“Are you praying?” Filo is making his way up the steep slopes of the fjord.

“No, not really.” Sely stops whispering passages from the Silver Chronicles to herself. That she is not praying is true; she is reviewing what to do in situations like this.

Like ancient humans, insects are ruthless animals and violence is the first resource of diplomacy: so infraspecies, so intraspecies.

The point is that Sely would rather avoid it.

I already have thirty-eight bullets left and there are hundreds of potential enemies there.

The second problem is that of all the species we are dealing with scolopendras.

Scolopendras are independent and do not form nests.

If they are thus united in achieving a goal it is certainly to please the Marquise.

Hive Monoliths can pull their offspring to them, forcing them to obey.

If this is the case, it will be enough to understand what the Marquise wants and buy time until the spiders arrive.

The alternative, not to be thrown away a priori, is to reach the place indicated by Filo and, from there, attempt an attack to disperse the scolopendras.

“They don't have a leader to point to?” Filo asks as he presses himself against the wall. Under the metal grate, they are walking on, the sea is very rough, and falling would lead to crashing on the rocks.

“If they were bees or ants… but scolopendras are like us mantises, whoever does it himself does it for three, right?”

Why did I say we? I'm not like that, at most my Mom but…

“Here we are!” Filo indicates a cavity in the rock face.

The two slip into it and find themselves in a cave that goes deep.

“But are these steps?” Sely is amazed.

“Correct, I told you about the underground warehouse. This is an old emergency route, I think.”

“Oh, so we're going to the warehouse?”

Filo takes out his backpack and turns on the flashlight. The beam of light is lost at the bottom of the steps, revealing a gray and dirty tiled floor.

He nods. “From there there is a staircase that leads to the mayor's house. The house was built there for 'strategic' reasons I believe.”

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So will we end up at the mayor's house?

I didn't see it in the square, but even with the telescope, I might have missed it.

“Sely, hurry.” Filo is already coming down and shines the beam of light in Sely's face.

“I'm coming.”

⁂

The way is clear. There are locked iron doors, yellow stripes on the floors, and well-preserved signs with writings and numbers that Sely doesn't understand.

Everything is dark and only a few fractures here and there allow little light to enter. Stones and plastic and copper cables are illuminated by Filo and the journey continues in silence.

Sely's antennae are up. In the dark, the antennas are more reliable than sight and she keeps her hand on the butt of the gun.

She still doesn't know what altered her father but she is certain that shooting in such a closed area could be problematic. Splinters and shock waves are the main problems.

Not all the doors are closed, but Filo walks forward with sure-footedness.

The plan is banal and crude but the more she thinks about it, the more Sely is convinced that she has no alternatives.

The two arrive at the staircase, enter the mayor's house, and then begin disturbance operations. Maybe the people gathered together will rebel, maybe not.

In any case, you have to play not getting caught until the spiders arrive.

Sely knows that spiders don't necessarily come. Not after what she said to their king, refusing to help it.

Despite myself, I would have done well to accept its offer.

In all this, Filo will not fight but will try to stir up the crowd.

Scolopendras are stronger than an unarmed human but, in sheer numbers, it seems to the two boys that the advantage is on their side. It seems like it, but Sely doesn't want to think about it.

“Here we are,” Filo points the flashlight at a huge torn iron door. “Back here is the warehouse.”

⁂

The two advance between stacks of shelves seven or eight times Sely's height, packaged material and darkness.

Boxes of flashlights, machinery with absurd shapes such as four wheels and a large central blade, varied clothes, and vehicles.

Sely recognizes the vehicles immediately even though she has never seen them: they are spoken about extensively in the Silver Chronicles. They are the tools with which men did things like move soil, dig tunnels like insects, and move at great speed.

The flying cities themselves are vehicles of gigantic dimensions.

“We had an agreement.”

Sely and Filo are alarmed: a familiar voice. The two exchange a look and Filo immediately turns off the light.

Endya?!

“Hey, hey. What could we who would have gone another way know? In the village, they thought they had slipped away.”

“Yeah, Jiv right. You rather, we found ourselves attacked by some scolopendras. Those monsters knew nothing about the agreements!”

Around a spotlight placed on the ground visible from behind Sely and Filo's shelf, a trio of men are talking.

Endya, Jiv, and the third is necessarily the second killer.

This time the shots are there and the targets are well lit.

Sely has an angry impulse and starts to bring her hand to the sheath. But Filo's touch on her shoulder makes her give up.

“What's up?” She whispers.

“Are they…”

“I saw it, it's a clean shot. I eliminate the two and capture Endya.”

Filo runs his hand through Sely's hair.

“What are you doing?” She shakes her head.

“If you shoot: one, you'll see that they discover us, and two you kill all three with that cannon, don't think about taking prisoners.”

Indeed the firepower is practically uncontrollable at the moment…

“Well, what do you propose?”

“We wait for them to move. You have the knife and I have the shovel, only in case of necessity we will use the gun.”

“In the woods, you didn't want a melee.”

“In the woods, there are cobwebs and… sunlight.”

Oh, that's what Sely thinks.

She understood.

Of course, she understood.

In the dark humans are at a disadvantage.