Trial by Fire

“She’s too weak,” Rowan argued.

Lily struggled up onto her forearms, her head spinning. “No, Caleb’s right, Rowan. I won’t let you three get caught.” Lily thought of the Woven outside and immediately squelched the wave of fear that followed. “We need to go.”

Rowan nodded reluctantly. He lifted Lily while Tristan and Caleb gathered up their packs, supplies, and weapons. They breezed through the room efficiently, picking over the bodies for what they needed and leaving behind what they didn’t without a backward glance. Rowan shook out a blanket, wrapped Lily in it, and carried her outside.

Still strengthened by the tiny bit of energy Lily had given him, Rowan leapt from boulder to boulder, carrying her out of the rocky ravine. At the bottom, Caleb and Tristan were already waiting for them with horses.

“Hurry, Ro!” Tristan hissed.

“Woven coming in from the south and east!” Caleb said urgently.

Rowan jumped onto the horse Tristan was leading and held Lily in front of him as he rode away. Everything was bouncing around and her head hurt, but as they passed a narrow crack between two gigantic slabs of granite, Lily finally remembered where they were. She recognized this place from her world.

“That’s Fat Man’s Misery,” Lily said, pointing with a sweaty arm. “We’re in Purgatory Chasm, way out in Sutton.”

She felt Rowan squeeze her tighter with worry. “We call this place Witch’s End.”

“I came here with Tristan and his parents when we were kids, before I started getting sick all the time. It was far,” she mumbled incoherently. Her head fell against Rowan’s chest. “Rowan? Is Carrick dead?”

“No,” he replied in a low voice. “Not yet.”

The dark forest blurred by as Rowan reached more level ground and urged his horse to pick up speed.





chapter 13



The jarring motion of the galloping horse seemed to go on forever, and Rowan kept wrapping her more tightly in the blanket even though she was pouring sweat.

Lily twisted in his arms, trying to stretch her aching back and free herself of the insufferable constriction. She wished she could just fall asleep, but every time she closed her eyes, her senses sharpened unbearably until every fiber in the blanket stuck into her skin like pins and the gamey smell of the horse and the leather saddle made her stomach turn. Hours passed, each one worse than the hour before it.

“Here!” she heard Tristan yell. “The river is up this way.”

Rowan turned the horse and headed for Tristan’s voice. They rode faster, and the rocking motion as the horse hit a canter nearly had Lily screaming.

“Get a fire going, Tristan,” Rowan said, pulling the horse up sharply. Lily closed her eyes, trying not to throw up, and felt herself being passed down into Caleb’s thick arms.

“She’s as hot as a lit match,” Caleb said.

“Don’t touch her bare skin, it’ll burn you,” Rowan warned, dismounting. He took off his jacket and shirt.

“Are you sure about this brew?” Tristan asked uncertainly. “Birch bark could give her the grippe.”

“Just do it,” Rowan snapped, ending the argument. He pulled off his boots and stripped off his pants, shivering violently with the cold, and turned back to Caleb. “Give her to me.”

“I’ll scout up the riverbank for Woven.” Caleb handed Lily over, and then put out an arm to stop Rowan. “What if you freeze to death in there?”

Rowan paused to grasp Caleb’s shoulder. “She won’t let me die, brother. Not from the cold,” he said, smiling.

Caleb helped Rowan get down the riverbank and to the iced-in edge of the river.

“Is this the Charles River?” Lily asked blurrily. “’Cause the Charles is totally polluted.”