Arada slid the lever all the way to the right. She took the seat intended for steering, letting her legs dangle into the designated hollow.

  "Are you sure we'll survive this speed?" Irgos asked, sounding worried.

  "We have to," she replied dryly, nodding at the situation behind them. "If we want to stay away from them, at least."

  Behind them, a group of three or four of Culex's henchmen had mounted a hydrohover. It had reached the same height as theirs and was slowly flying in their direction.

  The vehicle was now moving so fast that Arada had to hold onto the wheel to avoid falling off.

  "The straps," Irgos shouted, clutching the hover's railing. His brown, spiky hair fpped wildly in the wind. "Aplin said something about straps. That we should use them to secure ourselves."

  Arada looked around. Small bits of bck leather were sewn into the seat on either side. Arada pulled on one with a hand, and it rose from the frame.

  Aha. So that's what these are for.

  Arada pulled the strap across her p and clicked it into the slot in the center of the hover. Irgos saw what she did, and did the same in reverse.

  It seemed the hover was built for two people.

  Arada felt her long hair whipping behind her in the rush of the vehicle. She knew she'd enjoy the thrill if Aplin hadn't just...

  Don't look back. Keep going.

  The hydrohover was now picking up full speed. Waves blurred by, and the river became one continuous streak. In the distance, the shores stretched out on both sides. To the left, the st glimpse of Ebrotown showed they were leaving it behind. The misty grassnds took over.

  And to the right...

  Arada could hardly believe her eyes.

  The right shore was barely a shore at all—a mix of nd and water. Clumps of sand rose between the water, or maybe they were water pools on a gigantic beach? It was hard to tell.

  Has the flood ruined the river that much?

  Irgos pointed to the right. "Try following along here," he shouted over the hum of the hydrohover. "This was supposed to be the mainnd with Aquinox on it, right?"

  Good point.

  She steered slightly to the right, keeping the hover near the edge.

  In her peripheral vision, she saw Irgos looking back.

  "Uh..." he began. "There are two of them."

  "What?"

  Arada gnced over her shoulder.

  In the distance, there weren't just one, but two hydrohovers following them—each with two people in strange clothing, closed eyes and bald heads. One had just left the bridge, but the other was already well on its way.

  "Ah, I get it," Arada said. "They've split up on two of those boats. But why are they so fast? Don't all these things go the same speed?"

  Irgos also noticed the gap between them shrinking. "Can't you go faster?" he yelled. "They might catch up to us!"

  "I'd love to if you know how," she yelled back, panicking. But the lever wouldn't go any further right. This was the fastest they could.

  The two pursuers were now so close they could feel their hot breath on their necks.

  Suddenly, Arada had an idea.

  "You steer," she shouted at her brother. "I'll handle them."

  Irgos looked at her in confusion.

  "Trust me."

  Without further question, he grabbed the steering wheel. Arada slid aside so her brother could reach it.

  She turned around on the seat and grabbed the crossbow from her back. She counted the arrows in the quiver.

  Six. No time to waste.

  The ndscape beside the river was changing. Gradually, the pitted beach disappeared, repced by forests. But at their high speed, Arada and Irgos saw it as one green blur streaked with brown.

  She loaded an arrow, positioning the tail near her shoulder. She aimed at the approaching vehicle behind them. The swaying made it difficult to keep the crossbow steady. She focused on her breathing, keeping her arms as steady as possible.

  As the second vehicle came within shooting range, she closed one eye.

  First the driver.

  She focused on the right follower. They seemed unaware of the danger.

  "Now!"

  When the arrow tip aligned with their chest, she released the trigger. The arrow whizzed through the air but bounced off the front of the pursuing vehicle.

  "Of course," she muttered to herself. "Our speed lowers the arrow's path."

  The pursuers heard it too and reacted as if waking from a nap—though they didn't open their eyes. Carefully, the driver made the vehicle sway irregurly from left to right.

  With that weaving, it'll be harder to aim.

  She loaded a second arrow, aiming slightly higher this time. Her eyes followed the hover's dodging pattern.

  Left, right, left, right, and—

  Just as the hover swung back to center, she fired. Right when the crossbow and driver were aligned, the arrow pierced the driver's throat. He released the wheel, falling aside in a spray of blood. His head hit the vehicle's edge, preventing him from falling into the water.

  Immediately, the second driver took the wheel, weaving like the st to dodge her arrows.

  I've got you figured out, fools. Try something original.

  She aimed again, waiting until her crossbow aligned with the vehicle's path. When she fired, the arrow struck the second driver square in the chest. He fell backward, and soon after, he was dead.

  "That's how it's done," she yelled triumphantly to herself. She slung the crossbow back and turned around, taking the wheel from Irgos again.

  He turned, watching the now-driverless vehicle floating behind them.

  "Uh... if no one's steering that thing..." he yelled over the noise, "how are we—"

  "Leave it to me," she interrupted.

  She veered the vehicle slightly to the left, still following the shore.

  This should give enough space.

  The steerless hydrohover continued straight toward them. They watched as it passed by on the right. The two followers y motionless on the deck.

  But without anyone holding the wheel, there was a subtle drift in its movement. The steerless vehicle veered closer to the forest edge, hurtling directly toward an old, thick beech tree.

  The hover exploded in a ball of smoke and fire. They didn't have time to admire the explosion—their vehicle was now moving so fast that they immediately sped past the charred beech.

  Good riddance.

  Irgos looked back, staring at the spot where the two followers had met their end. A yellow cloud hung in the air, with smoke drifting over the river, blocking their view behind them.

  "I can't see the second hover," he shouted. "But they can't be far."

  Arada gripped the wheel tighter. "Let me know when you see them again. They'll meet my crossbow."

  Even though I only have three arrows left.

  She guided the hydrohover along the forest edge, which soon transitioned back to the pitted beach. This time, it was much rger than the beach at the river's start. Everywhere they looked were water pools.

  "Where are we even going?" Irgos asked after a while. "I mean... how much longer until—"

  He was interrupted by a loud clunk.

  "NO!"

  Irgos was startled by her shout. The reason was immediately clear.

  The steering wheel she was holding was no longer attached to the frame. It had suddenly broken, leaving a gaping hole behind in the frame.

  This can't be happening.

  The vehicle continued at top speed in a perfect straight line. But since the shore curved right, they drifted further and further into open water.

  "What..." Irgos began. His mouth dropped open, fear evident in his eyes.

  "This thing must be way too old," Arada yelled, recalling what Aplin had said about the hovers. "They don't work optimally anymore."

  An uncomfortable silence fell.

  "That also expins why their hover was faster than ours," he reasoned. "They must all be far below their original condition. So, some perform better than others."

  Arada gnced over her shoulder.

  Speak of the devil.

  She sighed—a sound drowned out by the roar of the hover—as a second white speck appeared in the distance, approaching fast.

  "This was a mistake," Irgos shouted, panicked. "A mistake to trust these things."

  Arada threw the useless wheel over the edge and grabbed her crossbow again. She kept a close eye on their new pursuers as they sped further and further from nd.

  Irgos had been staring straight ahead for a while.

  "Sis, what is that?"

  She turned and gasped at the looming structure ahead.

  It was a wall. A gigantic gray barrier stretched across the water. Thick, tall pilrs stood at regur intervals, with rge vertical ptes cmped between them. From a distance, it seemed to rise from the middle of the river, but soon they saw that two small hills poked above the water at its ends.

  "What is that?" Arada repeated, equally startled by its sudden appearance.

  To their left, a huge gap in the wall offered a glimpse of more water on the other side.

  Is that... the sea?

  "It looks like some sort of division in the water," Irgos shouted.

  "Is this what Aplin talked about? The 'storm surge barrier'?"

  "Wait," Irgos called, lost in thought, as he looked from the hover to the wall. "We're heading straight for it."

  Arada saw it too. And without a steering mechanism, there was nothing they could do.

  Behind them, the pursuers were closing in.

  Seriously? Their hover is also faster than ours.

  Then she noticed that their pursuers were right in their wake.

  In line... with the wall...

  Suddenly, she got it.

  She slid the speed lever slightly to the left. The hover immediately responded, slowing down.

  "What are you doing?" Irgos shouted. "They'll catch up to us."

  "Would you rather smash into the wall?"

  "No, but..."

  "See those pilrs? Next to them is a kind of ledge, a sort of ptform by the wall where we can jump."

  "What? Jump? But—"

  "We'll make our hover explode, just like the other one that hit the tree," she shouted above the noise. "Right before we hit the wall, we'll jump onto it."

  Irgos stared straight ahead, his forehead drenched in sweat.

  Arada checked behind them. The drop in speed had brought their pursuers within shooting distance. Arada resisted the urge to grab her crossbow. Her hands were cmmy, and she fought to control her fear.

  "Arada, the wall..." Irgos stammered as he realized they had almost no time left.

  "Try to count how long before we hit it." She pushed the lever back to full speed.

  Let's lure them in.

  "Fifteen," Irgos shouted. "Fourteen, thirteen..."

  Every second brought them closer to death. Arada looked back, gauging the effect of their speed change.

  Perfect.

  "Ten, nine..."

  The pursuing hover was still faster, closing in steadily, but not quickly enough. Their pursuers looked eager, poised to catch them.

  "Six, five..."

  Arada unbuckled her belt and grabbed the railing. Irgos did the same, standing beside her, his gaze fixed on the gray ptform where they needed to nd.

  "Three, two..."

  The pursuers were less than ten meters behind.

  "One—"

  "JUMP!" she shouted at the top of her lungs.

  As the hover shot past the pilr, Arada and Irgos released the railing. They pushed off with all their might.

  As they fell, their hover smashed into the wall and exploded. Hot air bsted against the back of their necks. The ground loomed closer, and they nded with a hard thud.

  A moment ter, a second explosion echoed. The pursuing hover hadn't had time to change course and was engulfed in the bst.

  Arada looked back through the smoke and saw two bald figures being thrown into the explosion.

  YES!

  She spotted a walkway on the ptform that ran alongside the pilr.

  "This way," she said more to herself than to Irgos. She grabbed his hand, pulling him to his feet and leading him away from the scorching heat.

  They followed the ptform as it curved around the pilr. Beyond it was an opening in the wall. It looked like a kind of tunnel.

  Behind her, she heard Irgos coughing up air.

  "A... ra... da," he sputtered.

  She stopped in the tunnel and turned around.

  "Are you okay?"

  Irgos kept coughing smoke. "There... There's another one coming."

  What? Another hover?

  She gritted her teeth. "Then we have to keep moving. NOW!"

  She squeezed his hand and pulled him along the tunnel, which curved to the right, leading to a metal staircase going down.

  One level lower, they found a new ptform spanning the inside of the wall. They saw more of the gigantic structure. The wall was filled with enormous wheels, with vines hanging from the ceiling and moss covering almost every surface. The wheels seemed to have once served a purpose, though they clearly hadn't been used in a long time.

  The interior was open to the outside. Through a gap in the wall, they could see the beginning of the sea. The wind hit them, momentarily sweeping away the tension of the hydrohover chase.

  The ptform turned into a walkway between two of the massive wheels. Arada marveled at the structure from the Old World.

  It must have taken years to build something like this.

  They sprinted along the ptform past the giant wheels, but the path soon came to an end. Arada looked around frantically, but there was no other path in sight.

  "Now what?" Irgos asked. "Do we have to go back?"

  Arada noticed something floating in the water below.

  A boat!

  She grabbed the railing for a better look. The edge of the ptform had handles that acted like a dder going down.

  "This way," she said, starting down the rungs. Irgos followed her.

  At the bottom, they found a new metal ptform just above the water. From here, the wheels loomed even rger and more imposing. Next to the ptform, a small wooden boat floated, connected to the ptform with a single rope. "No time to lose," Arada panted. "We need to get out of here before the third guys find us."

  Irgos jumped into the boat, and Arada followed. As she picked up the oar, he untied the rope. But as soon as the boat was free from the ptform, they heard a click.

  Slowly, the boat began to hum and started moving.

  Arada saw that Irgos had accidentally stepped on a sort of lever on a metal block in the back, which had slid down under his weight.

  Irgos lost his bance at the sudden speed and wobbled.

  "Whoa! Apparently, this boat has some kind of growler in it, too."

  He caught himself on the edge of the boat and stayed onboard. The boat picked up speed, tearing across the water much faster than they could have managed with a wooden oar.

  Arada watched the foaming wake trailing behind them. "This boat must have been left from the Old World," she deduced. "It's amazing it still works."

  A famir roar caught their attention. Arada turned around, facing the enormous barrier they were now leaving behind. Through the same gap in the structure they'd noticed before, she could see movement. She could barely believe her eyes.

  "A third hover," she shouted.

  She now remembered that there were a total of four hydrohovers by the bridge. They had taken the first. The second and third were for Culex's henchmen. And this one…

  Irgos saw it too. "It's only one person," he said as the vehicle quickly closed in, coming close enough to be clearly seen. "And he's not bald…"

  "That leaves only one option," Arada shivered, not needing to say the name as she fully recognized their enemy.

  For the umpteenth time, Arada felt that fear of death welling up within her. Her nerves felt like they were about to explode.

  "Can't this thing go any faster?" She reached for the handle of the metal block that Irgos had accidentally discovered. But they were already at maximum speed.

  Helpless, they watched as the hydrohover with the single driver approached them. His dark curls whipped menacingly behind him. His high cheekbones projected hatred like arrows, making him even more terrifying.

  "To think he would go this far to chase us here…" Arada moaned, realizing there was nothing they could do about their situation.

  "…this is what you get for running away from me!" a furious voice shouted through the wind.

  Culex's eyes were more wrathful than ever. His sadistic, sneering expression had been repced by a burning rage.

  Arada tried to think of a way out.

  Is there something we can use to escape? To get away from the hover?

  Culex's vehicle slowed down, and he prepared to jump onto their boat. His bck clothes stood out like a death warrant against the golden morning sun.

  "You WON'T escape me now!" he growled over the water.

  Is there a weakness in the hovers? Something we missed?

  She looked over at her brother, but Irgos sat with his head bowed, staring hopelessly ahead. He seemed to have given up, just as Aplin had when he'd seen his friend fall into the Ebros.

  "Time to FACE YOUR END!" growled the incarnation of death. Within moments, Culex's vehicle would be close enough. The speed of their boat was no match for the modern devices of the Old World.

  In a fsh, fragments of Aplin's voice echoed through her mind.

  Make sure the magnetic belts don't get too close to each other…

  A hydrohover is like a flying boat... The underside has an electromagnet that works just like our magnetic belts…

  Suddenly, she had it.

  The magnets. They repel each other.

  "Here I come," Culex shouted. He prepared to jump.

  In one motion, Arada removed her magnetic band from her waist, and, while turning it on, she tossed it right onto Culex's hydrohover, which was just behind their boat.

  The magnet hovered in the air for a moment, then was drawn to the vehicle's frame.

  The hum of his vehicle distorted and grew quieter. Just as Culex was about to leap, they heard a loud bang from the inside, and it instantly lost all speed.

  Their enemy stared in shock at his vehicle, which had suddenly crashed. With a spsh, it fell onto the water.

  Arada watched with both immense relief and surprise that her pn had worked. Irgos, too, stared wide-eyed at the spectacle.

  Culex's eyes turned back to their boat, which was quickly pulling away from the total-loss hydrohover bobbing on the water. His eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. His vampiric white skin flushed red, and he clenched his fists as big as the wheels in the barrier they had just passed.

  "NO ONE ESCAPES ME. NO ONE!"

  It was the first time Culex couldn't get his way. They had never seen him this angry.

  "I KNOW WHERE YOU'RE GOING," he continued, pointing angrily at them. "I WILL BE WAITING FOR YOU… IN AQUINOX!"

  He spewed more threats, which gradually faded as they sailed further out into sea. Arada and Irgos kept the boat steadily on course, only looking back to ensure no one was still following them.