“It’s okay, Leo,” Kyra reassured him. “Stay by my side and we’ll swim to shore together.”

Kyra looked up ahead and saw the rapids forking, gaining speed, and as reluctant as she was to jump back in, she knew it was now or never. She and Dierdre exchanged a look and at the same time they both jumped into the roaring river, Kyra grabbing Leo as she did.

Kyra found herself submerged, frozen again, her skin pierced by a thousand small needles as she swam for shore. While the currents carried them downriver, they swam sideways, fighting their way toward the river bank. The water slowed and became more shallow, and finally, Kyra was amazed to find herself standing on the river bed, then crawling on her hands and knees as she emerged from the waters and onto the sand.

Kyra collapsed on the sand, Dierdre and Leo beside her, dripping wet, exhausted, sand in her face and hair—and no longer caring. She breathed hard, spitting up water. She lay there, unmoving for several minutes, her arms shaking from the exertion. She wanted to sleep for a million years. Would this quest ever end? she wondered.

Kyra did not know how much time had passed when she felt a hand beneath her arm, helping her up. She looked up to see Dierdre standing over her, smiling down.

“You saved my life—again,” Dierdre said.

Kyra stood and smiled back, brushing off sand and feeling the weariness in her bones.

“Well, I guess if a waterfall can’t kill us, nothing can,” she replied.

Kyra brushed the mud and sand off her body and off Leo, too, as he came close and licked her palm. The three of them turned and faced the white wood before them, an endless stretch of ancient white trees shimmering in the late afternoon sun.

“Through these trees leads the road to Ur,” Dierdre remarked.

“How far do you suppose it is on foot?” Kyra asked.

Dierdre shrugged.

“A few days more.”

Kyra studied the darkening woods, devoid of shelter, heard the strange animal noises calling out beyond, and she searched everywhere, filled with sadness, for Andor, hoping beyond hope that he had somehow made it.

But he was nowhere to be found, of course. They were alone, utterly alone, the three of them, without provisions, without a horse, with nothing but the weapons still strapped to Kyra’s back.

Kyra knew there was no time to waste. She took the first step into the wood, joined by her friends, back onto the long and lonely trek to the Tower of Ur.

*