"I didn't know these things weighed so much."

"Yeah, this is what a board weighs when it's not hovering. Out here, you find out that the city fools you about how things really work."

The sky was getting cloudier, and in the darkness the cold seemed more intense. Tally hoisted the board up to get a better grip, wondering if it was going to rain. She was already wet enough from the rapids. "I kind of like being fooled about some things."

After a long scramble through the rocks, Shay broke the silence. "This way. There's a natural vein of iron underground. You can feel it in your crash bracelets. "

Tally held out one hand and frowned, unconvinced. But after another minute she felt a faint tugging in her bracelet, like a ghost pulling her forward. Her board started to lighten, and soon she and Shay had hopped on again, coasting over a ridge and down into a dark valley.

Onboard, Tally found the breath to ask a question that had been bugging her. "So if hoverboards need metal, how do they work on the river?"

"Panning for gold."

"What?"

"Rivers come from springs, which come from inside mountains. The water brings up minerals from inside the earth. So there's always metals at the bottom of rivers."

"Right. Like when people used to pan for gold?"

"Yeah, exactly. But, actually, boards prefer iron. All that glitters is not hovery."

Tally frowned. Shay sometimes talked in a mysterious way, like she was quoting the lyrics of some band no one else listened to.

She almost asked, but Shay came to a sudden halt and pointed downward.

The clouds were breaking, and moonlight shot through them to fall across the floor of the valley. Hulking towers rose up, casting jagged shadows, their human-made shapes obvious against the plain of treetops rippling in the wind.

The Rusty Ruins.

The Rusty Ruins