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Zaf made a strangled sound. A slime-slicked brown lizard with three bleating heads skittered down the side of her face and into her collar.

Zaf’s pale face grew even paler. She stared straight ahead. Her fingers squeezed Thorn’s.

Thorn tried not to stare at the lizard-sized lump darting around under Zaf’s coat.

Another slug dropped onto Thorn’s right arm. And a third,onto the crown of her head. A fourth, into the swamp at her feet. A fifth, onto the white shell of Zaf’s ear.Plop.Each landing sent up tiny smoky plumes of darkness.

Thorn watched a tree-shaped shadow peel away from a sagging pine. The shadow swiveled in the air and scraped the branches above, knocking loose a shower of slugs. Then the shadow dropped silently into the water.

Thorn held her breath, waiting.

Ahead of them: a rumble. A gurgle.

The swamp’s surface rippled. A cluster of brown bubbles burst on the surface.

Noro’s crisp, cold breath was shaky on Thorn’s head. “Maybe I was wrong,” he said tensely. “Maybe if we start running, they won’t mind.”

“Or they might mind very much,” Thorn whispered, hardly daring to speak. If she spoke wrong, the fat worm bunching across her upper lip might fall into her mouth. Her fingers trembled; never in her life had she so badly wanted to scratch off her skin.

She squinted through the trees at the horizon. She could just make out the towering eastern peaks rising into the distant clouds.

The impassable mountains were still so far away.

Muchtoo far.

Her head spun as she tried to breathe, but it was like someone was sewing her throat closed.

“Thorn?” Zaf was squeezing Thorn’s hand again, but Thorn could hardly feel it. A mist was settling over her eyes, and her head was spinning fast. “Thorn, you need to slow down your breathing.”

“Can’t.” Thorn shook her head; a many-legged thing skittered down the back of her neck.

Thorn’s strength cracked. She reached back and slapped the thing away.

The swamp...shrieked.

A shadow slunk out of the water to wrap around the nearest tree. Another followed, and then three more right after. Long limbs of shadows, stretching and reaching.

Dozens of staring eyes—black, yellow, lidless—popped out of the water.

Bartos reached for his sword. With a small, rasping cry, one of the fish-mouthed birds on his hand shot up into the sky. The others clinging to Bartos’s clothes rose cawing into the air right behind the leader, their naked wings flapping.

Something in the water circled Thorn. Three ripples chased one another beneath the mud. A long shape brushed past Thorn’s legs.

Her vision spotted red and black. She couldn’tbreathe.

Zaf’s hand tightened around Thorn’s. “I think I can get us there faster.”

“What do you mean?” asked Noro.

Zaf jerked her head at the horizon. “I can get us to the mountains. At least, I can get us closer. I think.”

Thorn stared at her.“How?”

“When I was lightning, I could zip around so quickly,” Zaf replied. “I could jump between mountains and skip over rivers. And there’s a good bit of lightning left deep down in me. Feels like running, but cooped up in my gut.”

“And you think you can access this power?” Noro asked.

Zaf frowned at the rippling swamp, closed her eyes. “Yes, I do.”