CHAPTER 6

An Exit

Fin tucked the sheathed Evershear through his belt next to his thief’s bag, then took off. Fig charged ahead of him as they tore down the corridors. The whole Citadel rocked under the force of the Rise. They had to get back to Marrill and get out before it was too late.

“It’s too late,” Fig gulped, skidding to a halt just inside the main chamber.

Fin stopped beside her. Beyond the big statue of Serth the Oracle, the massive doors hung open. The Rise filled the room. Vell stood at their head.

The situation looked bad. But they couldn’t just turn and run—Marrill was still there somewhere. He clenched his hands into fists. He refused to let the Rise take his best friend prisoner.

“Okay,” he told Fig under his breath. “We’ve faced Vell before—we can do it again.” He counted the rows of Rise soldiers. Five, ten, fifteen. Twenty soldiers per row. That added up to… a lot. He mentally recalculated.

Beside him, Fig cleared her throat.

He knew what she was going to say, and she had a point. “I know: Last time we had a whole army of Fade helping us, and this time it’s just you and me. But I think we can still make it work, if we… hmmm…” He paused, contemplating the exact amount of force it would take to push the big stone Serth off balance, and exactly where it might fall.

“Fin!” Fig hissed. He looked over at her. And then at the hand on her shoulder. And at the arm attached to that hand. And the body behind that arm.

The girl was identical to Fig in every way. Every way except for the cold eyes, the humorless smile, and the lifeless metal streaked across one cheek.

“Hello, Brother Fade,” the girl said.

“Karu, this is Fin,” Fig said through clenched teeth. “Fin, this is Karu, my Rise. She is… apparently going to take us prisoner now.”

Fin waved weakly. In the back of his head, his plans smashed to pieces, right alongside his hope. He shifted the Evershear on his hip, tucking the handle of it under the hem of his shirt so no one could see it.

Four seconds later, Karu marched them to the front of the Rise group.

Vell looked Fin over. “Brother Fade.” He spoke the words the way someone might spit out a sip of sour milk.

Fin frowned, but not at his Rise’s attitude. Dull metal marred his face and when he raised a hand, steel glinted beneath the cuff of his glove. “Shanks, what happened to you?” Fin asked.

“It’s all of them,” Marrill said behind him. “They’re all part metal now.”

Fin’s eyes flicked over the Rise troops. Sure enough, everywhere he looked, iron mottled the formerly human Rise. Iron fingers on flesh hands, iron ears on flesh heads. It melded with the skin so perfectly, it almost seemed like they’d been born with it.

“The Iron Tide,” Serth pronounced. “It can’t cover them completely because they are by definition unstoppable. But they can’t completely resist it, either. Fascinating, really.”

Fin shot an exasperated look at the tall wizard. Apparently, Ardent wasn’t the only one who found the wrong time to appreciate the dangers of the Pirate Stream.

“Well, it is,” Serth said with a shrug.

All at once, Vell laughed. It sounded weird, like someone who’d never laughed before imitating what he thought one should be like. “Too true,” he said. “Which is why we must get these two Fade to safety.”

Hedgecaw snarled. “And what happens to the rest of us?” All around, his guards gripped their weapons more tightly.

But Vell flicked his wrist. The column of Rise shimmered with motion. “Our King demands conquest. This place is conquered. The Rise are done. What happens here is up to him.”

From the rear of the Rise ranks, a figure appeared, seemingly floating over the heads of the soldiers. As it drew nearer, though, Fin could see that it was no flying wizard. It was a statue, slightly smaller than a man, held aloft by the Rise, who passed it forward between them.

When the statue reached the front, four tall Rise carried it to Vell. Once beside him, they knelt low, bringing it down nearly to his level without allowing it to touch the ground.

Up close, Fin recognized the hunched, beaked figure. It was the Salt Sand King in his nonburning form. Only he was made entirely of iron.

The Iron Tide, he realized, had taken the Salt Sand King.

Fin didn’t know how to feel. Part of him—most of him, honestly—was happy to see the Salt Sand King turned into metal. At least they wouldn’t have to fight a living fire today. And very little of him felt bad for the Rise. But there was something sad in the way Vell stroked a hand across the iron beak.

“You were right, my liege,” Fin watched his twin whisper. “They came, as you said they would. The old broken wizard can’t stay away from his things.”

Marrill stepped forward. “Vell,” she said. “Clearly you know better than the rest of us what the Iron Tide can do. If you help us, we can stop it—”

A whistle of steam cut her off. Fin felt sweat begin to bead across his brow. Suddenly, the room grew warmer. The iron fingers belonging to the beaked statue appeared to soften, to move. The iron edges began to glow.

“Blisterwinds,” Fin muttered. He’d spoken way too soon. The statue was melting. Somewhere within it, the unquenchable fire still burned. The Salt Sand King was alive.

Vell held up his hand. “The King passes judgment!” he cried.

“All right, no time for this,” Serth declared. “Children, down!”

The wizard didn’t have to tell Fin twice. He grabbed Marrill with one hand and Fig with the other, and together they dropped to the ground. Suddenly his back felt like it had been licked from heel to head by a stinging icicle. The tips of his ears burned with cold.

He looked up. A wall of ice stood before him, so thin he could see right through it, but reaching all the way to the ceiling. On the other side, the statue of the Salt Sand King was solid once more, frost spreading over what had been hot metal moments before.

“That won’t hold. Let’s go,” Serth commanded. “Now!”

The kids scrabbled backward, tripping over their feet as they went. Hedgecaw motioned them frantically toward the fountain. To Fin’s shock, it was empty now, save for a staircase leading into its depths.

“This way,” the thorny Meressian commanded, ushering Fig and Marrill downward. “There’s a secret exit at the far end of the spiral galleries. If we’re lucky, we’ll make it.”

Fin glanced back through the wall of ice. Vell sneered at him, shaking his head in disgust. Then his lips curled into a cruel smile, and he crooked an eyebrow as if in a challenge. Fin’s pulse skittered. He knew what that look meant, and it wasn’t good.

“We should hurry,” he urged the others. But he kept his eyes on Vell. Looking through the ice was like staring into a twisted mirror, seeing himself in another life. The other him dropped his hand sharply, and the Rise holding the statue of the Salt Sand King let it fall, heavily, to the ground.

The second the iron touched the floor, Fin understood why the Rise carried it themselves. A dull darkness spread out from its base. The darkness crept outward, across the floor, up the ice, through it. Petrifying it.

The Iron Tide. Other than the Rise themselves, everything it touched became metal, and everything that turned to metal became a part of the Tide. The Salt Sand King, living fire or not, seemed to be no exception.

He couldn’t hear Vell’s voice through the ice. But the words his lips made were clear: “Surrender, before the Tide takes us both.”

Fin sighed. This day hadn’t started well, and if he was being honest, it wasn’t getting much better. “Bad news,” he called to the others as he raced after them down the spiral staircase. “Iron Tide is coming.”

“Then hurry up!” Fig shouted back.

Fin flew down the passage beneath the fountain, quickly catching up to the others and bolting past to lead the way. Ahead, the tunnel made an abrupt turn, and he zipped around it, crashing headfirst into Bull Face.

“Oh, hey, I got your waaaaaah!” The big Meressian shrieked, stumbling backward, throwing a string of what looked like jewels in the air. Fin regained his balance easily and reached up to snag them.

Serth beat him to it, snatching them and shoving them into a hidden pocket in his robes. “Thanks so much,” the wizard said, grabbing the candle from Bull Face’s other hand as he pushed past.

“Run, run!” Hedgecaw cried, bringing up the rear.

Together they raced through the passage as it curved and arced downward. They skidded around corners and slid down ramps, and then all of a sudden the corridor opened up into walls of glass.

“Whoa,” Fin breathed. He paused for just one moment to take it in. They stood at the top of a broad open spiral. Its walls and floors were made of stained glass. He could see out to the underside of the fortress above and the dangling circle of Stream moat below. Throughout the spiral, inside and out, a hundred different boxes dangled from the base of the fortress by long chains. Each, he imagined, containing some artifact of the Prophecy.

“Whoa,” Marrill echoed next to him. But she was pointing up. Overhead, a dull blotch formed on the bottom of the Citadel and began spreading outward. The Iron Tide was coming.

“Move!” Hedgecaw shouted from behind them.

They sped down the glass spiral, the Tide swallowing everything above as it ate its way toward them. They had a head start, but the Tide spread in all directions. They had to run around and around, while it could just ooze straight down. It would catch them, eventually.

They needed a new strategy. Fin ground to a halt, ignoring the grunts of Fig and Marrill almost colliding in an effort to avoid plowing into him.

“Fin,” Marrill hissed, “what are you doing?” She grabbed his arm, tugging him forward.

But he held his ground, scanning their surroundings. Through the window he saw the Kraken circling in the moat below. If there was anything he’d learned as the Master Thief of the Khaznot Quay, it was that sometimes you had to make your own escape route.

His eyes skipped across the long chains and their display boxes strung throughout the glass spiral. An idea snapped into place. “We need a chain that lines up with the Kraken,” he shouted. Without asking why, Fig and Marrill both started craning their necks, searching.

“Over here!” Fig yelled a moment later. “Check it,” she said, pointing. “It goes all the way down.”

She gave him a big smile. Fin felt oddly warm. It was nice having someone like himself around.

He gripped the Evershear tightly, sliding it from its sheath and making sure to keep the blade away from his body.

Then he slashed it through the air, ker-snick, ker-scnak! A pane of glass dropped away, falling into the darkness of the chasm below. All they needed to do was slip through the hole, grab the chain, and slide down to the Kraken. They’d have to be quick about it, though—the Iron Tide was already spreading along the chains themselves.

“Okay,” he said with a grin, carefully resheathing the Evershear. “Who goes first?”

One by one, they shimmied down the chain, then swung to the ship. Serth went first, since he could save himself if the chain ended up breaking, then Marrill, then the two Meressians—mainly because they forgot about Fin and Fig and cut ahead of them in the line.

Then it was just the two of them. Fin grabbed the chain, readying himself for the leap. It occurred to him that as awful as all of this was, he’d really enjoyed having a partner in crime. “You know,” he said, “before Marrill, I didn’t know what it was like to have a friend. Now I have two, and… well…”

He felt himself blushing. He still hadn’t gotten used to this “being genuine” stuff.

“Me too,” Fig said, grinning wide. “Now go!”

A minute later, Fin hit the deck of the Kraken with a flourish. “Tralada!” he declared as he landed. “Day saved, again. Naysayer, add that one to my score.”

“Oh yeah,” the big lizard grunted, repositioning Karny on his shoulder. “Let me just find my some-kid-barely-manages-to-not-get-us-all-killed scoreboard… and yep, that puts you at four who gives a clam, a dead tie with whatsername.”

“Also a bit premature,” said Fig’s voice. Fin looked up. Standing on the quarterdeck next to a visibly furious Remy was Fig’s Rise, Karu. Serth and the Meressians surrounded her, but for some reason, none of them moved.

“You’re a clever little Fade, I’ll give you that,” Karu pronounced. “But you should know you can’t outsmart the Rise. We’re the better parts of you, if you recall. And now we have you.”

She held up one hand. Cradled in it, dull and glinting, was a shard of iron. Fin let out a breath. That was why no one was doing anything.

“You brought the Iron Tide,” he said.

Karu laughed. It wasn’t as bad as Vell’s, but it didn’t sound quite natural, either. “It would have come on its own,” she said. “The only thing that can stand against it”—she swept an arm down and across herself—“is the power of the Salt Sand King.”

“Now,” she said to all of them, “where is my Fade?”

“Right here!” Fig shouted from above. Fin looked up. Fig was halfway down the chain. She’d pulled the other half up and held the end in her right hand. Then she let go with her left.

The chain swung down past Fin, Fig at the tip of it. She swooped over the deck, flying wildly.

Not wildly, Fin realized. Dead on course.

“Fig, no!” he cried.

But there was nothing to be done. Fig slammed into Karu, snatching her Rise up and carrying both of them off the Kraken. Fin’s heart skipped a beat. Everyone raced to the side of the ship, watching the twins twirling together out in the air.

For a moment, just a moment, all eyes were on forgettable Fig.

“This is childish!” Karu shrieked. “You can’t stop me, Sister Fade!”

Fig caught Fin’s eye as they spun around, heading on an arc back toward the Kraken.

“I don’t need to stop you.” She grabbed Karu’s hand, prying at the piece of iron in her fingers.

Fin gaped in horror. “Fig, no!” he screamed again.

But it was too late. The Iron Tide had reached her. It crawled up Fig’s arm, across her back, over her. In moments, she was gone.

“Sail, Captain, sail!” Serth commanded, begging the wind with his hands. The ship lurched forward, just in time to dodge the end of the chain with its deadly cargo.

Karu shrieked once, then shrieked again, struggling to jump free. But she remained clutched in Fig’s iron-coated arms. The silver that had streaked the side of her face spread out, covering her. There was no escape. Her Fade was gone now. Karu was mortal. Immune to the Iron Tide no more.

Fin’s heart caught in his throat as the Kraken set sail. Ahead, Serth guided the ship toward an eddy that would dump them back onto the Stream. Ahead was salvation. Ahead was the path to the Master. Ahead was the way to put a halt to this creeping doom.

But behind them, the screams had stopped. There was nothing left, save for two statues dangling at the end of a very long iron chain.