“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” Alvar said, turning invisible. The only sign that he’d left was the shifting dust as he climbed out of the tunnel, and the rustling of the roots as Calla closed the earth again.
Fitz offered everyone water from a magsidian flask Mr. Forkle had given him, and Keefe guzzled the whole thing. Fortunately, the flask had been carved to draw moisture out of the air and refill itself.
“I wouldn’t drink that,” Linh warned. “There’s something wrong with the water.”
She gathered more and molded it into an orb hovering over her hand. It had a slight greenish glow that turned Sophie’s stomach.
“Sorry guys,” Keefe mumbled. “I would’ve saved some if I’d known.”
“How much do you trust him?” Tam shadow-whispered in Sophie’s ear.
Alvar? she asked.
“Him too. But I’m much more worried about your Empath buddy. He’s hiding something. That’s why he won’t let me take a reading.”
He is, Sophie agreed. But I know what it is.
Keefe probably wouldn’t want her to tell Tam, but it was the kind of secret that couldn’t stay hidden. Keefe’s mom was one of the leaders of the Neverseen.
“What do you mean by ‘was’?”
Sophie did her best to explain the situation. A long silence passed before he asked, “What do you think he’ll do if he finds out his mom is still alive?”
“I know you guys are talking about me,” Keefe said, making Sophie jump. “Care to fill me in?”
“I was asking her why the president of her fan club spends more time styling his hair than the girls do,” Tam told him.
“Dude, you did not just insult the Hair.”
Calla silenced both boys, reminding them that someone on the surface could hear them. After that, the waiting felt endless, especially since Keefe seemed determined to stare a confession out of Sophie. She closed her eyes and counted the seconds slipping away.
Eight hundred and twenty-two passed before Fitz said, “Alvar’s been gone a long time.”
“Do you think something happened to him?” Biana whispered. “I could go out and look.”
“We shouldn’t split up again,” Fitz told her. “If we leave, we all leave together. But let’s give him a few more minutes.”
Another two hundred and thirty-three seconds went by before dust rustled above them. “All clear,” Alvar whispered. “But hurry.”
SIXTY-SEVEN
OKAY, THIS PLACE is way creepier than I thought it would be,” Keefe whispered as they crawled out of the tunnel and into the underground section of Ravagog.
The city was silent, save for a steady low-frequency rumble that felt like an itch under their skin. Glowing green moss coated the dark stone walls, casting sickly light through the enormous cavern beyond. The buildings were carved into the humongous stalagmites and stalactites jutting from the floor and ceiling like sharp, jagged teeth, with tufts of stagnant fog swirling like rancid breath.
“Where are the ogres?” Fitz whispered, scanning the dark windows pressed into the rock.
“We got lucky,” Alvar said, appearing beside him. “This is the working end of the city, and right now it’s naptime. That’s why I waited a few minutes to come get you. They just went down for the count, and should be out for an hour.”
“Ogre naptime?” Dex asked.
“Not as cuddly as it sounds,” Alvar told him. “They basically push their workforce until they collapse. Then they let them rest just long enough to get back on their feet and drive them until they crash again. Their workers never get more than an hour of sleep at a time, and they keep working them until they have nothing left to give.”
Sophie shivered, realizing that would’ve been her fate if King Dimitar had gotten to choose her punishment after she had tried to read his mind. And it was the life every gnome would endure if they didn’t steal the cure.
“Hoods up,” Alvar said. “We need to get to the other side of the river before the workforce wakes up.”
Tam blanketed them with shadows and Linh added hints of mist—though she was surprised at how little control she had over the green fog. Their progress was slowed further by how closely they had to stick together, and how many twists and turns they had to make. The city had no streets or sidewalks, and there was no rhyme or reason to the jagged buildings. If Alvar hadn’t been there to guide them—they followed Calla, since she could see him—they would’ve gone in circles.
Despite the confusing layout, Sophie couldn’t help worrying that things were going too easily. After all they’d heard about the dangers of Ravagog and the efficiency of its security, they hadn’t seen a single ogre. Could everyone really be asleep?
Her question was answered when they reached the main bridge: cold metal and dark stones stretching across an enormous canyon. Pointed silver arches were scattered along the bridge, with fiery green orbs in their centers. It looked exactly how Fitz had shown her in his mind, with one dangerous exception.
At either side of the bridge, dozens of lumpy-faced ogres marched back and forth in a careful pattern, their massive barbed swords drawn and ready.
“Does the bridge always have that many guards?” Sophie asked.
“No,” Alvar whispered. “It seems like they’re expecting someone.”
“Us,” Sophie said. “They’re expecting us.”
The air turned colder as the reality settled over them.
Fitz cleared his throat. “So how do we get across?”
“I’m still working that out,” Alvar admitted as he led them behind a stalagmite where they still had a view of the bridge.
“How thick can you make the shadows?” Sophie asked Tam.
“Not enough to get past that many guards—especially in this weird green light. And look at the pattern they’re making as they march. There’s no way all nine of us could slip past at the rate we move.”
“And the bridge is the easy part,” Dex said, pointing to the other side.
In the distance, the other half of the city had been carved into the mountain—a series of dark ledges jutting out of the rockface like bark mushrooms climbing up a tree. Each ledge was lined with metal columns and covered by metal awnings. Stone staircases netted the ledges together and wove around the misty waterfalls cascading down the mountain.
But before they could reach the city, they’d have to cross a stretch of empty dust land, without a single tree or rock or shrub to camouflage their shadows.
“I could go on my own,” Alvar suggested.
“Uh, you’re not the only Vanisher,” Biana reminded him.
“And what do we do? Sit here and wait to get caught?” Fitz asked.
“We might be able to cross the water,” Linh said. “And then I could call clouds from the waterfalls to obscure our shadows.”
“Can you really control the river?” Tam asked. “That isn’t normal water.”
He pointed to the base of the steep canyon, where the river glowed with the same greenish tint as everything else.
“The ogres add an enzyme,” Alvar explained. “It makes them stronger, but I’m pretty sure its toxic for everyone else. The gates filter it out before the water flows into the valley.”
Everyone turned to Linh, whose brows were pressed together. “I can’t part or lift the water, but . . . there might be a way. I need to get closer.”
Alvar found a trail down the sheer slope, and after several precarious minutes—and many near falls—they reached the riverbed and ducked into the shadow of the bridge.
“No one can see us here,” Tam promised as Linh moved to the water’s edge. She waved her hands back and forth, whispering strange, swishing words.
“Assuming we find a way across,” Sophie said to Alvar, “where exactly are we going?”
“I’m still deciding,” he admitted. “It has to be in either the Armorgate or the Triad. The Armorgate is their military university. It has secret caverns deep in the mountain where they develop their weap
ons.”
“That sounds impossible to break into,” Sophie said, imagining something out of a spy movie with lasers and retina scanners and a million kinds of alarms.
“It is,” Alvar agreed. “The Triad isn’t any better. That’s where King Dimitar holds court, in the most visible spot in the whole city. His best warriors are always at his side.”
“That would be a better place for a trap,” she realized.
King Dimitar would want something public, so everyone could witness his triumph.
“My shadows won’t fool the ogres up close,” Tam warned, guessing what she was thinking.
Sophie nodded. “We’d need a distraction.”
A plan was piecing together in her mind—one far too insane to share until she’d thought it through. But she knew one thing, “I think the Triad should be our focus.”
“Is she okay?” Dex asked, pointing to where Calla had her ear pressed against the ground, tears streaming down her cheeks.
Sophie crawled to Calla’s side. “What happened?”
Seconds ticked by. Then Calla whispered, “I can feel them. The Panakes. They’re still here.”
SIXTY-EIGHT
SOPHIE GLANCED DOWN the river, desperate for a glimpse of the miraculous trees. All she saw were dark, barren rocks.
“The trees themselves are gone,” Calla whispered. “But traces of their roots remain. I can hear them singing. But I don’t understand . . .”
She pressed her ear to the ground again, closing her eyes and humming a melody that felt both heartbreaking and hopeful.
“I found a way across!” Linh whisper-shouted, reminding Sophie where they were. “But I can’t hold it for long.”
Everyone rushed to the shore, where Linh raised her foot over the glowing river and stepped down.
“Follow my path exactly,” Linh said as the water turned solid under her foot. “And do not lose your balance.”
Sophie willed her clumsiness into submission as she stepped onto Linh’s rippled footprint. The water felt springy, like standing on a trampoline. Keefe followed in her wake, then Biana, Dex, and Fitz. Tam coaxed Calla away from the ground and stepped out after her. Alvar was the last to cross, and his feet had barely touched the opposite shore when Linh sank to her knees, her skin as green as the river.
“I need a moment to catch my breath,” she said.
“Take a minute—but only a minute,” Alvar told her. “From here on out it’s going to be a lot trickier, especially if we make it across the playa. Biana—make sure you stay vanished. Tam—do your best to shade the rest. Hoods up. No talking. Walk with purpose. The more you look like you belong, the more likely someone is to believe you if they spot you. And if our cover is blown—run. Use your abilities. Do whatever you have to do. If they capture you, there will be no getting out of here. Everyone clear?”
He waited for each of them to nod.
“Oh, and here,” he said, returning the Markchain to Sophie. “Stay in the center of the group, so the scent is the most evenly dispersed.”
Sophie clasped it around her neck as Alvar vanished, whispering for everyone to follow him. The path out of the canyon was steep and narrow, and they were out of breath when they reached the top. None looked shakier than Linh.
“Are you sure you can handle this?” Tam asked his sister as she reached toward the sky.
“The falling water has not been tainted.” Linh closed her eyes, her brows pressing together. Mist curled off the waterfalls and gathered into two thick gray clouds, blocking the sun and casting shadows across the playa.
“You’re pushing yourself too hard,” Tam said, catching her when she collapsed.
“I know my limits,” Linh promised, but her voice sounded ragged. And when she tried to stand, she fell over.
“We need to keep moving,” Alvar said. “The ogres could find those clouds suspicious.”
“I’ll carry her,” Fitz told Tam. “You need to concentrate on the shadows.”
Tam reluctantly handed his sister over, and Alvar and Biana vanished again as everyone headed into the playa. They walked with slow, deliberate steps to avoid kicking up dust. Sophie kept her eyes trained on the mountain as the city came into better focus.
Metal pillars capped by green glowing fireballs illuminated the paths through the city, which were all zigzagging and narrow and treacherous. There would be no quick climb to the top, nor any way to avoid the busier parts of the city.
“That’s the Triad,” Alvar whispered, his arm blinking into sight long enough to point to the center of the mountain. A ledge jutted farther than all the others, stretching to a sharp point between two wide waterfalls.
They were too far away to see the throne or guards, but Sophie knew they were up there.
“You sure you want to do this?” Alvar asked.
She swallowed the bile on her tongue and nodded.
The more she thought about it, the more she had to accept that there was no way they could get the cure without being seen—and King Dimitar had to be counting on that. So if they could turn his expectation on its head with a trick, it might buy them enough time to get what they needed and get out alive.
“Okay,” Alvar said, letting out a breath. “Now we head into the city.”
He led them to a stairway on the far side of the mountain, and they climbed to the lowest level of Ravagog. Alvar had them pause at the top, pressing their backs against the rockface. Sophie couldn’t tell if they were hiding or resting.
This level was a curved platform, about as wide as the bottom floor of the glass pyramid at Foxfire, and it was crammed with booths selling all kinds of foul-smelling things. Ogres bartered for better prices as the shopkeepers shouted to get their attention, the ogre language sounding blunt and clipped.
Sophie had never seen a female ogre before, and they were even harder to look at than the males. They wore only two narrow tubes of leather, one around their chest, the other their hips, leaving most of their warty skin on display. Brittle white hair grew from a single patch in their lumpy foreheads and stuck out like wild feathers, and their eyes had a strange milkiness to them. There were children too, playing with strange metal toys that reminded Sophie of pinwheels. They chased each other through the markets, laughing as they scurried around their mother’s legs. The scene felt unnerving, but also incredibly normal. Families going about their daily lives. Sophie wondered if they even knew what terrible threats their king had made.
Fitz set Linh down and she called mist around them, thickening Tam’s shadows before they tiptoed into the crowd. Their snail’s pace went against all of Sophie’s instincts, but it gave Tam time to adjust the shadows with every movement, and Alvar time to select the best path through the ever-moving ogres. Sophie was soaked with cold sweat when they reached the end of the market and started up another flight of stairs. But they made it. One down—many more to go.
The second level was narrower and blissfully ogre-free, though Sophie was sure there were plenty of ogres behind the massive barred doors heading into the mountain. They sprinted the whole way across, to yet another stairway, wider than the others, with jagged carvings on each step.
As they climbed, Sophie decided it was time to transmit her crazy plan. She started with Tam and Linh, since she had no idea what they would say. Naturally, Tam shadow-whispered that he thought she’d lost her mind. But both twins promised they’d help however she needed.
Sophie transmitted the plan to Fitz next, knowing he would have a lot of questions. They’d crossed another entire level—some sort of construction zone that time, filled with ogres in chains hammering at the mountain—before Fitz told her, If that’s what you think we should do, I trust you.
Biana was easy to convince, as was Dex. Which meant it was time to stop stalling and ask Keefe. She almost changed her mind—the role she needed him to play would be the most dangerous thing any of them had ever done. But he was the only one who could pull it off.
I was wondering when you were go
ing to include me, Keefe thought, the second her voice filled his mind.
Oh, you’re part of this, she promised. You’re the most important part. But if you don’t think you can handle it—
I can handle it, Keefe interrupted. Boss me, Foster. I’m in.
He responded to the plan better than she’d thought. In fact, he almost seemed . . . excited.
This isn’t a game, Keefe.
No, but it’s what I’ve been wanting to do for weeks. I got this, Foster. Trust me.
I do, Sophie promised. I wouldn’t be asking if I didn’t.
She transmitted her plan to Calla next, and the tiny gnome nodded. Which meant she only had one more person to convince before things became real.
She waited until they reached the next level—another row of barred doorways, which was thankfully ogre-free—before she transmitted, Can I open my mind to your thoughts?
Alvar appeared at her side. “I don’t like people in my head,” he whispered. “Hazard of growing up with a telepathic father.”
“Okay,” she said, stumbling back a step. “I just wanted to tell you the plan.”
“I thought the plan was to grab the cure and run.”
“That’ll be part of it,” Sophie said. “We’re also going to create a distraction—”
“Bad idea,” Alvar interrupted.
“I know it’s dangerous, but we need something to keep King Dimitar busy, so Fitz and I have a chance to probe his mind.”
“WHAT?” Alvar’s whisper was so loud it sounded screechy. “Are you crazy?”
“We have to try,” she insisted. “There might be more to the Neverseen’s plan than we realize, and this is our chance to find out.”
Alvar shook his head so hard his hood slipped off. “You’re changing too many things.”
“No we’re not. We’re just taking every opportunity we get,” Fitz whispered.
“Um, guys,” Tam interrupted. “We’re in the middle of Ravagog. All this debating is going to get us killed.”
Alvar swore under his breath and pulled his hood back over his head. “Fine. Let’s keep moving. Transmit the plan to me and I’ll do whatever you want.”
Neverseen Page 40