon. Aria had thought that it would be at least a few days. But tomorrow? They hadn't even thought of a plan yet.
Eventually, the room cleared. But before everyone could part ways, Aria told her friends to meet her in her quarters in fifteen minutes. She made her way towards her mother and quietly told her about the meeting.
She walked to her room alone. Her mind raced.
She sat down on the couch in her front room and put her head in her hands. Too fast. This was all happening way too fast.
By the time she heard the first knock on her door, she still hadn't come up with a solid idea, any sort of plan. She didn't know how they would stop the group from leaving tomorrow morning.
Mara was the first person there. They waited in silence for the others.
Martinez, Adrian, Hunt, and Katy eventually joined. Hunt let them know that Brent couldn't come. Peter and Isla wouldn't be joining, either. They couldn't get out of whatever they had to do.
"Tomorrow," Adrian said. "That's way too soon. I mean, we don't really even know who's on our side yet."
"I know," Aria said. "Does anyone have an idea?"
No one spoke up.
"Look, we don't need to come up with something to stop him—just a delay. Just something to give us more time to come up with a better plan," she said.
Still, no one spoke up.
They all looked around at one another. Aria felt desperate. Even she couldn't come up with anything.
"Maybe we could do something to the horses? So no one can leave," Martinez said.
"What do you have in mind?" Hunt asked.
"I mean, we could set all the horses loose?"
"But that would mean losing all of them," Adrian said.
"Losing them is better than more people coming here, right?" Martinez asked, looking around.
"That won't work," Hunt said. "There are too many horses. And I think it would only hurt us more in the long run. "
Aria put her head in her hands.
"Okay, obviously we aren't getting anywhere. So how about we just...we take the day to brainstorm. We'll meet back here tonight after dinner. See if anyone has any good ideas," Hunt said.
Everyone nodded in agreement, and they parted ways once again.
Aria knew she couldn't hide in her room forever. And her absence would be noted eventually. So she made her way out of her rooms, feeling more desperate than ever.
She thought about what they could do for the rest of the day, not really paying attention to what she was doing or who she was interacting with.
At lunchtime, she finally got a chance to talk to Brent. Martinez had filled him in on the plan, and Aria had hoped that Brent had thought of something.
"No, Aria," he said, "I don't have anything. But-but they had a meeting. They're definitely leaving in the morning. Whatever we're going to do...we need to do it fast. They've already packed supplies. And Warren sent a group into the woods a few hours ago, in search of Lex’s people."
Aria hoped that the people from the palace had made their way down to the village. She didn't want to think about what would happen if they stayed on the palace grounds.
She wanted to talk to her mom. Maybe one of the others had a plausible idea? Some sort of plan?
But when she did see her a few minutes before dinner, Aria caught her eye, silently asking if any progress had been made.
Katy shook her head a little, telling her that no, no. There was no plan.
"Maybe someone else had an idea," Jackson whispered from beside her. But Aria felt like he was only saying it for her own good, not because he actually believed one of the others had come up with anything.
Aria looked away. They were standing near the entrance to the library, where many of the historical books were kept. Her eyes landed on a book with a title that gave her an idea.
In one of Lex’s Greek history books about herbal mixtures, she had read about something that could make people sick. Nothing too drastic, but something that might cause severe nausea or stomach pain.
But no. She couldn’t do that. Could she? And she’d need help because she’d need to get the right things for the mixture.
No. She had to remind herself that there were some lines she couldn't cross.
Since she knew she'd be
