Tally gulped a few breaths of smoky air, then was slapped in the face by a wave. She coughed and sputtered, struggling to stay afloat.
A shadow passed over her, blacking out the sky. Then her hand struck something-a familiar grippy surface….
Her hoverboard had come back to her! Just the way it always did when she spilled. The crash bracelets lifted her up until she could grab on to it, her fingers clinging to its knobbly surface as she gasped for air.
A high-pitched whine came from the nearby shore. Tally blinked away water from her eyes and saw that the Rusty machine had landed. Figures were jumping from the machine, spraying white foam at the ground as they crashed through the burning flowers and into the river. They were headed for her.
She struggled to climb onto the board.
"Wait!" the nearest figured called.
Tally rose shakily to her feet, trying to keep steady on the wet surface of the board. Her hard-baked shoes were slippery, and her sodden knapsack seemed to weigh a ton. As she leaned forward, a gloved hand reached up to grab the front of the board. A face came up from the water, wearing some sort of mask. Huge eyes stared up at her.
She stomped at the hand, crunching the fingers. They slipped off, but her weight was thrown too far forward, and the board tipped its nose into the water.
Tally tumbled into the river again.
Hands grabbed at her, pulling her away from the hoverboard. She was hoisted out of the water and onto a broad shoulder. She caught glimpses of masked faces: huge, inhuman eyes staring at her unblinkingly.
Bug eyes.
They pulled her to the shore and out of the water, hauling her to the flying machine.
Tally's lungs felt full of water and smoke. She could hardly take a breath without a wracking cough shaking her whole body.
"Put her down!"
"Where the hell did she come from?"
"Give her some oh-two."
They flopped Tally onto her back on the ground, which was thick with the white foam.
The one who'd carried her pulled off his bug-eyed mask, and Tally blinked.
He was a pretty. A new pretty, every bit as beautiful as Peris.
The man plunged the mask over her face. Tally fought weakly for a moment, but then cold, pure air surged into her lungs. Her head grew light as she gratefully sucked it down.
He pulled the mask off. "Not too much. You'll hyper-ventilate."
She tried to speak but could only cough.
"It's getting bad," another figure said. "Jenks wants to take her back up."
"Jenks can wait."
Tally cleared her throat. "My board."
The man smiled beautifully and glanced up. "It's headed over. Hey! Somebody stick that thing to the chopper! What's your name, kid?"
"Tally." Cough.
"Well, Tally, are you ready to move? The fire won't wait."
She cleared her throat and coughed again. "I guess so."
"Okay, come on." The man helped her up and pulled her toward the machine. She found herself pushed inside, where the noise was much less, crowded into the back with three others in bug-eyed masks.
A door slammed shut.
The machine rumbled, and then Tally felt it lift from the ground. "My board!"
"Relax, kid. We got it." The woman pulled her mask off. She was another young pretty.
Tally wondered if these were the people in the clue. The "fire-bug eyes." Was she supposed to be looking for them?
"Is she going to make it?" a voice popped through the cabin.
"She'll live, Jenks. Make the usual detour, and work the fire a little on the way home."
Tally looked down as the machine climbed. Their flight followed the course of the river, and she saw the fires spreading across to the other shore, driven by the wind of its passage. Occasionally, the craft would shoot out a gout of flame.
She looked at the faces of the crew. For new pretties, they seemed so determined, so focused on their task. But their actions were madness. "What are you guys doing?" she said.
"A little burning."
"I can see that. But why?"
"To save the world, kid. But hey, we're real sorry about your getting in the way."
They called themselves rangers.
The one who'd pulled her from the river was called Tonk. They all spoke with an accent, and came from a city Tally had never heard of.
"It's not too far from here," Tonk said. "But we rangers spend most of our time out in the wild. The fire helicopters are based in the mountains."
"The firewhats?"
"Helicopters. That's what you're sitting in."
She looked around at the rattling machine, and shouted over the noise, "It's so Rusty!"
"Yeah. Vintage stuff, a few pieces of it are almost two hundred years old. We copy the parts as they wear out."
"But why?"