Free North! Or Be Eaten by Andrew Peterson Page A

dizzy shiver in his stomach at how far below the falls it lay.
    Nia placed a hand on Nugget’s collar, took a deep breath, then led the dog and Leeli down the rocky incline toward the falls.
    A great crash split the air.
    Just behind Janner, a boulder the size of a horse exploded into flinders of stone. Janner looked up and saw a troll peering over the edge of the bank from among the trees. Then several Fangs appeared, and soon the tree line above the riverbank teemed with them.
    Arrows clattered against the rocks around Oskar and Podo. Janner screamed at Tink, and they moved closer to the old men. The arrows stopped for the moment, but Janner saw the Fangs conversing and pointing at Nia. She stood near Leeli, but not so close that a good archer would have much difficulty avoiding the little girl and hitting the mother.
    Podo waved and shouted at Nia to stay close to Leeli. The Igibys hurried along a stretch of shale that ran parallel to a foamy pool at the edge of the river. From the corner of Janner’s eye he saw the shapes of fish as long as his arm swimming in the shallows.
    “Get back from the water!” he cried as they ran. No one heard what he said, but they looked where he pointed and moved as far from the edge as possible.
    Janner looked back to see two trolls skidding down the bank, jarred by the larger boulders and grinning so wide that he saw in each of their mouths two squarish front teeth with a generous space between. With much less grace (though that is hard to imagine), the Fangs tumbled down behind the trolls as chaotically as if they had been pushed from above—which was probably what had happened. The trolls found their feet, brushed themselves off, and set after the Igibys at a trot just as the first of the Fangs reached the bottom.
    When the trolls passed the shallow pool, schools of daggerfish leapt from the water. Their needle-sharp noses burrowed deep into the trolls’ coarse flesh. The trolls wailed and yanked out the fish even as more leapt from the water, and Janner was sick at how close he and his family had been to the same fate.
    Everyone hustled nearer to the falls but Tink, who stood staring at the rocks.
    “ TINK !” Janner yelled.
    Tink had one eye squinted shut and his head cocked sideways. He eyed the bank above the falls the same way he studied a tree he was about to draw.
    “What are you
doing
?” Janner screamed. He yanked Tink’s arm so hard that his brother stumbled and fell.
    “Ow!” Tink cried as he leapt back to his feet.
    “Tink, they’re right behind us!”
    “Do you think I don’t know that?” Tink said through clenched teeth, charging ahead of his brother.
    “Then what were you doing?” Janner snapped.
    Tink didn’t answer.
    The boys skidded to a halt when they reached the others, who had come to the end of the road. They stood at the brink of a cliff. Below was a whirling murk of mist.
    To the left sped the river, angry, white, and cold.
    To the right, the steep wet slope of shale and boulders rose and disappeared in gray mist.
    Behind them, the trolls and Fangs advanced.
    “There’s no bridge, is there?” asked Janner.
    “Not anymore, son,” said Nia. “If there ever was a bridge, it’s gone.”

12
Thunder, Spray, and Stone
    S o this is the end,” Janner said.
    Nia smiled and pushed a lock of damp hair from his eyes. “I’m glad we tried.”
    Janner rested his head on his mother’s shoulder, surprised he could find any amount of comfort when their situation was so bleak, all because he was near those he loved and who loved him.
    Then he thought of Tink. Janner rounded on him and jabbed a finger in his brother’s chest.
    “What were you doing back there? All day we’ve been in danger, but you keep standing around! Is this a game to you?”
    “I wasn’t standing around! I saw something—”
    “Oh, stop it,” said Leeli. “Now’s not the time.” She leaned forward and rested her head between Nugget’s ears. The dog whined and wagged its