Eight more Shataiki flew in from behind the platform, settled to the floor around the wheel that held Billos and Darsal, and began to push the contraption forward as if it were an upended table being scooted on edge, rather than rolling it on its side.

Johnis watched in amazement as the wheel slid along the platform and out over the water on a railing system connected to a frame behind it. There was a hole in the back. The Shataiki had been stabbing Billos and Darsal with needles through that hole.

The bats spun the wheel back so that Billos and Darsal faced them again, then slapped them both until they stirred to consciousness.

They looked around with gray eyes. Darsal was the first to recognize them.

“Silvie?”

“Where?” Billos asked. “You see Silvie?”

Darsal’s face wrinkled in anguish. “Oh, Silvie. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have left you.”

“Is that you, Scrapper?” Billos asked, staring at Johnis. “You’ve come to die with us, is that it?”

“It’s okay, Billos,” Johnis said. “Everything will be okay.”

The Shataiki cranked the wheel, turning it so that Billos and Darsal were both held parallel to the lake below them. What were they doing? They cranked again until Billos and Darsal were upside down, heads pointed at the water.

It all clicked for Johnis then. “This is a mockery of Elyon’s water,” he said. “He’s going to drown them!”

As if on cue, one of the bats turned a large wooden handle, and the entire wheel began to descend toward the water. Their heads would go under first, Johnis realized. They would drown!

“You can’t do this!” Silvie cried.

Teeleh didn’t flinch.

The bottom of the wheel broke the surface and continued its descent.

“You can’t kill them!” Silvie screamed, springing toward Teeleh with her sword lifted.

Moving faster than Johnis thought possible, the large vampire bat reached out with one wing and swatted Silvie to the ground as if she were nothing more than a fly. Her sword clattered on the wood planks.

Johnis stared at Billos terrified that he might actually be drowned here on account of him!

Darsal’s hair slipped into the water. Then her forehead. Then Billos’s hair. They didn’t realize until that moment what was happening, but when they did, they both began to struggle. Their wails of desperation cut Johnis as if they were blades.

Then they were under and drowning.

Johnis threw out his arm to stop them. “Stop it!”

“Let them drown,” Teeleh snarled.

“No!” Johnis scrambled for reason. “I’ll give you my book! Pull them up!”

“Where is the book?” Teeleh asked, unconcerned.

“I’ll tell you. Just pull them up, for the sake of Elyon!”

Teeleh might have roared with rage at the use of the name, but he seemed beyond that at the moment. He stared at Johnis, snout quivering.