Rivers of Fire

Edgar's gaze shifted to the giant hole leading down into Tabletop. It was outrageous, the idea that the grove was under water and he would never see it again. His old home had vanished.

  "I met the man who made this place," said Edgar. "And he told me the water would never reach the Flatlands. You're safe here."

  The child beamed and this made Edgar very happy. He watched the little boy run back into the sea of people, and then without any more hesitation he started on his way toward Dr. Kincaid's home.

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  *** CHAPTER 33 REUNITED

  It was a long walk across the vast Flatlands, even longer than Edgar remembered, and the day was nearing its end when he arrived at the towering rocks that surrounded Dr. Kincaid's home. He found his way to the pile of boulders that blocked the path, climbing over and down the other side. When he rounded the last turn of the old trail and came to the table where he'd first eaten black and green, he expected to see the old man sitting there. But the chairs were empty and the place had a desolate feeling of having been left behind.

  Edgar crossed to the opening of the cave and peered inside. It was dark, but not pitch-black, and this made him think that maybe Dr. Kincaid's home wasn't entirely empty after all. He went inside, calling Dr. Kincaid's name.

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  "Edgar?" It wasn't Dr. Kincaid, but another voice that Edgar knew. It was a voice that made him dash into the cave to the familiar place where he had once laid with an injured shoulder and a severed finger. Around the very same bed stood Vincent, Sir William, Dr. Kincaid, and the boy who had spoken Edgar's name. Samuel cried out Edgar's name again and bolted from the group, embracing his friend.

  There were hoots and hollers from both boys at the sight of each other. Vincent, Dr. Kincaid, and Sir William came over to the two excited boys and joined in the celebration, laughing and patting them on the back.

  "Where's Isabel?" asked Edgar. "I want to see her!"

  The laughter died down faster than it had begun and Edgar knew something was wrong. He didn't wait for the men to stand aside. Instead, he burst right through them toward the bed.

  There, cold and unmoving, was Isabel. Her face was white and her eyes were closed.

  "She's not gone," said Dr. Kincaid, coming up beside Edgar. "She's still alive."

  "What's happened to her?" he asked. "Will she wake up?"

  Dr. Kincaid was worried she might not, but he wasn't going to tell Edgar, at least not yet. "She's been through an awful trauma, but there's a chance she'll recover."

  The men and boys stayed at Isabel's side and talked in whispers of what had happened to them. Edgar had to tell them that Dr. Harding was dead, and Horace, too, but that he'd managed to save Samuel's mother and Isabel's parents. Sir William and Samuel explained how they'd been reunited, their excitement

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  over hearing of Adele's safety overshadowing the losses of the day.

  "Did the water rise as he said it would?" asked Dr. Kincaid. He was very curious about the things Dr. Harding had told them in Edgar's absence.

  "Why, yes, it did," said Edgar. "How did you know from way out here?"

  "I have my ways," said Dr. Kincaid, and then Vincent hit him in the arm.

  "He's an old fool," said Vincent, then he asked Edgar a question of his own. "And the Cleaners? What happened to them?"

  Edgar took great joy in telling them all that they would never have to worry about Cleaners again. They talked for a long while, and Edgar was able to hear about how they had escaped the Nubian and the Inferno, how they'd come all the way under the Flatlands and through a yellow door hidden in the cave. After a long while everyone but Vincent went out to the table for a moment of fresh air.

  "How big are the mountains inside?" asked Edgar, thinking they might be the last place on Atherton where he might find good climbing.

  "Very big," said Dr. Kincaid. "But you'll have to kill me to get the letters that will open the yellow door." He was determined to keep Edgar safely away from the inside of Atherton.

  A brief moment of silence was broken as a steady noise emerged from far away, faint at first, but growing louder until it was unmistakable. It was the sound of horses' hooves, from more than one horse.

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  "Who could that be?" said Dr. Kincaid. The group ran down the path to the pile of rocks and Edgar quickly climbed to the top. On the other side, in the grey light of early evening, stood two horses. Gill was riding one, with Adele on the back. On the other were Charles and Eliza.

  "Give a horse a little Cleaner meat and they perk right up," said Gill, smiling broadly.

  "How did you find me?" said Edgar.

  Gill tapped his enormous nose on one side. "Never underestimate the power of my snout."

  Charles rolled his eyes. "We watched you leave. You were heading like an arrow in one direction, and it wasn't hard to pick up your trail. Why did you come here?"

  Before Edgar could open his mouth, Samuel and Sir William joined him on top of the pile of rocks. The resulting celebration was one that Edgar would never forget. After everyone briskly dismounted, Gill and Charles hoisted Adele up to the rocks where she threw her arms around Sir William and Samuel. Adele was so unexpectedly overcome by seeing Sir William again that she danced and cried and laughed all at once.

  Soon enough, Charles, Eliza, and Gill had climbed up as well. They didn't want to disturb the festive atmosphere, but they had come for another reason.

  "Where's Isabel?" asked Charles.

  It was Dr. Kincaid, waiting below, who answered. "Let's see if we can't get everyone down from there and over to this side," he said. "Edgar, you could be of some help, couldn't you?"

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  After Edgar had shown everyone the easiest way down from on top of a big pile of rocks, Eliza asked again, "Have you seen my daughter? Do you know where she is?"

  Dr. Kincaid came alongside the two parents and guided them around the path toward the table and chairs. He was pulling on his droopy earlobe, trying to figure out how to explain that Isabel was there but might not make it through the night. When he was just opening his mouth, the two parents bolted from his side and ran toward the table without warning. For sitting there, along with Vincent, was Isabel.

  "You're all very, very loud," she said. "You woke me up."

  Everyone gathered around her--first her parents and then Edgar, Samuel, and the others. She was alive! And the color was already returning to her face.

  The whole group talked about all that had happened, and after a while they laid under the stars, whispering to one another about the inside and the outside of Atherton, about Dr. Harding, about water and Cleaners. Until all at once they felt the end of a great adventure come upon them, and they were tired beyond words. Everyone fell asleep, and they slept well, knowing they'd made their peace with Atherton and its maker.

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  *** CHAPTER 34 ONE YEAR LATER

  Anyone who might have arrived a year after the brief but catastrophic period of changes on Atherton would have assumed it had always been this way. The idea of three towering lands, each one reaching higher in the air, would have been absurd.

  There would come a time, much later, when the children of Atherton would debate whether or not any of it had ever happened.

  Such is the way of civilization in any form, and Atherton's small footprint in the universe would be no different. There would be talk of the Dark Planet and the strange shape of Atherton in the past, of great battles and heroes. But much of it would not be believed, and the daily movements of life would wash away all memory in the same way that places like the grove and the House of Power were lost forever.

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  But for now, everyone remembered. There were those who wrote things down in journals and drew pictures of lost places they could only visit in their minds. And yet so much of what had been lost had come back in almost exactly the same way. Thousands of fragments of uprooted fig trees had been pushed to the edge of the great lake in the middle, where they were harvested
, dried out, and used to build anew.

  There were three new villages, though they were much closer together now, within an easy walk of each other. There was a new inn at the Village of Rabbits, cobbled together from debris washed ashore. It was known not only for exceptional, fire-roasted "hoppers," as Briney had come to call them, but also grilled Cleaner, a specialty that made for long lines in the evening hours. Maude walked every morning to the Village of Sheep nearby, and she tended the lambs. Horace had not been given the chance to take Wallace's advice, but somehow, without hearing it firsthand, Maude had learned the shepherds' ways by watching. All her anger and frustration was gone, and in its place a quiet and increasingly wise woman remained.

  The Flatlands were fertile with the addition of water, and a large grove that had been planted with seeds from Edgar's three figs was thriving. There were rows and rows of new saplings, and every day Edgar and Isabel tended to them with great care. The two were increasingly close to each other, and there were certain expectations on Atherton about them that neither Edgar nor Isabel minded very much. Samuel was their constant companion, learning about the grove and in turn teaching both of them to read and write.

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  Very few men of the Highlands survived the two exoduses, first from their home in the sinking Highlands and then from the coming of the Cleaners. In the end, it was they who saved everyone else, led by one of their own on horses only they knew how to control well enough to fight with. They had ruled over everyone for a long time, but in the end, Atherton had taken them.

  Some would say Atherton had punished them for their earlier misdeeds; others would say this was an idea born out of a long-simmering jealousy of the luxuries those in the Highlands had enjoyed for so long. But the truth could not be denied--the biggest loss of life had come from those in the Highlands, and the survivors were safe because of what they'd done. There were few who could look at the wives and children of those men who were lost and not feel the weight of the price that had been paid.

  The water had stopped rising at the edge of the Flatlands as Edgar said it would. At night it looked as if the lake was lit by a deep and hidden inferno blazing somewhere beneath the surface. And so it was that it came to be known as the Lake of Fire, a place of darkness fused with light. No one could look at the Lake of Fire and not think of what lay beneath, but only the diving Cleaners could see those things now--the House of Power, the grove, the other villages.

  It was on just such a night that Vincent and Dr. Kincaid stood on a wide and sturdy pier built from parts of houses that had come ashore. They stood together, Vincent with a spear tied to a rope and Dr. Kincaid watching intently.

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  "Here comes one now," said Dr. Kincaid. "Don't miss this time."

  "Why don't you go back home and read a book," said Vincent. "You're making me nervous."

  Dr. Kincaid laughed. He didn't want to go read a book. He wanted to bother his closest friend while the man tried to catch a fish.

  "You're going to miss it," said Dr. Kincaid. "No, I'm not," said Vincent.

  The swimming Cleaners were not the smartest of creatures, and so they really weren't that difficult to kill. A well-thrown spear attached to a rope was the easiest way to land one. After that all you had to do was haul it in and club it over the head a few times and you could feed a great many people for several days.

  Vincent threw the spear fast and hard toward the shadow beneath the surface and the shadow moved off. He had missed. "Told you," said Dr. Kincaid.

  Vincent sighed and reeled in the line, searching the water for another try.

  "There was a time I thought Dr. Harding was mad to bring people here before it was finished," said Dr. Kincaid, turning to deep thoughts as he often did when the two fished together at night. "But that time has passed. I think we were needed, just as the Inferno and the Nubian and everything else was needed. He knew. The birth of Atherton had to include people, or it wouldn't have worked. I'm sure of that now."

  "Why do you say such ridiculous things?" said Vincent.

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  "Because that's what men of science are best at," said Dr. Kincaid. "It's not ridiculous to me, only to people who lack the intellect to understand. I feel sorry for you."

  Vincent rolled his eyes. "All right, if you're so smart, you catch a fish," he said, holding the spear out to Dr. Kincaid. The old man looked at the weapon and then at the glowing blue water filled with shadows.

  "If I were to catch one, it might do irreparable damage to your self-worth. I can't risk that."

  Vincent laughed and went back to his work of watching for a shadow close enough to hit.

  Gill and Sir William walked up behind them and onto the pier, where Gill sniffed the air and knew without looking that Vincent had yet to catch a Cleaner.

  "Slow going tonight?" he asked.

  Vincent scowled. "We only started a few moments ago. Give me a little more time."

  Sir William smiled, then turned to Dr. Kincaid. "Have you seen Edgar?" he asked. "He didn't show up for his riding lesson today."

  Sir William had taken to watching over the boy in the absence of a father, and Dr. Kincaid had very much appreciated it. Dr. Kincaid fancied himself more the grandfatherly sort and liked having Sir William there to help with the boy.

  "Come to think of it," Sir William added, "have you seen Samuel or Isabel? All three of them have been mysteriously absent all day."

  "Vincent?" said Dr. Kincaid. "You don't suppose ..."

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  Vincent nodded knowingly, and then went back to his fishing.

  "Those three have overcome the inside and the outside of Atherton. I think they'll be fine."

  Dr. Kincaid pulled on his earlobe and gazed thoughtfully over the glowing water. Then he turned back to Sir William.

  "You can trust Edgar," he said. "He knows how to take care of them."

  Sir William nodded and felt reassured. He had finally come to trust the old man of Atherton.

  ***

  Edgar was the first to go right up to the edge. He had done it once before and knew that gravity had a powerful effect this close to the rim of Atherton. Samuel and Isabel weren't sure. It felt strange, the way Atherton pulled on their feet and almost dragged them to the very end. Edgar had crawled over, but now he swung around and dropped his legs over the side of the world, feeling them pull in as if his feet were tied to strings and someone was gently drawing them near the bottom of Atherton.

  "Come on, you two," said Edgar. "Just crawl over like I did. You won't fall off."

  Isabel's thick black brows moved lower over her eyes and Edgar thought, as he often did recently, that she was a pretty girl. He especially liked that her skin was darker than his and that her hair was pitch-black. And he liked her nervous smile when she was afraid but excited to try something new. She had

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  just such a smile on her face as she began crawling toward Edgar with Samuel close behind.

  When she arrived and hung her legs over the edge it took her breath away. The fear of sitting on the very edge of Atherton gripped her, but Edgar held one of her hands firmly and she felt better. It was exhilarating to lean slowly out and look at the stars and the Dark Planet below.

  Samuel came up next to Isabel and let his legs dangle over. He was nervous and scared but also thrilled to have finally come to a place they'd spoken of often.

  "I've thought of climbing down there," said Edgar. "To see what it looks like."

  "That would be a terrible idea," said Isabel, sure that it was only a matter of time before he tried.

  "I know a place where the climbing is quite good," said Samuel.

  "I know it, too," said Isabel.

  "The inside," said Edgar. "I know all about it. Why must you torture me?"

  Dr. Kincaid and Vincent were the only ones who knew the eight letters that would open the yellow door into Atherton, and they were unwilling to let the secret out.

  "One of these days he'll tell us," said
Edgar. "He has to."

  For now it was good enough to sit at the edge of the world and look out with two friends. He thought back to a time before he'd come to know them, and there was a pang inside him as he remembered how truly lonely he had been.

  "We should be getting back," said Edgar.

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  "Just one more minute," said Isabel, those piercing dark eyes locked on Edgar.

  "All right, a little longer."

  The three friends sat close, laughing and talking quietly, their legs swinging happily over the edge of the world as they talked of all that had happened and all that was to come on the world of Atherton.

  Edgar turned quiet and thought about how he'd been made, not born like his friends. He didn't really understand this, but he thought of it often. Edgar and Atherton had both been made by the same creator. He felt more than ever that Atherton really was made for him alone, at least at the beginning, and that Dr. Harding had loved him enough to build a world for him, to shield him from life on the Dark Planet. He had made the place, then the boy, but in Dr. Harding's mind Edgar had always been first and foremost.

  Edgar's thoughts turned to a place he didn't often let himself go. Had the making of Atherton driven Dr. Harding mad, or was it something else, something more painful? It didn't seem to Edgar that making a place could cause such trauma, but that making a person might. It was sad for a boy to think such thoughts, but Edgar couldn't help it. He felt more and more certain that what had driven Dr. Harding crazy wasn't losing Atherton but losing the son he'd made to inhabit Atherton.

  "We'd better go," said Samuel, stirring Edgar from his thoughts. "It's a long walk."

  Isabel looked at Edgar and saw that he was feeling a little