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SECONDS TICKED by, marked by echoes of breath.
A popping sound defeated the silence.
An orange glow followed—one of Plaka’s light sticks. He held it in front of his face, which deepened the circles under his eyes.
He struck a match. Its flame touched a torch, set it on fire. He continued lighting torches until five of us held one—Ray, Nick, Calla, Plaka and me. Lily, who’d been given the light stick, wrapped in a cloth, kept close to Calla.
I blinked, willing the man from Abatross to be there. But he was gone.
The haze above us reflected the glow of the torches. What was left of Susana looked like the inside of a jack-‘o-lantern.
“Now!” bellowed Plaka. “We set fire to Susana!”
We scraped our torches along the gray underbrush of a place that could no longer be quenched. The flame caught. It spread hungrily, devouring the land.
With all of its waters dried up, Susana burned.
“Over here,” yelled Plaka. “This is the area where Nick said the portal back to the Clock Tower would be.”
I squinted. I couldn’t see the portal, but I recognized the marking Nick had etched in the ground. He’d drawn an X, with lines that connected the strokes at the top and bottom, forming an hourglass.
I joined Plaka and the others who’d regrouped near the portal. It was essential to our safe return to the Clock Tower. With the rest of Susana in flame, there wasn’t enough room to generate momentum for travel via the travel glasses or Plaka’s baglamas. Without the portal, we’d be trapped in Susana forever, where we would burn along with it.
But Nick was nowhere to be found.
Panicked voices called out his name, Plaka’s being the loudest of all.
Nothing could be heard over the crackling of flame. Until a scream clotted my blood.
“Nick? Where are you?” I yelled.
Calla tugged at my jacket. “He’s caught in the fire.”
“My best guess is that it came from that direction,” said Ray. One arm draped around Lily, who’d buried her head in his chest. His opposite hand pointed across a blazing sea of flame.
My heart dropped. Susana’s transition from water to fire was depressingly ironic.
Plaka headed toward the flames.
“Wait,” I said, holding him back. I’d dragged Nick into this mess; I would get him out, or die trying. I smirked. Dying while trying meant failing. I refused to fail after all we’d been through. After all the Lost we’d saved. After all the Freed I’d seen disappear. I wasn’t ready to go wherever they were going, yet.
I leaped over as much of the fire as I could. I spread my arms, careful to land on my feet. I continued jumping forward, hoping to land on an area that was untouched by flame. Our torches had been effective. Susana was a blanket of fire.
Another scream pulled me forward. A head rose from the inferno. Nick’s willowy body followed. He raised his arms. His form stuck up out of the flames like a combustible scarecrow.
“Nick,” I yelled out, coughing from the smoke and toasted air. After another leap, I managed to grab hold of his arm. His long jacket had caught fire and was traveling up his body. I dragged him, half running, half leaping as he was able, catching him when he threatened to fall or collapse. A couple of times I almost collapsed myself.
Pain ripped through my feet and bit at my legs as the flesh seared. The experience was less excruciating than the Fire Falls, but there was no promise of relief—no balm layer to heal the blisters and charring.
But I kept going. I wasn’t ready to disappear, not from Susana, not from anywhere. I had to make it back to the portal, while our key was still conscious.
When we reached the others, I fell to the ground, pulling Nick down with me. We rolled, snuffing out the flames covering our clothing and Nick’s hair, making sure every last ember died before linking our arms with the rest of the travel party.
“Throw your torches into the fire,” roared Plaka. “We leave them behind.”
I knelt over Nick and grabbed the lapels of his jacket, dragging him to his feet and shaking him awake. “Are you all right? Can you take us through?”
He nodded, his eyes glazed with pain.
“We’ll treat you and Valcas,” said Plaka. “You will heal; but there can be no healing if we don’t leave. Now!”
Plaka and I linked arms with Nick, raising him the rest of the way to his charred feet. Everyone else clasped on, forming a chain.
Nick located the portal and groaned.
The electric purples and blues were the most beautiful sight, after the grays—and more recent oranges—of Susana. But the static generated from travel through the portal tingled across my burns, igniting them all over again. I clenched my teeth to keep from crying out.
By the time we reached the Clock Tower, my strength gave out. Plaka lost his grip on Nick. My arm slipped through Calla’s.
Nick and I, the weakest links in the chain, fell. Air left my lungs as my head bounced off a timepiece that protruded from the tower. Stars danced in my field of vision. Next to me, I heard a smack, then a grunt. I didn’t need to see him to know that Nick wasn’t having a much better time of it.
Then, like two sacks of grain, we hit the ground.
We lay panting at the base of the Clock Tower. I stared at the tower and a purple sky that could have been a mirror that reflected our burns and bruises.
“Look!” Calla sounded frantic, almost scared.
I wanted to tell her not to worry about me or Nick, that we weren’t going anywhere. Plaka and Ray had almost reached the ground. I could still see, but I couldn’t move anything other than my eyes. Our necks could be broken for all I knew. Wasn’t being conscious enough for now?
“Look!” she said again. “The glass ball is melting.”
Someone screamed. Lily?
I couldn’t see the portal to Susana from under the base of the tower. With my head pinned to the ground, I watched as Calla scrambled to the bottom.
Lily followed with the dexterity of a squirrel, as a cascade of wax—liquid glass?—chased them down the outside of the tower, covering timepieces in its path.
I assumed Nick was unconscious at this point, unable to see what was happening to his tower. The thought momentarily numbed my pain. How could the mess ever be cleaned up? Would the substance harden and block access to the portals it covered? Nick would not be pleased.
As if in answer, the substance began to sparkle. At first, I thought I was seeing stars again. But then the glittering spread, up along the tower to where the portal had been. Then, like the Freed who had died, what was left of the melted substance glittered and disappeared.
Calla gasped. As if reading my mind, she climbed back up the tower. “It’s gone!” she said. “The portal to Susana is gone.”
More than a few thoughts warred in my mind before I lost the battle with consciousness. Would Susana disappear as well? Would I get a chance to refill it? And what, if anything, would happen to the three Chars who were after me? Wasn’t I charred enough without them?
I lay there, tired and on the edge of delirium, wondering why I no longer felt pain. Something had numbed the backs of my eyes. The sensation was startling. Comforting.
Unable to keep them open any longer, I allowed my eyelids to drape shut.
I never saw The Chars again.