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MY CHEEKS warmed—both because of Valcas’ promise, and because of the sweltering heat of the Fire Falls.
A horn sounded. I looked up to see three tall puffs of black smoke rise in the distance. The blue boat was a tiny round berry that floated across the fiery ocean. The berry grew larger as it headed back toward us, in the direction of the Fire Falls.
“The smoke—” I gasped. “Is the Uproar coming this way, or did something go wrong?”
I looked to Valcas for direction. His expression panicked me. Having the benefit of being able to see his entire face without the glasses, I could tell he was alarmed.
“Valcas?”
“The Uproar is here,” he replied. “I can feel it.”
I blinked, unable to feel anything but the heat from the flames. “How did the Uproar know we’d be here? How did it find us so quickly? How come it only shows up when you’re—?”
“Put your glasses someplace safe,” Valcas said, ignoring my frantic questions. He dropped my hand to wrap his travel glasses in a cloth and secured them inside his clothing.
“Mine are already in my backpack, wrapped in a T-shirt.”
“Good. Any minute now we’ll need to run through. Appropriate timing is essential not just for our survival, but for theirs.”
I winced, knowing he was talking about Ivory and Ray.
“Okay,” Valcas said. “Take a couple of deep breaths. Fill your lungs with fresh air, as much as you can.”
I inhaled a few times, expanding my chest with the cleanest, coolest air that I could find. My body stiffened. “I can’t do this,” I said.
Valcas grasped my waist and turned me in the direction of the Fire Falls, all while taking a couple of deep breaths of his own. A moment later our hands joined again. He brought his lips to my ear. “Yes, you can. You must.”
I looked at the sheet of flame and bit my lip. There would be no going back. Shakily, I sucked in a huge gulp of air.
Valcas yelled, “Now! Hold your breath, close your eyes and run!”
His grip on my hand tightened, and I felt myself being tugged forward. We ran as fast as possible, blindly, without breathing.
Burning flames charred my clothing and skin. It smelled like a barbecue, the thought of which sickened my stomach. Had I not been trying to hold my breath, I would have gagged. Next came the sizzling and popping sounds, which only nauseated me more.
I lost the squeezing sensation of Valcas’ grip, but I felt something continue to propel me through the Falls. I opened my mouth, not to breathe, but to scream, when it hit me—really hit me—that I couldn’t run back out of the fire.
The fiery torment scorched my tongue and the insides of my mouth, turning my saliva to steam before burning through layers of skin. Then, the burning spread into my lungs as they pleaded for air.
I no longer felt my feet and legs pounding against the ground. Something else pushed me on, but the forward movement paled in comparison to the broiling of my body. I thought I would pass out from the pain and lack of air, waiting and hoping for either that or death.
As far as I could tell, my eyes were still shut—I’d complied with that part of Valcas’ instructions. Yet, in my agony, I had no sense of whether my eyelids were still intact or burned completely off my face. When I’d first entered the Fire Falls, I could see a fiery orange glow through my eyelids. Now everything was black and red.
Somehow “seeing” the blackness and the redness comforted me. My eyes were still present; they hadn’t been eaten away by the Falls. I knew this because my eyeballs throbbed, a distinct, piercing white-hot pain that stood out among the burning of my flesh.
No longer was there any concept of time.
I lost all awareness of Valcas.
Everything was pain and pain was everything.
While yearning for the relentless suffering to stop, I felt myself fall forward.
As I fell, an enveloping coolness wrapped me in balmy bliss. I wanted to sigh in relief, but my lungs had been deprived of air for an indeterminate period of time. I had nothing left to fill a sigh.
A cooling serum filled my mouth, stomach and lungs, healing me from the inside out as it repaired me, externally, internally, outward and inward.
I welcomed the liquid ointment into my eyes by opening them the way I’d learned while swimming in a pool of water. I would have laughed if I could have, remembering how much I’d complained about the chlorine in the water stinging my eyes.
This ability to open my eyes brought with it other sensations, making me realize that I hadn’t fallen at all. I became aware of my own two legs, felt them; they were no longer running, but they continued to carry me forward.
Then I began to see. First, I recognized that the balmy liquid was a blue-green color. Through it, I could see the shape of a cave, distorted but dark and gray, and very real.
To my left I felt a pressure on my hand. I turned my head to find Valcas walking beside me. By some miracle he was still holding my hand.
Encouraged, I picked up speed, dragging Valcas along with me. He didn’t resist. Before breaking through to the surface of air, I felt myself rinsed clean by a shower of clear, refreshing water—a substance much less dense than the blue-green fluid.
I drew in a long, deep breath of warm, delicious air as I stepped out of the water and onto dry ground. The sensation of Valcas’ hand fell away.
I could breathe again.
We’d made it through.