24
With Knives and Fire
I used my money to buy a horse.
I brought other supplies, stuff for our survival, but also gasoline, matches, knives, everything that we could use. It would be nice to have a gun, but that was something we couldn’t buy.
Melanie sat behind me on the horse, pointing the flashlights up ahead so we could see where we were going. “Fuck, it’s spooky out here.”
I’d done this before, so I wasn’t scared at all.
I used my phone to map out the landscape. On Google images, the camp wasn’t there, which told me how deep this operation ran. But the chateau was there, so I was able to use that to figure out the possible locations of the camp.
We’d been out there for days, making campfires at night, eating dry food from the saddlebags. The vapor was in front of my face from my breathing, and the hooves of the horse crunched against the snow as we moved forward. “I know we’re close.” I could feel it.
I hoped Magnus wasn’t there. He left for weeks at a time, so perhaps he hadn’t returned.
Then I saw the distant light from one of the cabins. “I see it.”
Melanie took a deep breath when she saw it. “Shit…”
We came closer then climbed off the horse. Her reins were tied to a branch of a tree.
Melanie breathed harder and harder, like she was hyperventilating.
“We’re going to be fine.”
“I just… I remember…”
My hand moved to her arm. “Think about why we’re doing this. Think about the women we’re saving.” We lit torches along the path the wagons took to the main road, so the women would know where to go when they escaped.
She nodded, her breathing starting to slow.
“We can do this. I know we can.” Even if I didn’t survive, it was still worth it to me…just the possibility of success. Staying home and lying in bed all day was no way to live. I could never truly be free, not until everyone else was.
She nodded again.
We moved forward, stopping at the edge of the camp. I pulled out the tools from my bag, everything we could use to pick every lock. “You take the left. I’ll take the right. Then we’ll torch the cabins.”
“Why not just take the girls and run?”
“Because we don’t know where the snitches are.” From what Magnus and Bethany described, there were quite a few of them. All they had to do was scream and the plan would be over. “Unlock every door, and we’ll set everything on fire. The fire will wake up the girls, and they’ll run. And hopefully…the guards will die in the fire.”
“Should we block their doors?”
That would be smart. “No. Magnus might be here.” I wanted to kill every single guard in that place, but I wouldn’t sacrifice Magnus for it. There was no way to know if he was even there, so this was a gamble.
She nodded. “I’ll meet you in the middle.”
We went in our separate directions, quietly picking each lock so the doors would be unlocked. I’d taught her how to do it in Paris, and we’d practiced until we were both quick. I moved through the snow, knowing there were no guards outside because there was nothing to patrol since I was gone.
It was strange to be there again, to feel the cold burn my lungs with every breath. When I reached the clearing, I stopped and stared. There was a woman hanging from the noose, the snow red beneath her.
It made me angry—and fueled my determination.
We went to each cabin until we met in the middle.
“Now what?” she whispered.
I pulled one down one of the torches they used for the Red Snow ceremony and handed it to her before I grabbed my own. I poured the gasoline on each one before I pulled out the lighter.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” she whispered. “Setting everything on fire?”
“It’ll get the girls out of their cabins. It’ll cause confusion with the guards. If we had guns, I’d do this differently, but we don’t.”
She nodded.
“It’s now or never, Melanie.”
She took a breath to steel her nerves. “Okay.”
I turned on the lighter than held it to the torch.
It immediately burst into flame.
Melanie held it away, held it high to shield herself from the heat. It lit up the center of the camp, a beacon of hope in this eternal darkness.
I stared for a moment…finding it beautiful.
It was the same torch that was lit for the Red Snow, but now it symbolized something completely new.
Freedom.
I lit mine, and it shone with hers, the flames bright, the crackling audible.
She stepped back so we weren’t too close.
I stared at her and gave her a nod. “Let’s do this.”
We went our separate ways, running to light every single cabin on fire, moving quickly so we could torch everything at the same time. My breathing was loud in my ears because I heaved with the exertion of running with everything in my pack and the heavy torch. But my determination kept me going, lighting the rear of the cabins, moving from one to the next…and the next.