Page 7 (1/2)

Rapids

"Good night"

"Sleep tight," replied the room

Tally pulled on a jacket, clipped her sensor to her belly ring, and opened theThe air was still, the river so flat that she could make out every detail of the city skylinesoe crowd across the water, a thousand cheers rising and falling together The party toere dark under the al hues of blue, clih that they exploded in silence

The city had never looked so far away

"I’ll see you soon, Peris," she said quietly

The roof tiles were slick with a late evening rain Tally climbed carefully to the corner of the dorm where it was brushed by an old sycamore tree The handholds in its branches felt solid and familiar, and she descended quickly into the darkness behind a recycler

When she’d cleared the dorrounds, Tally looked back The pattern of shadows that led away frolies were supposed to sneak out every once in a while

Tally shook her head She was starting to think like Shay

They met at the dam, where the river split in two to encircle New Pretty Town Tonight, there weren’t any river ski moves on her board when Tally walked up

"Should you be doing that here in town?" Tally called over the roar of water rushing through the daht back and forth on the floating board, dodging i sure it worked In case you orried"

Tally looked at her own board Shay had tricked the safety governor so it wouldn’t tattle when they flew at night, or crossed the boundary out of town Tally wasn’t soon them as whether it would fly at all Or let her fly into a tree But Shay’s board see just fine

"I boarded all the way here, and nobody’s coet round "Thanks forsure I didn’t mean to be so wimpy about this"

"You weren’t"

"Yeah, I was I should tell you soht, when you met me, I kind of pro risks You know, in case I really got in trouble, and they got really et mad? You’re alh that they won’t"I’ve never heard of that happening"

"I guess I haven’t either But maybe they wouldn’t tell us if it had Anyway, Peris made me promise to take it easy"

"Tally, do you think ain?"

"Huh?"

"Maybe he made you promise to take it easy so you wouldn’t bother hiain"

Tally tried to answer, but her throat was dry

"Listen, if you don’t want to come, that’s fine," Shay said "I ht And if we do, I’ll take the blahed "I’ll tell them I kidnapped you"

Tally stepped onto her board and snapped her fingers When she reached Shay’s eye level she said,

"I’ I said I would"

Shay s "Great It’s going to be fun Not new pretty fun - the real kind Put these on"

"What are they? Night vision?"

"Nope Goggles You’re going to love the white water"

They hit the rapids ten minutes later

Tally had lived her whole life within sight of the river Slow- the boundary betorlds But she’d never realized that a few kilometers upstreawater really hite It crashed over rocks and through narrow channels, catapulted up into moonlit sprays, split apart, rejoined, and dropped down into boiling cauldrons at the botto just above the torrent, so low that she lifted a wake every tiuessed was a safe distance, hoping her tricked-up board was still reluctant to crash into the darkness-cloaked rocks and tree branches The forest to either side was a black void full of wild and ancient trees, nothing like the generic carbon-dioxide suckers that decorated the city The h their branches like a ceiling of pearl

Every time Shay screah a wall of spray leaping up from the ht, but others struck unexpectedly froh the arcs of cold water rising from Shay’s board when it dipped or banked, but at least she knehen a turn was co

The first few minutes were sheer terror, her teeth clenched so hard that her jaw ached, her toes curled up inside her special new grippy shoes, her arradually Tally grew accustomed to the darkness, the roar of water below, the unexpected slap of cold spray against her face It ilder, and faster, and farther than she’d ever flown before The river wound into the dark forest, cutting its serpentine route into the unknown