“Heavenly Father, we come to you on our knees. We ask you to bless this bracelet. And bless its owner, Ramia. May she rest in peace, and give her family strength. Your strength, wherever they are. And, Father, please help us. Please protect us from Nil and get us safely home. Amen.”
“Amen,” I murmured.
“Jeezy Pete, Johan, was that a prayer for the dead girl or for us?” Sy asked as we stood. “Are you supposed to dump all your prayers together like that?”
Johan shrugged. “Can’t hurt. Might help.” He looked at me,worry darkening his eyes. “Thad, I’ve got a bad feeling. We shouldn’t have taken that bracelet.”
Johan was by far the most religious and most superstitious person in the City. But I had a bad feeling myself. Finding a body was never good, and stripping it of a bracelet—a bracelet made ofboneof all things—felt even worse. EspeciallyRamia’sbone bracelet. Holy Nil-nightmares-waiting-to-happen.
“At least it didn’t come back into the City,” I said, looking for the good. “And in the end, Ramia gets her cross.”
Johan nodded, but he still looked worried.
“What kind of bone was that?” Sy asked. “Please don’t tell me it was human.”
“Cow.”
“Well, that’s something,” Johan said.
That’s all we said the entire way back.
At the edge of the City, Sy cut right. “See ya,” he mumbled. Then he scurried toward the Cove. Johan hung back with me.
“I’ll carve for Ramia,” I said.
Johan nodded. “Thad.” His voice was firm. “I won’t go out with Sy again. I know he’s new, but he doesn’t listen. And he doesn’t get Nil.” Johan paused. “About an hour before we found Ramia, an inbound flashed twenty meters away. A hippo fell out. Big one, too. My shout gave us plenty of warning, but Sy panicked. He dropped the supply pack as he bolted to hide, and guess who trampled it? You know it, the hippo. Our last two days of food, gone.” Johan snapped his fingers for emphasis. “That’s why we’re back early. And then the bracelet. We shouldn’t have taken it. But Sy wouldn’t listen.”
“I hear you,” I said. “I’ll talk to Sy.”
“Good,” Johan said. “Maybe you can open his eyes.”
Doubtful, I thought. If the bone bracelet–hippo combo didn’t sway Sy into recognizing Nil’s bad karma, I couldn’t imagine what words would.
“I’ll try,” I said. It was the best I could do.
I strode to the Wall, ready to rid myself of Ramia and find Charley. Going straight to Ramia’s weathered name, I carved a cross beside it. Then, out of habit, I glanced at my name. The day I’d carved those letters was still fresh: I remember gouging the wood, sealing the deal, and I remember my confidence, tinged with relief. The weird truth was, when I first landed here, I was secretly kind of stoked. Primed for a break from the grind and the pressure, I’d viewed Nil as a forced vacation, a mandatory mid-season break. I figured I’d be back on the mountain in no time. Back battling my dad over my dreams or his.
I couldn’t have been more wrong. And judging by the crosses littering the Wall, plenty of other people had been wrong, too.
Except Ramia. She’d been dead right.
I closed my eyes, abruptly repelled by the Wall, by the crosses, but mostly repelled by Ramia, whose prophecies I couldn’t shake.
Spinning around, I nearly knocked Li down.
“Ramia.” She pointed to the cross. “How you know?” Li made a slicing motion across her throat.
“Sy and Johan, they found her.”
“No. How you know it Ramia?”
“Her bracelet.” I wrapped my hand around my wrist. “The cuff. It was her.”
Li nodded, her eyes back on Ramia’s fresh cross. “Nil crazy,” she whispered.
“Thad! Incoming!” Macy shouted from the tree line. “On the beach!”
I dashed toward Macy, pulling my knife. The handle was still warm. I hit the sand at a full sprint, just in time to see the inbound gate flash brilliant and blinding. I had seconds, at best.
