“Yeah?” Scott said. “And how are we going to do that?”

Cade closed his eyes, concentrating.

They couldn’t use sound. He doubted any noise they could make would travel far.

How did people communicate before technology?

Carrier pigeons? Signal flags?

He opened his eyes. Only for them to settle on the exact answer to his problem.

Suddenly, the fort they were in made a lot more sense. It wasn’t the walls themselves. It was the height of the tower … and what was at its top.

A plan slotted into his mind. It was risky, but they had no choice.

“Guys,” he said, “I have a plan.”

It was the braziers that Cade had seen. Those giant metal cradles for fire, rusted into the stone itself but still serviceable at a pinch.

These would serve as a smoke signal in the dusk, and lighthouse through the night. But they had a problem. Fuel.

The day became a grueling affair, one where they roamed the ruined hulks of the old longhouses that made up most of the village, picking through the rubble and detritus for anything they might burn.

It was a near-fruitless affair, but charred remnants remained, half-buried in the dry earth. These scattered pieces were lugged to the tower’s top and piled alongside four of their sleds, which they had decided to sacrifice for the cause.

But their search did make one useful discovery: There was a well at the center of the village. Amber had said it was dry as a bone the day before, but in this new world, groundwater had seeped into it, giving them a source of water.

For now, they would stick to their own supply brought from the keep, for they had no idea what alien microbes might be lurking within. They would eventually need to find a new source of fuel to boil it.

The sun was beginning to set, and the team had filled one of the large embrasures with wood, stacked from smallest pieces to largest, and shredded sackcloth at its base for tinder.

Cade still had the lighter he had found in the jungles, which, though empty, was used to spark a light at the base of their pyre.

With a gentle blow of his breath, the pile slowly sputtered before crackling into life.

Now, they could only watch.

Slowly, a plume of black smoke began to form above. This air was strangely still, with hardly a breeze to speak of. It was strange to see the smoke go straight upward, forming a thin, dark pillar in the sky.

The fire burned quickly, and for a while, Cade was worried that they might run out of wood before darkness fell. But luck was on their side, and they managed to keep the fire going for several hours into the darkness, huddled in silent worry as the fire blazed for the world to see.

CHAPTER

9

“Cade.”

There was soft pressure on Cade’s shoulder, pulling him from a dreamless sleep.