by R. L. King
“Come on, Harrison…” he murmured. “We could really do with some of that amazing healing ability of yours right about now…”
Tanissa raised her head, coming out of her trance with a loud exhalation.
“What is it?” Stone demanded. “Do you know what it is?”
“No. Not exactly. I think I was right, though—whatever it is, it’s affecting his mind.” She’d already pulled the IV tubes free of Harrison’s arms, and pointed at one of them on the floor next to him. “They probably used those to keep him docile—some kind of tranquilizer, or something similar.” She shuddered, looking down at him with fear in her eyes. “Did you see what he did? The way he blew out the barrier? And…killed Chanandra…?”
“I did. He’s dangerous. We know that. They knew it too. He’s also very hard to kill. If they knew that, I’m not surprised they treated him like some kind of dangerous animal.” Suddenly, his mind returned to a movie he’d seen many years ago—something about bringing dinosaurs back to life in the modern day. In one scene, they’d had one of the velociraptors in a specially-designed metal transport cage, and everyone around it had still been terrified of it even though it was securely confined. The Talented had probably treated Harrison like that—and with good reason, it appeared. Stone wondered if the man was as resilient about recovering from mind-altering substances as he was from physical damage. He hoped so, because if Harrison freaked out and attacked them because he was out of his mind, Stone didn’t think any of them could deal with him.
He was spared further thought by the sound of the door opening. He leaped up, readying a spell, but let it drop when Errin’s familiar figure slipped in.
“Did you find a vehicle?” he called.
“Yes. Help me with the garage door. There’s a chain-lock on it.”
Stone hurried outside with her. Parked in front of the roll-up door was a mid-sized thing that looked like a cross between a Jeep and a delivery van, with an enclosed rear section. Jeritha sat in the passenger seat and looked relieved when Stone and Errin appeared.
The garage door was locked with a chain and a stout padlock. Errin leaped back into the cab while Stone popped the padlock, pulled the chain free, and rolled the heavy door up. As soon as the vehicle was through, he lowered the door again and jogged back in through the smaller door.
“Where did you find this?” he asked as Errin and Jeritha jumped out. “Is anyone going to miss it anytime soon?”
“Not if we get out of here fast,” Errin said. “We found it in another garage down the street. It’s some kind of delivery truck.” She opened the hood, climbed up on the bumper, and peered down into the oily-smelling engine compartment with a small flashlight. “If you can disguise it with an illusion, that will be even better. It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to get out of town.”
Stone examined the truck. It wasn’t as robust-looking as he’d have hoped, but it couldn’t be helped—he supposed the residents of the surface cities didn’t need off-road-capable vehicles since they’d never dare to brave the Wastes. Still, the roads in town were bad enough that a vehicle would need to be sturdy to handle potholes and rough terrain. “Do you know where we are? How far is it until we’re out of town?”
“Not far,” Errin said. “It won’t take long, especially this early. But we need to get going. You heard Olystriar—they’re probably already looking for us.”
“Stone?”
It was Tanissa, calling from the other side of the room. She sounded suddenly strained.
“What is it?”
“We have a problem.”
Stone, Errin, and Jeritha turned back toward where they’d left the healer with Harrison.
“What’s the—” Stone began, then froze.
Harrison was gone.
48
“Bugger! Where’s Harrison?” Stone ran back toward Tanissa, with Errin and Jeritha close behind.
Silently, Tanissa pointed. She looked even more fearful than before.
Stone held up a light spell to illuminate the end of a row of crates, but he didn’t need that to see what had happened. The smear of blood on the warehouse’s concrete floor was all it took.
Harrison was at the end of the row, half-lying, half-sitting, pressed against the wall. As the light hit him, he flinched back, eyeing them warily. He still looked barely conscious, and something about his wandering gaze suggested he wasn’t entirely present mentally.
“I’m sorry…” Tanissa whispered. “I was just sitting with him when he—”
“Let me…” Errin stepped forward, moving slowly as if approaching a skittish animal. She crouched and spoke in a calm, gentle voice. “Trevor. It’s me. Errin. Are you there?”
“Stay away…” he muttered. “Stay back…” His gaze flicked between Errin and the others standing behind her; his tone was ragged but even.
As Stone watched, not daring to speak, he remembered his experience at Burning Man a few years ago, when Trin Blackburn had dosed him with some kind of psychoactive drug designed to enhance fear. Was this the same kind of thing? But Harrison, while he did look fearful, didn’t appear to be mad with terror. Stone shifted to magical sight, noting his eerie black-and-violet aura roiled and sparked with flashes of red. Something was definitely affecting him.
“Trevor…” Errin reached a hand toward him. “Come on. We need to get out of here. We’re in danger if we stay. We can take care of you when we get away. Will you come with us?”
He looked at her as if he didn’t recognize her. He took several deep breaths and pressed himself farther back into the wall. Blood stained his face and ran down his chest; his eyes were unblinking, trading his normal unsettling, unwavering gaze for one of focused confusion. “No…” he rasped. “I won’t let you—”
And then, suddenly, he locked in on her and something in his eyes changed. He swallowed again. “Alexandra…?”
“Who’s Alexandra?” Stone whispered behind Errin.
“I don’t know.” She spoke without turning away from Harrison. Then, to him: “Trevor, I don’t know who that is. Please—you’ve got to come with us. We’re not safe here.”
But he didn’t appear to have heard her. He tried to struggle up, but couldn’t manage it and fell back against the wall. “Alexandra…please…don’t go…” His focus shifted to the others behind Errin, and his expression hardened. “You…Get away from her.” The most disturbing part of the whole thing was that his voice was as calm, steady, and unemotional as ever. He sounded perfectly sane. Only his eyes gave him away.
Errin cast a quick, desperate look back over her shoulder. “I don’t know what to do,” she whispered. “He’s never been like this. I don’t know what he wants. And we’ve got to go. Tanissa—Jeritha—can you knock him out or something?”
Tanissa shook her head. “I’m—sorry—” Terror crossed her pale face and she took a step back. Clearly she didn’t want to get anywhere near Harrison, let alone try something potentially threatening around him.
Stone thought about the velociraptor in the movie again. It was an even more apt comparison now, if Harrison wasn’t in his right mind. He could destroy all of them—hell, he could probably destroy the whole city block—if whatever dark visions clawing at his mind roused him sufficiently to do it.
“Let me try,” he murmured to Errin. “Go get the truck ready. Tanissa, go with her. Jeritha—can you stay here with me?”
“I can stay.” Unlike Tanissa, the Traveler woman didn’t look frightened of Harrison. She watched him closely, but remained calm next to Stone.
“Are you sure…?” Errin began.
“Go.” He had an idea—he didn’t know if it would work, but right now they didn’t have a lot of choice.
Harrison, unmoving, watched Errin and the relieved Tanissa hurry off toward the truck, then settled his gaze back on Stone and Jeritha.
Stone eyed Harrison, wondering if his next words would get him killed. But if they wanted to get out of here before Millia and the res
t of the Talented discovered their location, they’d have to move fast. He took a deep breath. “Support me if you can…” he whispered to Jeritha.
Then Stone faced Harrison and hardened his expression. “Harrison!” he snapped. “Pull yourself together.”
Harrison blinked, brief surprise passing across his face, but now he was focused fully on Stone.
“You heard me!” Stone said, taking a step forward so he loomed over Harrison. “Your friends are in danger. Errin is in danger. Alexandra isn’t here. Are you going to sit there and let them die because you can’t get your sorry arse off the ground, or are you going to fight?” He infused his tone with contempt, despite the fact that inwardly he was shaking.
Harrison closed his eyes, writhing back and forth as if in pain, and put a hand to his head. “I—”
“Listen!” Stone forced himself to continue in the sharp, authoritative tone. “Remember back at the Nexus, when you told me to show you I was worth your time? Now it’s time for you to show me you’re worth mine. Come on, Harrison! You’re better than this! Where’s all that willpower I’ve been hearing so much about? Do you have the will?”
Harrison’s breath came faster. His arms shook and his jaw tightened.
Next to Stone, Jeritha tensed.
Stone wondered again if he’d just gotten them all killed, but still he pressed on. “Damn you, Harrison, show us! Fight! Are you going to let your friends die after they risked their lives to save you? Do you have the will?”
Harrison’s fists clenched. He slumped forward until he rested on them, his back heaving, his whole body trembling. “No…no…” he muttered. “I…will…not!”
He went rigid and collapsed to the oily, dusty floor.
Stone ran over to him and rolled him over. “Harrison?”
He was still pale, still bleeding, still trembling. But now his gaze, locked on Stone, was clear and steady. He gripped Stone’s wrist, so hard it hurt. “Thank you…” he whispered, and passed out again.
Stone let his breath out, finally allowing himself to release the full-body clench he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “Go on,” he told Jeritha. “You’ll need to navigate. I’ll get him in the back.”
She complied without question, casting one final glance back over her shoulder at him before swinging into the truck’s cab.
Stone used magic to levitate Harrison, directing his body as fast as he could across to the back end of the truck, which was open. A few empty burlap bags lay in the compartment; Stone vaulted into the back, slammed the door, and stuck a couple of folded ones under Harrison’s head. “Go!” he yelled as he moved forward and dropped into one of the two back seats.
Errin gunned the engine and the truck surged forward. Jeritha had already rolled the door up; it thundered back down with a loud clang after they passed through. Outside, it was still dark, the streets still quiet.
“Is he all right?” Errin demanded without looking back.
“He will be,” Stone said. “Don’t count on him for much help for a while, though.”
“I hope we won’t need any. If we can get out before they figure out where we are, we can get back to the ship. Jeritha, which way?”
The Traveler woman concentrated a moment, then pointed. “It isn’t far. We can—”
Something slammed into the side of the truck, so hard it rocked on its wheels.
49
Stone had to brace himself to keep from being thrown into the door. He looked wildly around, trying to spot the threat. “What the hell was that?”
“I don’t know.” Errin’s voice was grim. She gunned the engine again, the truck’s tires jouncing and juddering over the heavily potholed street. “We can’t take too many more of those hits, though.”
Stone rolled down the window, pulling up a shield around himself. He wished he could shield the whole truck, but that was nearly impossible to do quickly when they were moving. He poked his head out, looking behind them. “Jeritha—do you see anything?”
“I don’t—there!” she cried, pointing forward.
Stone pulled back inside in time to see a sleek, floating vehicle dart out from a side street. Another bolt of magical energy streaked toward them.
Errin jerked the wheel sideways, barely keeping the bolt from hitting them dead-on. Instead, it hit on the passenger side, hard enough to punch the door in. Tanissa yelped and shifted over closer to Stone.
“If they hit the tires or the engine we’re dead,” Errin snapped.
“Keep driving,” Stone ordered. He focused on the floating vehicle in front of them, stuck his hand through the open window, and flung a concussion beam at it. Bright light flared around the craft and it veered to one side. “Shields—damn!”
Errin, driving one-handed, dug in her vest pocket and thrust something back toward Stone. “Here—use magic to throw this at them.”
“What is it?” He took the little thing—it looked like some kind of knobby grenade. “Anti-magic smoke won’t—”
“It’s a grenade. Quick!” She jerked the wheel again, briefly tilting the unwieldy truck onto two wheels as it careened around a corner. “It’s not far now—they won’t follow us into the Wastes. Do it!”
Stone didn’t ask more questions. He gripped the grenade in a telekinetic hold, raised his arm again, and used magic to throw it toward the other vehicle with all the strength he could muster.
This time, the floating craft didn’t get out of the way. The grenade hit it high up and exploded in a fiery blast. Stone roared in triumph as their shield flared bright again and then winked out—but the roar turned to one of frustration as the vehicle kept coming. “Their shield’s down!” he yelled. “Do something before they get it back up!”
The vehicle was behind them now—their quick turn had taken them past it. Stone couldn’t see it, since the back end of the truck blocked his view. “Do what you can,” he called, then scrambled up and into the rear compartment. All the jouncing had rolled Harrison over; he now lay on his side, pressed against the left wall, and still appeared to be unconscious. Stone ignored him, reached the back window, and peered out.
The sleek white craft was still coming, but farther back now. Were they using more caution now that their shield was down, or had Errin managed to pull away from them? Surely it could move faster, since it didn’t have to deal with the potholes—
Another fiery ball streaked toward them, so fast Stone didn’t have time to react to it. He flinched back, trying to form a shield, but he knew he was too late. “Brace yourselves!” he yelled, tensing in anticipation of the impact.
It didn’t come. Instead, the ball—huge and bright and menacing—hit something and exploded in a dazzling flare of light. “What the hell—?”
“I can’t do that again,” Jeritha said from the front, her voice strained. “Do something!”
Stone didn’t need a second invitation. He fixed his gaze on the little craft—now that the shield was down, he could see two shadowy figures inside—and threw a tight concussion beam at its front window just as the passenger raised its hands again.
The two arcane bolts hit at the same time. Stone’s punched through the front window of their floating pursuer. The craft jerked and lurched off to the side, where it slammed into a non-functional streetlight and stopped moving.
The other bolt hit the back doors of the truck’s rear compartment, lifting the back end off the ground and blowing the doors wide open.
Tanissa screamed.
The truck fishtailed back and forth as Errin struggled to get it under control.
Harrison’s body rolled to the center, then tumbled toward the opening.
“Almost there!” Errin yelled as Stone grabbed Harrison in a telekinetic grip and pulled him back inside the truck. Shocked, he spotted two more floating vehicles entering the road behind them.
“Incoming!” he yelled, holding on to Harrison and trying to use magic to get the doors closed again. “Two more! If this thing has any more power, now’s th
e time!”
Harrison stirred in Stone’s grip. “What—?” he began, blinking.
“Stay down,” Stone ordered. “We’re trying to get to the Wastes, but they’re after us.”
Harrison didn’t stay down. He still looked bad, but not as bad as before. He wrenched himself free of Stone and struggled to a kneeling position, taking quick stock of what was going on behind them. Still breathing hard, he narrowed his eyes and pointed his hand backward.
The front end of the nearest pursuing vehicle lifted, then the whole thing flipped over and crashed to the ground, where it exploded. The other one veered to the side, avoiding the fireball by a narrow margin. Another blast of magical energy streaked from it, headed toward the open back end of the truck.
Stone, braced against the side, barely got a shield up in time. Most of it dissipated, but enough got through to fling both him and Harrison backward.
Harrison wasn’t done yet, though. He dragged himself back up, crawled toward the opening again, and this time pointed both hands at the sole remaining vehicle chasing them. It had closed some of the distance while he and Stone had dealt with the incoming attack.
“Throw something at them,” he ordered Stone. “Distract them.”
Stone summoned a showy fireball and sent it rocketing toward the vehicle as once again Errin jerked the truck to one side. The fireball wouldn’t get through their shields and Stone knew it, but they couldn’t ignore it.
As he expected, the pursuing vehicle also veered to the side. The fireball hit its shield at the right front, then flared and fizzled on the dark street behind it.
