*Chapter 4: The Trainyard That Collected Echoes*

The rain started before they reached the city edge.

Not hard rain.

The kind that sits on your skin and makes everything quiet.

Lira kept her hood up.

Jem kept his hands in his pockets.

Mira kept her eyes closed.

They were three days out from the library.

Three days of walking.

Three days of not sleeping in the same place twice.

Three days of the book getting heavier.

The book was in Lira’s bag.

Wrapped in cloth.

Tied with rope.

It pulsed every few hours.

Like a heartbeat.

`FIVE`

`WEST`

`SHE IS RUNNING`

That was all it gave them.

Jem said he could hear her sometimes.

Breathing.

Fast.

Like she was hiding.

Mira said she could hear footsteps.

Boots.

Guild boots.

So they followed the sound.

The trainyard came first.

Old.

Rusted.

Tracks going everywhere and nowhere.

Cars lined up like dead animals.

No lights.

No workers.

The Fracture killed the trains fifty years ago.

Perfect place to hide.

Lira stopped at the gate.

Chain on it.

Lock broken.

She pushed it open.

The sound echoed.

Metal on metal.

Jem flinched.

“I hear them,” he whispered.

“Inside. Two cars down.”

Mira nodded.

“Guild. Three of them.

And her.

She’s under something.”

Lira drew her knife.

Not to fight.

To have something in her hand.

They moved between the cars.

Slow.

Rain on the roof.

Dripping.

The book was warm now.

Almost hot.

Lira pulled it out.

Opened it under her coat.

New words.

`FIVE`

`NORA KELL`

`CLASS: WARDEN`

`SHE CAN MAKE WALLS WHERE THERE ARE NONE`

Under that.

`THEY ARE ONE CAR AWAY`

`DO NOT LET THEM SEE YOU FIRST`

Lira closed the book.

Up ahead, a freight car.

Door half open.

Light inside.

Not Guild light.

Lantern light.

A voice.

Low.

Female.

“Don’t come closer.”

Lira stopped.

“Guild is here,” she said.

Quiet.

“We’re not with them.”

Silence.

Then movement.

The door opened more.

A girl.

Maybe sixteen.

Hair cut short.

Coat too big.

Hands out.

Between her palms, the air shimmered.

Like glass.

Like a wall no one could see.

“You’re lying,” the girl said.

Jem stepped forward.

“I hear your heart,” he said.

“It’s fast. You’re scared.

I’m scared too.

But we’re not them.”

The girl looked at him.

Then at Mira.

Then at Lira.

At the bag.

The book pulsed.

The girl’s eyes widened.

“You have it.”

Lira nodded.

The invisible wall dropped.

The girl grabbed Lira’s sleeve.

“Get in. Now.”

They climbed in.

The car was empty except for crates and the lantern.

And the smell of rust and rain.

The girl slammed the door.

Put her hands on it.

The air shimmered again.

Covering the door.

Covering the gaps.

Footsteps passed outside.

Guild boots.

Slow.

Stopping.

One of them knocked on the car.

No one breathed.

The knock came again.

Then moved on.

When the footsteps were gone, the girl let her hands drop.

The wall faded.

She sat down hard.

“Name’s Nora,” she said.

“I’ve been running for a week.”

Lira sat across from her.

Jem and Mira sat too.

Lira pulled out the book.

It opened by itself.

`FIVE`

`NORA KELL`

`STATUS: FOUND`

`FORTY REMAIN`

Nora stared at it.

“That’s writing itself.”

“It does that,” Lira said.

Nora touched the page.

Careful.

Like it might bite.

“It’s warm.”

“It knows you,” Lira said.

Nora pulled her hands back.

“I don’t want to be known.”

She looked at the door.

“They killed my brother.

For less than this.

For sneezing and making the lights flicker.”

Jem looked down.

Mira put a hand on Nora’s arm.

Nora didn’t pull away.

Lira closed the book.

“We need to move,” she said.

“They’ll come back with more.”

Nora nodded.

“I know a way out.

Through the old tunnels.

Under the yard.

Comes out by the river.”

“Guild will be watching the river,” Mira said.

“Not this part,” Nora said.

“They think it’s collapsed.”

She stood.

Kicked a crate aside.

Under it, a metal grate.

She pulled it open.

Dark.

And the smell of wet stone.

Jem went first.

Mira second.

Nora third.

Lira last.

They climbed down.

The tunnel was narrow.

Water up to their ankles.

The book was in Lira’s hands now.

Open.

Lighting the way with faint silver.

Nora walked in front.

No sound.

Like she’d done this before.

After ten minutes, she stopped.

Put her hand up.

Ahead, light.

And voices.

Guild.

Two of them.

Standing at the tunnel exit.

Lira looked at the book.

`THEY ARE WAITING`

`USE HER`

Lira looked at Nora.

Nora understood.

She rolled her shoulders.

Put her hands out.

The air in front of them thickened.

Became solid.

Became a wall.

Curved.

Like a shield.

“Go,” Nora whispered.

They ran.

The Guild men turned.

Saw them.

Reached for guns.

Nora pushed.

The wall shot forward.

Hit them.

Knocked them back.

Into the water.

They didn’t get up.

They ran past them.

Out of the tunnel.

Into night.

The river was there.

Wide.

Black.

Nora collapsed on the bank.

Breathing hard.

The wall gone.

Jem was watching the tunnel.

Mira was watching the sky.

Lira opened the book.

`FIVE`

`NORA KELL`

`STATUS: SAFE`

`FORTY REMAIN`

Under that, new writing.

`THE HOLLOW KNOW YOUR NAMES NOW`

`THEY WILL NOT STOP`

`GO EAST`

`TO THE DESERT`

`SIX IS THERE`

Lira showed it to the others.

Nora read it.

Laughed once.

Not happy.

Tired.

“Desert. Of course.”

She stood.

Wobbly.

“I can do one more wall.

Then I need sleep.”

Lira nodded.

“Then we sleep in shifts.”

They walked.

Away from the yard.

Away from the city.

Toward the dark.

Behind them, sirens started.

Far.

But getting closer.

Nora put her arm around Mira’s shoulders.

Mira leaned into it.

Jem walked next to Lira.

“Do you think he’s okay” he asked.

Quiet.

Lira didn’t answer.

She didn’t know about Elias.

The book pulsed.

New page.

`ELIAS VARN`

`STATUS: ALIVE`

`THEY HAVE NOT BROKEN HIM YET`

Lira let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding.

She showed it to Jem.

He smiled.

Small.

They kept walking.

The desert was two days away.

And somewhere in it,

number six.

The book turned a page by itself.

Blank.

Except for a single line at the bottom.

`THEY ARE CALLING THEM HOME`

`BEFORE YOU CAN`

Lira closed the book.

Tied it to her chest.

The rain stopped.

The stars came out.

The few that were left.

And in the trainyard behind them,

the Guild found two unconscious men

and a wall that wasn’t there anymore.

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