Chapter 24
Saint Dane knew what he was doing. As usual.
He knew I wouldn't leave if Mark was in trouble. In spite of what Nevva had asked
for, I was sure he would play out this execution for as long as possible in order to keep
us there. That was pretty clear. What wasn't clear was when he planned on launching
his dado attack on the exiles. Or where. I figured the exiles had to be on Third Earth,
because the flumes were destroyed and Saint Dane had no way of sending his army to
any other territory. So then, where were they? Somewhere in the destroyed New York
City?
The logistics made sense, but I tried to make sense of the exchange that Saint Dane
and Nevva had about her "little experiment" and her wanting to leave the territory
where the exiles landed "unspoiled." Third Earth had definitely been touched and
wasn't even close to unspoiled. Did that mean the exiles were somewhere else? And
what was Nevva's experiment? Even if we knew the answers to those questions, I had
no idea how we could stop an army of dados. We could always go back to Solara and
rally the rest of the Travelers, but even with the warriors among us, there was no way
we could stop an army.
On top of everything else, my plan to have Elli try and get Nevva to see reason had
backfired. All it did was upset Elli and put Mark in danger. I guess it's an
understatement to say that things were looking bleak.
"Em sorry," I said to Elli. "Eve messed this up pretty badly."
Elli gently touched my cheek. "Your only fault is that you put too much faith in the
power of someone's better nature to triumph. That is who you are, and it is exactly what
you should have done. Unfortunately, Nevva's better nature is not what we hoped it
would be. For that, I am the one who should be sorry."
"We all make our choices," I said quickly. "Nevva made hers."
Elli nodded, but I didn't think she bought it. "What has happened to Nevva is a
reflection of what Saint Dane did to all of Halla. He took something good, and twisted
it into something evil by appealing to a darker nature."
"And we couldn't untwist her," I added. "Which makes me question if Halla is too far
gone to save."
"Don't think that way," Elli said quickly. "We may be near the end, but there is still
hope. There is always hope."
"Is there?" I shot back. "Even if we figured out a way to destroy every last one of
those dados, what would stop Saint Dane from building more? And more after that? It's
not looking good."
Elli deflated. "Then what should we do? Give up?" she asked softly.
I laughed. "Give up?" I exclaimed, overly enthusiastic.
