City of Thirst

by Carrie Ryan

  Rain dripped through his hair, running down his nose. It was now or never. “Ready?” he asked. Before she could even answer, he leapt off the side with all his might, dragging her with him.

  She screamed.

  “Cannonball!” he shouted.

  The shifting gravity tugged them

  down,

  a

  r

  o

  u

  n

  d

  back down,

  and

  SMASHED

  them

  feetfirst into the soft grass of the field.

  The whole island shuddered with the impact,

  and turned

  spinning

  end

  over

  end.

  Up up. Sky clouds.

  became became became became

  down waves

  Marrill shrieked. Fin tumbled one way, then the other. He couldn’t tell what the gravity was. Or if it was.

  He fell through the grass (up the grass?), over the edge (around the edge?) and over the rocky ground (under the rocky ground?). He snatched for the obelisk as the islet flipped again.

  Gravity no longer mattered; now it was just a struggle to keep from getting thrown off. He clung to the stone, questioning his life choices, his legs flung out toward the moving horizon. In one bold moment, he dared a look over his shoulder.

  Sure enough, they’d changed directions. They were going to meet the Kraken. All he had to do was hold on, and then…

  “Whaaauuahauhaut nowwoowooowww?” Marrill’s voice came from somewhere that could have been below, or maybe above, him. Fin gulped. He’d honestly figured they would just play this part by ear.

  “Maaaarriiiiiilllll!” Coll’s voice carried up to him. Fin’s stomach lurched as he looked toward the Stream, but he could see the Kraken, slicing across the swirling water toward them. They were nearly there. But he had no idea how to get off the twirling island.

  “Throowwwussssroooopes!” Marrill shrieked nearby. “Rooooppebooone!!!”

  “On it!” Ardent’s voice came. In the next second, Fin caught a glimpse of the Ropebone Man, whipping his corded arms toward them. One headed nearly straight at him. But it was too short to reach. Then the island flipped end over end once more.

  On the far side, he could see the entirety of the whirlpool, swirling and sucking. He could see the storm, rolling in fast. And the Iron Ship, cutting in through the edge of the Archipelago. The island flipped once more.

  And suddenly, a tangle of ropes shot out everywhere. As each rope neared the island, the strange gravity pulled it in, holding it tight in the air. Marrill was already sliding down one toward the ship. Fin gulped and jumped for another. He snagged it and held tight.

  The next thing he knew, he was falling.

  “Yaaaaahhh!!!!!” Fin screamed. The rope pulled taut, swinging him over the Kraken’s deck.

  The ship rocked and turned sideways as the current pulled on her. The rope tossed him about. He struggled to keep hold. But just as he thought he couldn’t take any more, a thick hand grabbed his ankle and held on to it. Then another. Then another. A second later, he was scrambling and kicking across the tilting deck.

  “This what you were looking for?” the Naysayer yelled to the rigging. Fin threw his arms around the monster. He’d never been so happy to see the old lizard.

  “That’s him!” Marrill’s voice sounded. Overhead, she lay suspended in a net made from rigging, snagged safe and sound by the Ropebone Man. They’d made it.

  Sort of, anyway. The Kraken twisted and turned as it surfed the growing current. Lightning crashed all around them, turning the whole world bloody. The Iron Ship was almost on top of them. Her black metal prow sheered through the surf. The Master stared coldly from her bow. Red energy danced between his fingers.

  Fin swallowed and scrambled to his feet. Suddenly, he wasn’t sure escaping the grassberg had been such a good idea. All he could see was spiraling water, whirling around the abyss that was the heart of the Shattered Archipelago.

  AT THE HEART OF THIS BROKEN WORLD

  LIES THE SYPHON OF MONERVA

  The obelisk’s words suddenly took on new meaning. Sailors like Pickled Pate had been vanishing here, and reappearing, for ages. There was only one place they could have gone.

  “It’s here,” he breathed. “The Wish Machine is down the whirlpool.”

  “Haul the ropes, pirats!” Coll shouted. “We have to get away from the whirlpool!”

  Fin leapt forward. “No!” he screamed. “Go in! Go in! Marrill, the Syphon is down the whirlpool!”

  “Do it!” Marrill cried. “The Iron Ship is coming!” Just across the water, the Master of the Iron Ship raised his hand, preparing to attack.

  Fin looked to Ardent. The wizard braced against the mast, grinding his jaw with worry. His bearded chin nodded toward Coll.

  From his perch on the quarterdeck, the sailor nodded back. “All hands, brace yourselves,” he shouted. “We’re going down!”

  Red lightning seared the air as the Kraken turned into the current. Fin clung fast to the Naysayer. And in the scariest thing that happened yet, the Naysayer didn’t fight him. Because up ahead, the water gaped open, waiting to swallow them whole.

  CHAPTER 9

  Worst Roller-Coaster Ride Ever

  Marrill felt like she was on one of those log rides at a theme park, shooting through a tunnel made of water. Except that getting splashed with this water could mean turning into a five-headed penguin with a Swedish accent and tap shoes.

  “Brace yourselves!” Coll shouted as the ship sliced its way downward, surfing down the flume. Marrill tightened her grip on the ropes around her, rocking in her cradle of netting. Below her, more ropes dropped, wrapping around each of the crew.

  “Oh no, not again!” Remy cried, swatting at the rigging. But then, without warning, the tunnel dipped. The ship dropped out from underneath them. For a moment, Marrill was suspended in midair. It was a sensation she was getting way too familiar with.

  “Never mind! Hold me tighter, Mr. Rope Man!” Remy yelped. The words were lost in a shriek as the ship bottomed out and twisted violently to the left.

  “Nguh,” Marrill gasped as her insides flattened and rearranged themselves. Everywhere she looked was the glow of water. It roared and sloshed as it spun around them. Or as they spun around it—it was difficult to tell the difference. It was like they were being sucked down a tube of air cut straight through the heart of the Stream. And that tube was starting to narrow.

  Adrenaline spiked Marrill’s system. Her heart stuttered as the water closed in around them. As scared as she was of the Iron Ship, this didn’t seem much better. Because if the tunnel grew too narrow, the mast would be the first part to go and her with it.

  She scrambled across the ropes on her knees, but now that she faced forward, things weren’t getting better. Dead ahead, the tunnel seemed to end at a solid wall of water. And the Kraken was stuck in a permanent free fall toward it. The ship would shatter on impact.

  “Pull her up, Coll! Pull her up!” Ardent shouted.

  “That’s not a direction ships go!” the sailor shouted back. He yanked the wheel back and forth, as if that could do anything to slow their descent.

  Marrill dropped flat and grabbed a rope, bracing for impact. Next to her, pirats clung to the booms desperately, their twin tails whipping in the breeze.

  But on the deck below, Ardent seemed unperturbed. He stood at the bow, arms wide and knees slightly bent. The tip of his hat flapped behind him like a wind sock. “Heeeeere weeeeeee goooooo!” he boomed.

  Suddenly, a force like an invisible hand crushed down on her. It smashed her into the ropes, making it impossible to breathe. She wasn’t even sure her heart continued to beat.

  The Kraken’s weathered boards groaned. From somewhere in the rigging around her came a snapping sound, followed by several pops. Her hammock jolted, dropping a few feet before it went tight again.
<
br />   “Hold together, old girl,” Coll urged the ship. “You can do it!”

  Marrill added her own silent pleas as the Pirate Stream crashed around them. Everything turned to gold. The buzz of magic sang through her veins, setting her hair on end. She clenched her eyes and gritted her teeth, feeling like her insides threatened to turn into outsides.

  Then came another loud POP! The sky opened up over her. The ship skidded across the surface of the Stream sideways, like a rock skipping across a lake. Thankfully, the horrible, crushing force eased. Marrill could finally draw the breath she’d been desperate to take for what felt like hours.

  “All hands, report!” Coll called as the ship’s movement stabilized into something approaching normal. Pirats squeaked and scampered around her, racing along the yards to check for damage.

  Cautiously, Marrill cracked an eye. The giant, whirling tunnel of water was gone. As were the floating islets of the Shattered Archipelago. All around, the Stream was oddly smooth and calm. Even the sky was a clear, bright blue.

  “Everyone okay down there?” she asked as she scrambled across the netting toward the mast. A rope wrapped around her waist and lowered her gently to the deck. “Thanks,” she said to the air. The rope patted her on the shoulder before disappearing into the rigging.

  Fin stood near the bow, his hair sticking up wildly. “That was better than the Quay during hurricane season!” he said, grinning.

  Next to him, Remy clutched the railing, her cheek pressed tightly against the wooden balustrade. The babysitter nodded, but didn’t release her grip as she slowly straightened and looked around. “Um, guys? Where did the other ship go? The scary one?”

  Marrill glanced behind them—no Iron Ship. Which should have been a relief. But for some reason, it just made her more uneasy. The Iron Ship was back, even though they’d watched it sink into the Stream. If it could survive that, it could definitely follow them down the whirlpool, scary tunnel or no. At any second, it could pop up beside them. There was no way they were safe.

  The Naysayer pushed his way onto his feet beside her. “Great piloting, Cap’n,” he snarked. Karnelius scowled furiously from the cradle of one thick arm. “Can’t decide what was better, eating the deck or tasting it come up again every three seconds. I’ve half a mind to get off at the next port and be done with the lot o’ ya.”

  “Then it’s your lucky day,” Coll said, staring straight ahead. Marrill turned to follow his gaze. And her jaw dropped.

  In the distance, an impenetrable range of impossibly high mountains blocked the Stream. Impenetrable, that is, except for a broad gap between the two tallest peaks. And in that gap, across a vast expanse of junk-filled marsh, a massive wall stretched up so tall that even from way out here, Marrill had to crane her neck to find the top.

  It reminded her of the Hoover Dam, but much, much bigger. And while the Hoover Dam was nothing but smooth concrete, this wall was covered in buildings, all stacked on top of each other, a haphazard, sprawling vertical city.

  Its streets were labyrinths of long ladders and mazes of pulleys and slides. All across it, gears of various shapes and sizes stuck out, half-buried in the wall. Along its base, a flotilla of docks stretched into the marshes, bobbing with each wave. And at the very tip-top, high above the city, silhouetted by thick clouds of black smoke rising from somewhere behind the wall, a lone sinister tower stretched crookedly into the sky.

  “Meh,” the Naysayer said. “Not really my speed.”

  “What is this place?” Marrill breathed.

  Ardent was perched on the forecastle, staring at the spectacle before them. “I seen the city where the wall does stand,” he recited. “That, I wager, would be the place poor Pickled Pate went all those millennia ago. The place where he saw the Iron Tide.”

  “Fascinating,” Coll said drily. “Don’t suppose anyone else noticed all the broken ships?” He waved his hand toward the marsh. Sure enough, what Marrill had first taken to be random junk was actually the remains of a small navy’s worth of vessels. Ships of all shapes and sizes and states of disrepair bobbed in the muted glow of the Stream water, from gargantuan galleons that dwarfed the Kraken to tiny one-man rowboats. “That’s what’ll happen to us if the Iron Ship catches us. I vote we head for land, fast.”

  “Seconded,” Remy chirped. She looked around nervously, as if unsure she actually got a vote. Then she frowned. “Though it looks like the current is taking us that way regardless.”

  Coll pressed his lips together. “A captain controls the ship, not the current,” he informed her, calling for half sails. Overhead the pirats hauled the lines, and the Ropebone Man gave the sails a bit of slack. “But yeah,” he added reluctantly, “it is pretty strong here.”

  Fin fidgeted uneasily next to Marrill as they threaded their way through the floating graveyard. “Is no one else worried about how that rusted heap of metal sank and came back from the dead?” he asked. “I mean, I’m not crazy, right? We did sink that Iron Ship six months ago, right?”

  Coll looked down from his perch. “Where’d you hear a story like that, sailor?”

  Fin crossed his arms. “I was there.”

  “So you’re a pirate, eh? One of Stavik’s, I’m guessing. Don’t know why I trusted the old bafter to honor the trade.” He leaned over the wheel and glared at Fin. “How many of you are there on board?”

  Fin bristled, puffing up his chest. “I’m part of this crew!” he growled. Marrill was a little taken aback. She knew how much being forgotten bothered Fin. But she wasn’t used to him being quite so angry about it.

  “Hey!” Remy barked, pointing at Coll. “Eyes on the road, buddy. We’ve got a junkyard to get through before that devil ship comes after us.” Coll slunk back, chastised. Fin started to chuckle but stopped when the babysitter rounded on him. “And you…” Her frown slipped into a puzzled expression. “Um… Marrill’s friend. Whoever you are. Yeah. Don’t cause trouble. We’ve got enough of that as it is.”

  He grumbled under his breath as he stared over the railing. Marrill touched his arm, feeling bad for him. “What happened to the sketches I made of you? The ones I gave Coll and Ardent so they would remember?”

  Fin lifted a shoulder but didn’t look at her. Instead he focused on the ship graveyard, eyes tracing the carcasses of old hulls as the Kraken weaved its way closer to the wall. “Ink fades. Just like memories.”

  Marrill tried to think of what to say, but she couldn’t find the right words. For the first time since returning to the Stream, something felt off—the silence between them uncomfortable in a way it had never been before.

  It almost seemed like Fin was mad at her, but for what she didn’t know. Going home? Not coming back earlier? She bit her lip and glanced at him. The fact that people remembered her?

  She leaned her shoulder against his. “Maybe if this Wish Machine thing is real, we can make everything right again.”

  “Here’s hoping,” Fin said. “Or should I say, here’s wishing?” He waggled his eyebrows.

  Marrill couldn’t help giggling. It was nice to have her best friend by her side again.

  CHAPTER 10

  The Grovel and the Great City

  As the Kraken threaded its way through the floating graveyard, Fin’s eyes skimmed each broken hull they passed, looking for the now familiar symbol. He kept the forgettable girl’s bracelet close in his pocket, and already he’d developed the habit of tracing its dragon-under-circle outline with his thumb.

  The obelisk in the Shattered Archipelago had borne the same symbol; it couldn’t be a coincidence. With luck, the answer to what it meant lay ahead.

  He shook his head, snapping back to the conversation. Marrill was eagerly explaining to the others what they’d found on the grassberg and about the Wish Machine. “So, do you think it could be real?”

  Ardent stroked his beard, looking skeptical. “It’s possible, of course,” he mused. “In a sense, all magic is just granting wishes—that is, taking the raw potential of the Pirate
Stream and forcing it to be the reality you want it to be. But the more you want, the more magic you need to make it real. To truly grant a wish, you would need to harness more of the Pirate Stream than any wizard I’ve ever heard of could manage.”

  “But it could exist, right?” Marrill pressed.

  Ardent laughed. “It could, yes. Back in the days when all of creation was still unformed, the Dzane could do such a thing. But the Dzane are long gone.” He patted Marrill gently on the shoulder before wandering off.

  Fin remembered the word: Dzane. The first wizards, who had made the Pirate Stream and the Bintheyr Map to Everywhere. Of course, they’d also made the Lost Sun of Dzannin, which could destroy anything and everything. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know what else they could do.

  Still, the possibility that the Wish Machine might be real caused his heart to flutter. He could tell Marrill felt the same; she grasped the railing next to him, leaning forward as though it would get them to their destination that much faster. “So, do you think it might be somewhere in that city?” she asked him.

  “If we believe the obelisk, it’s got to be somewhere around here,” he said. “And I’d say the fact that there’s a city down the whirlpool at the heart of the Shattered Archipelago is a pretty good sign.”

  She bit her lip and glanced over her shoulder, clearly worried. Behind them the Stream was an empty expanse, the sky above it clear and blue. “If the Master of the Iron Ship doesn’t get us first.”

  Fin shrugged. “In all the stories I’ve ever heard, the Iron Ship’s never been seen in a port. Once we dock, I’m sure we’ll be safe.” It was a lie, of course; at this point, he didn’t know if they’d be safe from that ghost ship anywhere. But if it made Marrill feel better, what was wrong with bending the truth a little?

  Her shoulders visibly relaxed, and she smiled. “It is pretty neat, huh?” she said, gesturing at their destination.