by Carrie Ryan
“We have to get out of here!” Marrill cried, plucking at his shirt. Behind him the basin burbled. Wrought iron gathered on the rim of it, threatening to spread across the stone floor.
“What are you waiting for?” the Salt Sand King rasped, shoving the orb at him. “Make the wish, and you will be free to leave.”
Fin looked to Marrill. He could see on her face that she still didn’t recognize him. Even after what they’d just done, even after defeating Serth again, she didn’t remember him. Which meant she probably never would.
It felt worse than when she’d left to go back to her world. At least then, he knew she was still out there thinking of him. But now… now she stood right next to him, and he was as a complete stranger.
“Wish and you can change that,” the Salt Sand King hissed, reading his desire. “Wish and everyone will remember you. Wish and you will be KNOWN.”
He wanted it so badly. This is what he’d come here to do. And yet, as close as he was, he hesitated.
“If you’re going to do it, do it,” Marrill sighed. Her eyes welled with tears. Her bottom lip trembled. “I… we have to get out of here. My world is safe, for now at least. I guess I don’t get any more wishes than that.”
Fin swallowed. Shouldn’t he wish? Didn’t he have to? He tried to focus on the look of recognition he would see in her eyes, in everyone’s eyes from now on. But he couldn’t. His mind kept going to Marrill here, in front of him. The Marrill with tears in her eyes. The Marrill who couldn’t fix her sick mom.
Maybe wishing was the only way for Fin to be remembered. Then again, maybe it wasn’t. After all, he knew where he came from now, in a way. And he had a lead to find his mother. A few days ago, he would have stolen the world for as much.
“Your people are my army,” the Salt Sand King reminded him. “Wish, and we can find them together. Wish, and you will finally belong!”
Behind them the basin let out a deep belch. Streaks of iron reached out across the marble floor. He had to do something soon.
He shook his head. He should wish. Marrill would want him to wish. He reached for the orb. If she could remember, he told himself, Marrill would want the best for him, just as he’d want the best for her.
His heart froze at the thought. He didn’t want his wish, he realized. Not at the expense of hers. That’s what friends did. They looked out for each other, no matter what.
He took a deep breath. Then he thrust the glowing orb into Marrill’s hands. “The wish is yours.”
Her eyes widened with surprise. “Mine? Why? You don’t even know me.”
He smiled, even though it made his heart ache. “Yes, I do. You just don’t remember. We were best friends once.” He looked past her to where the Tide crept closer. Everything it touched had turned to iron. “You have to hurry,” he added.
“It matters not who wishes,” the fire snarled. “Either one of you can set me free.” The blue flame eyes guttered away from Fin, and toward Marrill.
“Sickness encircles you,” the Salt Sand King hissed. His voice came like steam from a wet log. “Wish and she will be well again. I’ve made this possible for you. My soldier has given up his wish for you. Do it, and do it now!”
Marrill sucked in a breath, her entire being focused on the wish orb. Sweat glistened on her forehead as the Salt Sand King’s flames grew hotter.
Fin hopped from foot to foot, anxious about the creeping Tide. “Don’t forget to wish for a way back home,” he reminded her, forcing a smile. “Oh, and be specific! You know how persnickety wizards are about the wording of things. That has to go triple for wishes.”
Marrill’s lips trembled, tilting up at the corners. “You’re a good friend,” she said. “I’m sorry I don’t remember.”
Fin looked down at his feet. There wasn’t really anything he could say to that. It was the story of his life.
With that, Marrill slipped her hand into his. Then she squared her shoulders and took a shaking breath. Fin waited for her to wish.
“I’m not doing it, either,” she told the fire.
“What?” Fin gasped. “But Marrill, your mom—”
“No.” Marrill shook her head. “I wouldn’t be a very good friend if I took your wish from you.”
Fin sputtered. He had no idea how to respond. “But… I gave it to you.”
She shrugged. “I’m giving it back.”
“You don’t even remember me,” he protested.
She squeezed his hand. “But I trust you.”
“ENOUGH!” roared the Salt Sand King. Flames burst over them in a wave, crashing down and encircling them. The heat alone threatened to cook them alive. “One of you will wish!”
A wind rose up, whipping the inferno into a coil that turned into a serpent of fire, twisting tighter around them.
“For years, I’ve waited for this moment. For ages, I scorched my own lands, again and again, unable to bring myself to give up the power YOU hold so casually in your hands. All that time, trapped in this prison of a world, cursed to be deprived of my destiny!”
Fin and Marrill threw their arms over their faces, stumbling back against the assault. But they could only retreat so far. Behind them, the Iron Tide grew. Tendrils of metal stretched out ahead of it, the ground itself petrifying into cold iron. A bolt of red lightning streaked from the basin to somewhere up above, bursting in a loud POP.
“But I am ready now,” the fire serpent hissed. “I am a generous, giving King. You will have what YOU want, I will have mine. We will conquer the Stream together! Take your wish. MAKE your wish. And SET ME FREE!”
Fin fumbled for his thief’s bag, snatching a pinch of the salt he’d stashed there. He tossed it at the threatening fire.
With a howl, it shrieked back, but just as quickly, it roared toward them again. Fin tipped his entire bag over, using the rest of the salt to draw a circle around them on the ground. The flames broke against it, raging and sputtering.
Fin let out a short breath of relief. It wouldn’t last long, though, not with the Iron Tide rising so fast. But at least they had a moment to think without being barbecued.
He looked at Marrill. “So, here’s the thing. If we wish, we set him free. And I’m starting to realize just how bad of an idea that is.”
“Yeah, I get that, too” she said, nodding. “But what do we do?”
“Wish!” the Salt Sand King shrieked. His flames circled them, slashing the air and burning ever higher.
Fin gulped, glancing between the whipping flame and the ever-spreading metal. If they didn’t wish, they were trapped. Dead. And if they did, the Salt Sand King would be free. No one would be safe from him. And Fin had no doubt that he would burn them all, just as he had the Boundless Plains.
They couldn’t let that happen. Even if it meant being swallowed by the Iron Tide.
“No,” he said firmly. “No wishing.”
“YoU MuSt WanT SoMeThiNG!” he demanded. “EVerYOnE WaNtS somETHiNg!”
Marrill looked at Fin. For a moment, he could see the sadness in her eyes. She was giving up the chance to have everything she wanted. He wondered if she could see that same sadness in his.
Then she smiled at him. “Nope,” Marrill said to the blaze. “I think we’re fine, actually.”
“Thanks, though,” Fin added.
“‘Thanks, though’?” the fire mocked. The flames towered to a soaring height. They licked at what remained of the dome ceiling, cracking and cooking the Stream-filled pipes.
Even with the salt protecting them, the heat was unbearable. It threatened to bake them alive. A cracking sound broke through the chamber, but the Salt Sand King was so enraged he didn’t seem to hear it.
“YOU are NOT fine.” he ranted. “You are desperate, needy children. I can FEEL the desire inside you. I can FEEL you wanting, so bad it’s almost unbearable. Let it out! Give in! TAKE WHAT YOU WANT AND WISH! YOU MUST WISH!”
“Psst,” Marrill hissed, rolling her eyes toward the ceiling. “Check out the pipes.”
Fin looked up. Overhead, just above the dancing tips of flame, a spiderweb of tiny black fissures ran along the pipes. As the King raged, the flames licked against the glass, and the fissures widened, leaking wisps of white vapor.
“Water expands when it turns into steam,” Marrill whispered. “It’s cracking the pipes as it boils!”
“And if we make it hot enough…” Fin trailed off. He met Marrill’s eyes.
“We can burst them entirely!” she concluded.
Fin smirked. “Hey, Sandy,” he called. “Here’s an idea: Maybe you should build a machine that lets you wish for us to want to wish!”
The fire roared brighter, angrier. Flames crackled against the pipes overhead. “Be ready to jump for cover,” Marrill whispered. She poked a thumb at the huge chunk of glass the Lost Sun had sheared from one of the column pipes. Fin nodded.
“You WILL wish!” the flames raged. “You can’t resist it! I can FEEL you WANTING!”
A blast of heat seared Fin’s eyebrows. For a moment, he wondered if taunting a creature of pure fire was a bad idea.
But when had he ever let that stop him?
He focused every fiber of his being on one thought: hoping the Salt Sand King would stay trapped here forever. “You can feel me wanting? Then what am I wanting right now?”
The air grew hotter, scalding him. The fire crackled with fury. And just when he thought he couldn’t take it anymore, a pipe burst overhead. Directly above the Salt Sand King.
Bright water gushed out, spraying down on the fire. The first drops boiled instantly into steam. The fire flinched, giving Fin and Marrill just the opening they needed to dive for the glass chunk and slide beneath it. More and more water rained down. The Salt Sand King shrieked, fizzled, and popped.
They watched through the glass as the flames shrank back, struggling to survive in the rain, until only the thin, crooked form they’d met on the plain remained. The deluge of magical water slowed, each droplet cooling the Salt Sand King’s molten surface to embers.
“Fire… hides.” His voice was the last gasping flicker of a dying flame. “Desire… can sleep. But it never… dies. Someday, you will give in and wish. And when you do… I… WILL… be… freeeeee…”
And then all that remained of the Salt Sand King was a man-shaped sculpture of ash. No other signs of fire remained. Cautiously, Fin crept from their shelter and approached the statue.
It was completely lifeless. No coals glowed in the dull gray eyes. No heat came from the body. He reached out. The moment his fingers brushed against it, what was left of the Salt Sand King collapsed in a cloud of ash.
Resting on the ground where the King had stood was a glowing orb of molten light: the wish. He crouched and plucked it free. It pulsed warm in his palm. With one thought, he could be the boy everyone remembered rather than the one everyone forgot.
He could be the boy Marrill remembered.
He shook his head and stood. “Here,” he said, holding it out to her.
She shivered. “You keep it.”
He nodded, shoving it into his thief’s bag as he started for the exit. “We should go.”
“Hey,” she called. There was something different in her voice. He turned.
She stood behind him, smiling, with her thumb pressed to her heart. Their sign for friend. “Thanks, Fin.”
And the next thing he knew, he was buried deep in a huge hug.
CHAPTER 31
Tied Together, Bound in Place
Marrill squeezed Fin with all her might. Emotions tangled in her chest: guilt, regret, sorrow. The realization that she’d hurt her best friend.
She had no idea how to ask for forgiveness. She wasn’t even sure she deserved it.
A deep shuddering groan sounded throughout the chamber. Cracks splintered up the walls. Remnants of the Syphon crashed into the basin, sending a wave of molten metal up over the edge of it.
Half of the room had turned to iron now. And it was spreading faster. “We should really go.” Fin whirled toward the door Marrill had come through, but she grabbed him.
“We can’t go that way,” she told him. “It’s blocked—the catacombs flooded.” She tried not to think of the Naysayer, and what might have become of him. “We have to go out the way you came in.”
He was already shaking his head. “That’ll just take us back to the Burning Plain. We’ll be on the wrong side of the Wall. Also, you know, fire.”
“Well, we can’t stay here!” she urged. The Iron Tide crept forward, a spreading blackness chewing away at the marble floor. Another groan shuddered through them as a large fissure shot up one wall and across the domed ceiling.
The Lost Sun had done too much damage. It wouldn’t be long before the entire chamber collapsed. If they were still here, they’d be crushed in the debris. At best.
“The Burning Plain is our only option!” She tried dragging him to the other door, but he dug in his heels. His eyes scanned their surroundings and then he smiled.
It was a familiar smile. One that tended to get them in trouble. “How’re your climbing skills these days?”
“Fin—”
It was too late; he was already gone. He skittered across a fallen beam and hopped to a chunk of debris that was slowly turning to iron. In moments the entire thing would be consumed.
Fin held out a hand. “You trusted me before,” he reminded her.
“Because I didn’t remember you!” she protested. “I didn’t know better!”
He waggled his eyebrows. “Probably a good call.” Chunks of the domed ceiling began to crumble and drop. His expression turned serious. “I won’t let anything happen to you, Marrill.”
She let out a long breath. “I hope I don’t regret this,” she said, stepping carefully away from the creeping metal.
Fin laughed. “Oh, I’m sure you most certainly will at some point.” He leapt to a broken gear and scrambled up a slab of fallen debris. “That second jump is tricky,” he called back to her. “Make sure to keep your weight forward.”
She did as told, grunting as her foot slipped, almost touching the line of iron. Another shudder rocked the chamber, sending more cracks up the wall. But she kept her focus on Fin, following his instructions until they reached the top of the dome.
He crawled through a hole the Lost Sun had blasted, pulling her up after him. From here she had an excellent view of the Iron Tide as it swept through the chamber.
It moved like liquid. But it didn’t fill space. Instead, it was a line of creeping petrification, climbing across whatever it touched. In the heart of the chamber, the basin bubbled black, spilling out dark water. Marrill felt sure that wherever that water reached, the tide of iron would go with it.
“What now?” she asked, panting.
“Up.” He pointed. Marrill’s jaw dropped. Above them a forest of gears loomed. Some of them were broken, many were cracked. None of them moved.
“How did you know this was here?” she asked, stunned as she took it all in.
“I didn’t,” he said. He started toward one of the gears and started climbing. “But it’s all one big machine. I figured it had to be connected somehow. From here, though…”
She felt something shift in her pocket. The Wiverwane skittered up to her shoulder. Softly, it tapped her neck. A memory of an image flashed in her mind, so quickly it almost threw her off balance. She grinned as she realized what it was: schematics. The Wiverwane had shown her the way out. “That way,” she told Fin, pointing.
He took off. She scrambled after him, following his every move. He pulled himself over the teeth of one gear, then hopped to another, clambering ever upward.
As they went, she thought of what had just happened, in the chamber. How he’d refused to wish, offering it to her.
“Why didn’t you wish?” she asked, kicking up onto a broken cog. “Why didn’t you just use it?”
He pulled himself through a rather tricky spot and reached back to help her. “That’s not what friends do.”
He said it so simply. Guilt spiked through her. How could she have forgotten him?
She cleared her throat and gestured toward a crack where sunlight shone through high above. “We want to go that way—stay to the right, though. Oh, and avoid the silver gears.”
He made it look so easy, climbing and leaping and crouching. It was like he grew up playing on the world’s craziest jungle gym.
Except this particular jungle gym was in the process of collapsing. Chunks of debris broke free above them, crashing past them. A gear trembled beneath her feet, shuddered, and began to slip to the side.
Marrill scrambled desperately, hardly even looking where she was going as she jumped from one falling platform to another. Furiously they climbed, up and up, for what seemed like eternity, Marrill pointing the way and Fin figuring out how to get there.
Soon, her arms and legs ached; she felt sure she couldn’t go much farther. Below, somewhere in the darkness, the Iron Tide climbed slowly, steadily after them.
But then, another jump, another struggle, and the bright slash of sunlight was finally within reach. She threw herself at it. Her fingertips caught the edge. Her feet kicked in the air. Her arms quivered, threatening to let go.
And then a face appeared in front of her. Hands fell on her forearms. She was so startled she lost her grip. But the hands caught her, held her tight. She nearly screamed. Then she recognized the white beard, the purple cap.
“Marrill,” Ardent cried in relief. “It’s you! I’d nearly given up hope!” With a tug, he pulled her through the hole and out onto the other side of the Wall where a gear had fallen away.
Marrill brushed her cheek in thanks against the Wiverwane perched on her shoulder. It unleashed a flood of relieved memories before tucking itself safely under her collar.
Fin landed next to them a moment later. He slapped her on the shoulder as he caught his breath. “Nice climbing. That was a close one!” Marrill collapsed back against the broken surface of the Wall, beaming at the compliment.
Ardent looked at the two of them and shook his head. “Honestly, Miss Aesterwest, you make friends in the strangest places.”