They were close now; so close.
“Wake up!” She shook Sacmis’ slender shoulder, then again. “Sacmis?” She tugged at the mask on that still face and feared for a moment Sacmis was not breathing. This time she did almost crash the aircar as she tried to find a pulse.
“’M okay.” Sacmis batted at Hera’s hand and missed. “Stop it.”
Hera grinned widely. “Gods,” she whispered, “I love you.”
“What do the gods care if you love them?” Sacmis muttered irritably, still half asleep.
“Not the gods, you stupid kheret. You.” I love you.
It did not matter if Sacmis did not get it. Hera would prove it to her. As long as they remained alive.
Everything was good. They were both fine, and...
Crap. “Mantis.” Hera jerked around in her seat. Before she could move, Sacmis shot to her feet and rushed to the boy’s side.
“He’s breathing,” Hera heard her say through the buzz in her ears. “Cannot wake him, though.”
“Fresh air will help.” Hera’s hands shook with relief. “Open the windows and try again.”
The night rolled over them like a black wave — or maybe the gas had affected her after all. Hera’s grin turned into a sneer.
They’d make it. They had to.
According to the map, they were now skirting the area they were seeking. With their long detour, they’d avoided the blocked southward road and were a few miles away from the underworld entrance, moving through humid K-bloom fields.
She heard a cough and turned to find Mantis sitting up, his face drawn and pallid.
“About time you woke up,” she said gruffly, hoping her voice did not sound as choked as it felt. It would be embarrassing and she was a Gultur Echo, dammit, daughter of a goddess, not some sniffling mortal woman. “Better take point at the back and sides. We do not want the regime watching us as we unearth the war machine.”
Mantis turned to her, his dark eyes slowly focusing. “Hera?” he croaked. “Are you haunting me in the afterlife?”
“Why, does it look like a netherhell to you?” Hera barked. “No, you’re still with us and have some work to do before you rest.”
Mantis’ lips pulled into a slow grin. “We made it?”
“Through the swamps,” Sacmis said, handing him his gun. “Still need to dig out the machine.”
“I think we’re almost there,” Hera said, squinting through the darkness. “Sacmis, does this place look familiar?”
A hut in the middle of the fields, the glowing spires of Abydos in the distance.
“This is it,” Sacmis breathed. “We’re back.”
Back where they’d emerged only six days ago, but seemed like ages.
“How will you find it?” Mantis rasped, checking the ammo of his gun.
“A hundred paces from the house,” Sacmis whispered, as Hera had instructed her that evening when they’d dragged themselves out of the vent, steeped in dirt and so exhausted they could barely think.
“But which direction?” Hera muttered.
“Damn.” Sacmis sighed. “We’d better get to work.”
Chapter Twelve
Things weren’t going so well. Kalaes had taken a hit to the leg in the first moments after the doors opened and he’d dropped to the floor.
Elei inched toward him. “Kal,” he called, “Kalaes!”
Bullets flew. He plastered himself back to the wall, checking Alendra was still with him.
“I’m fine.” Kalaes shook his head but didn’t get up. “Just pissing fine.”
Good. Elei took shot after shot, trying to force the Gultur to fall back behind the doors. Alendra followed suit and damn but her aim was good. She took out two Gultur who’d been about to come out, making him absurdly proud.
Where in the hells were Iset and Bestret?
Something rolled out the doors and clinked down the two concrete steps to Elei’s feet.
“Grenade.” Alendra’s horrified whisper made no sense for a long moment.
“Shit.” Elei kicked it away, sent it tumbling out into the yard, then grabbed Alendra and propelled her toward Kalaes. He pushed her down and crouched over them, creating a protective cover, hoping snakeskin wouldn’t mind taking another beating.
The air exploded into heat and noise. The brunt of it hit his back and shoulder, throwing him sideways and face down.
In the white buzz filling his head, a tiny voice was trying to be heard. Exposed, we’re exposed, it whispered urgently, we have to get under cover.
Hot stings of pain jabbed into his arms and legs as he raised himself on all fours, squinting toward Kalaes and Alendra. He found them staring at the doors. Okay, what in the hells had happened now?
A hand reached down for him and he stared at it stupidly. A woman’s hand with dark lines on the knuckles. A Gultur?
“I told you Rex would protect you,” Iset said, smiling at him.
He took her hand because he hurt all over, dammit, and could use some help getting to his feet. “Kal,” he rasped.
Every stretch of skin and flesh ached and burned, but he wasn’t missing any limbs at least — was he? He took a step and was glad to find he still had everything attached.
“Are you okay?” Alendra was helping Kalaes stand. He looked dazed, and blood darkened his pant leg.
A sob of relief caught in Elei’s throat to see them both alive.
“Let’s move,” Iset said. “We have not found your friends yet and there is barely any time left.”
Time, right, ticking. Elei glanced around for his gun, found it lying by the wall. Iset let him go and he stooped to pick it up, only slightly dizzy. Rex was rebooting with starts and jumps, probably fixing some of the damage caused by the grenade. He hoped it’d be quick so it could dampen the pain. Some adrenaline wouldn’t hurt, either, to clear the cobwebs from his brain.
“Elei?” Alendra was tying a strip of cloth around Kalaes’ shin and casting him worried looks.
“I’m okay.” He clenched his teeth. “Let’s go.”
They strode into the building — well, okay, they strode, he staggered — guns at the ready. Bestret was waiting for them, motioning with her longgun at a door, two more Gultur covering the other door.
“They’ve gone through here, but it’s code protected.”
Elei blinked at the pad, then at the others. Guns, knives. No explosives to blow the door up, and even if they did, they risked harming the kids. His head throbbed in time to his heart, fast and nauseating.
And no solution he could see. Iset was glancing at her watch, and he knew without asking that minutes were trickling through their fingers.
“We can’t go before freeing them,” he said, but Iset only shook her head.
Dammit.
“I can open that door,” Kalaes said.
Okay, what? Elei turned to the older boy who had an arm slung over Alendra’s shoulders.
“The code,” Kalaes said. “I told you I had an idea of how to break in.”
He had, hadn’t he? Although how he hoped to do that...
“They just went through, right?” With Alendra’s help, Kalaes limped to the door and examined the pad. “They used this.”
“Probably a strongroom,” Bestret said. “They must be contacting HQ as we speak.”
“It’s the flashes,” Kalaes muttered. “I can see which keys they touched and in which order. The last one touched glows brightest. I just need to do it backward.”
Of course.
Iset and Bestret exchanged bemused and slightly annoyed glances. “But we need to be out in a few minutes.”
“Cover the damn door,” Kalaes said through clenched teeth. “They’ll be waiting for us as soon as it opens.”
Hesitantly, the Gultur raised their guns, clearly disbelieving.
Elei had no trouble believing Rex’s abilities, and cocked his Rasmus ready. If only his eyes would clear. He hoped he wouldn’t shoot anyone he wasn’t supposed to shoot.
Kalaes scowled at the pad, hand hovering over it, then punched in a code.
A beat of expectant silence, followed by another. Inside the wall, hydraulic connections hissed and the door slid open. Gunshots, bullets zipping by.
Again.
There had to be an end to this, right?
Iset stepped in front of him, firing round after round, and he heard a woman scream. Shards of something — the wall? — hit his arm but he kept going, shooting into the melee. Someone jostled him and his already precarious balance went out the window. A hand grabbed his wrist, stopping him from kissing the floor.
“They’re behind that door, I can hear Zoe,” Kalaes said. “I’ll go free them. Cover me.”
How the hells had he heard them? Elei’s ears rang. “Kal, no!”
Kalaes shoved a Gultur aside and sprinted for the door at the other end of the hall. Elei took aim and shot down a Gultur raising her gun, then another. The ringing in his ears was getting worse instead of better.
“No, Kal, watch out!” Alendra screamed and threw herself on a visored Gultur. A shot went off and plaster fell from the ceiling.
Elei elbowed someone coming from his left and shot another Gultur aiming at Kalaes who was wrenching the door open.
“We need to leave, now!” Iset shouted. Couldn’t the damn woman wait for two minutes?
Kalaes began herding the kids out into the hall, and Elei caught sight of Zoe’s braids.
“Move!” Bestret yelled from behind him, shoving him. “Take cover.”
He staggered and stumbled, dropping to his knees, just as the air exploded into fire and smoke.
Another damn grenade?
Then he was thrown against a pipe and everything went white.
An insistent tugging on his jacket made him blink. He regretted it as the light sliced like razors into his brain. Maybe hitting your head so often wasn’t healthy. He’d have to remember that.
Bestret pulled him to his feet and he groaned, shading his eyes. Part of the roof had collapsed. Bodies lay strewn among the debris. “Kal?” Fear tightened its hold, crushing his chest. “Kal!”
Then he saw a body lying a few feet away and stopped mid-shout. His breath stuttered in his lungs and for a moment he feared his legs might give out.
No. No that couldn’t be.
“Ale.” Hells, no. He fell on all fours and prodded her gently. She rolled onto her back, dirty blond hair trailing over her face, her closed eyes. “No.”
Frantic, he searched for a pulse. She couldn’t die, not now, but she wasn’t Rex’s, only mortal, and oh gods, he couldn’t find a heartbeat.
Deep breaths. Not helping much with his head pounding like a drum and Rex sweeping the room, disorienting him, but he had to check... had to know.
It was like déjà vu. How many times had he been forced to check if the people he loved had died?
With shaky fingers he pressed into her carotid and thought he felt a flutter. His vision and hearing were shot to the hells, with Rex shrieking and colors pulsing. Only his fingertips could tell him if she lived.
“Elei, move, come on.” Iset grabbed his arm and half lifted him to his feet. He fought her, snarling like a rabid dog, able to smell only Gultur sweetness and dust and blood.
She left him, and he lifted Alendra — easily, too easily, Rex booming inside his head, his chest. With her head cradled to his shoulder, he rose and looked around. The kids were still spilling from the back room, Kalaes’ broad-shouldered form guiding them, his hood pulled up.
“This way,” Iset shoved a Gultur trying to get up and pistol-whipped another, opening a path to the crumpled door.
Elei followed her, clutching Alendra close, teeth grinding so hard he thought they might shatter. Helpless, useless, Rex pumping him full of needless adrenaline. What was worth this pain?
Nothing. Not even his promise to the kids, not even the world. He’d never been a hero. He only wanted to be safe, to be with Kalaes and Alendra, to have a home.
But it never worked out, did it?
Boots crunching on broken concrete and glass, he followed Iset out into the cold. Rex was flashing colors, but he didn’t care. Told the parasite to stuff it. He needed to take Alendra out of the cold, make sure... Let her be all right.
The aircar door was open and a Gultur he didn’t know reached down to take Alendra from him. He let her, following up the ladder, his arms trembling. He slipped twice on the rungs before reaching the deck and stumbled into the cabin where Alendra was laid out on a double seat, Iset by her side.
“She’s alive,” Iset said.
Elei leaned on the wall, the tremors reaching his torso. Alive. “What’s wrong with her?”
“Knocked out. I’m checking if she has any other wounds.”
“And Kalaes?” He glanced out of the aircar window as it started moving. “Wait!” He slammed his fist on the glass, then the door. “Stop the vehicle.”
“They’re boarding the other two aircars,” Iset said. “They’re bigger. We do not all fit in this one.”
There was sense in that, Elei sluggishly admitted, and looked at Iset over his shoulder. She was peeling back Alendra’s jacket, stiff with layers of plaster and what looked like blood. Alendra looked small and frail, sprawled on the nepheline. So vulnerable.
Elei turned his gaze back to the window, his eyes burning. “Where are we meeting them?”
“At Bone Tower.”
***
The temperature dropped with the fading daylight. A sharp breeze knifed through Hera’s polyesthene suit. On her far right stood the old hut she recalled from six days back, its windows dark. She remembered its occupants, their somber faces, the table they’d set with food and drink.
She’d promised them compensation for the aircar they’d taken. Well, Elei had promised. Soft-hearted mortal. A war was in the works, and he worried a family would not have food on their table if they missed their vehicle for a week.
Hera frowned. He might well have been right. The hut looked abandoned. So fragile, these mortals.
And you let them in, Regina sneered. Into your life, your heart. Where’s the princess in whose body I’ve dwelt since time immemorial?
Hera stiffened. The princess is gone. I am who I am, and you do not get to tell me how to think. She pushed the hair out of her face and pulled it down from its untidy bun.
Time to get ready for war.
Their war; not yours, Regina muttered.
Hera braided her hair and twisted it viciously around her head, tight to the point of pain. She secured it with a pin. It’s my war, too. Stay out of this, bitch.
Regina fell into shocked silence.
Served her right.
Hera checked the hut just in case, thinking her steps echoed way too loud in the quiet evening. The front door was only closed, not locked. She pushed it and glanced inside.
Dust covered the long table where they’d eaten and the empty shelves on the wall. The family had left.
It was best for them, Hera thought. If they managed to get out the war machine — and that was a big if — she was not sure she’d know how to maneuver it, at least not from the get-go, and the hut was very close to the entrance. She might crush the house or blow it up by mistake.
Her hands twitched at her sides. Not infallible. Hear that, Regina? Elei and Kalaes considered her human, and it was a good thing.
Yes, a good thing, despite its drawbacks.
Drawbacks? That’s an understatement, Regina hissed.
Hera stomped toward the others, loud enough to drown out the voice in her head. Her hands moved to her belt, checking her gun and the torch she’d brought along for the tunnels.
“Have you found it?” she called.
Sacmis waved from a spot in the midst of the fields, the red K-blooms at her feet looking black in the darkness. Mantis stood next to her, his form slighter, thinner. Hera thought he’d be taller than either of them in a year or two.
If they survived tonight.
Hera
walked briskly toward them, seeing the round shape of the lid as she approached. Her heart began to pound.
It was here, right here. Sacmis crouched down, where they’d stuck rocks between the lid and the ground to keep the entrance open, her fair head bowed, glinting silver in Hera’s enhanced vision.
“Help me to push it up,” Sacmis grunted. Mantis tried to help but he was not too steady on his feet and did not benefit from Regina’s boost. Hera hurried over and helped Sacmis lift the lid higher, then shoved her shoulder underneath and pushed.
It was like trying to lift a truck, and Hera thanked all the gods she’d stopped the pills, returning Regina to her full force, otherwise the lid might have crushed the three of them. Last time they’d had Rex’s help and Kalaes’ mortal strength as well.
Do your worst, Regina, she thought, and gritted her teeth, her legs straining, muscles burning in her back and shoulders. Show me what you’re capable of, my goddess.
She heaved upward, with Sacmis and Mantis, and metal groaned as the lid lifted and wavered, then stayed vertical.
Hera stepped back, panting, every limb trembling. The void opened below, dark and full of echoes; full of secrets.
“Goddamn,” Mantis breathed, hunkering down and peering into the gloom. “Knowing about it and seeing it are two different things.”
Sacmis stood, glancing around.
“Safe?” Hera asked, her hand going to the gun holstered at her hip.
“Safe.” Sacmis nodded at Hera. “Will you do the honors?”
Hera eyed Mantis whose breathing was still shallow and fast and his pallor visible even in the dark. “Maybe he should stay here.”
“The hells I will.” His cheeks flushed. “I need to see what’s down there.”
Ah. Anger chased away the gray from his skin. Good. “Well, I’m not carrying you back up, mortal. Beware.”
And she slid into the vent, her booted foot finding the rungs of the metal ladder embedded into the wall.
Here we go again.
***
Alendra had a gash on her temple. Iset bound it, said she seemed all right otherwise, unless of course there were internal injuries.
Rex Aftermath (Elei's Chronicles) Page 15
