Page 5 of Triplets for the Barbarians

The sound of alarms blaring rips me from my bed in the middle of the night. My heart is racing as I look around, briefly panicking before I remember where I am. Maybe I was dreaming.

I’m in one of the guest rooms of the royal palace of Opal City. Its walls are painted a pristine white, the crown molding brushed with gold, and the elegant, lacquered wood furniture is an opulent shade of red. The bed linens are the finest I’ve ever felt, but there’s definitely an alarm sounding.

“What the hell?” I mutter as I scramble to the dresser and slip into the first clothes I can find. As soon as I step out of my room, I notice the chaos going on around me.

The alarm is so loud it drowns out the hallway speakers, making me worry as I hurry downstairs. Yossul and Fadai join me somewhere along the way, equally disheveled and concerned, as we head for the queens’ private study.

Just as we arrive, I see soldiers streaming out of the room and dispersing in every direction, their red eyes wide and glimmering with fear. Their dark gray uniforms look rumpled. My guess is they were sound asleep like the rest of us when the sirens started going off. It’s rare that something like this happens in Opal City—it’s been safe and hidden from the world for so many years, after all. But something is definitely happening tonight.

“What’s going on?” I ask.

Sarin, Neya, and Leela sit behind a massive desk, its tabletop converted into a thick glass screen on which various lights twinkle across the city’s blueprint. They look worried, their brows furrowed as they stare at a single red dot blinking as it moves toward the city.

“Marauders, most likely,” Sarin says. “They haven’t gotten this close in years.”

“The labyrinth sensors picked them up,” Neya adds, giving me a dark look. “If they get any closer, they’ll notice the traps. They might try to get in, or they might go back to Diamond City or whatever abyss they crawled out of. And they might tell others.”

“Oh no,” Fadai mutters, crossing his arms. “We can’t let that happen.”

“What do we do?” I ask although I’ve already got an idea. I just know they’re not going to like it, not after the tense conversation we had earlier on the topic of my rogue actions.

Yossul moves closer to the screen. “What orders did you give your soldiers?”

“I told them to turn off the alarms and run communications through the city, alerting the people of the current risk,” Sarin says. “Our citizens know what to do when that happens: Shelter in place and wait for the danger to pass.”

“And if the danger breaches the labyrinth defenses?” Yossul asks.

Sarin lowers her gaze for a moment. “Let the soldiers take care of it. We dispatched a battalion over to the eastern gate.”

“And if the invading force is too big for your battalion to handle?” Fadai asks.

“They will head for the tunnels. They’ve kept us safe before,” Sarin says.

“We can’t let it get to that,” I reply. “Listen, we can draw them out.”

Yossul gives me a curious look. “Draw them out?”

“We’re wearing Fire Tribe colors,” I say. “We’ll grab the buggies and exit through the southern gate, then circle around and draw the marauders away in the opposite direction before they get a chance to see what’s inside the labyrinth.”

“Jewel,” Yossul sighs.

“I know!” I exhale sharply and offer a shrug on top of it. “But what else can we do? We need to draw them away from the city. And then we can kill them. If anybody comes looking for them, they’ll find the corpses by the stream or closer to Diamond City, at least. Our key objective tonight is to keep Opal City hidden.”

And that is the hard truth. We need Opal City to stay hidden so we can use its weapons without having to focus on defending the base from invaders. I’ve come too far to leave all my eggs in one basket, dammit, and I need Yossul and Fadai to understand that.

“We’re friends and partners before anything else,” I reiterate sternly. “That means I need your support when danger rears its ugly head. Now, I’m going out there with a buggy to draw those marauders away from the city. Are you in or not?”

Fadai and Yossul exchange glances. They hesitate for a moment, but then they nod in response.

I know what needs to be done next.

Minutes later, we’re armed to the teeth and driving three buggies out through the southern gates. The queens’ soldiers have temporarily disabled that sector’s labyrinth traps solely for the purpose of letting us pass. The weapons will be reactivated as soon as we’re out. My pulse is racing as I accelerate, the buggy roaring across the battered red dirt and spurting black smoke from its short and stubby exhaust.

I’m amped up on adrenaline, ready to do whatever it takes to fulfill this mission.

“We’ll lead!” Yossul shouts from his buggy, and I wave my hand in agreement.

We circle around the labyrinth in the dark of night, with only the three moons of Sunna waxing somewhere ahead in the eastern sky. The marauders drive buggies similar to ours, the engines spurting and gurgling as they move in a straight line across the empty field. Yossul and Fadai spread out and head straight for the convoy, while I slow down and analyze the situation.

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