“Here’s another one,” called Heron, and Kira held on tight as the boat rocked and splashed and shook. They were in the middle of the river now, the current faster and deeper, and Kira saw with dismay that it seemed to be carrying them straight through the path of debris from the bridge. They bobbed like a cork on the surface, thrown back and forth from stone to stone, steel to steel. A particularly bad hit brought a loud crack, and Kira looked around wildly to see if anything had broken. Heron scrambled across the floor and looked up angrily. “We’re taking on water.”

“That’s awesome,” said Kira. “Throw it back out!”

Heron glared at her, but found a discarded board and tried to stop up the hole—a crack in the side wall, thankfully, not the floor, or Kira thought they might have gone down almost immediately. The board didn’t seem to help, and Heron gave up, trying to use it instead as a rudder. The barge ignored her and went where the river wanted it. They shook with another impact, then another, and Kira cried out as the floor rippled beneath her feet. Floors aren’t supposed to do that.

“The floor rippled,” she said.

Samm held his two horses tightly, though they looked ready to tear him in half. “Rippled or buckled?”

“I think it was just—” Kira cried out as the barge hit another obstacle, and the metal floor groaned in protest at some unexpected movement.

“Buckled,” said Heron, bracing her board against the floor for stability. “This is not going to end well.”

“How poorly are we talking,” asked Kira, “assuming it at least ends with us on that side of the river?”

“Poorly,” said Heron. “We lose some gear, maybe most of it. A horse if we’re unlucky, Afa if we are.”

“We won’t lose Afa,” said Samm. “I’ll pull him to shore myself if I have to.”

“You’ll have to,” said Heron. “This rust bucket is falling apart around us, and the river is doing everything it can to speed that along.”

“Try to steer us closer to the side,” said Kira.

Heron looked at her with wide, incredulous eyes.

“What in the hell do you think I’ve been trying for the last five minutes?”

“You’re not trying it now,” Kira snarled.