CHAPTER 19

I leaped up and ran. There was a low wall ahead, so I darted to the left. A moment later, a bullet grazed the brick—another lucky escape.

Surrendering wasn’t an option. I could as easily die later as now, so I pushed onward.

I don’t know why I changed direction again—maybe it was Alice’s voice in my head—but something told me I had to, that until I was out of range, running in a straight line was just making the pirate’s job easier. After that, I zigzagged through the battered remains of Skeleton Town, always keeping the ship in my sights. Sounds of gunfire shattered the quiet, but it wasn’t long before the shots grew fewer. Then they stopped.

I was out of range.

The shoreline was only a half mile away. A mixture of sweat and blood dripped down my face and along my arms as I willed myself to keep sprinting. My legs felt bludgeoned. My lungs screamed. The wound in my chest had reopened yet again. I welcomed the feeling of panic—it was all that kept me from breaking down.

A quarter mile to go and I was slowing. I forced out one step after another, but the footing grew softer as I approached the shoreline. It wasn’t like running on sand, but it was close.

Shouts from nearby jolted me. I looked over my shoulder and saw four pirates running after me, rifles slung across their backs. They were fresh. Their pace was faster. Even if they didn’t catch me, they’d be within range again soon.

I thought of Alice lying on the ground, covered in rats. Brave Alice. She’d given the order to run, but had let me go first. It should’ve been her running to the ship as the rats picked me to pieces. She’d sacrificed herself for me. I couldn’t let her down.

Two hundred yards to go. A shot rang out. It missed, but I imagined the bullet slicing through the air beside me. More shouting. And something dark in my peripheral vision.

I glanced left and right. Somehow rats were converging on me again. But they couldn’t have made it from the street already, which meant that these were different rats. I’d thought there were thousands of rats, but I was wrong. There were tens of thousands. Maybe a hundred thousand. Enough to wipe out every human being. And Jossi and the boy controlled them.

Solution is death, Tessa had said. Finally I realized what she had meant by that. She hadn’t been talking about Griffin at all. No wonder she’d been so desperate for me to stay on the ship.

I pounded out one stride after another, keeping an equal distance from both packs of rats. The ground was marshy here, but that would be harder for the rats than for me. The pirates, on the other hand—

The sound of the gunshot hit me at the same moment as the bullet itself. There was a flash of white-hot pain as it grazed my arm, followed by a dull heat. Exhausted, delirious, I told myself that he’d missed. I took it as a sign that I was winning.

I wasn’t aware of the moment that land gave way to water. I just kept going until I couldn’t bring my legs above the surface. Then I began swimming. My right arm wouldn’t rise as high as my left, but I dragged it up and around anyway. My legs, still burning, flapped against the water.

Another bullet zipped through the water next to me. The pirates would be closing in again. How far would I be from the shore when they got there? Fifty yards? Less? Close enough that they could hit me with ease, that much was certain. My strokes were useless now.

Another shot, and another, so close that I felt the bullets shift the water beside me. I wasn’t going to get away after all. I knew that now.

With a last look at the ship in the distance, I took a deep breath and dove underwater. I counted eight strokes and resurfaced. Another breath. Under again. I only managed five strokes this time. I had no idea if I was still heading for the ship.

Something slapped at my arms—a bullet, I thought. I broke the surface and dove under again. The slapping resumed, and it wasn’t bullets, or a fish. I flailed my arms, trying to fight off whatever it was, but it pressed against me, holding me tightly.

That’s when I realized it was a person. Someone with the element of water.

I couldn’t see anything, but I figured it must be Rose. I was too disoriented to wonder how she had recovered from her injuries enough to help me. I just relaxed into her arms and let her speed me along. The pressure of the water against my head was proof of how quickly we were moving. In moments I would be out of range of the gunmen. There was no way they’d be able to catch up to me now.

As my breath was about to give out, we surfaced momentarily. In that instant, I discovered that it wasn’t Rose at all. It was Marin.

We went under again. Her legs fluttered behind us, as quick as a butterfly’s wings and as powerful as a pelican’s. The next time we emerged, I couldn’t see the shore at all because we were hidden behind the ship.

Things happened around me in a blur of motion. A rope landed beside me, but I couldn’t think of what to do with it.

“Climb, Thomas,” came a voice from above us. “You must climb.”

Still I stared at the rope. Beside me, Marin floated on her back, face frozen in an agonized mask. I couldn’t piece it all together.

“She’ll be all right,” Tarn implored me. “She just needs time to recover.”

It was my echo again. During the few days we’d spent on Sumter, I’d been able to stop obsessing about every fleeting touch. Now that we were on Roanoke, the memories of everyone I’d ever hurt came flooding back.

Add Marin to that list. She’d known what rescuing me would entail, and she’d come anyway. But why? She hated me.

I grasped the rope and eased it around her torso and under her armpits, careful not to touch her. I tied it off with a double hitch knot. I didn’t want her to drift away from the ship—even someone with the element of water could, presumably, drown.

Tarn had tied her end of the rope to the ship’s railing. Hand over hand, feet coiled around the rope, I began to climb. I thought of Rose in the ship, and Alice in Skeleton Town, and almost gave up. Then I glimpsed Marin below me, and Tarn above, leaning over the rail, straining to help me back on board. Just two more pulls and I’d be there.

I lost my grip as I reached for the rail, but Tarn had a tight hold on my tunic. She heaved me over the rail and onto the deck.

“You’ve got to help me get Marin up here,” she said. “That woman just saved your life. Now it’s time for you to save hers.”

She pulled me to a stand and we took the rope. Gradually we pulled Marin from the water. When she was almost at rail level I anchored my feet against the edge of the ship and leaned back, a counterbalance to her weight. Tarn dragged her aboard.

We were sprawled across the deck. To the east, wisps of smoke skidded above Skeleton Town. How were the others doing? Was I a coward for leaving them?

Tarn followed my eyes. “What happened over there, Thomas?” she asked.

What had happened? And how could I begin to explain. “It was . . . an ambush.”

“We heard shots. Is anyone hurt?”

“I don’t think anyone was shot. But the others have been captured. And there are rats. Lots of them.”

Tarn looked over my body—took in the blood streaks and the bite marks. “How many rats?”

“Thousands.”

I wanted to see Griffin, but now I was pleased that he wasn’t with us. How could I explain that after all these years, he wasn’t the only solution? How could I put everything that had happened into signs when I couldn’t find the words?

“The pirates control the rats,” I said. “They used them to round us up. To trap us.”

“That’s impossible. They just made you think they can do that.”

“I saw—”

“What they wanted you to see.” Tarn huffed. “An element like that couldn’t have arisen until after the Exodus and the Plague. That’s the way elements evolve—in response to external change. Since every one of the pirates was born before the Plague, they couldn’t possess such an ability.”

“But the boy wasn’t born before the Plague.”

“What boy?” Tarn’s expression shifted—no longer dismissive, but concerned. “What are you talking about?”

“A boy who came from the clan ship that’s moored to the northwest of Roanoke.” I pointed, but the mast was obscured by trees.

“If there’s a clan ship, then where are the clan folk? You can’t believe a boy sailed that ship through the Oregon Inlet by himself.”

I shrugged. These were reasonable questions, but I had no answers. Nothing made sense anymore. “Tessa said the solution is death,” I reminded her. “What if Griffin isn’t the real solution? What if that boy on Roanoke is instead?”

Tarn looked at Marin. She wanted another Guardian to help her make sense of everything. But Marin hadn’t moved. Only the gentle rise and fall of her chest convinced me that she was still alive.

“I need to go back,” I said. “I have to help them.”

“No. You need to rest.”

“Your daughter is over there.”

“Yes, she is. But making another hasty decision won’t turn back time. What we need now is a plan.”

I thought about this. “Actually, what we need is answers. And I know who has them.”

I dragged myself off the deck and lumbered toward the stairs. I never made it to Tessa’s cabin, though. Because halfway down the stairwell, listening in, was a perfectly healthy girl.

It wasn’t until Nyla spoke that I was sure I wasn’t seeing a ghost.