Rovender stood still and watched the birds. “Something is not right,” he said. “Let’s get back to Mother.”

They both hurried back to the camp. Otto’s song entered Eva’s mind like a windstorm: Noise. Not. Safe.

“You’re right, Rovee.” Eva stopped and closed her eyes. “Otto is worried.”

“I am not sure what’s going on.” Rovender scanned the sky. “What disturbed the flock?”

They both heard the answer. The haunting low sound of a woom echoed over the landscape.

Next to Eva and Rovender the remnants of a wall blew apart into shards of rock and dust as a sonic wave shattered it.

“Run!” Rovender pushed Eva behind a tall chunk of wall with ancient bricks still mortared in it. He dashed off behind another edifice.

Eva climbed up the wall using the bricks as footholds. She peered through a window opening and recognized the familiar shape of a glider. She gasped when she saw that the glider was accompanied by others just like it. All of them flew straight toward Eva through the swarm of turnfins.

Besteel had found them.

He had brought reinforcements.

With a shriek Eva let go of her ledge and fell down onto her back just as the top of the wall exploded into rubble. Besteel’s glider flashed by overhead at lightning speed.

“He’s coming back around!” Rovender yelled as he rushed over and helped Eva up. Dark crimson blood trickled in rivulets down the side of his head. “We haven’t much time. Let’s hurry!” He held Eva by the hand as they ran through the ruins.

“Where are we going to hide?” Eva shouted as a frightened flurry of turnfins flew past them.

“I don’t know, but he’s got royal guardsmen from Solas with him,” Rovender answered. “Let’s get back to Mother and Otto.”

They dashed down through the remains of a narrow alley, which led to a blown-out building. Besteel and the squadron zipped by, blasting one of the alley walls with their weapons and causing it to fall onto the other.

Eva and Rovender scrambled as the stony remains fell downward in a deluge of rock upon them. The pair leaped out of the way as both alley walls came down in an enormous cloud of dust. Eva and Rovender tumbled down crumbling stone steps into the underground basement of a long-forgotten building. As they caught their breath, they descended through the dirt and debris into the darkness below.

“Don’t make . . . any . . . loud noises,” Rovender whispered in between breaths.

“No . . . kidding,” Eva said.

“This vault . . . is full of . . . knifejacks.” Rovender pointed up. “If they’re disturbed . . . we’re in trouble.”

Eva looked up and saw a ceiling packed with tiny, grotesque, sleeping crab-creatures—just like the kind she had seen back in Rovender’s old Sanctuary.

They heard a distant boom outside. It sounded like the thunder over Lake Concors.

“They’re trying . . . to flush us out,” Rovender whispered.