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So pulled steadily at his wrist and started to draw hi water, and he realized it was the line to the rowboat He allowed it to pull on hi in calasped and sputtered for air He’d been so lucky that in the onrush of water he had not been pummeled with loose debris carried down the tailrace A brick could have ended everything He could only guess that the explosion he’d heard had broken the sluice gate that da the water and sending it cascading down the tunnel

Karigan! he thought, re downstrea frantically around

"Karigan?" he called out No answer She’d been so drugged She could have drowned already He whirled around, searching, searching Had she, too, got caught in the outflow fro in the pounding water? He swa the boat behind hi the sky and river, and there, floating just yards away on her back, with arht as though she drifted in liquid flalow of the fire dilistening with the fire’s light

"Karigan?"

"Fergal?"

"No, no, it’s me, Cade"

She blinked, and in a weary voice said, "Why do I always end up in rivers?"

Cade was too relieved to care about her odd coal was "Can you swim?"

"Of course I can swim"

"Then let’s make our way to the far bank" On the far bank, there was no sheer stone retaining wall supporting the tailraces of e of the river He started to say, but she just floated there staring at the sky

"Karigan?"

"I’ in flahed and secured the line of the rowboat around his waist, then he grabbed Karigan by the collar and stroked for the river bank

"I a in the pretty light"

Cade started to curse the professor for the one He knew it Like a captain going doith his ship, the professor would have gone up in flaside his beloved artifacts, atoning for the slaves who had perished there, sacrificing hiood of the opposition A dead ated

When finally Cade crawled onto the river bank, he pulled Karigan up beside him and, exhausted, just held her It was too painful to watch the roiling flames across the river that were the professor’s pyre, so he nestled his face in the nape of her neck, where he would not have to see

• • •

Cade rowed down the river, the current helping to carry the s It had taken him awhile to decide what to do next, to consider the few options available to him Widow Hettle’s house was out--the Inspectors would search for him there, plus, her house was too far froht about the old slave et to while carrying an unconscious woman over his shoulder The Inspectors would be out in force, and he’d be sure to get caught He needed soet dry and war kept his blood flowing, and while the night was not cold, it was cool enough that a person in wet clothes could get chilled He worried about Karigan, curled in the bottom of the boat, as bouts of chills racked her body even as she lay unconscious

"Oh, professor," he murmured for the hundredth tied on the oars with hting the sky, but farther down, the river banks were serene Silent, dark mills loomed on his left, and the waterfront warehouses, shops, and hovels shouldered together to his right He tried not to watch the fire glow, but searched instead for a certain dock he wanted, the one that catered to fisher was not a true industry in Mill City, and was illegal without an imperial license, but those who fished surreptitiously were able to suppleer larder Cade did not think there was ht other than carp--the da else

He was past the dock before he realized he was anywhere near it and plowed the oars in the water to slow his s There was a bait shop directly on shore Cade worked the bow around, oars groaning, and headed in

When the hull buside the dock, Cade nosed the boat in as close to shore as possible Well past curfew, the shorefront was quiet He saw no sign of Inspectors, so he tied the boat’s line to a cleat and placed the staff and satchel on the dock Fortunately they had stayed safe in the bottoan had ended up in the river He then tended to transferring her to the dock without tipping the boat over and giving the as he shifted her, but she did not wake up With a deep breath, he hoisted her onto the dock His body was beginning to feel the strain of having carried her through the tailrace tunnel, then fighting the outflow in the river that had almost drowned hi Karigan was the perfect weight to challenge him, to help increase his stamina This hat he told hile" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true">