by Casey Lea
Haze jogged across the sand, trying to keep to the thin strip of shade remaining. It must be nearly mid-day. He looked at Silk who strode over the shimmering ground without effort. Her feet looked like obsidian boots streaked with fire and she stalked on without sparing him a glance. That hurt, but not as much as his wing. It was sore and itchy as the flecks prioritised healing it. He needed to be able to fly when his rescuers arrived. Where the hail was his team anyway? They should have sent a contact vibration by now.
A shower of dirt trickled from the sky to patter across the ground ahead of Silk and Haze forgot about rescue. He looked up sharply, but the sun glared back and it was impossible to see the top of the wall above. He squinted and managed to make out a dark overhang that seemed to leap against the bright sky.
No, it really was moving. The rocky mass lurched forward to block the sun and grew as it tumbled from the cliff. Behind it Haze saw a silhouette that looked like another pile of boulders poised to fall, but then realized it was Sweeper crouched on the edge.
“Above,” Haze yelled and threw himself forward. Silk was moving too, leaping away, but the bulk of the rock fall would still catch her. He took a risk and unfurled his good wing to send out a stream of compressed air. He kept his feet on the ground so the jets skidded him over it and collected Silk as he went. They made it close to the far edge of the avalanche, but not close enough.
Just before the rocks struck them Silk hooked a foot round Haze’s ankle to trip him and drop him to the ground. She twisted to land on top of him and they were smashed together when the boulders hit. There was a moment of pressure intense enough to be pain, but her hardened body protected them both. Haze couldn’t breathe - mainly because she was so close. It was a surreal moment. He could feel stray stones hitting him, but they didn’t hurt. Nothing hurt at all.
The rock fall ended and it was very quiet. Haze couldn’t hear his wife’s breathing, but he could feel it each time it brushed past his ear. It felt as warm and soft as she did, with her exoskeleton crumbled to dust by the attack. She stirred and the stones piled on top of her rolled away. She gasped for more air, but otherwise lay still and Haze didn’t dare move. He drank in her scent instead and perhaps she felt that, because suddenly she was rising. The heels of her hands thudded against his chest and she pushed angrily away from him.
Silk scrambled to her feet and stood swaying, while Haze rose more slowly. “Are you okay?” he asked, but she looked at him blankly. “You’re bleeding,” he said. “Can I look?”
She backed up at that and shook her head with a wince. “No. I’m fine. Still strong.”
Haze snorted. “Always.” He looked away from Silk, trying to ignore the curves that her sweat and blood were trickling over. He could still feel her pressed to his bare chest and had to swallow before he could meet her gaze again. “Thank you.”
Silk’s gaze sharpened and she finally seemed to focus on him. “For what?”
“Protecting me from-”
“Guano. That’s not what happened. I just wanted my back to take the brunt of the fall.”
“You could have done that and still stayed under me, so thanks.”
Silk was briefly silent, before shaking her head more firmly. “No. Fool yourself if you want, but the only person I protect is me.”
She turned with a toss of hair and marched off. In the wrong direction. Now that was interesting. Was she disoriented by concussion, or because she liked him more than she wanted to? Was that even possible? In half-a-day? Haze sighed and trudged after her. He wanted to believe anything was possible. One thing was sure, he’d follow his wife for as long as he lived.
Silk turned back and crossed her arms. “Stop. No more faithful-dog routine. I’m going to check out what’s happening from the nearest vantage point and when I get back down you’ll be gone. Agreed?”
“Not in the least,” Haze began, until he noticed the skin darkening over Silk’s knuckles. It seemed her armor was back on duty and he needed a more subtle approach. At least if he went on alone he could clear the path ahead of her. And if he moved at a very slow stroll until she caught up with him again, well that wouldn’t be his fault. “Sure. Be careful.”
He made himself turn and somehow managed to walk away.
16
STILL DISTRACTED
Silk was grinning and breathing hard by the time she reached the top of the nearest wall. The climb had been demanding, but she’d also tackled it at a frantic pace, launching herself from one grip to another with crazy carelessness. It had been fun and she’d finally forgotten Blondie- damn. So much for that strategy. Despite her reckless disregard of risk, thoughts of the guy kept coming back. He had her all messed up and unsure. She couldn’t afford that on her last day in the arena, but what was she going to do about it?
A shadow swept over Silk and she crouched just before something flew past. A massive talon reached for her, but she threw herself sideways and claws screeched across her back without getting a grip. She fell flat and her attacker flew on, dark against the sun and carried by massive leathery wings. She shuddered, but didn’t waste any time, quickly slithering forward on her belly to peer over the far edge.
The middle of the maze was close now and marked by a pillar of rock. It stood in a rocky hollow and water had pooled around it. A rough path zig-zagged up, so she wouldn’t have to climb again, which was boring, but probably just as well since her muscles were sore. Strangely sore, considering she’d had an easy day so far. Silk shrugged internally and pushed the distraction away. She concentrated on memorizing the path below instead, before rising in a crouch to check behind her.
The giant bat-dactyl thing was soaring toward the entrance, but something much closer made her fists clench. Sweeper.
Her fellow Dragon was stamping along a wall that ran parallel to hers. The ridge he followed was lower than Silk’s and he hadn’t seen her, but he was heading straight to the heart of the maze. He’d have to drop down soon, when his cliff-top path ended, which meant they were sure to meet. Fortunately the timing was perfect. Blondie had killed Hunter’s pack, so Silk didn’t need Sweeper to take down the dreads. He was disposable.
It was time to rendezvous with Scrawny Guy, then use the weapon he was programming for her to scratch the toughest name off her list. Even Sweeper couldn’t survive a surge of arena shield-energy. Not when it was channelled through a viral blade programed by a hacking genius. Silk just hoped the boy was still hidden in the cave she’d carried him to at the start of the day.
17
SCRAWNY GUY
Haze continued his trek into the maze with a hand held in front of his eyes. The light reflecting from the sand was intense and the growing heat almost as bad. What sort of sadists came up with this place? He snorted softly. The sort who kidnapped people and sold them for blood sports. He slowed and blinked when two lighter strips appeared on the ground ahead – two pale legs reflecting the light.
Haze stopped and the gully was instantly silent. His fronds lifted behind his ears, but it was impossible to pick up any mind touch among the overwhelming infra-red. He might have been baking in that canyon all alone, if not for those skinny legs. They stuck out from the shade of a boulder just ahead, reflecting the sun, so it seemed Scrawny Guy still needed to work on his camouflage. Haze shook his head and strode on.
“Kid,” he called to one side as he passed, “the aim of hiding is to stay out of sight.” He glanced that way and stopped.
The thin legs sprawled in the light were alone. The top half of Scrawny Guy was gone. Not crushed, or hacked, or pulled apart, but completely MIA. Haze hesitated and something tightened in his chest, before he shrugged. “Bad luck, kid.” He broke into a jog to leave the corpse behind. Technically he couldn’t even be sure it was Scrawny Guy, but those legs had sure looked skinny…
Haze trotted on through the wavering air, while the sand bit at his feet. The sun was overhead and any shade from the cliffs that hemmed him in had shrunk to a thin line. Walking on
coals would’ve been better, at least that was brief. He stopped and sighed. To keep up with Silk he needed to go wherever the maze led, even over molten sand. He turned and trudged back to Scrawny Guy.
Haze tried not to look at anything as he retrieved the scraps of chain mail scattered around the legs. The metal was sticky and gobs of something like half-dried glue clung to his fingers when they wandered over the sand in a groping search. This definitely wasn’t one of his better ideas, but the day kept slipping away. He needed to stop hugging the shade and cross the burning sand the way his wife could.
Haze moved away from the corpse, stepping over it to sit with his back to the boulder, while he wound the leather lining he’d retrieved from the chainmail into rough sandals. Drak. They were hot and he would have pulled them off if the sand hadn’t been hotter. “Thanks, kid.”
Haze rose and turned. Straight into a right cross. A tiny fist connected with his jaw and stars exploded around him in a fresh maze. He staggered back over the legs and tripped to sit down hard, with a grimace. This was getting old.
Silk stood over him, with her lips pressed tight while she stared at Scrawny Guy’s feet, sticking out from the rock. “Is he dead?” she finally asked.
Something like a laugh grated from Haze’s throat and it tasted of bile. “Yeah, I think that’s pretty definite.”
Silk’s face crumpled and he flinched, but then her expression hardened. “Drak this place and everyone in it. He was just a boy. A child.” Her fists clenched, along with her face and she looked ready to launch herself at Haze. However, even as he braced himself she stepped back and her shoulders slumped. “Never mind, it’s too late now.” She gave Haze a hard stare. “Was there anything with him? A curved crystal the length of my hand?”
“No, nothing at all and that’s an understatement.”
“Step away from the body while I check,” she ordered grimly, “and stay away. Until I’m free, or you’re dead. I mean it. Don’t get too close. I’ve better things to watch than my back.”
“I haven’t,” Haze said and risked wobbling upright in front of her. He steadied and stood there, so close he could have touched her. If he was that stupid. If he was that brave.
He took a half-step, but Silk stopped him with a palm against his chest. He halted and she snatched her hand back as if his skin was as hot as the sand. She looked like she wanted to retreat, but held her ground, breathing hard. “Stop following me, or I’ll pound your thick Beserk skull till it splits.”
She raised her fist and a maze of lines spread through the skin, looking like a web of scratches which widened to become gouges filled with magma. The skin between the cracks grew as smooth and shiny as obsidian until her hand was fully armored. “You can’t hurt me. You can’t. Now go away.”
“No.”
That stopped her. “No? I’ll kill you.”
“It doesn’t matter. If I can’t help you, I might as well be dead.” Silence fell again and Haze laughed. He didn’t often see his wife nonplussed and it was delightful. She was delightful. Too bad she was looking at him like he was crazy.
Silk’s lips thinned. “I’d have no problem killing you right now. I don’t like the way you shop for shoes.”
She looked past him to Scrawny Guy’s motionless legs and Haze felt sudden panic. “No, no, no. Not me. So not me. I didn’t kill him. I don’t even know where the rest of him is.”
Silk frowned at Haze and stepped away. She circled him warily, staying well out of reach, before shifting her gaze to the boy’s remains.
The sight behind the boulder made her hiss and her skin hardened further, with strips of shiny black flowing up her arms to cover her torso. She crouched to spread her fingers over a trench scraped in the trampled ground, but her hand was too small to bridge the gap. The trail of gouged sand led away from Scrawny Guy, to disappear into a cleft in the nearest cliff.
“What’s that?” Haze wondered and she spared him a glance.
“Tracks. Can’t you feel it? We’re being watched.”
“By what?”
“Something that eats half-a-man in one bite. You need to find high ground. Now. And start climbing.”
Haze couldn’t fault her logic. He turned on his heel to study the cliffs around them, searching for an easy way up. There wasn’t one of course, but it seemed Silk could scale glass if she had to and he could manage several of the slopes around them. He nodded to the cliff with the least overhang and looked for his wife, but she was following the trail in the sand. “Silk!”
She didn’t look back, but paused when the huge tracks reached the cave. “What?”
“That’s not high ground. Where are you going?”
Silk threw an exasperated look over her shoulder. “Away from you.”
“You’re following a man-eating monster.”
She smiled. “Still better company than you. That thing ate something I need. A weapon Scrawny Kid was focusing for me and I can’t finish off my To Die list without it.”
“Let me help.”
“No.” Silk strode into the darkness of the cave and her words echoed back. “This is my hunt. Go away.” There was a faint rattle of loose stones underfoot and then nothing. Silk was gone.
18
HUNTED
Silk ignored the lunatic she’d left behind and stalked into the shadows. Her dermal matrix tightened to stoke a fire in her skin, until her body was rock hard and her sense of touch shrivelled away. She shivered, making her skin creak, while a grin cracked her lips like worn leather. She was invulnerable and stalking danger. There were moments when life was perfect.
The light from the entrance was so dim the world around Silk began blending into a gauzy grey film. She trailed her finger tips along the wall – searching as she went. Its pitted surface caught her roughened skin like a lover reluctant to let go, until she found a smoother streak that rang like crystal. Good. The slavers weren’t going to make her fight in the dark. She slapped her palm against the mineral strip and a glow filled the tunnel. She cracked it harder, with the side of her fist, and it brightened. The extra energy sent light running along the streak of blue lumin to show the cavern around her and the wide swathe of the beast’s tracks.
Stale air sighed from a tunnel ahead and Silk skipped forward. She slipped into the shade as if she was sliding into a shadowed pool. The tunnel closed around her and she followed it as quietly as she could, until it split into three. She stopped with scarcely a whisper, but the sound of footfalls continued, bouncing down the rock passage and past her. They halted abruptly, but too late to stay unheard. Who the hell was following her?
Silk’s breath escaped as a sigh, because the answer was obvious. Blondie.
She ignored her demented suitor, who had stopped out of sight, and returned to the hunt. Unfortunately the tracks now led into a darker space, where the gleaming mineral veins in the rocks grew thin and faint. She shrugged. Dark was dark and dead was dead. She didn’t fear either, at least not enough to stop.
Silk moved ahead with Haze on her six again, but now he was noisier than ever. She supposed she should be grateful he wasn’t trying to actually serenade her, but the tunnel rose and his breathing became increasingly laboured. He could hardly have been louder if he had broken into song. Her nails bit into her palm, while she bit back the angry words he deserved. She only managed to stay quiet because nagging wasn’t her style, but if his rasping got any worse she was going to have to bludgeon him unconscious before their prey heard them coming.
The rookie’s panting grew louder still and a prickle of concern crawled up her spine. She stopped and looked back. The darkness behind her was now blacker than a raptor’s gizzard.
“Blondie?” she whispered, but there was no answer. Only the breathing.
Drakkit. “Haze,” she hissed and something smacked the wall high above her head, to send a spear of light splintering through the rock, just as a hulking shadow rushed at her.
“Boo,” it cried and the ever-drakking lawyer
skidded to a halt in front of her.
Shock and relief briefly claimed Silk, before they were swept away by molten fury. “What the crap was that?”
“Funny.”
Her chest heaved and she actually snarled. “So not.” Something rattled in her throat and for a moment she thought it was a sob, but then a gasp escaped that was almost a laugh. She slapped Haze’s front, so he wouldn’t get the wrong idea and her treacherous palm softened at the touch. Her hand came to rest, while her fingers curled to follow the curve of a muscle.
Silk snatched her hand back and turned away, crossing her arms as if trying to stifle something foreign that was struggling to rise inside her - an emotion searching for someone to cling to.
No. Not Blondie. Never Blondie. He was already hotter than arena sand and the last thing she needed was to actually like him. “Never do that again, rookie,” she warned, looking over her shoulder and Haze nodded, looking contrite. Yeah, right. She stalked on. “And concentrate. I won’t work with you otherwise. Be very clear - distraction will get you killed.”
The lawyer snorted. “I can best this creature.”
“I meant by me.” Silk spun back to face him and he was hard on her heels. That was a shock, which was probably why her pulse jumped. “Keep your distance, or I’ll gut you. Clear?”
“Absolutely.”
“Why are you grinning then?”
“I’ve missed you so much.”
Drak the bustwing and his weird emotions. Who smiled and laughed in the arena? Psychopaths like Sweeper who found joy in pain. No one else. “Hold onto that thought,” Silk suggested, “because right now I need some bait. Go ahead.” She gestured into the returning darkness, but Haze didn’t hesitate. He must really want it bad. He turned away, exposing his back as if he still trusted her, which was just stupid.
Her hands trembled and the fading light rippled along her glossy skin. The weakness passed in less than a second, but it was enough to bring fire to her frozen cheeks. Which should have been impossible. This had to stop. She was definitely gone, the moment their target went down.
