Rivers of Fire (Atherton, Book 2) (27 page)

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rumbling in his hands as he went. Looking back, he saw waves ten times higher than the ones he'd endured in the grove. It was enough water to cover all of Tabletop, and Edgar knew he and the others must hurry.

The Cleaners became aware of the coming wave as Edgar had, and they scattered in every direction, searching for a way out. Some of them spotted Charles, Eliza, and Adele as the three darted for the wall. Charles removed the rope, seeing that the wall had risen to forty feet above, and he threw it to Edgar who hung high on the shaking wall.

It took two more tries, but Edgar finally caught the rope and began moving up at an astounding pace. From behind came the giant wave, and from the side came the menacing Cleaners looking for one last meal to devour.

"Throw the rope!" cried a voice from above. It was Gill, and others were with him. Edgar had come within five feet of the top as Atherton began to settle into a gentle quake. Edgar was unwilling to take a chance that they might miss the catch, so instead he kept the rope gripped firmly between his teeth and scaled the last of the wall in a matter of seconds.

Gill took the rope from the boy's mouth and hollered down. "All of you! Take hold!"

They had thought of going one at a time, but there was no way for that now. They would all have to take the rope at once and be hauled up. The wave was growing in speed and size as it came, cresting at twenty feet tall. The Cleaners were very nearly on top of them as Charles wrapped the end of the rope around

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himself, tying it tightly, then took one woman under each arm, holding fast and screaming into the air. "Pull us up!"

Gill and ten other men were at the ready when Edgar gave the signal to pull on the rope. The boy couldn't help joining in the effort, all eleven people moving farther and farther from the edge, bringing with them a growing length of the rope. When they had most of the rope pulled up, everyone who had stood at the edge backed away, for the wave was about to strike the wall.

Edgar watched as the powerful wave slammed into the wall and white water shot high and fierce into the air. Then he ran for the edge, hoping against all hope that Charles, Eliza, and Adele had been able to hold on.

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*** CHAPTER 32 EDGAR'S DEPARTURE

When Edgar arrived at the edge and looked down, he saw three battered and bruised people hanging soaked and gasping for air against the rocks. Charles had held on, but he was quickly losing his grip.

"I can't hold them, Edgar!" he screamed.

And there was more trouble than that. A second wave was forming that threatened to suck them out to the quickly forming sea below, and worse, the Cleaners were leaping out of the water all around them, snapping their jaws very near Charles's feet.

Edgar sprang into action, climbing down the side of the cliff without hesitation. When he arrived beside them, Adele put an arm around his shoulder and he winced in pain. But she

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was light, almost as light as he was, and he was able to take most of the weight from Charles.

"Gill! Pull us up!" cried Edgar. The rope began to move again, bringing the group of four within a few feet of the top, where they were grabbed and pulled into the Flatlands just before the second wave hit.

"Away from the edge!" said Gill. "This one's going to come all the way over!"

Charles helped Eliza, and Edgar tried his best to run with Adele as the wave crashed, sending a wall of water over the edge where it pounded into the Flatlands with a roar.

The water receded, leaving behind a half-dozen Cleaners that had been tossed over the edge, their legs already beginning to shrink inside them so far that they could hardly move. As they flailed on the ground, men with spears finished them off without difficulty.

It was then that Atherton began what would be its last quake. It was the longest of them all, though not as violent, and when it was over, everyone who remained walked to the new edge of the world and looked over in wonder. Tabletop was far below them, two hundred feet or more, and it was filling rapidly with water. Cleaners were jumping along the edge, getting accustomed to the fact that they were no longer land animals, but instead creatures of a great lake.

"I think the transformation of Atherton is very nearly finished," said Edgar. There was a ring of authority in his voice that even he didn't expect, but he was beginning to recognize

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his intuition about such things and to understand that somehow, some way, Dr. Harding had inexplicably connected Edgar to Atherton. Edgar now knew that the water would rise, but only as far as the edge, and then Atherton would be the way it was meant to be from the start.

Maude and Briney came up alongside Gill, looking beaten and tired. Briney had a bunny sack over his shoulder, filled with the very last of the rabbits.

"He's gone," said Maude.

Her words reminded everyone within earshot of Horace, their fallen leader, and a deep silence ensued. There was much to be celebrated, but a terrible price had been paid and it was beginning to sink in.

Edgar had endured tremendous hardship and loss along with everyone else, but it was he who was the first to begin thinking of a calmer future. "When you get your inn going again and there are rabbits running everywhere, will you cook me one that's crispy with fig dust?"

"I would if there were any figs to be had," said Maude. "But I'm afraid the grove was lost, and in all the chaos, no one thought to bring a fresh fig along for the journey."

Edgar dug down inside his shirt pocket and removed the chunk of Cleaner he'd been carrying around for the past two days. He unfolded wet leaves surrounding a clump of meaty green slime and, digging his fingers inside, he produced three soft but shiny figs. They were perfectly preserved as he'd known they would be. Dr. Harding had told him so in his dreams on that last night in the House of Power, and so it was.

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"We can start a new grove," said Edgar. Gill was very pleased at the sight of the round figs covered in slime, and he took them from Edgar. A worker from the grove was called over and came near, retrieving the figs. Edgar watched as the man disappeared into a crowd of ogling people, and then he glanced to his right where he heard sheep. He counted five, along with a shepherdess who watched over them. And there were the two horses, held by one of the few men who remained from the Highlands.

"A male and a female?" asked Edgar.

Gill nodded with a smile. "A good bit of luck, don't you think?"

There was a group of men standing around one of the fallen Cleaners that had been thrown by the wave into the Flatlands. Edgar went to it and asked the people to step back.

"May I use your spear?" asked Edgar, gazing up at a man standing beside him. The man handed it over, and Edgar thrust it into the Cleaner's side four or five times in a small circle, then he handed the spear back again.

"Thank you," he said.

The man nodded and looked at Edgar as if he'd lost his mind, but Edgar knew what he was doing. He reached down and tore a chunk of the Cleaner free where he'd made the circle, and then he ate it. Everyone gasped in horror at the sight of the boy with green slime running down his chin.

"It tastes best if you cover the black with the green," said Edgar, recalling how Dr. Kincaid had showed him the best way to enjoy the remains of a Cleaner. He wiped his mouth and went for another chunk, holding it out to Gill who stood near.

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Gill sniffed it warily for a long time, but his nose was the smartest part of him, and it was telling him that this revolting clump was something his nose wanted him to eat. And so he did, smiling at the sweet and salty taste in his mouth.

Edgar felt certain he'd made his point--that there was plenty of food to be had while they waited for more rabbits and sheep and figs--if only they could find a way to retrieve the Cleaners from the rising sea of freshwater. He surveyed everything before him, thinking of the long journey across the Flatlands that he was about to take.

"I think we've got all we need to start again," said Edgar. "It will be nice to have so much water for a change."

Charles, Eliza, and Adele were sitting down, sorely beaten by the events of the day, and in no shape to make a long trek across a deserted land.

"There's someplace I need to go," said Edgar. "I'll be gone for at least a day, maybe longer, but I need to go alone. I'm not sure what I'll find there."

"I'll go with you," said Gill. He was not as accustomed to Edgar's secret ways as some of the others had become, and he didn't want to let the boy go wandering around without protection.

"You're needed here," said Edgar, reaching out for the spear that Gill held in his hand.

"What if you find Cleaners out there or some other terrible enemy?" said Gill, sniffing the air in search of something unexpected.

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"All the Cleaners are gone," said Edgar. "There's nothing left to harm us except ourselves."

Gill understood the meaning of what Edgar was saying.

There were four groups of people together that would need to work together as one to survive, and without Horace to lead them it might not take long for them to begin fighting over supplies and territory. He handed Edgar the spear and started back toward the others to begin the hard work of making a new home. Only Maude and Briney remained.

"You sure about this, Edgar?" asked Briney.

"He's sure," said Maude. "Come on. Let's go find a good spot to build an inn for you to run." She looked off toward the shepherdess and said something to Briney she'd been thinking for a while. "I wonder if she would teach me how to tend sheep."

"I bet she would if you showed her how to cook a rabbit," said Briney. He was happy to see Maude's interests leaning toward quieter things. The two moved off, and for a moment Edgar stood alone, trying to get his bearings. A much younger boy of five or six ran up and handed him a piece of Cleaner and a jug of water.

"This
is
good!" said the boy, stuffing another piece of the slimy meat into his mouth.

"I'm glad you like it," said Edgar, taking the meat and the jug.

"The water is rising fast," said the boy. He was afraid of being washed away or of being eaten by a Cleaner. "Are you sure it won't come any higher than the edge?"

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Edgar's gaze shifted to the giant hole leading down into Tabletop. It was outrageous, the idea that the grove was under water and he would never see it again. His old home had vanished.

"I met the man who made this place," said Edgar. "And he told me the water would never reach the Flatlands. You're safe here."

The child beamed and this made Edgar very happy. He watched the little boy run back into the sea of people, and then without any more hesitation he started on his way toward Dr. Kincaid's home.

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*** CHAPTER 33 REUNITED

It was a long walk across the vast Flatlands, even longer than Edgar remembered, and the day was nearing its end when he arrived at the towering rocks that surrounded Dr. Kincaid's home. He found his way to the pile of boulders that blocked the path, climbing over and down the other side. When he rounded the last turn of the old trail and came to the table where he'd first eaten black and green, he expected to see the old man sitting there. But the chairs were empty and the place had a desolate feeling of having been left behind.

Edgar crossed to the opening of the cave and peered inside. It was dark, but not pitch-black, and this made him think that maybe Dr. Kincaid's home wasn't entirely empty after all. He went inside, calling Dr. Kincaid's name.

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"Edgar?" It wasn't Dr. Kincaid, but another voice that Edgar knew. It was a voice that made him dash into the cave to the familiar place where he had once laid with an injured shoulder and a severed finger. Around the very same bed stood Vincent, Sir William, Dr. Kincaid, and the boy who had spoken Edgar's name. Samuel cried out Edgar's name again and bolted from the group, embracing his friend.

There were hoots and hollers from both boys at the sight of each other. Vincent, Dr. Kincaid, and Sir William came over to the two excited boys and joined in the celebration, laughing and patting them on the back.

"Where's Isabel?" asked Edgar. "I want to see her!"

The laughter died down faster than it had begun and Edgar knew something was wrong. He didn't wait for the men to stand aside. Instead, he burst right through them toward the bed.

There, cold and unmoving, was Isabel. Her face was white and her eyes were closed.

"She's not gone," said Dr. Kincaid, coming up beside Edgar. "She's still alive."

"What's happened to her?" he asked. "Will she wake up?"

Dr. Kincaid was worried she might not, but he wasn't going to tell Edgar, at least not yet. "She's been through an awful trauma, but there's a chance she'll recover."

The men and boys stayed at Isabel's side and talked in whispers of what had happened to them. Edgar had to tell them that Dr. Harding was dead, and Horace, too, but that he'd managed to save Samuel's mother and Isabel's parents. Sir William and Samuel explained how they'd been reunited, their excitement