"So what were the salamander eggs for?" Alden asked.

Ryan looked over. Alden was leaning against a wide trunk, while Ryan sat on an overturned log whittling at a fallen branch with a knife. "The what now?"

"The eggs you wanted from Rika so badly. What were they for?"

"Fuck me, I totally forgot," Ryan laughed. "I wanted to see if I could make traps with 'em."

"Traps? How does that work? Doesn't magic just disappear as soon as you let go?"

"'Course not. There's rituals obviously, but there's other things too. I'm guessing you saw Rika's sweet-ass bag?"

Alden nodded.

"So yeah, there's plenty of things where magic sticks around. I was gonna use the eggs to make these fire traps. They'd go off as soon as you got near, nice little explosions. Like landmines."

"That's horrible."

"Dude, have you seen what we're been dealing with? If I feel like I need landmines, I'm gonna lay down some fucking landmines. At the end of the day, it's them or me, and I'm always gonna choose me."

Alden still thought it was an awful idea, but he decided he might as well get more information about how they worked. If nothing else, he might figure out how to disarm them someday. "So where does the energy come from?"

"Yourself, moron."

"No, I mean, how do they stick around?"

"Same answer. You can't just use energy from anything else. Magic only works if you're okay with it going off. It's nice and polite." Ryan snorted. "Gemstones give you some generic power, or more if you're doin' the right element, and other things do super specific stuff. Like salamander eggs and making fire explosions. Ever been to a concert?"

"What?"

"Concerts. Rock concerts, metal concerts, whatever. They have those big fireballs they shoot off on stage. It's kinda like that, only in every direction."

"Sounds like a quick way to start a forest fire."

Ryan shrugged. "It's also super easy to put out forest fires now, since we can literally control fire. Anyway. Point was, that energy still always starts at you. Even those fancy bags, they're always drawing energy from you. Might be a tiny bit because Miss Laushire's a genius, but you're feeding it to keep it going. Which is actually why my traps would be way more humane than a landmine. You know why landmines are so shitty? It's not 'cause of war. In a war between actual soldiers on a battlefield anything goes. Anyone who says differently is kidding themselves. Only reason we don't use nukes or whatnot is because there'd be too much backlash. Wouldn't actually achieve objectives. But landmines? Landmines only hurt one person at a time. Maybe a few. They're useful as fuck for locking down an area and scaring the shit out of an enemy.

"Nah, the reason landmines are actually horrible is because they don't go away. After the war's over and everyone's gone, those mines are still there twiddling their thumbs and waiting to blow some poor guy's legs off. Someone who thought the fighting was over and they were finally safe again, only to get blown up 'cause the engineers who designed those things were too good at their jobs. Landmines are fucking terrible, I'm with you there. But that's where my traps are different. Once they run out of energy, there's no explosive anymore. No C4, no gunpowder. Just fuckin' salamander eggs. Makes a battlefield way cleaner at the end of the day."

"Why do you know all that?" Alden asked.

"Video games man. Who said they weren't educational?"

"You're still an idiot," said one of Julian's men. Spencer, if Alden remembered right.

"Thanks, delivery-guy-henchmen."

"Boys, get along or I'll beat all of you up myself," said Rika, limping her way around the trees. Alden got to his feet in a hurry to greet her, but she just rolled her eyes. "Jeez, calm your tits Alzack."

"Are we all ready to go?" Alden asked.

"Something like that." Rika glanced over at the trio of Greycloaks. Joe McKinney had vanished into the woods, seeming too shell-shocked to focus on anything. "You guys cool with following my lead?"

Rufus—who seemed to be the leader of the remaining group—nodded. "We're in this together, for the good of us all." The others echoed the second half under their breath.

Rika leaned back slightly. "Ooookay. Going full tilt on the cult thing now, got it." She limped over to the nearest tree and took a seat. "We've probably still got a bit of time before Rachel shows up, and even more before we actually do this thing. Anyone got a deck of cards?"

"Like I'm gonna lose even more money to you," muttered Ryan.

"I seem to recall you losing way more than money to me," she cackled.

"I'm in," said Spencer, producing a deck from his pocket.

"Man after my own heart," said Rika with a smirk. Alden shrugged and sat down. Anything to take his mind off of what they would be facing in an hour or so.

Six hands in betting with pinecones, Alden was surprised to see Rika already quite a bit down. He was holding steady playing cautious, and Spencer seemed to be making money—figuratively speaking—on every hand. Rika was growing more frustrated with each loss.

"All right, fess up," Rika said after Spencer claimed another pot with a smile. "You're a former pro or something."

"Nope. Just lots of games with the guys. Julian's just as bad." He produced a cigarette and lit it with the tip of his finger. "You're out of cones."

"Screw that. New bet. Split your cones fifty-fifty and we go around again. Winner gets the loser's Scrap."

"I'd take that, but I can't match your stake," said Spencer. "I don't have one. Gave it to the Council."

"You gave it to Rachel? Why?"

"'Cause I thought it might do some good." Spencer shrugged. "It hasn't yet, but she's still young. Give her time."

"Fine. Zack, give me your cones."

"Nope," said Alden lazily. He was busy trying to stack them into a small pyramid while waiting for Rika to give up.

"How about she gets naked if she loses again?" sneered Julian's other man, leering through an unkempt beard.

"Fuck off," snapped Rika.

"Go away, Jerry," said Spencer. Jerry made a disappointed noise and fell silent.

"Yeah, no one wants to see that," added Ryan. A moment later, a pinecone smacked him in the side of the head. He snapped upright, looking around. "The fuck?"

Rika looked at him innocently. "What? I don't have any."

Alden desperately tried to suppress his smile as he released the magic on the pinecone. Ryan looked around again, but Spencer was suddenly very intent on his cigarette and paying them no attention. Exasperated, Ryan settled back against the tree root and continued whittling. Rika shot Alden a conspiratorial grin.

"How about some real stakes?" said Spencer calmly, shuffling the deck. "Split it even, loser's out in front when it's time."

They fell silent. The brief moment of mirth had been burst like a balloon.

Rika shrugged. "All right then."