Dom turned on them angrily.
“Bad idea to lie to us,” he said.
“Bren is helping the villages,” Nem said. “I don't see why you're so upset with him.”
The other riders had gotten off of their horses and stood behind Dom, frowning at them all. Kru just stood there with them like he had been part of the conversation all along.
“You don't know what's going on,” Dom said. “You don't have a clue. We're not your enemies. Everything in the Underworld is.”
Mat snorted.
“Twelve men chasing down one old man. That's the good guys?”
Dom shook his head.
“I don't have time for this. I was going explain why you need the Iron City's help. We have agreements with villages now. We protect them from the Underworld.”
Rab frowned.
“Agreements. I'm guessing you get something too?”
Dom waved his hand to the south.
“The villages need us and we need the villages. You send people to tell us what's happening. In return we offer you our protection. You saw what we did to that bunch.”
He looked at Jak.
“Tell them about the Underworld Nest,” he said.
Jak nodded.
“It's gone. They used the TNT. And they have enchanted weapons. There's nothing left there now. There's just dirt and rock.”
“You see,” Dom said. “That's the Iron City's protection. We're the only thing that's keeping the Underworld out. If they can grab Bren...”
He shook his head.
“It's too awful to think about,” he said. “They're strong enough the way they are now. If they can start making things, enchanting weapons, making potions? We won't stand a chance.”
“And all we have to do is whatever you say?” Nem said.
One of the riders made an angry noise.
“You've lied to us, stolen from us, and that's after we saved you all!” he said. “We're the ones who should be wondering if you're worth helping!”
“That's enough,” Dom said to him.
“We didn't steal from you,” Nem said. “Bren doesn't belong to you.”
Kru looked at her seriously.
“You're wrong not to trust the Iron City,” he said. “They're working for everyone.”
Nem snorted and rolled her eyes.
“You just walk in acting like you’re in charge of everything and tell us we should trust you?” she said.
Jak held up his hand.
“Look, can we have some time to think about it? Talk about it? As a village, I mean,” he said.
Dom shook his head.
“Like I said, I don't have time. We need to go after Bren, right now,” he said. “You can talk to Kru if you have any questions.”
“What is it you'd want from us?” Jak said. “Tell us that.”
“If you decide this is where you will make your village, then you would be our eyes out here. If anything happens, you send someone to tell us,” Dom said, climbing up onto his horse.
“Anything? Like what?” Mat said.
“Anything strange. Whatever we should know.”
“That's all?” Rab said.
“No, of course not. Since you're all makers now, we will want iron, gold, tools, whatever you create. People too, if we're short. Not all of it, just enough so that we have what we need.”
“Anything else?” Nem said. “A comfy pillow? Maybe a bunch of cakes?”
Dom stared at her.
“The Iron City protects the villages. If you aren't with us, then you're on your own. You'll be an outlaw village. No help from anyone, ever.”
He turned his horse and rode away from them. The other riders jumped up on theirs and together they rode away across the water and headed off after Bren and Pru.
Kru sighed.
“I'm not staying either. The Scouting group will be back sooner or later. You can tell them your decision then,” he said.
Rab and Nem both whirled around on him.
“Who are you?” Rab said. “You're from the Iron City too?”
Kru nodded.
“I work on my own. I look for wandering villagers, find villages. I'm sort of a scout as well. I'm looking for things from the Underworld.”
“You mean Firethralls, Gray Walkers? Things like that?” Jak said.
“Things like that,” Kru said. “But they look like people. Just like you and me.”
“We met one of those,” Nem said. “It travelled with us. It looked just like a little girl, until it turned into a Firethrall.”
“Where is it now?” Mat said. “How did you get away?”
“We killed it,” Rab said, and wiggled the sword at his hip. “It wasn't easy.”
Kru nodded.
“They told us their story. I'm honestly impressed with how they're watching out for them now.”
“How’s that?” Jak said.
“The witch,” Rab said. “They can tell.”
“It took some time to convince Rezab to help us,” Nem said, “But they hate things from the Underworld more than they hate being around villagers.”
“Ah,” said Mat. “That's what the business in the swamp was about!”
“I was going to tell you about it,” said Rab, “But things have been kind of busy.”
“We had to make sure you weren't one of them,” Nem said.
“This is exactly the kind of information I look out for,” Kru said. “Witches don’t usually cooperate. We’ve never been able to get them to come anywhere near us. But if it’s possible, then we need to start working on that.”
Rab gave Kru a hard look.
“So,” he said. “You've been watching us this whole time? Were you ever going to tell us the truth?”
“If I thought it was a good idea,” Kru said. “I wasn't trying to trick you. Really I'm trying to help too, in my own way.”
“What about when we were attacked then? Why didn’t you help?”
“I’m no warrior.”
“So you would have just died like all of us?”
Kru looked away.
“I had my own plans. That’s all I’ll say about it.”
“What now?”
He shrugged.
“You should finish the house. Build your village. You have everything you need, right?”
“I mean what about the Iron City?” Jak said. “What happens now with them?”
Kru waved it away.
“They have a lot of things to worry about,” he said. “You're not going to be high on the list.”
Finishing the roof on the house took the rest of the morning. Some of the villagers spent the time experimenting with making things. It was obviously going to take a while before they could make everything they wanted. Kru even gave them a few helpful tips, which seemed to make Nem trust him a little bit more.
After lunch Iri came running up to Jak and Mat holding a pile of something in her hands.
“Look!” she said. “There's a whole bunch of iron ore on the other side of the island!”
“Well done,” said Jak. “Maybe we won't have to start climbing up into the mountains for a while yet.”
Iri grinned and ran off to show the others.
Jak's smile faded after she left, though.
“I'm glad they're going to start on the garden,” he said. “But all I can think about is a wall. A real one. Maybe all the way around the island.”
“You think that could stop the Iron City if they wanted in?” Mat said.
Jak shook his head.
“Not a chance. I saw what they did to the Underworld Nest. They're good, and they're way stronger than us. For now anyway.”
“So why the wall?”
“Suppose the witch, what was her name? Rezab? Suppose she finds one of those things trying to sneak in here? How can we keep it out?”
Mat nodded. He had a point.
“You can start work on your library soon,” Jak said.
Mat sighed and looked over at Rab and Nem, who were showing some of the bigger villagers how to use the basic swords that they'd made.
“About that...” he said. He didn't really want to say it out loud. It was going to make it too real. But what else could he do?
“What is it?” Jak said. He was half smiling.
“You already guessed?” Mat said.
“I saw the way you were talking to Rab and Nem,” Jack said. “You're going with them?”
Mat shrugged.
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“Part of me just wants to help build the village. But part of me... one of us should actually see the Iron City. I need to go that far, and maybe I can help them along the way.”
Jak laughed.
“What's funny?” Mat said.
“It seems backwards, don’t you think? I should be the one going out to fight monsters.”
“They need you here,” Mat said. “You're going to be their leader. It's obvious.”
With Ell sneaking away, and with Rab and Nem gone, Jak was obviously the Council head. Mat thought he'd be good at it, too.
But when Mat thought about just sitting down in the library, while everyone else worked to understand what was happening, to save the wandering villagers, to make the village safe, he knew he wouldn't be able to enjoy it. He had to do something. Even if it was cold and hungry and uncomfortable.
“I'm looking forward to making this place as big and as safe as we can,” Jak said. “The Island City, we'll call it. By the time you get back we'll have our own high-level armor.”
He looked determined, and Mat believed him.
“There's one other reason I want to go,” Mat said. “I'm going to bring back books for the library from the Stronghold, if we find it. All the plans and recipes and formulas I can. Everything I can get my hands on.”
Jak nodded.
“Good,” he said. “You'll be our own Scout.”
Mat realized it was kind of true. Just as long as he actually made it back alive again, anyway.
“Then you can write a book about it,” Jak said.
The thought kind of cheered him up.
Kru left as soon as he was finished eating. He waved goodbye to everyone, but then he grabbed Mat and Jak and Rab and Nem and took them out past the new stone wall out to the mainland. He seemed to want a private word with all of them.
“Where are you going now?” Rab said.
Kru pointed north, in the direction he and Jak had come from.
“Up that way,” he said.
“Are you okay on your own?” Mat said. Kru was another one of the villagers-without-a-village who didn't seem to mind it very much.
It's a whole new kind of villager, he thought. Though calling them villagers didn't make much sense.
“I can take care of myself,” Kru said.
Mat believed him.
“You'll come back this way again?” Rab said.
“Probably,” Kru said. “If I find some more lost villagers with nowhere to go, I'll bring them here.”
“Good,” said Nem. “This won't be the kind of village that says no.”
“Glad to hear it,” Kru said. Then he dropped his voice to nearly a whisper, even though nobody else was anywhere near them all.
“Look,” he said. “There could be somebody else from the Iron City here, watching us. Watching me. But I know you're looking for the Deep Witch and I wanted to give you some advice.”
“How did you know about that?” Mat said. Nem looked angry and suspicious again. Jak and Rab just stared at him.
“Knowing things is my job. It’s what I do out here,” Kru said. “But take this as a lesson. Don’t talk about things you don’t want everyone to know if there’s anyone around who can listen.”
Jak looked like he was thinking about every conversation he’d ever had with anyone on the island. Villagers loved to gossip, but Mat had never had to think about there being someone who seriously shouldn't hear.
“What is it you want to tell us?” said Rab.
Kru frowned for a moment, then said, “You should work with the Iron City, but be careful. The Council is... too much like Ell. Once they find her and take her there, she’ll probably fit right in.”
“They just want to be the boss?” Nem said.
“They don’t see the big picture,” Kru said. “They haven’t been outside in ages. They don’t hear anything except what they want to hear. We can’t stop the Underworld if we don’t understand why and how this is happening.”
“So you’re against the Iron City?” Nem said.
“No!” said Kru. “They're right about Bren. And Ell now, too. If the Underworld takes them, we’re all doomed. Imagine a Void Archon that can make things! Tools. Traps. It would be horrible.”
“Then you think we should leave all the villages defenseless?” said Rab. “Nobody can make anything, and they just have to run away into the night when the Firethralls come?”
“That’s why I’m out here,” Kru said. “That’s why the Iron City’s protection matters!”
“Stupid,” Nem said. “You need to work with Bren. And Ell too, I suppose. Protect them while they give the maker gift to everyone!”
Kru just shook his head.
“Whatever happens, they can't be out on their own,” he said. “If we lose them to the Underworld just one time, everything is over. The risks are too high. We have to control them.”
“Why are you telling us this?” Mat said.
“So you'll understand what I say next,” Kru said.
But before Kru could say anything, Rab jumped in.
“Who is the Deep Witch?” he said. “Why did Yob want us to find her?”
Kru just shook his head.
“Never heard of her until now,” he said. “But if she’s connected with the Stronghold, then that’s interesting, for sure. The Iron City thinks there’s some really important player creations down there, since it’s protected so well.”
“How well?” said Mat.
“Aegisite, for a start. Ridiculous amounts of it. We call it the Aegisite Stronghold,” said Kru. “Diamond tools cut through it, but very very slowly. Explosives do nothing.”
Rab's face fell.
“So they're trying to get in?”
“Have been for a long time. Last I heard they were twenty layers deep, but it can't go on forever.”
We're too late, Mat thought. The Iron City is going to get in there first.
Kru sighed.
“But it doesn't matter,” he said. “Because right now, something else is going to get in before we do.”
“Something else?” said Nem. “What? Who?”
“I don't know. Nobody does. But something is tunneling in, deep underground.”
“Another place like the Iron City?” said Nem.
“No,” said Kru. “No, it won't be that. It's far stranger.”
“Strange how?” said Mat.
“The tunnels are just... water. A few scouts managed to get down there and back up again. That's what we think they were trying to tell us, anyway.”
“You think?” said Nem.
“Most of them didn't come back. The ones who did are crazy. Their minds are scrambled. It's hard to understand them, but it seems like the tunnels are full of water.”
“What would be doing that?”
“Nobody knows. But whatever it is, they're getting closer all the time, and faster than we are. Sometimes you can feel rumbling from deep below, even in the Iron City. Nobody knows what they’re using.”
“Sounds like you think we should just give up,” Nem said.
Kru frowned at her.
“No, that's not what I'm saying at all. I'm saying you can't just go there and expect to walk in. Plus there's not much time left.”
“Tell us where it is, then,” said Nem. She looked at Kru defiantly.
Kru sighed and shook his head.
“The Aegisite Stronghold is south of the Iron City, about a two day walk. Deep in old player lands. Be careful down there. Don’t mess with anything you don’t understand. Lots of traps around,” he said. “That’s just practical advice.”
“Okay,” said Nem. “What else?”
Kru gave her an annoyed glance.
“I’m trying to help you, believe it or not,” he said. “Second of all, it’s deep below the glass tower. You’ll know it if you see it.”
“Glass tower, got it,” Rab said.
“And like I just said,” said Kru, “You're not getting anywhere near it. Not that way.”
“What do you think we should do, then?” said Rab.
“I don't know. Maybe you'll find your own way in. You probably won't, but Bren trusted you, and I'm sure he knows more than he ever told us, so I'm helping you.”
Mat looked at Rab and Nem.
“What can the three of us do that the Iron City can't?” he said. It sounded silly just to say it out loud. The Iron City had everything, the three of them didn't have anything. Literally.
Kru shook his head. “They keep doing the same things over and over. They don't listen to anyone. If we just leave it to them, we're probably going to lose.”
“It still sounds like you're saying don’t go there,” said Nem.
She looked like she was twice as determined to go now.
“I’m saying be smart,” Kru said, frowning. “Don’t do what doesn’t work.”
“Aren’t you on their side?”
“I am. And what they need right now is for people not to listen to them once in a while,” Kru said.
Nem would have kept arguing with him until the sun went down, but Kru was obviously getting ready to leave. He adjusted his robe and checked his inventory one last time.
He gave Jak a nod.
“I hope you'll agree to cooperate with them,” he said. “Even if they’re like Ell.”
Jak nodded back.
“We'll listen to whoever comes here,” he said. “But they're not going to own us.”
Kru sighed and turned to go.
“Just be careful, alright?” he said. “Villagers fighting villagers is the very last thing any of us needs.”
The he looked at Rab and Nem and Mat one last time.
“But you three can’t wait,” he said. “I don't know how much time is left, but it isn't a lot. Good luck.”
They got to spend one more night in the new house.
Mat had strange dreams all night – in the last one he was wandering through a maze of water and darkness, but sometimes it was all shining metal and bright light. Someone was yelling instructions at him, telling him how to get through the maze but every time he made another turn it was wrong and they yelled at him again. He was annoyed and wanted the voice to shut up, but they just wouldn't stop.
He woke up before dawn, frustrated and with a head full of confusion.
Nem was sitting up in another corner of the house, sorting through all of the Bonewalker arrows they had collected and putting them carefully into her inventory. She looked over at Mat.
“You should rest,” she said. “This might be the last comfortable night for a while.”
He shrugged.
“I can't. I'm done sleeping.”
She heaved a sigh.
“Me too. We need to get going. Do you want to just go as soon as the sun is up?”
Mat looked around at the sleeping villagers. There was nothing for him to do here. He knew what he was going to do – what he was going to be good for – but he couldn't do it sitting here in the house.
“Yeah,” he said. “I guess so.”
“You can practice with the sword while we walk. Kill some plants.”
He pulled out the new iron sword that Mit the Blacksmith had made.
With all the other things the village needed, there wasn't enough iron to make any armor for him, and there was no time left to wait around for more, so he was still just wearing his robes.
Hopefully I can get some armor in the Iron City, Mat thought. With a name like that, they'd better have a little bit to spare.
Before they left, Rab and Jak talked for a while on their own. Mat guessed that it was about the villagers – since Rab had basically been head of their council until now. Mat would probably have felt left out, if he hadn't been so anxious to get going.
But then Jak came over and slapped him on the shoulder.
“Part of me wishes I was going instead of you, you know,” Jak said.
“I know,” Mat said. “But they need you here.”
“Yeah,” Jak said. “I know, I know.”
He was grinning, though. Mat thought he'd probably enjoy being head of the council almost as much.
On their way past the swamp, Mat saw something moving in the trees. He stopped to stare, and realized that it was the witch, peering out at them. Her weird raggedy clothes nearly blended in with the plants.
Should you wave at witches? Does that make them mad?
He decided to take a chance, and gave her a little wave.
She didn't react at all, so Mat turned to go. But just as he started to turn he saw her hand move, and a bright green flash shot up into the air.
Rab and Nem both jumped turned around, looking ready to fight.
“What was that?” Rab said, drawing his sword.
Mat waved his hand at them to relax.
“Rezab was watching us,” Mat said. “I think she was saying goodbye.”
Rab tried to see her, but she had already disappeared into the moss and trees.
Nem just shrugged and kept walking.
Before the forest closed in behind them, Mat took one last look back at the village.
Some of the villagers were laying down a line of stone bricks. He could see Jak with them, pointing and giving orders.
They’ll have a wall all around the whole island before very long, he thought.
But who ever heard of a village surrounded by a wall?
On the other hand maybe it could be a safe place for all the villagers. All the ones who didn't want to do whatever the Iron City said, anyway.
He was excited to see the Iron City, but more than anything else his mind kept turning to what Yob had said about the dark and deserted library in the Aegisite Stronghold, with its thousands and thousands of books collecting dust in the dark.
A new village – the Island City, like Jak had said. One thing it was going to need was a library. A library worthy of a city, filled with every bit of knowledge from everywhere, including how to craft anything that could be crafted.
He imagined setting them all up again, in their own library, with Librarians quietly walking up and down the stacks, and people sitting in corners learning everything they needed to know and more. He could see himself finally sitting down with a pen and an empty book, and starting to write the history of the Underworld Invasions.
But that was in the future. For now he needed to be able to tell everyone what was happening, and more importantly why it was happening. They needed to know how to stop the Underworld from breaking through into the world.
But for that, they would have to find a way in to the Aegisite Stronghold. Somehow. And then find the Deep Witch. Whoever she was.
“Hey!” Nem yelled back at them. “You coming or what?”
He and Rab both turned and jogged to catch up with her.