Jerren had already caught up to me. “Right hand up a little,” he whispered. “Left foot too.”
When I pulled up now, I could just get the fingertips of my left hand over the edge. One more foot adjustment and I heaved myself over the wall. Jerren followed right behind me, but not before a series of shouts from below made it clear that he’d been spotted.
“This way,” he said, pointing toward the battery. “We’ll take the same route as earlier.”
“Wait!” There was something on the battlement just in front of us. It was so dark that I could barely make it out.
Then it squeaked. Straightaway, there was an answering squeak from another rat. I didn’t stop to see how many of them there were coming toward us, I just ran back in the other direction.
“Keep low,” said Jerren. “Stop when we’re directly over the main gate.”
I did as he said. When we reached the main gate, guards were filing out of the fort directly below us. They stayed in pairs, one with a gun and the other with a torch. Every single pair headed toward the battlements where we’d climbed the wall only moments before.
“Just keep going north,” whispered Jerren. “They’re all looking at the south wall. It’s our only chance.”
Again, we kept low and sprinted. My entire body ached, but I kept going until we were circling around to the esplanade. There we paused in the shadow of the bank where Rose and I had hid that same morning.
The armed guards who weren’t searching for us had formed a tight perimeter around the other Sumter colonists. Men, women, and children sat huddled beside the monument, large eyes peering out into the darkness, fearing the worst. Rain drummed against the ground as the siren split the air.
Dennis and his mother were in the crowd too. While everyone else kept their focus on the familiar sight of the fort grounds, Dennis stared in our direction. I hoped he had seen us, but there wasn’t even a flicker of recognition.
“Why don’t they make a run for it?” Jerren asked. “Everyone’s too busy to notice.”
I glanced over my shoulder. In the distance, the ship had moved farther still to the east. The foresail had been lowered. Had everyone from the cutter made it on board? If not, who was sailing it?
Tentatively I raised my hand, hoping to get Dennis’s attention. His eyes shifted toward me and he blinked. Slowly, he raised a hand in response. Then he tilted his head toward his mother and shook his head from left to right.
“I don’t get it,” said Jerren. “What’s he saying?”
I felt my entire body deflate. “She doesn’t want to come,” I mumbled.
“What?”
“She told us this morning that she was with this colony now, not us.” I punched the ground. “Chief didn’t separate her from the others . . . she chose to stay.”
Just then, Dennis’s mother turned her head and noticed the ship sailing away. I held my breath as she narrowed her eyes, deep in thought. Maybe she would change her mind. There was still time.
Instead she looked away again. She’d made a decision and she would stick by it.
Only, I couldn’t let her do that. Not for Rose’s sake. Or for Dennis’s.
“We have to do something,” I said. “The ship is leaving.”
Jerren bowed his head and said nothing.
“Did you hear me?”
“What do you want me to say? It’ll be suicide to rescue them.”
“It was almost murder to leave Rose with Kell, but that didn’t stop you.”
“Hey, I’m here with you now.” He clenched his fists and stared ahead. He was breathing fast. “Look, I’m sorry for that. I was wrong. And whatever happens from now on, I want you to forgive me.”
I met his eyes. There was fear in them. “Forgive you for what?”
“Just . . . please.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me out into the open to get the attention of the guards.
He was double-crossing me. I couldn’t believe it. Not after everything we’d been through.
As the guards reached for their guns, he pulled me down so that we were kneeling. Then he raised his free hand and turned it around like he was sculpting the air. I wanted to run away, but his grip on me was painfully tight.
There was something else too: a strange feeling, as if he was trying to feel my power. Or wanted me to channel energy through him.
I was so shocked, I couldn’t react. But then calmness swept over me and I knew what to do. I focused all my energy on his hand twisting above us. I studied the way his fingers moved so deliberately. Then came the sound of the siren—piercing, deafening—as if he’d collected its energy and focused it just on us.
As suddenly as it had started, it was over. The sound that had been inside my head and pulsating through my body disappeared so completely that the silence that replaced it felt unreal. Not total silence, though. It was like we were caught in a bubble, where the ocean could be heard again, and even the cries of the men from below. Everything except the siren.
Now something was happening to the men advancing on us. They dropped their weapons and pressed their hands against their ears, lips pulled back, teeth gritted. And when that wasn’t enough, they staggered backward, tripping in their haste to escape. Children were screaming at the intensity of the sound—the siren, I guessed. Nothing would make it stop.
I was already growing weak. Surely Jerren wouldn’t be able to keep it going much longer. I looked over my shoulder, hoping against hope that there was somewhere left to run, but we’d trapped ourselves on the esplanade.
Marin and Dennis still wouldn’t leave the group, but they were on the edge of it now. The group was leaving them.
Jerren moved his hand again and something shifted. It was like he was diverting the sound away from Marin and Dennis. While everyone else cried out from the noise, they clearly weren’t affected. They may have considered themselves part of this new colony, but now they stood out entirely.
The Sumter colonists were retreating. One lunged at Dennis, probably hoping to hold him hostage until Jerren stopped. But Dennis wormed free, and the man jammed his hands against his ears again. A couple tried to edge toward Marin, but one look at their furious expressions and she stepped away. And with that small gesture, her new life on Sumter was over. At best, she and Dennis would be shunned; at worse, killed.
Marin grasped Dennis’s hand and strode toward us. She wouldn’t look at me, but I didn’t care. We weren’t doing this for her.
Jerren was shaking from the stress. His control was weakening—I could see it in the way that the men on the perimeter of the group were able to break free, tearing their hands away from their ears. They looked at the guns lying a few yards away.
The wind was strong and seemed to be nudging us toward the edge of the esplanade. I didn’t want to be forced that way, but there was nowhere else to go. Below us, the harbor churned, throwing waves against the boulders at the base of the wall. Even worse, the ship was to the northeast now. It was sailing away from us. Stranding us.
But then I spied another boat—a catamaran. I didn’t need to see Alice to know that she was sailing it. She was almost flying, and when she turned about, the sail dipped so low, I was sure she’d capsize. Instead she threw her weight backward, stabilizing the craft.
“Can’t . . . hold,” muttered Jerren, panting.
Could Alice see this from the boat? Did she have any idea that Jerren was an elemental too?
As Marin and Dennis reached us, I struggled to take stock of the situation. My mind was as sluggish as my body. I remembered that the pipe I’d swum through had been fully submerged, so it must have been high tide. That meant we’d have deeper water to jump into, as long as we cleared the rocks.