29

12:00 A.M.

FLAME-BRINGER

"What do you mean, Dess?" Rex asked.

"When the defenses ate Jessica's darkling, my clean metal got very dirty. It's starting to sputter out."

Jessica looked up at the edge of the pit. The ring of lightning surrounding them looked weaker. The flashes no longer blinded when they shot up into the sky, the bolts of blue pale and tentative.

"I know," Rex said. "But I thought you could fix it."

"We did what we could. I don't have enough clean steel. Someone left my duffel bag out on the desert."

"You walked away from your duffel bag," Rex replied, "when you were getting all Amazon with your spear."

"Somebody had to kill that tarantula," Dess shouted.

"You didn't kill it, you turned it into an army," Rex yelled, "which some of us almost drowned in."

"You don't drown in an army!"

"Stop it!"

Melissa's cry silenced Rex and Dess. Jessica saw that their argument had drained the color from her face. She was doubled over in agony.

"Sorry, Melissa," Rex said. He took a deep breath.

"There's nothing I can do, Rex," Dess said softly.

Jessica looked up into the sky. Through the sputtering ceiling of lightning she could see slithers swirling around the snake pit. At the lip of the crater a host of tiny eyes gazed down at her. The spiders had surrounded the pit and peered down at them expectantly.

"It's up to you, Jessica."

She looked at Rex helplessly. "What am I supposed to do? You all keep acting like I know something. Like I'm someone special."

Jonathan grasped her hand, and she felt his reassuring weightlessness flow into her. "It's okay, Jess. We'll figure it out."

"What does 'flame-bringer' mean, Rex?" Dess asked.

"I can't be sure. I'd have to do more - "

"There isn't time to go look it up in the lore, Rex," Jonathan interrupted. "What do you think it means?"

Rex looked over at the shaft of stone, biting his lip. Melissa pulled her head from her hands and looked up at him.

"You're not serious," she said.

Dess laughed. "You think it's literal, don't you? You think she can use fire. Real fire."

"In the secret hour?" Jonathan asked.

"That would kick butt," Dess said. "Red fire in the blue time."

Rex looked at Melissa.

"It makes sense, I guess," she said. "At least it's something that would scare them enough to explain all this."

"But you said fire didn't work here," Jessica said.

Rex nodded. "That's right. That's why they created the secret hour in the first place. The whole point of the Split was to escape technology. Fire, electronics, all the new ideas." He turned to Jessica. "But you've come to make them face fire again. You could change everything."

"Well, don't just stand there making speeches about it," Dess said. "Anyone got any matches?"

"No."

"No."

"No."

Melissa shook her head. "Some flame-bringer. Too bad we didn't get the match-bringer."

"Hey, I asked about matches," Jessica said. "And Rex said they'd be - "

A cracking sound pealed through the snake pit, along with a blinding flash, and a dead slither fell to the ground next to Dess.

"Oh, yuck!" she cried, holding her nose at the smell.

Melissa raised her head to the sky. "They know it's fading. They're coming closer."

"Okay," Rex said. "Maybe we don't need matches. We can start a fire the old-fashioned way."

"With what? Flint or something?" Jonathan said.

"Or two sticks. You rub them together," Dess said.

"Sticks?" Jessica looked around. "I'm not the stick-bringer either, and this is a desert."

"Here." Rex pulled off a steel ring from his boot. He picked up a rock from the ground. "Bang these together, Jess."

She took them from him and struck them against each other.

"Harder."

Jessica held the rock firmly and brought the metal down against it as hard as she could.

A spark flew, bright red in the blue light.

"Oh, yeah," Dess said. "Did you see that color?"

Jessica glanced at Rex. It hadn't looked like much to her.

His mouth had fallen open. "Fire," he murmured.

"Yeah, but sparks won't stop an army," Jonathan said. "We need to start a blaze."

Dess nodded. "Too bad there's no kindling out here. Does anyone have any paper?"

Jessica pulled Dess's map to the snake pit out of her pocket. "I'll get this going. You guys try to find something else flammable." She knelt and put it on the ground, holding the rock next to it. She struck at it with the steel.

A few sparks came, but they bounced harmlessly off the paper.

A scream came from overhead. Jessica paused to look up. A darkling hovered right above them, daring the lightning. The blue fingers leapt up at the creature, hurling it back. But it descended once more, testing the defenses again and again. The sparks seemed to be driving it into a murderous rage.

"Keep whacking," Dess said.

Jessica turned back to the rock, trying to connect at a shallow angle. She missed with the metal ring, and her knuckles drove the rock into the sand. Pain shot through her hand.

Jessica pulled the rock from the sand and struck at it again. The sparks wouldn't come. Blood welled up on her knuckles, and the cut on her ring finger began to throb with her heartbeat.

This wasn't working.

"How long before midnight ends?" she heard Jonathan ask.

"Not soon enough," Dess said.

Jessica kept pounding away at the rock. A few more sparks flew, but the paper wouldn't ignite.

"It's not happening," she said. "Maybe two stones?"

"Here." Jonathan knelt next to her, handing her another rock. She struck them together.

Nothing.

She looked at her watch. Twenty minutes before the end of the hour. The flashes of lightning were fading visibly around them.

"Jessica."

"I'm trying, Jonathan."

"Your watch."

"What?"

He pointed at the watch. "It's working."

Jessica looked at it uncomprehendingly. She realized that she hadn't worn it in the midnight hour before. She always took it off before going to bed.

"It's working," Jonathan repeated, "and it's electronic - it's not a windup."

"Here they come," Dess whispered.

Jessica looked up. The circle of blue lightning around the snake pit had died, exposing the dark moon over their heads. The darkling overhead was descending warily. The wind from its wing beats stirred the dust around her.

"Jessica," Rex said softly. "We need a fire now."

She picked up the rocks again but paused.

She remembered the new building at Aerospace Oklahoma, where she and Jonathan had taken refuge the weekend before. When Jessica had seen it tonight, it had been ablaze with lights. They must be lighting it every night. All night.

"Jessica..."

A sound came from all around them, a rushing noise. The tarantulas were pouring into the snake pit from every direction.

"No," Rex said softly.

Jessica pushed the little button on the side of her watch, and the tiny night-light glowed white in the blue light. It said 12:42.

Jonathan met her eyes, his jaw wide open.

"Forget these," Jessica said, dropping the two rocks to the ground. She pulled the flashlight from her pocket and held it to her lips.

"Serendipitous," she said.

She turned it toward the surging sea of tarantulas and switched it on.

A cone of white light leapt from the flashlight, and the spiders began to scream.