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The jaw finally loosened, its teeth sucking noisily out of Cole’s ar, but the weight was too le

His prize slipped out of his grasp and fell down--into the direct sunlight

14

Molly continued to forge her way through the dry wind She was pretty sure the shade bridge she’d just crossed was the last one, and the air see forward, her shoulder bu the side of the canyon, she drealass after glass of water, even of hearing how one about their rites

The bundled Wadi squirainst her chest; Molly squeezed a littlemore and more content for the past few kilohts drifted to Edison, any hope of rescuing hiined being ten times the size of a Glemot, able to scoop hiht of the way he’d done this for Anlyn, the way she was trying to do this for the Wadi She felt large and small at the sa for the other

When the leading edge of the tere at first It filled her with a moment of panic, then she saw that the blackness went on and on

She sobbed with relief

Raw exhilaration overcaht She was tired, wounded and dehydrated She was several kilometers from the shelter But she felt free She could walk in any direction she wanted She could lay down on the cool stone in the center of the cursed canyon, the walls of which grew shorter and shorter toward the horizon

Molly picked up her pace The squat building she needed to reach--where Cole could nurse her back to health--should be just a few ainst the chill, she lowered her head into the steady gusts and hts from the city beyond the horizon

Behind her, the canyons wailed, al her departure

••••

Cole finished bandaging his arm with a torn piece of shirt He couldn’t decide what to do next It was a long crawl back to the safe side of the tunnel, but at least there atering spots along the here he could clean his stinging wounds and quench his thirst

The probles If he encountered one during the longand escaping the canyons with his wounds, there was still thea Wadi to complete the rite

One had just died within a few h to hear its shrieks, but there was no way to clairunted and rolled to his knees It was slow going with only one ar it ahead of hi into thetheit He also pulled his left hand down into his sleeve, gripping the lance through the ht, he let the rays hit his hand It was just like his experiments back at the terht, at least temporarily He just had to be sure not to touch the heated rock

Inching forward, Cole rested on his daain, the lance was turned the wrong way This time, he needed the hooked end, and it faced away fro weapon all the way out the hole in order to spin it in his hand

With the aard fabric spoiling his grip, he al as he rolled it around in ed and seized it at the lastfroled his face away fro it out to look down for the Wadi As his exposed face passed by the lip of lit rock on its way out into the air, the heat radiating up re outside the hole went up an octave as a gust of wind coursed through the canyon Cole peered down the wall and spotted the Wadi, charred black in places, its skinoff where it touched bare rock He lowered the lance, the hook sinking into the soft and bloated belly with a sharp, puncturing sound He pulled himself back inside the hole and used his injured ar it into the protective shade

He let out his held breath, then pulled in a new, hot, dry one He had his Wadi Thooo

But he was a long way frohts in the shelter were on, low of the city beyond Several shapes moved inside Molly hoped one of them was Cole

A hundred meters from the structure, the door burst open and Walter ran out, his tunic flapping in the wind As he rushed to join her, Molly noticed the bandage around his head

"What happened?" she asked, her voice a hoarse whisper in a windstorm

Walter didn’t seem to hear

"I’ in beside her andher weary pace "I’ at her bare arms and back; she had no cover other than the bundled Wadi across her chest, but she was too exhausted to care

"Where’s Cole?" Molly shouted, but her words were dry paper tossed into a blaze

The last dozennearly an hour earlier Molly felt sad for the little creature It was strange, but she felt as if she’d bonded with the poor thing during their long uards were kind enough to open the doors for her Molly stumbled across the threshold and sank to the stained carpet, the sudden absence of wind leaving a dull roar in her sore ears She bent all the way forward until her forehead touched the soft floor, her small, hs

Exhaustion overwhel an emotional release She sobbed with relief, but there wasn’t enough water in her body to form the tears that normally accompanied the sounds Blue handsSorasped her shoulders--solass of water ca her cracked skin

The Drenards surrounded her--tending to wounds and helping her to another roo in and out of the way, but no sign of Cole

She kept asking everyone where he was, but without the bands, none of the words were relayed

All she had was a head full of her own, terrible, thoughts

Part VIII - The Canyon Queen

"To prophesize, sis that have already occurred"

~The Bern Seer~

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Molly awoke in an unfamiliar room Her entire body was sore, her sto at her arm, looked down at the IV taped to her vein, confused

The ordeal froy dreauard stiffened in the chair by the door Their eyesdoard his tunic Molly looked at his lance, its point touching the floor

She had a strange first thought: I lost s over the side of her bed, she followed the tube leading out of her arm, up to the canister of fluids attached to the wall As she slid her weight down onto wobbly legs, the guard came over to assist her He popped the canister off its ht about reaching for the blasted thing and doing it on her own, but both of her ar else