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"Somewhere beneath the old Josston Mills coh to tweak his nose, but alrabbed her hand before it could do any dae

"I think you have six, et her attention "Do you think you can stay upright?"

"I feel all tippy" As if to illustrate, she started to keel over Cade caught her, and again she was totally out He hoisted her back over his shoulder and set off once uessed that one day he’d be carrying around an unconscious legend of alo, in the bowels of an oldway fro who she said she was, even when the professor had insisted she spoke the truth His professor, his ht

Cade could not afford to think about the professor or the life he had left behind He surged through the tunnel, which sloped gently doard on its way to the river Nothing would ever be the saain He could not return to the university to resu down the doors of the old o in search of the professor’s students for questioning Cade could not get hiht--he knew too much

He slohen he came to the foundation of the ed, and the penstock, too, for there was only a gaping hole into the basement above The scent of old, wet sootair that circulated froht flickered above, and he knew this mill to be a ruin open to the sky He’d explored the re daytied wall of brick still stood During his explorations, he’d found soot-blackened manacles still chained to a loom buried beneath a pile of rubble

The professor should have knocked down the last of the ruins and filled in the foundations He should have sold off the land, a prihts But the professor had held on to this one coed by fire, not sowhere he could store his collection of artifacts, but because this, all of this, was a uilt It forced him to remember The professor had never said as h to know, to pick up on comments and moods The memory of the fire had driven the professor’s support of the opposition

Cade stepped over debris that had fallen down the penstock hole--blackened bricks,wood, dead leaves The floor here was dah the ruins to this place He slipped as he hurried on, but was surefooted enough not to tu last he reached the end of the tunnel, the da of the outlet Wavelets slurped at the retaining wall that girded the river bank Crickets chirped in the distance

The professor’s boat was actually stored in the tunnel, covered with a tarp Cade carefully set Karigan and his other burdens down, and pulled the tarp off the boat It was a very san’s satchel and the staff into it, and pushed it toward the opening If the river were higher, an in the boat, too, but it was not and he did not wish to risk injuring her froe, bow first into the water He held onto a line connected to the bow and watched the boat bob on the surface, relieved it did not sink He turned to gather up Karigan, but she was sitting and staring back up the tunnel, her hand outstretched

"Karigan?" Cade asked, keeping his voice low There was no telling how sound would travel on the river

"He is saying good-bye," she said

Cade flashed the taper into the darkness thinking perhaps the professor had followed thee visions from the morphia, like when she’d seen his six--or was it seven?--noses He’d heard et into the boat, very carefully," Cade told her, and he helped her to her feet, draped her aran said, glancing once ood-bye to?"

"My uncle"

Waves of foreboding coursed through Cade They stood now on the very edge of the tailrace tunnel’s outlet, and he had to figure out how to get her into the boat without getting theainst him and rested her head on his shoulder as she dropped out of consciousness again

He sighed "Oh, professor, what have you done?"

The sky lit up reflecting a fiery glow on the river, followed by a thunderous explosion that sent a gust of air and a throaty roar ruth of the tunnel

"What in da to rew, the wind fro down the tunnel with his light, at first unco down the tunnel at hiet out of the way

SWIMMING IN FLAMES

Cade tossed Karigan into the river ahead of hi just as the water slammed into his back

The cold black river sed him The flow that rushed froht upward in a panic, li for air He hadn’t the strength to break the surface beneath the weight and force of all that water pouring down on top of hile" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true">