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Pietro gave her a long, serious look and said, “That is exactly the question.”
Aussen, who had sat there silently this whole time, set her plate on the ground and stood up. “Are you going back to your friends?” Pietro asked. “You can stay here if you like.”
Jayla came to her feet, ready to escort Aussen through the camp. “I’ll help her find them. If she—”
Another rumble shook the ground and she dropped hurriedly back to her knees. But Cody had been right: This episode seemed less intense than the last two, almost half-hearted. As if the land was a snarling dog that had snapped at an unwelcome stranger, then continued to growl for the next few minutes just to show it wasn’t tame. “Well, that wasn’t so bad,” she said cautiously.
Halfway across the camp, there was a sizzle and an explosion, followed by a hysterical scream. Jayla leapt up, peering in that direction, hands on her weapons belt. A few feet away, another ominous hiss and the cracking sound of something erupting into flames. Then another, farther away. Another. All over the camp, people were shouting, pointing, and crying out in fear.
Pietro and Cody were on their feet. “What’s happening?” Cody demanded.
“I don’t know,” Jayla answered. “I think—”
Their own small fire gurgled and spit and suddenly bloomed outward in a terrifying flare. Pietro snatched Aussen and stumbled backward as Cody and Jayla scrambled away. Jayla caught a whiff of a marshy, rotting odor.
“The fires! Put out the fires!” someone shouted from ten or twenty yards away. “There’s gas rising up from underground! Put out the fires!”
The cry was taken up across the camp, and suddenly there was a frenzy all around them as travelers hurried to douse their flames. Cody cursed and leapt forward, kicking apart the sticks of their own campfire, then stubbing out the flames with the heavy end of an unlit branch. Jayla joined him, rolling the burning logs until they extinguished themselves in the dirt, stomping on the embers that glowed treacherously in the grass.
After a few moments, she heard Cody draw a long breath and she lifted her eyes to gaze around. The whole plateau was completely dark, nothing but shadows filled with shadows. A low rumble of conversation spilled out in all directions, filled half with excitement and half with discontent.Can you believe that? The air itself just caught on fire! What else is going to go wrong for us?
“Well, that was something I wasn’t expecting,” Cody said, and even his cheerful voice seemed strained.
“Yes, we do seem to have collected more than our fair share of adventures,” Pietro said. “I could wish for a bigger moon tonight, because I can’t even see my hand in front of my face.”
“I don’t think you’re going to be looking for Aussen’s friends tonight,” Cody said.
“I suppose not,” Jayla answered. “I suppose none of us will have a choice but to stay right where we are till dawn.”
There was a rustling sound, and she guessed that Pietro had dropped to the ground, Aussen probably still in his arms. Another thump that she assumed was Cody. Jayla resettled herself into a seated pose. Then a flicker at the corner of her eye caught her attention, and she turned her head sharply in that direction.
“Someone’s lit a match!” she said. “Who would be so stupid?”
She thought she could sense Cody craning his neck. “It’s probably a chemlight.”
“A what?”
“It’s sort of like a torch—a wooden stick treated with dried paste on one end. You scrape it on a hard surface and some chemicals combine and give off light for a couple of hours. No heat, no fire. Chemlights have become pretty popular.”
“I can see why,” said Pietro. “I wish we had one.”
“As for tonight—nothing left to do but bed down, I suppose,” Jayla said. “Aussen can sleep next to me. Aussen, can you find me in the dark?”
A muffled sound of rustling was followed in a few moments by Aussen’s small shape crawling up next to her and squirming in place. Jayla spared a moment to hope the little girl wasn’t a restless sleeper. It was all she could do to keep from sayingSit quietlyas the child reached out once, twice, dragging her hand through the thin dirt as if combing it with her fingernails.
“I’m wondering how quickly they might start working on the secondary bridge,” Pietro said. “If they build that fast enough—” His voice abruptly cut off.
Aussen had stretched her hands out in front of her, and light streamed from her closed fists. It was a pale, phosphorescent color, blue-white, making Aussen’s face look like a spirit from the realm of the dead. In the ghostly glow, her face showed a small smile of satisfaction, as if she had been pleased to be able to summon the light.
“How did she do that?” Cody demanded, his expression both astonished and delighted. “Does she have one of those chemlights?”
“I don’t think so,” Jayla answered. “I think she just—picked up some rocks or something? She was digging in the dirt a minute ago.”
“So maybe there’s some kind of stone lying around that you can spark a light from,” Cody speculated. “Pietro, did you ever hear of such a thing?”
But Pietro didn’t answer. Jayla lifted her eyes to study him across the dead campfire. In the cool, wavering light, his expression was clearly visible and infinitely surprising. He didn’t look amazed or impressed or even intrigued. His gaze was fixed on Aussen’s face, and he was horrified.
Chapter Four:
