“Better safe than sorry,” Joeb said.
“We’re not being safe either way,” Jo pointed out, “with so many of us here. If what Joey said about Joaquim and the way they powered him is right, they might be able to do that again. They might able to sense us, the way we can sense each other. They might come here.”
“Would they bother?” Joeb asked, echoing my earlier thoughts.
“I don’t know,” I said again. If felt like the millionth time I’d said those words in the last few minutes, and it was infuriating. I wasn’t being any help to anyone. “Lord Dogknife seemed pretty confident that there wouldn’t be anything I could do to stop them. Whether they’ll be watching us anyway or not, I . . .” I trailed off, unwilling to say those three words again. “I can’t say,” I said instead. It was a little better.
“Better safe than sorry,” Joeb repeated. “Let’s assume they can—and will—sense us, whether we stay in a group or Walk. That means we have to get as many of us to InterWorld Beta as we can. They won’t be able to follow us there, right?”
“Right,” I said, hoping desperately that I was right. I had to be. They didn’t have any way to travel through time, not like I could if I had Hue with me. “They can’t Walk through time.”
“No one can, except your mudluff. Thankfully.” Joeb smiled at me.
And Acacia, I thought unwillingly, and managed a smile back. I wondered if what Acacia did was technically Walking, or something entirely different. We hadn’t had much time to discuss the mechanics of it.
“So, since we don’t know what would happen if something went wrong while we tried to Walk through time, we should go in small groups.” Joeb stated. “But, since we have to assume they’ll be able to sense us Walk and might send out scouts, we should take as many at once as possible. Thoughts?”
“I think the best compromise is to go in two groups.” I ventured. “Split right down the middle, and do it that way. Agreed?”
I glanced around. Most of the Walkers looked doubtful, but some of them were nodding. It really did seem like the best option.
“Okay,” I said. “I want Josephine to take both groups. She’s the quietest Walker I’ve ever met; if she takes you, you’ll definitely get there undetected. We’ll send any of the injured first—”
“Which should include you,” Joeb said. I shook my head.
“Not a chance.”
“You’re pretty beat up,” Jo pointed out.
“I’m not going first,” I said. “I’m making sure you all get there safely, and that’s final.”
“You’re the only one who knows firsthand about everything that’s going on,” Jo insisted. “If we lose you, we’re stumbling around in the dark.”
“We’re doing that anyway. You know as much as I do now. Jo,” I continued, when she started to argue again, “I want you in charge of the first group.”
As I’d hoped, that surprised her enough to derail her next protest. Instead, she said “Me? Joeb is . . .”
“I’ll stay with the second group,” Joeb said.
Jo frowned. “But Jai’s a senior officer, too.”
“And he needs a translator,” I told her, and there was a quiet ripple of laughter. Jai smiled serenely, not minding the joke at his expense.
“Any and all wounded—except me,” I clarified, as Jo started to shoot me a glare, “will go with the first group. This includes Jakon, Josef, Jai, Jo, and Josephine. Jo is team lead. Then Josephine will come back here, and take the second group. Agreed?”
“I am predominantly uninjured,” Jai finally pointed out.
“But you’re also a senior officer, and I want you there to help Jo in case something goes wrong,” I told him.
“Very sensible,” he agreed. “Shall we apportion ourselves into commensurate assemblages?”
I looked at Jo.
“Yes, let’s split into two even groups,” she said, catching my look. She almost smiled as she spoke.
I sat down with Jo, Jai, Josephine, and Joeb to figure out how we should be divided, while everyone else broke camp. Neither task took long, as five of us were already put in one group, and there hadn’t been much of a camp to begin with.
All told, there were roughly fifteen of us in each group (specifically, there were fourteen in my group and fifteen in the other—we always made a point to do an exact count for any mission). We stood a ways apart from each other, in case anything went wrong. Josephine looked stoic and determined, though I was sure she had to be nervous. I smiled at her as we stepped forward.