Glory Alley and the Star Riders (The Glory Alley Series) (73 page)

“It’s your fault,” Bone said. “Ye were supposed to wake us up before midnight, when the riplets come.”

“It was that
tall
Tullah
n female with the bad attitude
,
”
Bone offered.

“
You’ll have to narrow it down.
”

“The one with the
high
kick.
” Bone said, bringing a small silver vile up to his nose
.
“I smell her
foul
s
tench
all over this thing
.
She must have put the sleeping elixir in our stew.”

Ahh, Mandy.

“It works quickly through the
sinuses
, but takes hours through the stomach.
”

“I tell ye,” said White Feather, rubbing his nose and winc
ing
.
“
Tullah
ns can’t be trusted, especially th
at
Rock Collector
.
”

“Place yourselves in
her
shoes,” said Needle
.
“She’s
held
onto the Elboni in h
opes of saving her family.
”

“At
the
expense of ours,” Bone pointed out
.

“Aye,” said White Feather.
“
I’d have preferred battling a flock of dragons
,
coming at me
with claws and teeth bared, rather than this one crafty child
whom
we cannot slay without becoming monsters ourselves.”

“Ironic how it took a
Tullah
n to overcome a
Tullah
n
,” Bone said. “
The
girl with the high kick, thinking herself clever, put
the
sleeping elix
ir
in our stew
when
we weren’t looking, preventing us from retrieving
the Rock Collector and
her
friend
before
the
riplets came.
”

“
The Rock Collector
would
have
let Wybb die without
a
shred of guilt
,
” said Needle. “
Yet, the thought of sending her to
the
extraction pools
filled me with
great
sorrow
.
The fact that she went through the third door
,
and came back again
,
proves there was something
exceptionally noble
in her character.
”

“Not enough
to redeem her
.
I never once felt the urge to give her
the
magic
.
And that’s how it works
.
If someone worthy completes the ritual—not only will we be contractually bound, but we will
also
feel happily compelled to give h
er
all
that
s
he asks for. So says
the book
.”

“
They always blow the whistle eventually
and give us whatever we want
.” Needle shook his head
.
“
I don’t understand
why she didn’t
.
”

“
There be nothing to understand,” Bone said curtly
.
“She was stubborn. That
be
all.”

“We shouldn’t of thrown h
er
into the third door,” Needle said
.
“We’ve never done that to
anyone
before.”

“Nobody’s caused
so much
trouble before,” Bone said
.
“The
Rock Collector
couldn’t be reasoned with
.
But I do feel terrible about the
boy.
We should have sent h
im
home with the others
.
‘
T
was a terrible mistake.
”

“
T
here be no excuse for our negligence,” White Feather
finally joined in
.
“The fate of Wybb rest
ed
in the return of
the
Elboni
.
Now
,
we will n
ever find it in time.”

“Y
e got to admit
the
Rock Collector
was
tenacious,
” Needle said. “A
dmirably so.”

“If ye mean annoyingly so,” Bone said, “then aye to that.”

“Lady
Gost
will not be please
d.
” White Feather
said
.
“Now an extraction
will
be
impossible.”

“
The riplets work much faster than extraction
.
Perhaps it
be
better this way,” Needle said
.

“For
the
thief
, aye, but not for Wybb,” White Feather replied.

The three
Wybbil
s sat in silence
.
Glory pressed her back against the outside of the Bamboozle next to the door
feeling like a criminal. The Wybbils actually felt remorse about her death and Needle seemed to
have
genuinely like
d
her
.
H
e even called her noble
.

She decided he wasn’t all that bad. In different circumstances
,
maybe they could have been friends.
However,
she was just trying to save her family. She tried to suppress the thought that perhaps that was what Needle was trying to do for his family as well. The trouble was there had to be a winner and a loser, either the Allys or a bunch of aliens.
I’m not the bad guy here, she tried to convince herself
.
I’m just a kid trying to survive
.
Squelching
the guilt
, she decided it was time to get things moving again
.
Stepping just inside the doorway, she cleared her throat.

“Ahem
.
”

Three wrinkly heads pivoted
.

“Watcha doing?”
s
he said
brightly
, just to annoy Bone
.

Jaws dropped at the sight of Glory
twirling a strand of hair
.
A mixture of relief, anger and confusion crossed their faces
.
The Wybbils quickly found their footing
.
White Feather
stood with the slingboard still
tucked under his arm
. Needle’s face broke into a smile. He
took her by the elbow and led her outside.

“How’d ye do it?” Bone demanded
as he stomped out behind them
.
“How’d ye escape?”

Glory
didn’t want to implicate h
er
self in the crash of the whifferdil, so dodged the question.

“
All that matters is that
I
passed the test that was impossible to pass
.
So now what?”

The
Wybbil
s didn’t answer
.
Instead
,
they scratched their heads, looking from
Glory
to the interior of the Bamboozle, and back to
Glory
.

“How’d ye get out?
”
Bone demanded again
.
“How?”

“Like I’d tell ye.
”
Glory
reflected their previous comment back at them
, feeling
a little
cocky
.

The grumbling
Wybbil
s brought h
er
back to the campsite, where
Clash
and the Pilot
were
engaged in
casual
conversation
.
The pilot had
given h
im
his canteen
. The two appeared to be enjoying each other’s company. For some reason that really peeved her off.

Bone ordered Glory and friend
to
sit on the
blanket together and not to move a hair
.
Clash
offered Glory
the canteen
. She drank every single drop and asked for more.