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my plan along the way. With the night sky never fully darkening, we were able to be almost as productive as during daylight.
    Myra stayed at Ava’s side while Zadok became my shadow. The boy was sharp. His questions and observations helped me work through what I had rolling around in my head.
    I threw my spade into the dirt as we finished the last of five crisscrossing ditches that spanned from one side of Main Street to the other while taking into account the fissures in between. I grabbed some of the tan and orange material Sivan had salvaged from his tailor shop and helped others lay it over each ditch. People came in behind us sprinkling dirt, ash, and dead grass so the material would blend into the ground.
    “Not too much,” I said, watching several women camouflage the ditches by the light of flickering torches. “Just enough to break up the color and texture of the surface. Like this.” I joined them in the work. “You add too much and the weight will cause the fabric to dip and sink. We don’t want to alert the raiders that something might be wrong.”
    I looked at the sky. Dawn would be coming soon and my palms began to sweat just thinking about it. I had at least until then before the raiders would come, but how much time afterward, I had no way of knowing. Though I sent Sivan off to keep an eye on their movement, he’d only make it back with just enough time for everyone to get into position.
    I thought about all that still needed doing and hoped again that the alcohol the raiders obtained from previous efforts had not run dry.
    “C’mon Zadok, let’s go check on the others.”
    We stopped at Nason’s group first. He oversaw the construction of various barricades and half walls throughout town. The small barriers were created out of the loose boards and beams scrounged from the debris of broken buildings. The barriers would funnel the raiders to the parts of town we wanted them to go. In order to do that without alarming them, I had instructed Nason to do his best to keep the small blockades ugly with a thrown together look that made it seem their location and size resulted from the wind and destruction that followed the second eruption.
    Building an ugly, natural-looking barricade was no easy task. However, after quick examination of his latest effort, I’d say Nason had the craft down. I put a hand on the closest one and threw my weight against the wood. It didn’t budge.
    “Not bad, huh?” he asked.
    “All this time, it looks like your skills were wasted as a tanner. You should have been an engineer instead. If nothing else, the smell would have been better.”
    He laughed. “Have you figured out where we’re going to place our people?”
    “Yes. Just a few in the center. I want to reduce the risk of anyone loosing arrows that might hit our own. Most will be stationed just outside of the chokepoint we’re bringing them to. That way we can add pressure as we bring them farther inside. Then we can also batter them from behind once they start hitting the traps and are distracted with archers stationed on top of our few standing buildings.”
    “How many at each station on the ground?”
    “Two. Any more will just draw attention to those spots. But it’s always better to have at least one person watching the back of another. It’ll help keep everyone calm in the beginning.”
    “All right,” said Nason. He looked up to the roof of the old theater. His wife was up there, preparing to pitch in with a bow.
    I laid a hand on his shoulder. “I’m going to check on Dekar’s crew next. I’ll let her know you send your love.”
    He forced a smile. “Thanks.”
    Zadok and I left Nason and quickly walked to the theater. With the night sky so much different than before the second eruption, it was actually much darker inside the theater than outside, even while carrying a torch to light our way. We climbed the three flights of rickety stairs that led us to the roof.
    Dekar had managed to craft