After we passed the city limits, we expected to see a river and a scattering of houses, but we got a rude awakening. We stood face-to-face with a mountain range. I pulled out the map again, tracing our path, looking for where we made a wrong turn. How could I mess this up?
Eli leaned on my staff while Frankie and I spread the map on the ground. It showed the mountains behind the antiquities building and its surrounding garden. “This isn’t right.” I frowned. “I’m sure there was supposed to be a river.”
“I told you not to trust that thing, but neither of you ever listen to me,” said Eli under his breath.
I studied the mountains on the new path to the Crystal Palace. “We should’ve known that if there were a map to the Lord of Shadows’ hideout, it wouldn’t be that easy. The darkbringer boy at the camp said that the palace was top secret, so maybe the map is boobytrapped.”
“I think you can drop the ‘maybe’ part,” Eli said.
I bit my tongue. This was not the time to be funny or cynical. Every moment we wasted in the Dark put Papa at greater risk. We had to figure this out, and soon. I glanced over my shoulder. The city loomed at our backs, watching our every move. Nulan was there. Rovey, too, if she hadn’t put an end to him.
“Now that Nulan knows we’re here, when she’s done with Rovey, she’ll come after us.” I stuffed the map in my backpack. “We keep going, but we have to be more careful. I don’t see another choice.”
“Nulan said the Lord of Shadows needs you alive—so we can use that to our advantage, right?” Frankie asked, emphasis on the word needs, which only made my skin crawl. “She knows that she can’t kill you, although she doesn’t seem to have any qualms about killing us.”
“I can see it now when she delivers Maya to the Lord of Shadows.” Eli bowed his head and groveled. “She’ll be like, ‘O Lord, the mightiest of the mighty, king of slithery things, the god of the Dark, the . . .’”
“We get the point, Eli,” I said, forcing down a smile.
Frankie fiddled with her crooked glasses. “Why do you have to be so extra?”
“The same reason why you have to be so nerdy,” Eli retorted.
We reached a sign at the base of the mountain that pointed out several trails. “I don’t know why the Lord of Shadows would need me alive.”
“You’re the only one who can stop the veil from failing with your father sick,” Eli suggested. “He probably wants to guarantee that you’ll be out of the way.”
“I don’t quite buy that.” I frowned. “He could let Nulan or Rovey kill me.”
“He’ll have a better chance of winning if the veil is completely gone,” Frankie said. “But I don’t think it’s that simple.”
“Exactly my point,” I mumbled to myself.
We studied the sign. Each trail had an estimated distance and time to get from one side of the mountain to the other. “The shortest trail is straight up,” I said, “but it looks pretty steep. It could be dangerous, especially at night.”
“Which is the safest route?” Eli asked, poking his head over my shoulder.
“The trail along the side of the mountain,” Frankie answered. “But that one takes almost three times as long.”
Even though I wanted to get to the palace fast, it didn’t make sense to take the most treacherous path. Besides, Nulan knew that we were desperate and might think we would risk it. “I vote for the safest,” I said. Frankie and Eli seconded and thirded the vote.
Fog curled around the mountain, and we couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of us. The trail was barely visible with a wall of rocks on one side and a wall of darkness on the other. Eli picked up a pebble and threw it over the side. It cracked against something and kept bouncing before it finally stopped.
Frankie took a step back. “We’re going to want to stay far away from the edges.”
“This may work to our advantage,” I said, and they both looked at me like I had lost my mind. “I mean, think about it. It’s foggy out, and there are tons of trails. Nulan and her patrol can’t know which one we took if we cover our tracks. They’ll have to divide their forces to check each path. And Rovey said that his magic left a mark on us. We only need to stay one step ahead of him until it wears off.”
“And this path is so narrow that they’ll have to walk in a single-file line,” Frankie added. “That should slow them down—assuming that the darkbringers avoid flying in the fog.”
“That’s looking on the bright side,” Eli grumbled. “Miss Safest Route.”
Speaking of single-file lines, that was the only way we could traverse the trail, too. At first, the route was okay. It was clear of debris and wide enough to make us almost forget the deadly cliffs below. Frankie and I took turns covering our tracks. She used her energy to smooth out the dirt, and I called forth wind with the staff to do the same. We walked for hours, and my feet hurt more with every step. We came to a part of the path that was not so much a trail as it was a slope with loose rocks.
“There is no way I’m going over that!” Eli protested. “Especially at night.”
“He’s right, Maya,” Frankie said, rubbing her eyes. “We’re tired, and we haven’t heard anyone following us. Maybe Nulan will wait until morning.”
Even if I didn’t want to stop, we couldn’t climb across the stretch of rocky terrain at night. We couldn’t see how far it went even with the light from the staff, which got eaten up by the fog. “But you’re right,” I conceded. “We’ll start again at daybreak.”
“Good,” Eli said, “because I’m hungry.”
Frankie slid down to take a seat beside the rockface. “You’re always hungry.”
“Hey,” Eli said. “I’m a growing boy.”
We ate and huddled together against the mountain, too scared to move closer to the edge of the trail. The night was silent except for the occasional howling and wingbeats. Both sounded too close for comfort. I kept imagining Nulan creeping down the side of the mountain to catch us unaware, so I took the first watch.
When morning came, we saw that a chunk of the trail had fallen away, leaving a six-foot gap. No way we’d be able to jump across it, especially not knowing the condition of the rocks on the other side. Every time I looked down at the endless fog, my palms began to sweat.
Eli was off taking care of his business while Frankie paced back and forth. She was nervous too, but she didn’t say anything. When Eli returned, she offered him a squirt of her hand sanitizer, which he gladly accepted.
“I have an idea,” I said, looking across the gap in the trail again, swearing that it was growing wider by the second. I clutched the staff, hoping I could get it to cooperate. The symbols started to glow and peeled away. They floated in the air around us.
“You can do so much with your magic.” Eli let out a deep sigh. “I guess it’s like Miss Lucille said . . . my magic is more specialized, which translates to not that useful in most situations.”
“I think it’s because of the staff,” I said, convinced of it. “Remember how Frankie figured out that it was a conduit to channel magic? You should try it one day.”
“I might just do that.” Eli wiggled his fingers. “I’m sure that I’m destined for greatness.”
The staff changed into black sand that sparkled with silver. It swooped from my hand to the mountainside, where it curved across the path. A wood walkway appeared piece by piece. The symbols floated to the platform and burned into it.
“Why does magic always have to be so illogical,” Frankie said. “Wood turning to sand then to wood again. Really?”
Eli slapped her on the back, laughing. “Yes, we know, don’t Frankiefy us right now, okay?”
I took a step forward. “I’ll go first.”
“Next,” Eli yelled before Frankie could.
She groaned but didn’t protest.
The wind whipped through my locs, threatening to pull my hair out of my ponytail. I shouldered my backpack and tightened the straps. It was now or never. I sucked in a breath and set off across the bridge of god symbols. I took one careful step after another, watching my feet. Out of the corner of my eyes, I could see some of the jagged rocks far below. No one could ever hope to survive a fall here, and that thought made me more nervous.
I was halfway across the bridge when it swayed in the wind. Eli had climbed on, and the flimsy wood didn’t like the extra weight. The morning dew was settling on the platform, making my sneakers slippery. Eli had made it halfway when Frankie climbed on the bridge, then slipped. It happened in slow motion like a scene in a horror movie playing out frame by frame. She went down hard and rolled over the side of the ledge.
“No,” Eli said, running back for her, but that was a mistake. He slipped too and almost fell.
I was running to help when something blue cut across my vision, descending from the sky. I saw a flash of a barbed tail, then I knew it was a darkbringer. He moved in and out of the fog so fast that I didn’t see him until he was right there. He crouched against the rockface, peering down at Frankie, who’d managed to grab on to the edge of the wood. He wore all black—like Rovey and his soldiers. My belly flip-flopped.
“Take my hand if you want to live,” the darkbringer said, his voice as cold as ice.
Wait. Was he paraphrasing the Terminator? And why was this darkbringer helping us?
Frankie didn’t take his hand at first. She slipped some more, and he reached again. This time she grabbed his hand, and he yanked her from the bridge and disappeared into the fog.
“Frankie!” I yelled as her screams echoed against the rocks.
Eli crawled the rest of the way across the bridge, his face wet with tears. I called the staff back, and it materialized at my side again. Eli pressed his fists hard against his forehead. “The darkbringer took her,” he cried. “Just took her . . .”
I stood frozen in place, clutching the staff hard enough to make my hand burn. It happened so fast. “We’ll find her,” I said, my voice choked.
I dropped my head, feeling tired all over. Frankie couldn’t be gone. It was my fault that she’d come to the Dark, and now this was my fault, too. I swiped hard at the tears blurring my eyes, but they kept coming.
Another flash caught my attention, and I snapped up the staff, ready to fight. The darkbringer who’d stolen Frankie landed in the fog in front of me. This time he wasn’t alone. Someone else stood shrouded in shadows behind him. I stalked toward the darkbringer, heat burning through my body. My skin glowed with blue light. I was going to make him pay.