“He’s gonna hate us for this,” I say to Violet as we run.
Hickory’s slung over Aki’s shoulders, bouncing up and down in front of us as we sprint through the tunnels, humming a merry tune. Every time Aki swings around to check on me, Hickory’s head smacks into a wall, but I’m pretty sure he can’t feel a thing. “Ouch,” he mutters, then chuckles and starts humming again.
“He should be grateful we’re bringing him at all,” Violet snaps back.
Orin-kin is in chaos. Woken by the gunshot and chanting, half our group is sprinting through the tunnels with us, so panicked they don’t seem to notice or care that a seven-foot Gorani’s running alongside them. Others are charging back toward the action with clubs and blades in hand, ready to battle the Boboki.
I keep expecting Yaku to burst through the crowd. No wonder he was annoyed I’d gone to see Elsa. I was supposed to be with the others, grouped together for an easy kill.
“Through here,” Elsa shouts.
She plucks a fire-lit torch from a bracket on the wall and dashes down a thin, deserted tunnel. Aki does too, scraping Hickory along the stone as he goes. Violet shoves me in after them. The ceiling’s much lower in here, the walls less than three feet apart. We run single file.
More gunshots echo behind us. Another chorus of Boboki chanting.
“Where are we going?” Violet hisses.
“Shortcut down to the stables.” We all skid to a halt as Elsa stops suddenly. She reaches into one of several small holes cut into the rock wall, shoulder-deep. “Step aside as soon as you get to the bottom, Jane. Stay put. The rest of us’ll be coming in fast right behind you.”
“What are you talking about?’” I ask. “The bottom of what?”
“Move forward a bit. Half a step.”
I obey. “Here? Why?”
“Arms in tight.”
“Like this?”
“Perfect,” Elsa says. “Have fun.”
She tugs a lever or something in the wall and the next thing I know I’m falling, slipping, sliding down a secret trapdoor chute, swearing my guts out. The darkness is thick and cool, the stone worn smooth by centuries of sliding butts. The wind rushes through my ears. Close behind me, I can hear Violet sliding, Aki click-clacking, Hickory cackling, crying, “Whoopeeee!” The slide banks left and right, corkscrew twirls.
A flash of light, and I shoot across the hay-strewn floor of a storeroom, slam into a wall. Before I can roll to the side, Violet crashes into me. Leaps to her feet and scans the junk scattered around the room. Crates. Saddles. Bales of hay. A rack of shovels and rakes.
She grabs a shovel. “Better than nothing.”
A second later, Aki and Hickory slip across the floor and slam into me, too. Hickory shoots me a dopey grin. “Let’s do that again.” Seems the effects of the healers’ oils haven’t worn off yet.
“Get up, all of you,” Violet whispers, creeping over to the door. “And keep it down.”
Elsa slides into the room nice and easy, like she’s out for a morning jaunt. Hops up and rummages around behind the bales of hay, looking for a weapon or something, I guess.
“A little warning would’ve been nice,” I say, nodding back at the chute.
“And miss the look on your face when you fell? Pfft. Ah-ha!” She pulls out a dusty bottle of booze, uncorks it with her teeth, chugs a mouthful and sighs. “Lovely.”
“Question,” Hickory says, staring at his hands. “Did I just kill a guy with a spoon?”
“Can we focus, please?” Violet hisses. She eases the door open a crack to see if the coast is clear. It isn’t, of course. “I count four hostages. Kids. Three hostiles, all armed. On the plus side, most of the horses are already saddled.”
Elsa joins Violet by the door. “Those kids are the stable hands.” She opens the door a little wider so I can look, too. “The gate down there’s still closed. Yaku must’ve let the Boboki in through a different one. Ungrateful little—” She swears and takes another swig.
The place is big. Horse stalls and hay bales line the far wall. Torches flicker in every corner. To our left, three tunnels wind up into the mountain. To our right, a much shorter one leads to the stable gate. Two Boboki raiders are guarding it, spears and machetes at the ready. The stable hands—four terrified kids—are on their knees in the middle of the room. The third Boboki raider’s pacing around them. Guy’s a walking brick wall, white skin inked in swirling tattoos.
Violet pokes her head out to get a better look, ducks back, and eases the door shut. “There’s a wagon loaded with barrels to the right of the exit tunnel . . .”
“Supplies from Asmadin,” Elsa says. “Salted meat. Flint. Oil.”
Violet’s eyes light up. “For the torches? Flammable oil?”
“Don’t even think about it, Violet,” I say.
“But—”
“You’re not blowing anything up. You could kill the horses. Not to mention yourself.”
“Hey,” she snaps, “I’m still mad at you for leaving, so don’t lecture me.”
“I told you, I didn’t leave.”
“Oh, sure,” Elsa says, “let’s settle this now. Not like we’re in a hurry or anything.”
“Fine!” Violet wrings her hands on her shovel. “No explosions. You all stay here. As soon as I step outside, you close the door behind me, count to twenty, and then get to the horses. Jane, stay close to Aki and Hickory. Aki, I know you can’t understand a word I’m saying, but on the off-chance you can—kill anyone who tries to hurt Jane. Elsa?” Violet snatches the bottle from her hands, tosses it onto a pile of hay. “Stop drinking for two seconds. Honestly, you’re a mess. I’ll take down the Boboki, free the stable hands and open the gate.”
Elsa blinks at her. “How old are you again?”
“Fourteen,’ Violet says. “You got a problem with that?”
“Not at all.” She salutes Violet. “Off you go, then.”
“What? No!” I whisper-shout. “You’re not going out there alone, Violet.”
But she’s already slipping through the door, Elsa’s already closing it, and when I try to open it again, Aki grabs my wrist. I try to shake him off, but his grip’s too tight.
Elsa starts the countdown—“One, two, three”—and holds her ear to the door—“four, five . . . Interesting girl, by the way. Real firecracker. I can see why you have a crush on her.”
“What? I—”
“Jane called her pretty,’ Hickory says. ‘Back inside the Manor.”
“Shut up, Hickory.”
“Did she now? Nine, ten, eleven—”
“Mm-hmm,” he says. “Remember, Jane? Remember when you called Violet pretty? Jane’s never kissed anyone before, though,” he tells Elsa. “Told me so in the forest. It’s a secret.”
“I hate you so much right now.” I’ve had enough of this. I slap Aki’s hand off my arm. “Fourteen, nineteen, twenty—let’s go.”
By the time I shove Elsa aside and open the door, Violet’s already taken down the raider in the center of the stable. The stable hands have scattered. Now Violet’s charging at the other two Boboki with her shovel in hand. They throw their spears. She dives clear, leaps up and sprints again, barely missing a step. The men twirl their machetes, ready to fight.
We stick to the plan and head for the horses. They’re all spooked by the commotion, stomping hooves, flaring nostrils. All except Scab, that is. He’s munching on some hay.
“Stay down, don’t move,” Elsa says, pushing me into a corner. Aki squats beside me. “Soon as Violet has the gate open, hit the road and head for the Pass. Don’t stop. Don’t look back.”
“Wait, wh—where are you going?”
“Essential supply run.” She winks, barks an order at the stable hands, and slips off between the stalls. They immediately lead Rex over to the wagon by the exit, tugging frantically at his reins as he rears.
Violet smacks one Boboki with her shovel, kicks off the wall, leaps onto the other’s shoulders and whacks him, too. She rolls clear when they collapse, storms toward the gate.
I think I love her.
“Jane,” Hickory calls, “come look! What is this stuff?”
The chump’s swaying in the middle of the stable, staring at a pile of horse crap on the floor like it’s some kind of miracle sent by the gods, completely oblivious to the Boboki girl darting from the shadows, charging at him with a spear.
“Hickory, move!”
I sprint over and crash-tackle him clear. The Boboki girl skids past us—a near miss. We hit the ground and roll. I spin around first chance I get, and the girl does, too, raising her spear again. So much for Boboki not using their weapons.
“Please”—I hold up my hands—“we don’t have to fight.”
She’s only a few years older than me. Brown-skinned. Covered in elaborate tattoos like the other guy. They wrap around her arms and legs in swirls and spikes, and curl right up to her neck. She gasps when she sees my eyes. “Tu bai,” she cries, scanning the stables for her kin. “Tu bai!”
She knows I’m the one they’ve come to kill.
But if she wants to kill me, why is she lowering her spear? Why are her hands shaking?
“Cabagu-nai,” she says. “Cabagu-nai, de—”
BAM. She’s wiped out by a flying saddle, hurled by Aki. Her spear clatters to the ground. She sinks to the floor, out cold. I stand over her, mind racing. What was she trying to tell me?
Aki rattles his throat at me, no doubt telling me to hurry. It’s time to go.
I kick Hickory’s leg. “Get up. Now.”
“Nah.” He stretches out on the straw-scattered floor, tucks his hands behind his head. “I already told you, Janey. I’m done. You go, though. Say hi to Roth for me.”
I narrow my eyes. Janey?
“Aki,” I shout, and point at Hickory. “Get him.”
Hickory tries to crawl away, but Aki scoops him up and hauls him back to the horses, just as an almighty horn bellows through the stables. Another Boboki in the shadows, calling for reinforcements.
“Crap.” I grab a nearby bucket and throw it at him. Miss by a long shot. He goes to blow the horn again when—BLAMO!—it’s blasted clean from his hands.
Elsa’s back, striding from one of the tunnels with a bulging sack slung over her shoulder and a pistol in her hand. She aims at the guy again, but he’s gone.
“This place’ll be overrun by Boboki any second,” she shouts. “Everybody out!”
I take a final look at the Boboki girl and wonder who she is.
“Jane!” Violet’s cranking the gate down the exit tunnel now, flooding the place with pale morning light. “You waiting for a spear to the gut or what? Get on a horse and ride!”
Girl’s got a point.
I make a beeline for Yaku’s horse. Almost get my foot into the stirrup, too. Unfortunately, Elsa nabs me at the last second and pushes me toward Scab, of all the options.
While I try to protest, Elsa heaves me up into the saddle, not that Scab seems to notice. I consider jumping off, picking another horse—literally any other horse—but the Boboki have arrived. Dozens of them storm into the stables with their weapons drawn.
Yaku’s with them, black-cloaked now, holding a bloodied rag to his face. “Elsa,” he screams, “dahna de nai!”
I give Scab a little kick. “Move it, you stupid animal!”
Aki slings Hickory over his shoulder—“Put me down, you overgrown toad!”—hops into the saddle of a silver mare, and canters off with a swift kick and throat rattle.
“Move it,” I shout again. “Go! Onward! Um. Hey presto?” I kick Scab, shake the reins, bob up and down, but nothing works. “Elsa, how do I make him go?’”
I shouldn’t have asked. She slaps his rump with a sharp “Hey-yah!” and Scab whinnies, rears back and bolts through the stables so fast I nearly crap my pants. We leap over the fallen Boboki, rocket past the stable hands tethering Rex to the wagon, blast down the tunnel, and overtake Aki and Hickory. Before I know it, we’re bolting into the light, and Violet’s yelling at me, reaching out a hand. I grab it, grit my teeth and swing. Somehow, she twists around and lands right behind me in the saddle, swift as a goddess of the wind.
“Go, go, go,” she shouts into my ear.
I crack the reins. Scab steps up the pace. The road’s dead straight, cutting across an upward-sloping plateau, leading to a thin cleft between two craggy peaks. The Mulu Pass. The road to Asmadin.
The wind whips our hair, flaps our tunics. Violet wraps her arms around me, and even though she’s mad at me, even though we’re fleeing for our lives, my guts get all giddy.
“Hey, I’m really sorry I went and talked to Elsa,” I shout.
“This is hardly the time,” Violet shouts back.
“I know I promised I wouldn’t go anywhere without you—”
“Jane—”
“—but I saw her up on her balcony, and I just had to go see her! And it worked! She told me all about Roth!”
“Would you please shut up and concentrate!”
“Relax,” I tell her, “we’re home free!”
“I think they’d disagree.”
“Who?”
“Them. Behind us!”
I lean a little to the side, risk a glance back. Aki’s close behind, squatting awkwardly atop his horse with Hickory fish-out-of-water-flopping over his shoulder, hurling abuse. Elsa’s farther back, riding Rex, hauling the wagon of supplies and guzzling from another bottle of booze. It’d be a comforting sight, really, if it weren’t for the dozen bareback Boboki riders galloping from the stable gate behind her. Yaku’s leading the charge, black cloak flailing.
“Oh, come on!” I scream. “Don’t these jerks ever give up?”
“Focus, Jane! As soon as we’re through the Pass, you’re gonna have to bring it down!”
“What?”
“The Pass,” Violet shouts. “You need to block it! Stop the Boboki from following!’”
“No way,” I shout. “I can’t!” I’m not ready. My hand still hurts. I can’t feel the furious tide. “You know I can’t turn the quakes on and off like that!”
“Find a way! Make it work!”
The peaks loom above us, crested with morning light. The Mulu Pass looks like an angry snarl in the rock. And now we’re there, darting into the cool shadow, the towering walls a wicked blur. Ahead, a patch of light. A rocky clearing.
I close my eyes, clench my injured hand, grit my teeth against the pain and picture that Manor hallway again, the river creatures coming to get us, the broth of white water. What did I do? I grabbed Violet’s knife and thought about Mr. and Mrs. Hollow, Mayor Atlas, Eric Junior. Everyone who made my life miserable back on Bluehaven. Mainly, I thought about Roth. I stoked the fire, became the rock, felt every crack and tremor. But then I lost control. The power got away from me. Just like it did in my nightmare.
We’ve cleared the Pass. Violet reaches around, pulls on the reins, and slips off Scab’s rump before we’ve even stopped. She beckons me to do the same. “Bring them down, as soon as Elsa’s clear.”
Aki bolts into the clearing and waves an elongated arm at us, urging us to keep riding, oblivious as Hickory hits him repeatedly with a “Let. Me. Go!”
“Get back on the horse, Violet,” I plead. “We have to get out of here.”
“No.” She’s glaring up at me now. “You can do this, Jane. You have to try.”
“I told you, I can’t!”
“You’re not scared enough, is that it?’ She points at Elsa and Rex rattling through the Pass with the wagon, and the stampede of Boboki gaining behind them. “The Boboki won’t stop until they kill us all!”
My nightmare. The gaping void. All those gateways opening. Those Otherworlds consumed by the Cradle Sea. “Look around,” I say. “We’re surrounded by rock. I’ll kill us all!”
“You won’t,” Violet says. “Just reach out and let go. It’s the only way!”
Elsa thunders into the clearing, jerks Rex to a halt, leaps onto the wagon and starts scattering her sack of “essentials” around the barrels of oil. Bottles of booze. Boxes of ammo. A dozen sticks of dynamite.
“No,” I say to Violet. “It isn’t.”
“A little help, please?” Elsa shouts at us.
Violet beholds this mobile bomb-to-be and gasps. “I stand corrected.”
I leap off Scab and we dash over to help. Elsa tosses me a machete, and I slash at the wagon straps, untethering Rex. Violet grabs a rifle stashed under his saddle, checks that it’s loaded. Elsa pockets a fresh bottle of booze and jumps down.
“Clear?”
I cut the final strap and slap Rex on the rump. He whinnies and trots over to Scab. “Clear!”
Pebbles clatter down from the cliffs and bounce around our feet. The whole mountain’s trembling, but not because of me. Yaku and the Boboki have entered the Pass. They’ll be on us any second.
“Aki!” I point at the wagon and mime a shoulder-barge. “Ram it!”
He dumps Hickory on the road—“Ouch! You lanky son of a . . .”—storms across the clearing and slams into the wagon so hard it careens back down the Pass.
“Take cover!” Elsa shouts, diving clear.
Aki scoops me up and leaps beside her.
Only Violet stands her ground, chewing on her tongue in concentration, raising the rifle. Slowly, carefully, she takes aim and fires.
I can’t actually see the blast, but I can hear it all right. I can picture the wagon exploding in a great ball of fire, the Pass collapsing, Yaku and the Boboki wheeling their horses around to escape the billowing cloud of debris.
Violet dives clear just in time, avoiding a shower of stones, grinning because she got to blow something up at last. Maybe she’s still mad at me, but right now I don’t care. I’m just glad there’s more than one way to bring down a mountain pass.
“Everyone okay?” Elsa asks.
“Peachy,” I say as Aki sets me down.
Violet rolls onto her back and sighs, utterly content.
“Okay, so that was pretty amazing,” Hickory says, still back down the road where Aki dumped him. “I’ll give you that.” The cloud of dust from the explosion envelops him. “But I still hate you all,” he coughs, and with that, projectile vomits and passes out once more.