“This is good, Six,” Marina says, her arms crossed, looking at the Mogadorian ships now arranged like guards in front of the Sanctuary. “Perfect if Setrákus Ra sends in his warriors. But what if he’s out there on the front line himself? Hurting him would mean hurting Ella. We can’t risk that.”
“You’re right,” I reply. “We’ll have to figure out a way to at least slow him down.”
I start towards the passageway that leads into the Sanctuary and pretend not to notice when Adam lags behind, touching Marina gently on the elbow as he does. They slow but only walk a few steps behind me. With my enhanced hearing, it’s pretty much impossible for me not to eavesdrop.
“I’m sorry about before,” Adam says to her quietly. “I got carried away.”
“It’s all right,” Marina replies kindly. “I shouldn’t have called you a monster. It just slipped out. I don’t really think that.”
Adam laughs once, self-deprecatingly. “No, you know, I’ve wondered a lot over the years if that—if that’s not a good word for us.”
Marina makes a noise, about to say something more, but Adam cuts her off.
“It’s okay—I’m sorry again, about everything. I know what it’s like to lose someone you care about. I shouldn’t . . . I won’t be so cavalier about leaving this place again. I get why it’s so important. What it means.”
“Thank you, Adam.”
I turn around, pretending not to have been listening to their entire conversation. We’re in front of what used to be the Sanctuary’s hidden door. It’s a narrow stone archway leading to stairs that run all the way down to the hidden chamber beneath the temple.
“So,” I say, hands on my hips. “How do we stall the most powerful Mogadorian in the universe without hurting him, while at the same time stealing his warship out from under him?”
Adam raises his hand. “I have a question.”
I can see the wheels turning in his head. “Shoot.”
“This entire plan is predicated on chance—Setrákus Ra going for the door, Setrákus Ra sending out warriors, Marina being able to distract them with some bombs and ghost weapons.” I open my mouth to respond, worried he’s getting freaked out again, but Adam keeps rolling. “It’s the best option we’ve got. I agree with you. But, assuming it works, assuming we do manage to steal the Anubis while Setrákus Ra sits down here. What then? What do we do next? We still can’t kill him.”
“But he won’t be able to kill us either,” I reply. I know it’s not exactly the brilliant strategic gem Adam’s hoping for, but I honestly haven’t thought that far ahead. I’ve been too focused on our immediate survival.
“Perhaps we could negotiate,” Marina suggests halfheartedly. “For Ella, or the Sanctuary . . .”
“Despite how fervently he would tell you otherwise, Setrákus Ra has no honor,” Adam says. “There can be no negotiating.”
“Then it’ll be a stalemate,” I say. “And that’s better than losing, right?”
Adam considers my words, digging his heel into the dirt in front of the archway.
“All right,” Adam says. “Then I suggest we dig a hole.”
“A hole?”
“A pit,” Adam continues. “In front of the door. A large one. Then, we cover it up and let Setrákus Ra fall into it.”
I push my toe into the dirt. Thanks to the shadows of the Sanctuary and the nearby plant growth, it’s soft and a little damp, not like the hard-packed and sunbaked dirt of the runway. All our Legacies, that stockpile of Mog weapons, a bunch of C-4—and now we’re talking about digging a hole. “Well, he’s exactly the kind of asshole who doesn’t watch where he’s going, especially if he’s sporting a major boner to get into the Sanctuary.”
“There’s an image,” Adam replies.
“Once he’s down there I can ice over the top from my hiding spot,” Marina says, getting on board. “That could slow him down further.”
“Well, at least it’ll be hilarious to watch him fall in a hole,” I add optimistically.
“It’ll have to be pretty big,” Adam says, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “He can change sizes.”
“Good thing we’ve got Legacies to help with the digging,” I reply. “Even if it only buys us a few minutes, that might be enough to get us on board the Anubis.”
“One more thing, and you might not like this idea,” Adam says to Marina, before gesturing towards the Sanctuary’s door. “But maybe we should cave that in. It’ll be one more thing to get in Setrákus Ra’s way.”
It’s a good idea, but I look over at Marina before saying anything. She thinks about it for a moment and then shrugs. “They’re only stones,” she says. “What’s important is that we protect what’s inside.”
“Should I get some of the C-4?” Adam asks.
“I think I can handle it,” I reply, already tapping into my Legacy and channeling a small storm. The air gets heavy as I pull together a dark cloud above our heads, a small pattering of raindrops falling loose from it. With a downward motion of my hand, four bolts of lightning slice down at an angle Mother Nature couldn’t hope to duplicate. The strikes arc into the Sanctuary’s doorway and explode into the decrepit limestone, collapsing the passage in on itself with a burst of musty air.
I step up and take a look at my handiwork. The doorway is now filled with rubble, with some of the interior wall obviously collapsed as well. It won’t keep an army of Mogs out forever and Setrákus Ra will definitely be able to dislodge the rubble with his telekinesis. Still, it’s better than nothing.
Meanwhile, with a thoughtful look on her face, Marina takes measured steps around the entrance to the Sanctuary, keeping count. When she’s walked a near-perfect square in front of the entrance, Marina looks over at me.
“About thirty feet on each side, do you think?” she asks me. “For the pit?”
“I think that’d do it.”
“Let me try something,” Marina says, and then begins to concentrate.
She walks a thirty-foot line away from the Sanctuary’s entrance, her hands fanning the air as she goes. A wall of ice begins to take shape along Marina’s line, although its bottom edge doesn’t make contact with the ground.
“Help me hold it in place, would you?” Marina asks, glancing at me.
I’m not quite sure where this is going, but I play along. Using my telekinesis, I hold up Marina’s growing sheet of ice. I notice that the ice is thicker at the top and narrows to a lethally sharp edge at the bottom, almost like a guillotine blade. She walks the same lines as a second ago, this time generating ice as she goes. After a couple of minutes, Marina has created a hollow cube of ice, roughly thirty feet by thirty feet, with no top or bottom. The ice hovers above the ground, dripping water, and Marina has to continually use her Legacy to keep it from melting.
“What happens now?” Adam asks, looking on.
“We lift it up,” Marina says, referring to the two of us. “And then we slam it down with as much force as we can muster. Ready, Six?”
I do as instructed, using my telekinesis to levitate Marina’s ice sculpture about twenty feet above the ground.
“Ready?” she asks, looking at me. “Now!”
Together, we drive the ice into the ground. There’s a thudding sound as the sharpened edges drive into the dirt, followed by the sound of glass breaking as cracks form rapidly in the ice and begin to spread. All in all, the ice doesn’t get driven very far into the earth, about four feet at most. Marina seems pleased with the result, though.
“Okay, okay! Hold on a second!”
She races around the box of ice, its four walls now embedded in the ground, and begins to reinforce the walls, thickening and hardening the ice as she touches it. When the cracks in the ice are sealed up and the broken chunks filled in, Marina kneels down at one of the corners and puts her hands on the ice, as close to the ground as possible.