by Jaleta Clegg
By the time I was on my feet, Darus was behind me. Aramis had the map out.
“Let’s go,” Darus whispered.
We started off at a trot, following the clear path along the cliff bottom. We reached the cross path in only a few minutes. I kept expecting to hear shouts behind us. My collar felt tight and itchy. I pulled at it.
We ran down the path, slowing as it passed under trees. The night shadows were dark and silent around us. We splashed through a stream and climbed a slight rise.
We stopped to catch our breaths at the intersection of five different paths. Aramis and Fya consulted the map. When they chose a path, I didn’t argue. I was lost, despite thinking I’d had the map memorized. I was hopeless at maps. I crossed my fingers that I’d be able to recognize the right bush when we came to it.
We waded two more streams. The path curved and jogged around several large boulders. We slowed when a large wall of thorns blocked the path in front of us. Aramis crept up to it. The rest of us hung back in the shadows under the trees.
“Alpha group?” It was barely a whisper.
“Who’s that?” came the startled answer.
“We’ve got scan results for you,” Aramis said. “And a message from Hovart. Leaders meet here in three days to plan. Where’s the entrance?”
“Go about six feet to your right.”
Aramis crept around the wall. A section of it wiggled. Darus went forward and helped Aramis pull the section loose. A whole crowd of people pushed forward into the gap. I recognized the dark hair of one.
“Jasyn!” I ran forward. She saw me and pushed her way to the front. She caught me in a hug, pulling me tight. I don’t know which of us needed the reassurance more.
“Somehow I’m not surprised to see you here,” she said, stepping back.
I glanced to the side. Aramis handed over a sheet of paper covered in tiny writing to a tall man in silver. He had three others clustered close while he whispered. Darus stood behind me, watching Aramis.
“I saw Clark,” I said to Jasyn. “When I was running, I saw him in a field. He looked fine.”
“I didn’t hear his name last night,” she said in a small voice, tight with worry.
“He may be with one of the groups that can’t report for some reason.” I hoped it was true. “We’re going to get out, Jasyn. The ship is fine, she’ll fly once we get the fields shut down. Piece of cake compared to Serrimonia.”
“The Sessimoniss,” she said and gave me half a grin. “You’re right, this is a piece of cake.”
Darus jogged my arm. “We’ve got to move.”
“Be careful, Dace,” Jasyn said.
Thunder rumbled overhead, a long low growl that warned of rain.
“You too, Jasyn.”
Aramis pushed the thorns back in place, closing the others inside.
“Why don’t they just leave?” I asked. “Why don’t we all just break out and run?”
Aramis said. He took my elbow and pushed me into a trot away from the compound. “Because they do hunt at night sometimes. And we have to shut the generators off before it would do any good.”
We headed into the dark forest. The air was thick and muggy, so humid it clung to everything with wet fingers. My collar itched. I scratched under it with one hand while fending off branches with the other.
We came out onto the slope of hill that led up to the cliff where the ships waited. I slowed to a stop, looking up, trying to find traces of the narrow trails that climbed the cliffs. Clouds hung almost overhead. The light was too dim.
“North, I think,” I said when the others waited for me to take the lead.
I found the slash of a path running along the cliff base above the forests. We turned north. I looked for something familiar, a clump of bushes, a certain shaped rock, anything I could recognize. Lightning flickered. Thunder boomed and rattled.
“Bad storm this time,” Darus muttered behind me.
I stopped next to a tall finger of stone, looking ahead. The others stopped near me. Fya kept glancing behind us.
“There,” I said as thunder exploded again. I’d spotted the clump of bushes that hid the bundles I’d brought down. I stepped out of the shadow of the rock.
Rain poured down, as if someone had opened a spigot. I was drenched in seconds. I kept going for the bushes. Water wasn’t going to hurt me. I might drown in it, I thought as I wiped streams of water from my face. I tripped into the bushes and fell, skidding on thick mud that had been dry only minutes earlier.
“Dace?” Darus called.
“Here,” I answered. “Under the bushes. I think I’ve found them.” I groped through fallen leaves collected under the thick branches. Water ran under my knees, pouring into the hollow where the bushes grew. My hands found cloth and I yanked the bundles free. I passed them back.
Darus gave me a hand up. Water poured in almost constant sheets from overhead. Lightning struck not far away and thunder cracked through the air. My collar tingled in the aftershock.
“Run!” Darus pushed me towards the woods. I could barely see Aramis and Fya as they moved into the shadows. I took off after them.
We slipped and slid along paths that were mostly running water. I was lost in seconds. It didn’t help that my hair kept washing into my face. I scraped it back off and wiped water from my eyes.
I blundered into a bush and stopped. Darus ran into me. We both lost our footing and fell in the mud.
“Where are we?” I asked, shouting over the pounding water.
“Isn’t Aramis ahead of you?”
“Somewhere. I haven’t seen them for a while.”
“Keep moving, we’ll find our way back.”
We splashed to our feet and slogged away. Darus kept hold of my hand. I clung to his as a lifeline in a night turned to a nightmare of vertical water and mud.
We stumbled into one of the streams, a roaring torrent that surged over my knees. I took one step, then slipped in the current. I lost my hold on Darus as I went down. The water shoved me under and rolled me along the rocky bottom. I floundered, trying to get my feet under me. I snatched a breath whenever my head broke the surface, which didn’t happen nearly often enough. I was gouged by sticks and broken tree limbs hurled by the raging stream.
“Dace!” Darus' voice was drowned by the roiling water.
I tried to answer and caught a mouthful of water. I coughed and choked as the current pulled me back under. On a planet with no real rivers, with no real weather, I was going to drown in a stupid muddy stream. I clawed at the rocks as I scraped past. The stream grew deeper and faster. I managed to hook one hand around a thick branch for a moment, enough time to grab a full breath and pull my head out of the water. I got one foot under me and kicked off the bottom of the stream, pushing myself towards the shore.
I missed the first stretch of mud I aimed at. The stream curved and pulled me away from it. I struggled to find the bottom again. My wild kicking finally hit rocks and shoved me across the current. The stream twisted again. The current rolled me onto my face and rammed me into mud. I crawled up the shallow slope. I came out on a finger of land covered with shallow water.
I lay on the fresh layer of mud and gulped in air. I coughed up what felt like half the stream. The rain slowed to a drizzle.
My collar fizzed and sent a spike of pain down my nerves. My hands clenched on mud. I bit back a scream. But the spike was gone as quickly as it had come. I got to my knees, swaying until I caught my balance.
I used a bush to get to my feet, pulling myself up and ripping off big handfuls of thick wet leaves. I stumbled away.
I found a path and turned right. The path was already drying out in the lighter drizzle. I splashed through puddles deep enough to keep my boots completely soaked.
My collar tingled again. This time I heard shouts. My heart skipped a few beats before starting back up twice as fast. The collars had given us away. I stumbled into a shambling run and prayed to whatever cosmic force watched over me that I heade
d in the right direction.
I heard more shouts off to my right. I veered left at the next intersection. I ran blindly through the dripping night. My collar itched. The shouts behind me got closer. I didn’t dare run faster. The night was very dark, with the purple glow blocked by the low clouds.
I stumbled into another stream, swollen by the heavy rain. It was only knee deep and not nearly as swift as the one I’d fallen into earlier. I turned upstream and waded away from the path.
My collar pulsed, sending waves of pain shooting down my body. I tugged at it with both hands, blindly trying to block the pain. I tripped over a large rock and fell headlong into the water. My collar sizzled and sparked blue. The pain eased. I rolled onto my back so I could breathe and just lay in the water, trying to catch my breath. The cold water rushed over and around me, leaving only my face free.
Feet splashed downstream. They moved away. The shouts died in the distance. I waited until it was completely quiet before I moved. I shivered from the constant chill of the water. I climbed out of the stream, my numb hands slipping and losing their grip on the bushes.
The rain was a gentle sprinkle, soaking through the trees to drip into the undergrowth. I got to my feet and stumbled a few steps. My boots were saturated, my feet starting to blister. I knew I should take off the boots before it got worse. I couldn’t make myself do it. I couldn’t go barefoot through the woods with people chasing me. I’d been barefoot too many times in the past, I wasn’t about to take my boots off voluntarily.
I squelched through the woods, ignoring the shrinking puddles in the paths. I tried to find my bearings at the top of a small hill. I couldn’t see much. I kept going, trusting to luck that I headed the right way.
I didn’t hear any more shouting. I didn’t hear anything but my own breathing and the constant dripping of rain. My collar didn’t itch any more.
The trail took a sharp turn and left me standing at the edge of the forest. I was only a few feet from the sheer cliff of the western side. The tree overhead dropped a sheet of water that shook me out of my stupor. I turned left and started along the path that followed the base of the steep cliff.
The rain slowed to a drizzle. My wet hair slapped against the side of my head. Lying in the stream had washed most of the mud off.
The path curved back under the trees. I splashed my way through another stream. Greenish lights bobbed between the trees ahead. I slowed, looking for a different path. Only one group would be out at night, and they weren’t friendly.
The lights moved steadily along the path. Curiosity got the best of me, again. I crept closer to the lights.
Long robes muffled the figures, except for one hand that held a glowing globe. They had hoods pulled up to hide their faces. They walked oblivious to the forest around them, not one of the dozen figures even glanced to either side. I moved closer, trailing them through the dripping trees.
The path underfoot gradually changed from packed sand and mud to a firm surface that held no trace of water. It was smooth but not slippery, even in the rain. The water sank through it as fast as it fell. It had a springy feel underfoot. It muffled sound completely.
The robed figures moved farther ahead. They paid no attention to anything. They might have been ghosts drifting through the night.
The path led up a steep hill, rising quickly above the treetops. It curved between two tall pillars of stone flanking the opening to a narrow canyon. The lights bobbed through the entrance, then disappeared, winking out one by one as they crossed.
I hurried forward and crouched by the pillars, peering through them into the canyon beyond. It was only ten feet deep, a pocket carved out of the stone wall. It was empty with no trace of the dozen robed figures I’d followed. I stared into the hollow, perplexed.
I extended one hand between the pillars. I felt a slight tingling, a force field just strong enough to hold out the rain. I stuck my arm in farther. The tingling faded once past the pillars. I moved into the center of the path. The hollow was a dead-end, and still empty. The figures had vanished.
Caution said I should turn around and find the others, hide safely behind the thorn wall. Curiosity prompted me to enter the hollow, to find out where the mysterious figures had gone. Curiosity won. Any information I got could be useful, couldn’t it? I took a breath and stepped between the pillars.
Chapter 21
Jasyn watched the men replace the thorn barrier. She wanted to scream, to rush at the barrier and rip it free. She wanted to run into the night. She wanted to search the canyon until she found Clark. Dace had seen him. He was safe, somewhere. She squeezed her hands into fists. They were going to win free but it would take patience.
Taffer crouched in a group with Ruttie and several others. They had her com unit and the disassembled wand that had come floating down the stream last night. Ruttie studied the paper delivered by the man with Dace.
They whispered about frequencies and settings. Ruttie grinned like a maniac. Jasyn wanted to help, wanted to shake them into working faster. She didn’t have any knowledge or skills that would help. She made herself sit down, out of the way. She pulled at the wide white collar around her throat, easing an itch.
Roz slipped around the clearing to sit next to Jasyn. Her face was white and pinched. She stared at the group working on the wand. “Do you really think this will work?”
“Will it matter if it doesn’t? If it does, we’re free.”
“It hurts to hope,” Roz whispered. “If I let myself hope, and we don’t get out, I don’t know if I can live any more.”
“I think we all live on that edge.”
“You think Dace can get us out of here?” Roz turned her face to Jasyn, studying her in the dim light. “She doesn’t look like much.”
“You’d be surprised. She’s a survivor. And she’s got luck to spare.”
“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s get out of here, now, tonight.”
Thunder rumbled.
“Wishful thinking,” Roz said. “Don’t start listing what we still need to do. I just hope they can find a way to neutralize these.” She plucked at her own collar.
Jasyn yawned. She eased a finger under her collar. The itch intensified.
“They know someone’s out,” Roz said. “That’s why they itch. They know. They’re searching. They’ve done it before. Your friend’s luck had better be good.”
Roz crawled away.
Jasyn swallowed hard and ran her fingers under her collar. What would they do to Dace if they caught her? The stories she’d heard about escape attempts tormented her with grisly images. Was it really hopeless? Were they trapped here until they died?
Thunder boomed. Water poured out of the clouds. There wasn’t any point in taking shelter. She let the water pour over her and silently prayed that Dace would be safe, that the rain would hide her well enough to escape. She fell into a fitful sleep full of shouting and pouring water.
Morning brought a gray drizzle. The clearing was damp, puddles collected under the twisted tree that dominated the center of it. The sluggish stream was swollen, lapping out of its banks to add to the puddles. Jasyn woke stiff and miserable in the damp. She pushed her long dark hair out of her eyes and shuddered at its appearance. It hung in lank strings. Jasyn stood, moving through the group, asking for her comb.
Ruttie had moved his experiments into the driest spot under the tree. He had the wand completely dismantled. Wires twisted and trailed through the sand. He peered at the paper, wiping water from it. She stood behind him for a moment. The writing on the paper was tiny, rows of neat text that meant nothing to her. She moved off after a moment.
One of the other women, a short stocky woman by the name of Berrie, had her comb. Jasyn settled into the wet sand near her and wasted time combing hair.
Time dragged by. The rain drizzled from the gray clouds. Jasyn combed hair and twisted it into braids, tying it off with threads pulled from frayed hems. Jasyn wished for soap, any kind of soap. She watched Ruttie u
se her nail file on the wand. It was the only thing even close to a tool they had. She rubbed her torn nails across her palm. She could ask Ruttie for the file. It wouldn’t do much good. She held her hands in front of her, fingers spread, studying her chipped and broken nails. Her hands were rough, her slender fingers bruised and growing calluses where the blisters had been. It didn’t matter, she thought. When they got free, when they got back to a civilized world, she’d deal with it then.
Taffer picked his way over to her. He grinned as he crouched on the damp ground. “Ruttie thinks he’s got it figured. With that chart they brought us last night, he worked out the frequencies it works on. We can blank its effects with your com unit. It won’t cover much but it might help.”
“That’s one problem solved,” Jasyn said. “If we had several dozen com units, we could break out now.”
“One will be enough. It has to be.”
“Why are you telling me?”
“Because it was you and your friend that brought the equipment in.” Taffer shifted his feet away from a trickle of water. “And because I want your help organizing our escape. Do you remember your way up the cliff?”
She shook her head. “I wasn’t very awake through a lot of it.” She rubbed her left hand, the one that had been swollen for two days from accidentally grabbing the sticker plant.
“Can’t be helped,” Taffer said. “I want you to lead the group heading for the ships. We’ll work it out with the others. A small group needs to find the generators and shut them off. And we’ll need a group to keep them occupied while we do it. Most of us need to head up the cliff to the ships.”
“What ships?” Jasyn asked. “The Phoenix can’t take more than thirty, if we can even get her off the ground.”
“Your friend mapped out the cliff edge. She says there are at least fifteen ships that could fly, once the fields are shut down. We aren’t leaving anyone here. Unless they refuse to come.” Taffer scratched behind one ear.
