WHEN HEROES FALL

by Abby J. Reed

I settled on the bike and Malani got on behind me. “Ready?”

  She nodded.

  “Wait!” Cal rushed down the stairs. Behind him were three people—a Heron woman, if the blood stains had anything to say, and my parents.

  I looked everywhere except at them.

  Luka growled, prowling along the stairs as though to shove Cal back inside. “You shouldn’t be out here, Chief.”

  Cal waved him off and beckoned the woman forward. She walked with feet turned out wide and looked as though stress had stretched her out. She opened a bound notebook, ripped out the last couple pages, and presented them to us. Lines and circles covered the surface. She spoke several sentences in Heron.

  Malani translated, “She says there’s a back entrance through the Heron fortress to the tower. It’s shorter, but much more dangerous. This is a guide for the paths. They are intentionally misleading.”

  I looked over the map. “This looks like one of Brody’s toddler drawings. But we should be able to head straight for the tower. Tell her thanks though.”

  The woman spoke again.

  “She says her husband had noticed an Extrat slipping through their defenses. He had been tasked with hunting it down. He had tracked it into the valley, into the neutral zone, he’d almost caught up to it when they lost contact with him. It killed him. They found his body downstream a septdia later.”

  For a sec, I could hear nothing else save the buzzing in my ears.

  “A brave man,” Malani continued translating. “Despite how much he loved this planet, he would’ve wanted us to leave. She says she wants you to know you’re doing the right thing.”

  Almost caught up to it.

  My mouth couldn’t function right. “How . . . How long ago did your husband die?”

  “A little over two monsas ago. It was raining. A patrol was out looking for him when they found you starting up that ship and brought you to our king.”

  I stared at the woman. My throat was nothing short of raw when I choked out, “Thank you for telling me.”

  Brody. Brody had killed her husband. Not the Extrat. There were four creatures in the forest that evening. Me, Brody, the Heron, and the Extrat. And I had seen it, through the trees and the drizzling, bending down. I hadn’t known what I was seeing at the time . . . But now that I knew, I could dredge up the memory, spot the glints of moonslight off its metal skin . . .

  I was going to puke.

  Should I tell her the truth? Or was it better for her not to know?

  Did it even matter?

  If her husband had returned or reached out to his patrol one last time to lead them in a different direction . . . I never would’ve been found on that ship. Malani would’ve died in those cells. King Oma would’ve never offered me that deal.

  Actions were like a scroll. You grabbed what you thought you searched for, but the consequences kept unrolling. Every time you thought you reached the end, there was still more to unroll. Would there ever be an end? Or did every action we take ripple across time and space in ways we could never understand?

  It was enough to make your head hurt.

  The Heron woman patted my arm and trotted toward the center for the relative safety of the underground.

  Luka tugged out his comm. “Let’s go.”

  Mom raised her hand, pleading. “Wait, please.”

  I hadn’t spoken with my parents since I left behind the Hope. I hadn’t wanted to. Hadn’t needed to. Didn’t want to ruin the last moments we possibly could have together with an accusation. But I was putting my life on the line again. The least I could do was say goodbye. “Three more mins won’t hurt, Luka.”

  Luka frowned, his right foot tapping with impatience. “Three mins then.”

  I slid off the bike, grabbed her by the arm, and led my parents behind the nearest rock heap. What was I supposed to say?

  Mom nudged my dad. “Gershom?”

  My dad pressed one hand against his back. He stared at the ground as though words weren’t coming to him either. “I, uh, you shouldn’t go.” His cheeks reddened. “If this is about what I said earlier. I didn’t—” He breathed deep. “If this is you trying to make me change my mind, I want you to know I will always love you and—”

  “No, Dad, no. That’s not it.” I hooked my thumb into my waistband.

  “We’re trying to say we don’t want you to go,” Mom said. “I know we were a bit harsh . . .” The we was clearly an indictment on my dad. “But we don’t want to lose you. Please, please don’t break boundary.”

  My dad muttered something suspiciously close to please.

  “Two mins,” Luka said.

  I didn’t respond. I stared all awkward-like at the bulges of Circuit stretching my pant leg. The pressure inside my chest built up in the silence.

  “Breaker?” Mom’s voice wasn’t even a whisper.

  “Why didn’t you tell me Malvyn was my dad?” The words burst out like a flash flood, louder than I meant them to be.

  “Time’s up,” Luka called. “We gotta move now.”

  “One sec,” I snapped.

  My mom purpled as though I had slapped her. Maybe I meant for my words to have that effect. Maybe I just wanted to clear the air before I left. There was a good chance we’d never even reach the tower, after all.

  My dad sighed. He tucked his arm around her for support. “It’s your choice, hun.”

  Mom nodded, her body limp as though a needle had poked her insides and deflated every blood cell. “We signed our spousals young, like everyone else, and had Brandon right away. I was so proud of my family. But when Brandon was young, we had a difficult time in our marriage. It was both our faults, in a way.” My dad nodded at this. “We weren’t willing to work through the problems and, well, I regret it now, but it made sense then because we both were so angry at each other . . .” My mom straightened and looked me square in the eye. “I had an affair with Chief Malvyn. He can be quite charming, when he has a mind to be—”

  “Charming, a leader with a vision, decisive,” my dad cut in. It was obviously a list that had been repeated to him several times.

  Mom rolled her eyes. “We kept the affair quiet. But then your dad and I started to work things out and I ended it. Malvyn didn’t take it well. He likes to get what he wants. I’m sorry. I’m sorry we didn’t tell you.” She grasped at my cap, trying to cling to anything to hold me back. “Please, please,” she whispered. “Don’t let that be why you’re doing this.”

  I shook my head. “That’s not why either, Mom.” I thought hearing the confirmed truth would light a fire ‘neath my ass. I thought hearing the confirmed truth would make me want to leave even more. But it didn’t.

  Just, somebody else who failed . . . And was still reaping the consequences.

  Another hero, another villain.

  I drew her into a firm hug. And then I reached out my other arm and pulled Dad into the embrace. “I’m going because I love you both. I’m going to save you. And then I’m going to get Brody back.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Brandon’s gravecross was gone, as were the others, erased in the flash flood. Instead of heading toward the river, we followed what remained of a game trail south, breaking free to continue west once it bent in the wrong direction.

  The scars of bombs lined the ground. Couldn’t tell if they were misfirings of the Elik or deliberate on the part of the Herons. But the result was the same: Trees uprooted like limbs in seizure. Rocks tossed around like rags after one of Cal’s surgeries. Great scourging marks revealed an even deeper crimson. Water welled in the depths, like tears caught in a cup.

  Scarlatti was weeping.

  And then there were the bodies.

  People running away from the Extrats, running away from the flood, or even running toward the compoun
d. Running, running, running, and would never make it. Their blank and eye-gouged faces littered the forest, blood in all color shades. Bloated bodies impaled on bent and broken branches as the flood swept them away. Every once in a while, we passed an Extrat taken down by an Elik. The smell was terrible, a constant gag in the back of the throat. A miracle the wind didn’t blow from this direction to greet us when we landed.

  Eventually, the trees thinned a little, then broke to reveal the Heron cliff. A giant blockade jutting from the soil, rising so high I lost the top even if I tipped my head back. To think we jumped off of this . . .

  Malani repositioned her hands from my waist to the bike itself. “Ready!” she hollered into my ear.

  I drove straight at the cliff, not slowing. My body tightened as I remembered Luka’s instructions. If I didn’t time this right, we’d splat. The cliff wall rushed at us, stretching bigger and bigger and bigger, growing closer and closer and closer—

  “Now!” she shouted.

  I yanked on the handles, throwing our weight backward, and at the same time gunning the bike. Malani created drag, and her wings flapped shadows on the wall. With the sudden force, the bike skipped into the air, the mags switching from using the mineral deposits in the ground to the deposits in the cliff.

  The momentum shot us straight up the wall.

  In the air, Malani pushed against the bike, preventing the magnetic polarity from bouncing us off. The bike wobbled, but held against Malani’s shoving. The ground shrunk farther and farther beneath us as we rode vertically along the wall. The minerals glinted rose in the light.

  Suddenly, the vein skipped to the side. “Left!”

  Malani adjusted as I maneuvered to the vein. We hopped veins as we traveled higher and higher.

  If they used a ‘scope, could they see us from the compound?

  Wind rushed past and I let out a happy yell. I’d never been able to go this fast on a solabike. Never found such an open area before. How ingrith was this?

  “Right!” I steered to the next vein.

  We neared the cliff top. It curved outward like the underside lip of a bowl.

  “Now!” I gunned the bike to its max. Malani timed one last hard shove and let go.

  I hit the bottom of the lip. The momentum of the bike and Malani’s force carried me along the underside, so I was suddenly upside down. The crimson floor of Scarlatti became my sky. The asteroid, twin suns, twin moons, and belt became the ground. My hair lifted off my head and the canvas bag dangled. I shot off the lip, falling backward over the valley.

  Out of the corner of my vision, Malani flew backward, gathered momentum and slammed into the bike.

  My breath knocked from my lungs, but suddenly, the bike was upright. A pause as grav took hold. My stomach sloshed as I again began to fall backward, a mere meter from the edge of the cliff.

  She grabbed onto the bike handles, her wings flapping furious as she heaved the bike toward the cliff top. A scream ripped from her throat as all of the pressure pressed into her knife wound.

  Almost, almost, the nose was just over the edge—

  I gunned the bike again. The nose of the bike found a mineral deposit. Gunned again again again as Malani heaved the bike farther onto the cliff.

  The bike shot forward and I slammed the brakes, skidding sideways to a stop, safe.

  Malani tumbled next to me, falling to the ground, chest heaving. She sprawled flat, her wings taut like a bug pinned to a board. “That was—” Pant. “—way worse than trying to fly you—” Pant. “—with that other prosthesis—” Pant, pant. “—off this cliff.”

  “But much faster.”

  In front of us, the Heron fortress loomed like a monster on its knees. Bodies littered the ground, like the monster had coughed up its insides before dying. Even the massive front doors had fallen in an act of surrender. There were no skin flags waving from the top. The only waving came from the clothing of the dead, caught in a breeze.

  The very nightmare that haunted the corner of my vision as I went on scouting duty, spent my horas in the workshop, visited my parents and Brody, snuck out with Tahnya, laughed with Cal was gone. All my life, I thought I’d be grateful, weep for joy at the sight of the threat wiped away. It’s what the entire compound dreamed of. Instead, there was only an empty space vibrating in my chest.

  I got off the bike and offered my hand. “How’s the wing?”

  Malani used my hand to sit up, groaning. She tugged the wing forward to inspect the spot. The film over the hole had peeled. “It didn’t tear all the way open. That was a good gamble. Good job, Luka.”

  She was still panting. That wound prolly hurt her worse than she let on. If we had another night to sleep, she might be all right afterward. But we had to get to the tower, a near straight shot along the mountain range from here.

  I glanced over the valley. The setting suns doused the scenery with a layer of pale gold. It should’ve been beautiful. But with the mist piled high in areas and the compound in pieces, it gilded the broke parts of Scarlatti and gave the entire view a right eerie feeling.

  My lips twisted as I watched the gray-black mist move like sap over the valley. From here, I could tell the Extrat mist was different from the wall of fog to the south. Flying in, it had only looked like it had expanded.

  I opened the satchel and found the solalight. Tried to power it on. “Pathetic.” I shook it. “They didn’t charge it at all.”

  “How could they?” Malani got to her feet. Her wings stretched around her as though shaking off the pain. “Everyone’s been in the underground.”

  “Well, it’s gonna make watching for roadblocks more difficult.”

  My cap rippled. It twisted into a thin dagger. I shoved the solalight back into the satchel.

  “Malani, up!”

  She shot into the air, wing be banged.

  A group of Extrats had lingered on the other side of the collapsed fortress doors. Malani’s scream had prolly alerted them. They rushed forward, spilling out of the fortress like a disease. There weren’t many, but enough.

  I leapt onto the bike. “Come on!”

  Malani plopped behind me. We veered right, straight in the direction of the tower. We got twenty meters before a wall of mist rose from a crevasse. I whipped the bike to avoid the finger-like shapes reaching to grab, to hold. We couldn’t pass it without driving right over the cliff. I followed along the mist, looking for a way through. How far did this crevasse reach?

  “It’s herding us back!” Malani yelled.

  I glanced at the oncoming horde. It was true. The mist wall curved, guiding us back toward the Extrats, blocking our way forward.

  An idea formed.

  I spun the bike around and aimed directly toward the oncoming Extrats. By the wind drag, I knew Malani’s wings were ready.

  The nearest Extrat launched at us. I thrust my dagger at its outstretched claws and ducked. It hit the ground and rolled back onto its feet. Clearly, I had been labeled as an enemy. And if these Extrats knew about it, that meant they had to have some sort of hive way of communicating. Which made sense. One substance, after all.

  My cap-dagger rippled into a whip. I flung it at the nearest Extrat in our way, ripping it aside. Malani’s wings slashed. My whip hurled. We cut our way through the small horde toward the entrance.

  The front doors formed a giant X-barricade with a gap at the bottom and a gap at the top. But if those Extrats came out of it and if we could squeeze through . . . I aimed the bike at the hole.

  The Extrats screamed behind us, chasing us down.

  I barreled toward the doors, flattened myself against the bike. Held my breath as the X shape reached over me. The bottom gap would barely be big enough—Circuit clanged against the sides—

  We were through!

  Mala
ni leaped off the bike as I skidded to a stop. She grabbed a jagged shard of the door and shoved it over the hole. Her body jolted as an Extrat on the outside pounded against it. I grabbed my satchel off the bike, fumbling for one of the explosives.

  “Hurry!” Malani yelled through gritted teeth. Her wings dug into the ground to anchor her. “I can’t keep holding them.” Her body jumped as an Extrat hit her barricade again.

  “One sec, one sec.” I wedged the explosive near Malani, setting the timer. Circuit rebelled as I backed away quick. “Move, move!”

  She hurled herself away from the hole. We threw ourselves onto the ground, hands over our heads.

  The Extrat kicked away the shard, its gleaming face triumphant. Then the explosive released.

  My eyes squeezed shut.

  The great fortress shuddered. The doors warped, chunks of ceiling fell. A long min passed before the rumbling stopped and the fortress breathed again and the dust finally swirled away. I opened my eyes in time to watch the doors finish collapsing, crushing whatever lay beneath them, sealing us off from the Extrats . . . And our way out.

  Chapter 27

  TAHNYA

  The Queen ordered Jupe beaten.

  The broadcast had played on the screen in our cell. As soon as Jupe directed the conversation toward the Extrats, I knew she was not going to be pleased. I expected more gas, not this.

  He was little more than a bloody lump when the royal soldiers tossed him inside. When I ran to him, he lolled over in my arms. I dragged his long body to the bed.

  The cuts and bruising seemed only surface level. No deep damage. I heaved a sigh of relief. No, sigh wasn’t a strong enough word. A mountain of relief moved inside my chest. There wasn’t much left of my tunic to tear, but I tried to wipe off some of the blood and clean him up.

  The entire time I kept one eye on the vent for any hint of lavender. My limbs still shook from the gas’s aftereffects. Even though the Queen had him bloodied, at least she kept her word. No more lavender.