drawing an impassable border around the villagers' world.
Tally saw it then, why the Specials could allow the village to exist. This wasn't just a few stray people living in the wilderness; it was someone's pet anthropology project, a preserve of some kind. Or … what had the Rusties called them?
This was a reservation.
And Tally was trapped inside.
'You don't have a way across?' Andrew finally asked.
Tally sighed, shaking her head. Her outstretched fingers felt the tingling here, as they had every other spot she'd tried over the last hour. The line of dolls stretched unbroken as far as she could see, and all of them seemed to be in perfect working order.
She stepped back from the edge of the world, and the prickling in her hands subsided. After her first experience, Tally hadn't tested the barrier further than the tingling stage— once was enough for that — but she was fairly certain that all the other dolls had just as much punch as the one that had brought her to her knees. City machines could last a long time, and there was plenty of solar power up there in the trees.
'No. There's no way.'
'I did not think so,' Andrew said.
'You sound disappointed.'
'I'd hoped you might show me…what is beyond.'
She frowned. 'I thought you didn't believe me, about there being more.'
Andrew shook his head vigorously. 'I believe you, Tally. Well, not about the airless void and gravity, but there must be something beyond. The city where you live must be real.'
'Lived,' she corrected him, sticking her fingers out again. The tingling traveled through them, feeling uncannily as if she'd sat on her hand for an hour or so. Tally stepped back and rubbed her arm. She had no idea what sort of technology the barrier was using, but it might not be very healthy to keep testing it. No point in risking permanent nerve damage.
The little dolls hung there, mocking her as they danced in the breeze. She was stuck here, inside Andrew's world.
Tally remembered all the tricks she'd pulled back in ugly days, sneaking out of dorms to cross the river at night, even crashing a party in Peris's mansion after he'd turned pretty. But her ugly skills didn't necessarily apply out here. As she'd learned in her conversation with Dr. Cable, the city was an easy place to trick. Security there was designed to stimulate uglies’ creativity, not to fry anyone's nervous system.
But this barrier had been created to keep dangerous pre-Rusty villagers away from the city, to protect campers and hikers and anyone else who might have wandered out into nature. These dolls weren't likely to succumb to Tally's tinkering with the point of her knife.
The thought of ugly tricks sent Tally's hand to the slingshot in her back pocket. It seemed like an unlikely way to trick the edge of the world, but maybe the direct approach was worth a try.
She found a smooth, flat stone and loaded it up, the leather creaking as she drew it back. Tally let fly, but missed the nearest doll by a meter or so. 'Guess I'm a little out of practice.'
'Young Blood!' Andrew said. 'Is that wise?'
She smiled. 'Afraid I'll break the world?'
'The stories say that the gods put these here, to mark the edge of oblivion.'
'Yeah, well. They're more like 'Keep Out' signs, or 'Keep In,' I guess — as in keeping you guys in your place. The world goes on for a whole lot farther, trust me. This is just a trick to keep you from knowing it.'
Andrew looked away, and Tally thought he was going to argue some more, but instead he knelt and lifted a rock the size of his fist. He pulled back his arm, took aim, and hurled it. Tally saw from the moment it left his hand that the stone was dead on-target. It struck the nearest doll and sent it spinning, the noose tightening around its neck, then the doll spun the other way, unwinding like a top.
'That was brave of you,' she remarked.
He shrugged. 'As I said, Young Blood, I believe what you say. Maybe this isn't really the edge of the world. If that is true, I want to see beyond.'
'Good for you.' Tally stepped forward and thrust out a hand. No change: Her fingertips buzzed with the latent energy in the air, the ants crawling up her arm until she pulled away. Of course. Any system designed to last for decades in the wild — surviving hailstorms, hungry animals, and lightning strikes — was probably more than a match for a few rocks.
'The little men are still doing their thing.' She rubbed life back into her fingers. 'I don't know how to get past this place, Andrew. But nice try.'
He was staring down at his empty hand, as if a little surprised at himself for challenging the gods' work. 'It is a strange thing to want to go past the edge of the world. Isn't it?'
She laughed. 'Welcome to my life. But I'm sorry to bring you all this way for nothing.'
'No, Tally. It was good to see.'
She tried to read his expression, a mix of puzzlement and intensity. 'To see what? Me getting serious nerve damage?'
He shook his head. 'No. Your slingshot.'
'Excuse me?'
'When I came here as a boy, I felt the little men crawling inside me and wanted to run back home.' He looked at her, still puzzled. 'But you wanted to sling a rock at them. You don't know some things that every child knows, but you are so certain about the shape of this…planet. You act as if…' He trailed off, his knowledge of the city language failing him.
'As if I see the world differently?'
'Yes,' he said softly, his intense expression deepening. Most likely, Tally thought, it had never occurred to him before now that people could see reality in completely different ways. Between surviving outsider attacks and getting enough food to live, villagers probably didn't have a lot of time for philosophical disagreements.
'That's the way it feels,' she said, 'once you get off the reservation, I mean, once you go beyond the edge of the world. Speaking of which, do you know for sure that no matter what direction we walk in, we'll run into these little guys?'
Andrew nodded. 'My father taught that the world is a circle, seven days' walk across. This is the nearest edge to our village. But my father once walked around the entire compass of the world.'
'Interesting. You think he was looking for a way out?'
Andrew frowned. 'He never said.'
'Well, I guess he didn't find one. So how am I going to escape this world of yours and get to the Rusty Ruins?'
Andrew was silent for a while, but Tally could tell he was thinking, taking one of his interminable delays to ponder her question. Finally, he said, 'You must wait for the next holy day.'
'The next what?'
'The holy days mark when the gods visit. And they will come in hovercars.'
'Oh, yeah?' Tally sighed. 'I don't know if you've figured this out yet, Andrew, but I'm not supposed to be here. If any elder gods see me, I'm busted.'
He laughed. 'Do you think I'm a fool, Tally Young Blood? I listened to your story about the tower. I understand that you have been cast out.'
'Cast out?'
'Yes, Young Blood. You bear this mark.' His fingers brushed her left brow.
'Mark? Oh, right …' For the first time since meeting the villagers, Tally remembered her flash tattoo. 'So you think this means something?'
Andrew bit his lip, dropping his eyes from her brow. 'I am not sure, of course. My father never taught me of such things. But in my village, we only mark those who have stolen.'
'Yeah, sure. But you thought I was…marked somehow?' He looked up sheepishly, and Tally rolled her eyes. No wonder the villagers had been so confused by her; they'd thought the flash tattoo was some kind of badge of shame. 'Listen, it's just a fashion statement. Or, um, let me put that another way. It's just something me and my
