Chapter 10 3 страница

My every instinct screamed to stay hidden, to dig myself even deeper into the muck, but then one clear thought cut through all the static—I won’t let us die in this shit-house —and I pushed Emma behind the biggest sheep I could see and bolted for the door.

The door was closed and ten feet away, and a lot of animals stood between it and me, but I plowed through them like a linebacker. I hit the door with my shoulder and it flung open.

I tumbled outside into the rain and screamed “Come get me, you ugly bastard! ” I knew I had its attention because it let out a terrifying howl and sheep came flushing out the door past me. I scrambled to my feet and when I was sure it was coming after me and not Emma, I took off toward the bog.

I could feel it behind me. I might’ve run faster but I was still holding the shears—I couldn’t seem to make myself let go—and then the ground went soft beneath me and I knew I’d reached the bog.

Twice the hollow was close enough for its tongues to lash my back, and twice, just as I was certain one was about to lasso my neck and squeeze until my head popped, it stumbled and fell back. The only reason I made it to the cairn with my head still attached was that I knew exactly where to put my feet; thanks to Emma, I could run that route on a moonless night in half a hurricane.

Clambering onto the cairn-mound, I tore around to the stone entrance and dove in. It was black as tar inside but it didn’t matter—I only had to reach the chamber to be safe. I scrambled on my hands and knees, because even standing would’ve cost time I didn’t have to waste, and I was halfway to the end and feeling cautiously optimistic about my chances for survival when suddenly I could crawl no more. One of the tongues had caught my ankle.

The hollow had used two of its tongues to grapple onto the capstones around the tunnel’s mouth as leverage against the mud, and it covered the entrance with its body like a lid on a jar. The third tongue was reeling me toward it, I was a fish on a hook.

I scrabbled at the ground, but it was all gravel and my fingers slid right through. I flipped onto my back and clawed at the stones with my free hand, but I was sliding too quickly. I tried hacking at the tongue with my shears, but it was too sinewy and tough, a rope of undulating muscle, and my shears too dull. So I squeezed my eyes shut, because I didn’t want its gaping jaws to be the last thing I’d ever see, and gripped the shears in front of me with both hands. Time seemed to stretch out, like they say it does in car crashes and train accidents and free-falls from airplanes, and the next thing I felt was a bone-jarring collision as I slammed into the hollow.

All the breath rushed out of me and I heard it scream. We flew out of the tunnel together and rolled down the cairn mound into the bog, and when I opened my eyes again, I saw my shears buried to the hilt in the beast’s eye sockets. It howled like ten pigs being gelded, rolling and thrashing in the rain-swollen mud, weeping a black river of itself, viscous fluid pumping over the blades’ rusted handle.

I could feel it dying, the life draining out of it, its tongue loosening around my ankle. I could feel the difference in me, too, the panicky clutch in my stomach slowly coming undone. Finally, the creature stiffened and sank from view, slime closing over its head, a slick of dark blood the only sign it had ever been there.

I could feel the bog sucking me down with it. The more I struggled, the more it seemed to want me. What a strange find the two of us would make a thousand years from now, I thought, preserved together in the peat.

I tried to paddle toward solid ground but succeeded only in pushing myself deeper. The muck seemed to climb me, rising up my arms, my chest, collaring my throat like a noose.

I screamed for help—and miraculously, help came, in the form of what I thought at first was a firefly, flashing as it flew toward me. Then I heard Emma call out, and I answered.

A tree branch landed in the water. I grabbed it and Emma pulled, and when I finally came out of the bog I was shaking too hard to stand. Emma sank down beside me and I fell into her arms.

I killed it, I thought. I really killed it. All the time I’d spent being afraid, I never dreamed I could actually kill one!

It made me feel powerful. Now I could defend myself. I knew I’d never be as strong as my grandfather, but I wasn’t a gutless weakling, either. I could kill them.

I tested out the words. “It’s dead. I killed it. ”

I laughed. Emma hugged me, pressing her cheek against mine. “I know he would’ve been proud of you, ” she said.

We kissed, and it was gentle and nice, rain dripping from our noses and running warm into our just-open mouths. Too soon she broke away and whispered, “What you said before—did you mean it? ”

“I’ll stay, ” I said. “If Miss Peregrine will let me. ”

“She will. I’ll make certain of it. ”

“Before we worry about that, we’d better find my psychiatrist and take away his gun. ”

“Right, ” she said, her expression hardening. “No time to waste, then. ”

* * *

We left the rain behind and emerged into a landscape of smoke and noise. The loop hadn’t yet reset, and the bog was pocked with bomb holes, the sky buzzing with planes, walls of orange flame marching against the distant tree line. I was about to suggest we wait until today became yesterday and all this disappeared before trying to cross to the house when a set of brawny arms clapped around me.

“You’re alive! ” Bronwyn cried. Enoch and Hugh were with her, and when she pulled away they moved in to shake my hand and look me over.

“I’m sorry I called you a traitor, ” Enoch said. “I’m glad you’re not dead. ”

“Me, too, ” I replied.

“All in one piece? ” Hugh asked, looking me over.

“Two arms and two legs, ” I said, kicking out my limbs to demonstrate their wholeness. “And you won’t have to worry about that hollow anymore. We killed it. ”

“Oh, stuff the modesty! ” Emma said proudly. “You killed it. ”

“That’s brilliant, ” Hugh said, but neither he nor the other two could muster a smile.

“What’s the matter? ” I asked. “Wait. Why aren’t you three at the house? Where’s Miss Peregrine? ”

“She’s gone, ” said Bronwyn, her lip trembling. “Miss Avocet, too. He took them. ”

“Oh God, ” said Emma. We were too late.

“He come in with a gun, ” Hugh said, studying the dirt. “Tried to take Claire hostage, but she chomped him with her backmouth, so he grabbed me instead. I tried to fight, but he knocked me upside the skull with his gun. ” He touched the back of his ear and his fingers came away spotted with blood. “Locked everyone in the basement and said if Headmistress and Miss Avocet didn’t change into birds he’d put an extra hole in my head. So they did, and he stuffed ’em both into a cage. ”

“He had a cage? ” Emma said.

Hugh nodded. “Little one, too, so they didn’t have room to do nothing, like change back or fly off. I reckoned I was good as shot, but then he pushed me down the basement with the others and run off with the birds. ”

“That’s how we found ’em when we come in, ” Enoch said bitterly. “Hiding down there like a lot of cowards. ”

“We wasn’t hiding! ” Hugh cried. “He locked us in! He would’ve shot us! ”

“Forget that, ” snapped Emma. “Where’d he run off to? Why didn’t you go after him?! ”

“We don’t know where he went, ” said Bronwyn. “We was hoping you’d seen him. ”

“No, we haven’t seen him! ” Emma said, kicking a cairn stone in frustration.

Hugh drew something out of his shirt. It was a little photograph. “He stuffed this in my pocket before he went. Said if we tried to come after him, this is what would happen. ”

Bronwyn snatched the photo from Hugh. “Oh, ” she gasped. “Is that Miss Raven? ”

“I think it’s Miss Crow, ” said Hugh, rubbing his face with his hands.

“That’s it, they’re good as dead, ” Enoch moaned. “I knew this day would come! ”

“We should never have left the house, ” Emma said miserably. “Millard was right. ”

At the far edge of the bog a bomb fell, its muted blast followed by a distant rain of excavated glop.

“Wait a minute, ” I said. “First of all, we don’t know that this is Miss Crow or Miss Raven. It could just as easily be a picture of a regular crow. And if Golan was going to kill Miss Peregrine and Miss Avocet, why would he go to all the trouble of kidnapping them? If he wanted them dead, they’d be dead already. ” I turned to Emma. “And if we hadn’t left, we’d be locked in the basement with everybody else, and there’d still be a hollowgast wandering around! ”

“Don’t try to make me feel better! ” she said. “It’s your fault this is happening! ”

“Ten minutes ago you said you were glad! ”

“Ten minutes ago Miss Peregrine wasn’t kidnapped! ”

“Will you stop! ” said Hugh. “All that matters now is that the Bird’s gone and we’ve got to get her back! ”

“Fine, ” I said, “so let’s think. If you were a wight, where would you take a couple of kidnapped ymbrynes? ”

“Depends on what’s to be done with ’em, ” Enoch said. “And that, we don’t know. ”

“You’d have to get them off the island first, ” Emma said. “So you’d need a boat. ”

“But which island? ” asked Hugh. “In the loop or out of it? ”

“The outside’s getting torn apart by a storm, ” I said. “Nobody’s getting far in a boat over there. ”

“Then he’s got to be on our side, ” Emma said, beginning to sound hopeful. “So what are we larking about here for? Let’s get to the docks! ”

“Maybe he’s at the docks, ” Enoch said. “That is, if he ain’t gone yet. And even if he ain’t and we somehow manage to find him in all this dark, and without getting holes ripped through our guts by shrapnel on the way, there’s still his gun to worry about. Have you all gone mad? Would you rather have the Bird kidnapped—or shot right in front of us? ”

“Fine, then! ” Hugh shouted. “Let’s just give up and go home then, shall we? Who’d like a nice hot cup of tea before bed? Hell, as long as the Bird ain’t around, make it a toddy! ” He was crying, wiping angrily at his eyes. “How can you not even try, after all she’s done for us? ”

Before Enoch could answer, we heard a voice calling us from the path. Hugh stepped forward, squinting, and after a moment his face went strange. “It’s Fiona, ” he said. Before that moment I’d never heard Fiona utter so much as a peep. It was impossible to make out what she was saying over the sound of planes and distant concussions, so we took off running across the bog.

When we got to the path, we were breathing hard and Fiona was hoarse from shouting, her eyes as wild as her hair. Immediately she began to pull at us, to drag and push us down the path toward town, yelling so frantically in her thick Irish accent that none of us could understand. Hugh caught her by the shoulders and told her to slow down.

She took a deep breath, shaking like a leaf, then pointed behind her. “Millard followed him! ” she said. “He was hiding when the man shut us all in the basement, and when he lit out Millard followed! ”

“Where to? ” I said.

“He had a boat. ”

“See! ” cried Emma. “The docks! ”

“No, ” said Fiona, “it was your boat, Emma. The one you think nobody knows about, that you keep stowed on that wee strand of yours. He launched off with the cage and was just goin’ in circles, but then the tide got too rough, so he pulled onto the lighthouse rock, and that’s where he still is. ”

We made for the lighthouse in a dead run. When we reached the cliffs overlooking it, we found the rest of the children in a thick patch of sawgrass near the edge.

“Get down! ” Millard hissed.

We dropped to our knees and crawled over to them. They were crouched in a loose huddle behind the grass, taking turns peeking at the lighthouse. They looked shell-shocked—the younger ones especially—as if they hadn’t fully grasped the unfolding nightmare. That we’d just survived a nightmare of our own barely registered.

I crawled through the grass to the edge of the cliff and peered out. Past where the shipwreck lay submerged I could see Emma’s canoe tied to the rocks. Golan and the ymbrynes were out of sight.

“What’s he doing out there? ” I said.

“It’s anyone’s guess, ” Millard answered. “Waiting for someone to pick him up, or for the tide to settle so he can row out. ”

“In my little boat? ” Emma said doubtfully.

“As I said, we don’t know. ”

Three deafening cracks sounded in quick succession, and we all ducked as the sky flashed orange.

“Do any bombs fall ’round here, Millard? ” asked Emma.

“My research concerns only the behavior of humans and animals, ” he replied. “Not bombs. ”

“Fat lot of good that does us now, ” said Enoch.

“Do you have any more boats hidden around here? ” I asked Emma.

“I’m afraid not, ” she said. “We’ll just have to swim across. ”

“Swim across and what? ” said Millard. “Get shot to pieces? ”

“We’ll figure something out, ” she replied.

Millard sighed. “Oh, lovely. Improvised suicide. ”

“Well? ” Emma looked at each of us. “Does anyone have a better idea? ”

“If I had my soldiers …” Enoch began.

“They’d fall to bits in the water, ” said Millard.

Enoch hung his head. The others were quiet.

“Then it’s decided, ” said Emma. “Who’s in? ”

I raised my hand. So did Bronwyn. “You’ll need someone the wight can’t see, ” Millard said. “Take me along, if you must. ”

“Four’s enough, ” Emma said. “Hope you’re all strong swimmers. ”

There was no time for second thoughts or long goodbyes. The others wished us luck, and we were on our way.

We shed our black coats and loped through the grass, doubled-over like commandos, until we came to the path that led to the beach. We slid down on our behinds, little avalanches of sand pouring around our feet and down our pants.

Suddenly, there was a noise like fifty chainsaws over our heads, and we ducked as a plane roared by, the wind whipping our hair and blowing up a sandstorm. I clenched my teeth, waiting for a bomb blast to tear us apart. None came.

We kept moving. When we hit the beach, Emma gathered us in a tight huddle.

“There’s a shipwreck between here and the lighthouse, ” she said. “Follow me out to it. Stay low in the water. Don’t let him see you. When we reach the wreck, we’ll look for our man and decide what’s next. ”

“Let’s get our ymbrynes back, ” Bronwyn said.

We crawled down to the surf and slid into the cold water on our bellies. It was easy going at first, but the farther we swam from shore, the more the current tried to push us back. Another plane buzzed overhead, kicking up a stinging spray of water.

We were breathing hard by the time we reached the shipwreck. Clinging to its rusted hull, just our heads poking out of the water, we stared at the lighthouse and the barren little island that anchored it, but saw no sign of my wayward therapist. A full moon hovered low in the sky, breaking through reefs of bomb smoke now and then to shine like the lighthouse’s ghostly double.

We pushed ourselves along the wreck until we reached the end, just a fifty-yard swim in open water to the lighthouse rocks.

“Here’s what I reckon we should do, ” Emma said. “He’s seen how strong Wyn is, so she’s in the most danger. Jacob and I find Golan and get his attention while Wyn sneaks up from behind and gives him a belter over the head. Meantime, Millard makes a grab for the birdcage. Any objections? ”

As if in answer, a shot rang out. At first we didn’t realize what it was—it didn’t sound like the gunshots we’d been hearing, distant and powerful. This was small caliber—a pop rather than a bang —and it wasn’t until we heard a second one, accompanied by a nearby splash, that we knew it was Golan.

“Fall back! ” Emma shouted, and we stood out of the water and sprinted across the hull until it dropped out from beneath us, then dove into the open water beyond it. A moment later we all came up in a cluster, panting for air.

“So much for getting the drop on him! ” Millard said.

Golan had stopped shooting, but we could see him standing guard by the lighthouse door, gun in hand.

“He may be an evil bastard, but he ain’t stupid, ” Bronwyn said. “He knew we’d come after him. ”

“Not now we can’t! ” Emma said, slapping the water. “He’ll shoot us to bits! ”

Millard stepped up onto the wreck. “He can’t shoot what he can’t see. I’ll go. ”

“You’re not invisible in the ocean, dummy, ” Emma said, and it was true—a torso-shaped negative space bobbed in the water where he stood.

“More than you are, ” he replied. “Anyhow, I followed him all the way across the island and he was none the wiser. I think I can manage a few hundred meters more. ”

It was difficult to argue, since our only remaining options were either giving up or running into a hail of gunfire.

“Fine, ” Emma said. “If you really think you can make it. ”

“Someone’s got to be the hero, ” he replied, and walked off across the hull.

“Famous last words, ” I muttered.

In the smoky distance, I saw Golan in the lighthouse doorway kneel down and take aim, leveling his arm across a railing.

“Look out! ” I shouted, but it was too late.

A shot rang out. Millard screamed.

We all clambered onto the wreck and raced toward him. I felt absolutely certain I was about to be shot, and for a moment I thought the splashes of our feet in the water were bullets raining down on us. But then the shooting stopped—reloading, I thought—and we had a brief window of time.

Millard was kneeling in the water, dazed, blood running down his torso. For the first time I could see the true shape of his body, painted red.

Emma took him by the arm. “Millard! Are you all right? Say something! ”

“I must apologize, ” he said. “It seems I’ve gone and gotten myself shot. ”

“We have to stop the bleeding! ” said Emma. “We’ve got to take him back to shore! ”

“Nonsense, ” Millard said. “That man will never let you get this close to him again. Turn back now, and we’ll certainly lose Miss Peregrine. ”

More shots rang out. I felt a bullet zip past my ear.

“This way! ” Emma shouted. “Dive! ”

I didn’t know what she meant at first—we were a hundred feet from the end of the wreck—but then I saw what she was running toward. It was the black hole in the hull, the door to the cargo hold.

Bronwyn and I lifted Millard and ran after her. Metal slugs clanged into the hull around us. It sounded like someone kicking a trash can.

“Hold your breath, ” I told Millard, and we came to the hold and dove in feet-first.

We pulled ourselves down the ladder a few rungs and hung there. I tried to keep my eyes open but the saltwater stung too much. I could taste Millard’s blood in the water.

Emma handed me the breathing tube, and we passed it among us. I was winded from running, and the single breath it allowed me every few seconds wasn’t enough. My lungs hurt, and I began to feel light-headed.

Someone tugged at my shirt. Come up. I pulled myself slowly up the ladder, and then Bronwyn, Emma and I broke the surface just enough to breathe and talk while Millard stayed safe a few feet below, the tube all to himself.

We spoke in whispers and kept our eyes on the lighthouse.

“We can’t stay here, ” Emma said. “Millard will bleed to death. ”

“It could take twenty minutes to get him back to shore, ” I said. “He could just as easily die on the way. ”

“I don’t know what else to do! ”

“The lighthouse is close, ” Bronwyn said. “We’ll take him there. ”

“Then Golan will make us all bleed to death! ” I said.

“No, he won’t, ” replied Bronwyn.

“Why not? Are you bullet-proof? ”

“Maybe, ” Bronwyn replied mysteriously, then took a breath and disappeared down the ladder.

“What’s she talking about? ” I said.

Emma looked worried. “I haven’t a clue. But whatever it is, she’d better hurry. ” I looked down to see what Bronwyn was doing but instead caught a glimpse of Millard on the ladder below us, surrounded by curious flashlight fish. Then I felt the hull vibrate against my feet, and a moment later Bronwyn surfaced holding a rectangular piece of metal about six feet by four, with a riveted round hole in the top. She had wrenched the cargo hold’s door from its hinges.

“And what are you going to do with that? ” Emma said.

“Go to the lighthouse, ” she replied. Then she stood up and held the door in front of her.

“Wyn, he’ll shoot you! ” Emma cried, and then a shot rang out—and caromed right off the door.

“That’s amazing! ” I said. “It’s a shield! ”

Emma laughed. “Wyn, you’re a genius! ”

“Millard can ride my back, ” she said. “The rest of you, fall in behind. ”

Emma brought Millard out of the water and hung his arms around Bronwyn’s neck. “It’s magnificent down there, ” he said. “Emma, why did you never tell me about the angels? ”

“What angels? ”

“The lovely green angels who live just below. ” He was shivering, his voice dreamy. “They kindly offered to take me to heaven. ”

“No one’s going to heaven just yet, ” Emma said, looking worried. “You just hang on to Bronwyn, all right? ”

“Very well, ” he said vacantly.

Emma stood behind Millard, pressing him into Bronwyn’s back so he wouldn’t slide off. I stood behind Emma, taking up the rear of our strange little conga line, and we began to plod forward across the wreck toward the lighthouse.

We were a big target, and right away Golan began to empty his gun at us. The sound of his bullets bouncing off the door was deafening—but somehow reassuring—but after about a dozen shots he stopped. I wasn’t optimistic enough to think he’d run out of bullets, though.

Reaching the end of the wreck, Bronwyn guided us carefully into open water, always keeping the massive door held out in front of us. Our conga line became a chain of dog-paddlers swimming in a knot behind her. Emma talked to Millard as we paddled, making him answer questions so he wouldn’t drift into unconsciousness.

“Millard! Who’s the prime minister? ”

“Winston Churchhill, ” he said. “Have you gone daft? ”

“What’s the capital of Burma? ”

“Lord, I’ve no idea. Rangoon. ”

“Good! When’s your birthday? ”

“Will you quit shouting and let me bleed in peace! ”

It didn’t take long to cross the short distance between the wreck and the lighthouse. As Bronwyn shouldered our shield and climbed onto the rocks, Golan fired a few more shots, and their impact threw her off balance. As we cowered behind her, she wobbled and nearly slipped backward off the rocks, which between her weight and the door’s would’ve crushed us all. Emma planted her hands on the small of Bronwyn’s back and pushed, and finally both Bronwyn and the door tottered forward onto dry land. We scrambled after her in a pack, shivering in the crisp night air.

Fifty yards across at its widest, the lighthouse rocks were technically a tiny island. At the lighthouse’s rusted base were a dozen stone steps leading to an open door, where Golan stood with his pistol aimed squarely in our direction.

I risked a peek through the porthole. He held a small cage in one hand, and inside were two flapping birds mashed so close together I could hardly tell one from the other.

A shot whizzed past and I ducked.

“Come any closer and I’ll shoot them both! ” Golan shouted, rattling the cage.

“He’s lying, ” I said. “He needs them. ”

“You don’t know that, ” said Emma. “He’s a madman, after all. ”

“Well we can’t just do nothing. ”

“Rush him! ” Bronwyn said. “He won’t know what to do. But if it’s going to work we’ve got to go NOW! ”

And before we had a chance to weigh in, Bronwyn was running toward the lighthouse. We had no choice but to follow—she was carrying our protection, after all—and a moment later bullets were clanging against the door and chipping at the rocks around our feet.

It was like hanging from the back of a speeding train. Bronwyn was terrifying: She bellowed like a barbarian, the veins in her neck bulging, with Millard’s blood smeared all over her arms and back. I was very glad, in that moment, not to be on the other side of the door.

As we neared the lighthouse, Bronwyn shouted, “Get behind the wall! ” Emma and I grabbed Millard and cut left to take cover behind the far side of the lighthouse. As we ran, I saw Bronwyn lift the door above her head and hurl it toward Golan.

There was a thunderous crash quickly followed by a scream, and moments later Bronwyn joined us behind the wall, flushed and panting.

“I think I hit him! ” she said excitedly.

“What about the birds? ” Emma said. “Did you even think about them? ”

“He dropped ’em. They’re fine. ”

“Well, you might’ve asked us before you went berserk and risked all our lives! ” Emma cried.

“Quiet, ” I hissed. We heard the faint sound of creaking metal. “What is that? ”

“He’s climbing the stairs, ” Emma replied.

“You’d better get after him, ” croaked Millard. We looked at him, surprised. He was slumped against the wall.

“Not before we take care of you, ” I said. “Who knows how to make a tourniquet? ”

Bronwyn reached down and tore the leg of her pants. “I do, ” she said. “I’ll stop his bleeding; you get the wight. I knocked him pretty good, but not good enough. Don’t give him a chance to get his wind back. ”

I turned to Emma. “You up for this? ”

“If it means I get to melt that wight’s face off, ” she said, little arcs of flame pulsing between her hands, “then absolutely. ”

* * *

Emma and I clambered over the ship’s door, which lay bent on the steps where it had landed, and entered the lighthouse. The building consisted mainly of one narrow and profoundly vertical room—a giant stairwell, essentially—dominated by a skeletal staircase that corkscrewed from the floor to a stone landing, more than a hundred feet up. We could hear Golan’s footsteps as he bounded up the stairs, but it was too dark to tell how far he was from the top.

“Can you see him? ” I said, peering up the stairwell’s dizzying height.

My answer was a gunshot ricocheting off a wall nearby, followed by another that slammed into the floor at my feet. I jumped back, heart hammering.

“Over here! ” Emma cried. She grabbed my arm and pulled me farther inside, to the one place Golan’s gunshots couldn’t reach us—directly under the stairs.

We climbed a few steps, which were already swaying like a boat in bad weather. “These are frightful! ” Emma exclaimed, her fingers white-knuckled as they gripped the rail. “Even if we make it to the top without falling, he’ll only shoot us! ”

“If we can’t go up, ” I said, “maybe we can bring him down. ” I began to rock back and forth where I stood, yanking on the railing and stomping my feet, sending shockwaves up the stairs. Emma looked at me like I was nuts for a second, but then got the idea and began to stomp and sway along with me. Pretty soon the staircase was rocking like crazy.

“What if the whole thing comes down? ” Emma shouted.

“Let’s hope it doesn’t! ”

We shook harder. Screws and bolts began to rain down. The rail was lurching so violently, I could hardly keep hold of it. I heard Golan scream a spectacular array of curses, and then something clattered down the stairs, landing nearby.

The first thing I thought was, Oh God, what if that was the birdcage —and I dashed down the stairs past Emma and ran out on the floor to check.

“What are you doing?! ” Emma shouted. “He’ll shoot you! ”

“No, he won’t! ” I said, holding up Golan’s handgun in triumph. It felt warm from all the firing he’d done and heavy in my hand, and I had no idea if it still had bullets or even how, in the near darkness, to check. I tried in vain to remember something useful from the few shooting lessons Grandpa had been allowed to give me, but finally I just ran back up the steps to Emma.

“He’s trapped at the top, ” I said. “We’ve got to take it slow, try to reason with him, or who knows what he’ll do to the birds. ”

“I’ll reason him right over the side, ” Emma replied through her teeth.

We began to climb. The staircase swayed terribly and was so narrow that we could only proceed in single-file, crouching so our heads wouldn’t hit the steps above. I prayed that none of the fasteners we’d shaken loose had secured anything crucial.

We slowed as we neared the top. I didn’t dare look down; there were only my feet on the steps, my hand sliding along the shivering rail and my other hand holding the gun. Nothing else existed.

I steeled myself for a surprise attack, but none came. The stairs ended at an opening in the stone landing above our heads, through which I could feel the snapping chill of night air and hear the whistle of wind. I stuck the gun through, followed by my head. I was tense and ready to fight, but I didn’t see Golan. On one side of me spun the massive light, housed behind thick glass—this close it was blinding, forcing me to shut my eyes as it swung past—and on the other side was a spindly rail. Beyond that was a void: ten stories of empty air and then rocks and churning sea.

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