Tim Lebbon - Echo city

Good, Nophel thought. That might give us a chance. But behind them lay two domes to cross and then the journey back through the Echo to the outside. And once the Dragarians realized where their god was heading, they would do everything they could to hold him back.

And maybe he won't want to leave. Nophel had not considered that. Probably none of them had. But once he managed to speak to Rufus-talk about their mother-he was sure the Bonelands man would be on his side.

They did not stop when they reached Nophel, and he followed on behind, glancing back at the chattering Dragarians.

"Move faster," he said. "This won't last long." And he was right. The observers who had only watched as their god levitated before them were leaving the crowd now, following slowly in their path. One of them had fine wings tucked around his arms and hips, another wore scaled skin, a third scurried through the grass, head raised and tongue flickering like a lizard's. These were the doubters, unafraid and questioning, and they would be the most dangerous. The devout would be too amazed.

"Run," Nophel said. "That's all we can do. Fighting won't be an option."

"We need to speak to him," Alexia said. She was still pressing her knife to Rufus's back, but running like that was awkward, and as soon as she lost contact he might start to struggle.

"Not yet," Nophel said. "We have to get completely lost first."

"I can't leave," Rufus said into thin air, but none of them could reply.

They ran silently for a while, breathing hard, and Rufus did not struggle. He sat motionless on the men's shoulders, looking straight ahead, neither helping nor hindering them in their flight.

Nophel kept to the rear, knife drawn. If it came to combat he would be lost, he knew that. And he was here for himself. If things went so wrong, he would flee alone, and perhaps later he would still be able to find the Baker on his own.

As they approached the huge arch leading into the cultivated dome, Alexia said, "By all the gods, how stupid we've been!"

"What?" Nophel asked. They were being followed by at least twenty Dragarians, and at present they were keeping a respectful distance, easily maintaining pace with the Unseen. If the time came when they decided to close in-even attack-there would be no easy escape.

"Your blood," Alexia said. "Or even ours. The White Water in yours made us able to return to the world. But we all have Blue Water in our blood, and-"

"Yes!" Nophel said, cursing himself for not thinking of that. "And because he won't even see it-"

"-it'll be easy to make him drink it," Alexia finished for him.

"But we have to get him out of sight first, somewhere we can stop and do it."

"I have an idea," she said. "Here, take my knife, keep watch, and do it as soon as you can."

Why me again? Nophel thought, scratching at the wound on his arm. But Alexia's Scarlet Blade training was already taking over. She threw him the knife as she ran past him toward the following Dragarians, and the two men carrying Rufus hardly broke pace. Nophel closed his eyes and plucked at the wound with the knife, and it did not take much to start the blood flowing again.

They passed beneath the arch and entered the huge green dome. Smells changed from the tang of water to the perfumes of plants and blooms, and the short grasses around their feet changed to a long, rough crop.

"Keep running," Nophel said, and he paused and turned around.

Alexia stood just downhill from the arch, silhouetted against sunlight reflecting from the wide lake, and something about her outline was changing. There was a shimmer to her, as though she vibrated against reality. And then the Dragarians rushing up the slope stopped and stared.

Alexia ran at them with her short sword drawn. She was screaming-a murderous wail that set Nophel's skin tingling-swirling the sword around her head, and uttering promises of pain in those unintelligible words.

Some of the Dragarians turned and fled this vision they had witnessed emerging from nowhere. One of them took to the air. It was a clumsy take-off, and his left wing caught on an item of clothing, pitching him heavily to the left. He emitted a cry not unlike one uttered by a rathawk and drifted low across the ground, the slope saving him from an ignominious landing. Another fell on all fours and loped back down toward the lake.

Three more picked up their pace and charged straight for Alexia.

"Not much time!" Nophel hissed. The two Unseen lowered Rufus to the ground, and while one of them grasped his arms to his sides, the other held his lower jaw and forced his mouth open. Rufus struggled, looking around wide-eyed and seeing nothing but green and the dome's roof. He must be petrified, Nophel thought, but there was no time for pity. He paused for a moment, taking a good look at this other abandoned child for the first time, this person chopped and cast out by the bitch Baker. Then he squeezed blood from his wound into the man's mouth.

Rufus could not see the blood, but he surely tasted it, gagging and coughing. The tall man forced his mouth closed and he swallowed reflexively, blinking hard as his eyes started to water. Then, somewhere in his fluid vision, he started to see the Unseen.

"We're here to help you," Nophel said, hoping the man could hear him already.

Nophel heard the clash of metal on metal and spun around. Alexia was fighting two Dragarians, while a third held back. They were soldiers, evidently, their muscled arms heavy and long, and the swords they carried were twice the length of the woman's. But though she had been Unseen for some time, she still retained her Scarlet Blade training. Fighting was what she had been bred for since childhood.

The first Dragarian went down, clasping a vicious cut across his chest, blooding spewing between his fingers. The second faltered, and Alexia drove in with her sword. Its tip pierced his shoulder and she twisted, eliciting a cry of agony and terror from the man's many-toothed mouth.

Alexia backed away from the wounded men and faced the third soldier-a woman with four arms and a blade in each. She looked vicious, but her lower two arms seemed weaker than the others, and there were wet, open sores where they joined her body. Badly chopped, Nophel thought. Not as good as my mother.

Alexia darted at her, and the woman turned and fled.

As she ran toward them, Alexia phased back to Unseen. She staggered a little as she came, blinking rapidly as if fighting off a faint. It hurts her, Nophel thought. Maybe she was too far gone.

"Let's go," she said as she reached them.

"Are you well?" Nophel asked.

"Fine, but we need to go."

Rufus Kyuss was staring at them now, the tall Unseen's long arms still wrapped around him. Though still visible, the differences in Nophel's blood-the White Water and the Blue Water-had worked on the Dragarians' god. He now had the potential to be Unseen, should they instruct him in its use, as well as the ability to see them in whichever state they existed. "Who…?" he asked.

"Friends of Peer," Nophel said.

"Is she still with that Baker?" Rufus seethed, his hatred obvious, and Nophel felt his insides glow. He could not hold back a smile.

"Come with us," he said. "We've got plenty to talk about."

"I don't need rescuing," Rufus said. "They need me here."

"But this isn't all about you," Alexia said. "Come, or there'll be no Echo City left to take you to."

Rufus stood up straight and shook his head. "I belong here," I said. "Whoever you are, I can't leave with you. Rufus is not my name. My name-"

"Fuck this," Alexia said, and she struck Rufus across the back of the head. He fell, moaning, and rolled, and she hit him twice more before he grew still.

The two men picked up Rufus between them. Then they ran, crashing through the foliage, ducking beneath trees' low canopies, aiming for the other side of the dome and taking the most direct path they could. That Baker, Rufus had said. What did he know? Everything? Nophel kept looking at the mysterious man slung between the Unseen, and again he thought, He looks nothing like me.