Summary

Tristan and his friends are captured by Ridgefolk guards. They say they must take them to speak before a council. Tristan's guard is a girl just a few years older than him. Her name is Thandiwe. The guards stuff Chestnutt and Gum Baby into a sack. A floating obsidian skateboard-like device waits for them at the cliff's edge. The skateboard jumps from rail to rail, dipping and diving. To Tristan, it's like skating on a handrail at a skate park, but infinitely scarier. Thandiwe drops them down onto an elevated platform right int he middle of the mountain floor. They are in a great cavern. Ridge folk come out of their homes to gather around Ayanna, Chestnutt, Tristan, and Gum Baby, who also travelled via the boards. Tristan realizes this isn't an interrogation; it's a trial. An elderly woman with gray dreadlocks steps...