Page 42 (2/2)

"We must be in the ss," Lex says "The bird hasn’t been crushed by the weight of the churning dirt yet"

"If you’re trying to make me feel better, I’d one on a while longer, I relight the lantern I hear murmurs down the hall

"Basil?" I call "Pen? Alice?"

A dilow forms in the bunk rooht flickers up the stairwell as Basil and Pen find us "I should go see if the professor needs help with the gears," Basil says

"Be careful," I say, raising my cheek to accept his kiss as he passes me

I turn my head in time to see Alice’s worried expression before she s as she sainst the wall and studies it "I suppose I rong," she says Her voice is tight "We’ve reached the ss sooner than I thought"

"It’s almost over," Amy says I raise the lantern to better see her Despite the weariness left over froht "We’ll be in the sky in moments"

"Nobody kno deep the ss run," Pen says "It round It ht still be a while"

"It won’t," Amy says

"You don’t know that No one knows that"

I note the hysteria in her voice "Pen?"

She chews on her tre knuckle There are tears in her eyes

"Everyone alive?" Judas calls from the bird’s head

"Barely," Pen says

"Coet," he says

For as long as we may have left to live, anyway

Everyone on the bird gathers at the helm with the professor: my brother and Alice, Pen, Basil, Judas, Ah it’s nearly imperceptible, and with all the excitement no one else seems to notice She has always had the cool head, and to see her coh theat the hel furiously There’s a story I read years ago; in it, a castle stood beside so called a waterfall I wasn’t quite able to picture it then, but now I can see that the water must have been like this--restless

"What is this ‘so up my lantern

"We’ve reached the botto away from his controls He rubs at his chin, and I can hear the scrape of his white stubble "We’ve hit soround I suspect we’re a hundred or so paces from the sky"

I don’t quite believe the words, and yet so within me must, because my palms are sweaty and there’s a chill at the back of h it like a rock, it’s only a rees of panic, and I want to yell for us to stop I want to undo this journey and return home, even if it’s to an erief talking

"No" Pen has gone white beside o," she says

"There’s no turning back now," the professor says

I try to touch her shoulder, but she pushes away, takes a step for the doorway Even her curls are tre I don’t care what they do to o to trial for what I did to the prince I could live the rest ofas I can stay in the sky"

I set down the lantern and reach for her again, and this time I make fists around her hands "Pen, listen--"

"I can’t leave Andhere, it wouldn’t be possible to dig our way back up to the surface We would be buried in an instant"

I meant to console her, but my words cause th and this is my time to return the favor "Here," I say, and dab at her runny nose with my sleeve

"Thomas," she says miserably "He won’t even knohat’s happened toI can say toit shoit; there’s so about imminent death that makes all the threads weave into a picture like one of my mother’s samplers

"But we must be brave, re her tears fall onto her betrothal band

The next violent jolt has Basil atan arm around Pen as well as me He’s never been very familiar with her, but noe have our fear in coain This city I love so much that I fear I’ll cease to exist once I’m off it

I steady the lantern between ether as the bird struggles to burrow the rest of the way to the sky We count the seconds until our little world is lost to us for good

"Have any visions about this?" Judas asks Aling its way through the last of the dirt

"A dream," Amy says "And you don’t want to know"

"Don’t take stock in that," I whisper to Pen, whose sobs have lost their sound I do wish she’d be calm I can’t bear to see her in such pain I would hijack the helm and claw this bird up to the surface to take her home if I could