by Azalea Ellis
“Has he revealed how we’re escaping, yet?”
“The alien? No. I don’t know why he won’t just tell us, at this point. There’s no way we’re going to reveal it to NIX.”
“Stonehenge,” Blaine said.
“What?” I asked.
“Based on a few basic pieces of information, like our flight trajectory, size of the alien ship, and my basic knowledge of geography, I believe we are headed for Stonehenge. Our historians have never been able to unquestionable deduce its purpose. Perhaps it is some sort of portal, to those who know how to use it.”
Torliam grunted, from the front. “Your historians are imbeciles. Though your race dies off so quickly, it is no surprise that you cannot properly bequeath information to your offspring.”
“I will take that to mean I am correct,” Blaine said, slightly smug.
“If that’s true, at this speed we’ll be there in about . . . five minutes!” Adam said.
“Do we need to prepare anything, Torliam? Pack up, etcetera? Or will you be able to send the whole ship through?” I moved up to stand beside him.
He was tapping at something on the control panel, and didn’t seem to hear me. He muttered something in his own language, face growing increasingly more expressionless, if that’s even a thing. Then he just . . . sagged. “It is damaged, according to the ship’s sensors. The array is completely broken. It will not work.”
There was a pause of silence, and then the interior of the small ship burst into noise, questioning him all at once. I was stunned into silence for the space of a couple breaths. Then I calmed, and my mind started to race. If we couldn’t escape using Torliam’s method, NIX was about to catch us.
I raised my hand and said, “Quiet.”
The others complied, but turned to stare at me expectantly. As if I had an answer.
“How long do we have until NIX gets here?” I asked.
“I estimate we have about thirty minutes,” Blaine said, “if they are employing their absolute fastest aircraft. And I see no reason why they would not, judging by the current situation. If they have sent word to others to cut us off, perhaps half that.”
That wasn’t enough time to escape, even if we had a way to do so, which we didn’t. And even if we could we had nowhere safe to escape to. “We have no alternatives,” I muttered to myself, eyes darting around in thought. “Tell me about this array. Stonehenge? What does it do? How is it broken?” I turned to face Torliam. He hesitated a moment, so I snapped, “We don’t have time for this! Tell me.”
“That place . . . the stones. They are an array that was laid down by my people when we were last on this godforsaken planet, thousands of years ago. There is a matching array in Estreyer, and this one can be used to access that one. Each can be used to transport the contents inside the circle instantly to a counterpart. But some of the stones are broken, or out of place, and some are even missing.”
“How does it work? In a general sense, I mean. We don’t have time for an alien science lesson.”
“Vibration,” he said simply. “I would cause the stones to vibrate, and their waves would travel across even endless space, faster than light, to pinpoint the location of the counterpart we want to access. Then . . . I don’t know how to explain to one with such a rudimentary language and . . .” He stopped when my eyebrow rose in impatience. “It would pull, and we would be there, and NIX would not reach us.”
“Okay. Stonehenge is made of what we humans call bluestone. Does it have to be bluestone? Could we fly somewhere and pick up some other rocks real quick?”
“They must be ‘bluestone,’ and they must have been prepared with the . . . ‘marks’ by my people.”
“Is there somewhere else we could go? Any other arrays like this that aren’t broken?”
“There were few arrays, even before. Your world has little of worth, and we abandoned travel here long ago. The record of the array placement was not kept. When my exploratory group arrived, we did search out some arrays, but most were either also broken, or seemed to be an attempt by humans to copy something they did not understand. I did not know this one was broken.”
“Most? Was there a working one, then?”
“Far from here. But it is small and rudimentary, and would not transport us all. And . . . I do not know if Lady Ladriel could make the trip. She is failing.”
Well, screw that. I wasn’t leaving anyone behind. I considered going to pirate the stones of that smaller array, but I realized that by the time we got there, loaded up the stones, and got back, NIX would have caught up long before.
I paced around, trying to will myself to come up with an answer. We couldn’t run for much longer, and we really weren’t strong enough to fight.
“Did you come here using the array?” I stopped and looked at Torliam again.
“No. They are disabled from our side. We cannot access Earth from Estreyer. My team flew here, the long way.”
“And Lady Ladriel won’t make it.”
“Even if she could, we would all starve to death before even getting halfway. We do not have the preparations.” He looked like a taut wire, ready to snap. No doubt I did, too.
I did not want to be caught by NIX. I could barely imagine the trepidation he must feel, considering the type of torment he’d endured for years.
“What do I need, what do I have, and how can I use what I have to get what I need?” I muttered under my breath, the words tripping on each other on the way out. My eyes passed over my group of teammates.
I stopped, staring at Adam for a long moment. “Could you make a passable replica of bluestone with your Animate Skill?”
His eyes widened as everyone else turned to stare at him, too.
“Your Bestowal, the ‘Skill,’ allows a short-lived mimicry of something, borne out of ink?” Torliam asked. “I have only seen it in action against NIX as we reclaimed Lady Ladriel.”
“Well, yes, basically. It can bring something I’ve imagined and painted with ink to life, for a short while.”
“I . . . do not think that will work,” Torliam said. “We might attempt it, but without the intimate knowledge of how our arrays work, I do not think it would be possible for you to replicate their effects. Or, perhaps, to hold the mimicry for long enough to complete the activation.”
My faint hope evaporated. “Is there any fix for it? Or a work-around of some sort?” I asked.
Torliam didn’t answer my question right away, but his face lost its expressionlessness. “I . . .” He tapped at the screen faster, symbols unlike anything I recognized from Earth flashing across its surface. “It will be dangerous. It will require us to calibrate the array to ourselves specifically.”
“We will have to try,” I said. “While Torliam is working on that, the rest of you, start gathering supplies. Anything you can carry, in order of importance to our survival on Estreyer.”
“Food first, or supplies?” Zed asked. “Will we be able to gather food on Estreyer, wherever we’re going?”
“There will be animals, and vegetation where we are going. And another ship,” Torliam said, meeting my eyes with understanding. “Smaller than this one, but it will carry anything we can bring to it.”
“Can this ship fly on its own? If we send it out back over the ocean?”
“I hunted Lady Ladriel myself. She is the highest quality, and retains a small portion of her own instincts. If we tell her to go, she will go. And she can fly under the water, if a bit slower. Can your ships do the same?”
“Blaine?” I asked. He was the expert.
“Perhaps some of them. There are prototypes, but they don’t compare to the speed of standard airships. If we are lucky, they will have to deploy other airships, or aquatic ones, to follow,” he said quickly. “But if you are planning to abandon the ship with most of the supplies inside, I must caution against it. I was already unable to fit as much into this . . . creature’s . . .” he paused for a moment, seeming distracted as he looked around at the rippling
walls, “. . . amazing cargo space. But I have already optimized based on what will be most useful for our survival. If we leave any more, I will not even have tools!”
“You’ll have to make do without them, then. We’re dropping off at Stonehenge, and the ship’s going on without us. There isn’t time for any more. And even if there was, we’d still have to be able to transport it to the other ship. We have about two minutes, Blaine. You’d better hurry.”
Everyone scrambled to grab the important supplies—each team member’s pack, the two cases of Seeds, some medical supplies and extra cartridges of ink and electricity, and Zed’s nanite paste, which I ensured they didn’t forget.
Lady Ladriel slowed as we approached Stonehenge, sliding so low to the ground it seemed like she was brushing the grass. On Torliam’s order, the back of the ship opened up like a tube, and we were all sucked out by the force.
My Grace allowed me to land on my feet, thankfully, because a tumble would have been torturous to my half-healed arm. Blaine’s mecha suit allowed him to do the same, with Kris and Gregor. Jacky carried Chanelle on her back, along with a huge backpack and enough side satchels that she was almost buried under them, though she didn’t seem to have any problem with the weight. Blaine’s doing, most likely.
Lady Ladriel shot off at an angle, the hull closing back up. Hopefully, she would draw NIX off for long enough for us to get off Earth. If we could get off Earth.
We ran toward the towering boulders of Stonehenge, and Torliam immediately got to work. He commandeered Jacky, and Blaine with his mecha suit, to right some of the fallen stones and move others back into position, while rearranging others.
I could almost smell the stress hormones in the air, wafting off everyone’s skin.
Kris, normally quiet, snapped at Gregor. “Stop grinding your teeth!”
When Sam kept fidgeting, Adam growled at him to, “stop looking so guilty!” despite that he himself couldn’t keep his hands still, and his hair was floating about with a life of its own.
Sam pointed this out, which didn’t help Adam calm down, but did incentivize him to stalk away from the other boy toward me.
“How’s the pain?” he asked.
“Manageable,” I said. “As long as I don’t move, nothing hits the arm, and I stop breathing.”
My attempt at humor didn’t coax a smile out of him. “Once we get there, Sam can take some more Seeds and try again. This array thing better not cause any more injuries. Whatever’s going on with Sam, I don’t think we can rely on him to heal them.”
“We’ll make it work,” I said, watching as the stones glowed with strange Estreyan symbols flashing across their surface.
Torliam was almost feverishly focused, hurrying around as he used the surface of the stone like a smartglass tablet. “We must calibrate the array, now. Everyone, gather with me!”
We did as he asked.
“Hold your hand over the stone,” he said. “We must give our blood.”
Blaine frowned at him. “Our blood . . . is it taking a DNA sample?”
“We have no time for questions, human!”
I stepped forward first, and held out my good hand.
Torliam waved his own hand, and a misty blue light shot out, scoring a thin line across the back. He grabbed my hand and rubbed the wound on the stone, spreading my blood in the pattern of an Estreyan symbol. The stone lit up along those lines, and when it dimmed, my blood was gone.
“Hurry,” he said, eyes on the horizon. “NIX may not be fooled for long. We must not tarry.”
The others followed suit, and then we gathered ourselves and the supplies in the center of the circle.
“Is this safe?” Adam muttered.
Torliam ignored him, still scanning the skies, and then he began to sound off the stones.
I shivered as the vibration traveled through me. Torliam explained that the sounds were a type of coordinate, each of them establishing a different parameter of location, far beyond simple latitude and longitude.
They felt kind of like the Boneshaker, but more powerful and less . . . teeth-grinding. My eyes caught rapidly growing dots on the horizon. Our pursuers.
But the waves were already thrumming through my body till I couldn’t think of anything else but them, overlapping and merging and crashing . . . then we were gone.
I knew we were in Estreyer first because there were no clouds to obscure the blistering sunlight. My eyes teared up at the burning sensation of too much light, and I slammed them shut till they could adjust. I wasn’t nauseous, like I had expected.
“Whoa,” Kris said, looking around in wonder.
Even Gregor lacked his customary scowl.
“Is everything so big here?” Zed asked. “It’s like some primordial paradise world.”
We’d arrived within a circle similar to Stonehenge, but much better maintained. It was surrounded by tall yellowed grass. Only Torliam, myself, and Blaine were tall enough to see over the top of it, and Blaine only because the suit boosted his height by a few inches.
Torliam said something in Estreyan, and fell to his knees, his fingers digging into the dirt convulsively.
The smell of greenery and peaches hit me anew as my eyes adjusted to the alienly vibrant colors, and I realized that I, too, would be enamored of this stunning world, if my experience of it had not been tainted by terror and death. But I wasn’t the only one who was more watchful than awed.
Adam, Jacky, and Sam were facing outward warily, each of us with our back toward the others, facing into the unknown. This world killed the inattentive. I spread my awareness out, sensing our immediate surroundings for danger.
Birch sidled tentatively closer to the edge of the stone circle, nose twitching.
“Stay close,” I said to him, though I hadn’t noticed any monsters or obvious hazards, except for the slightly disconcerting realization that literally everything around me glowed almost imperceptibly with power. “It’s dangerous.”
His ears lowered, but he moved back toward the group, taking his disappointment out on Adam with a swipe to the leg as he passed.
“Why?” Adam sighed. “I just want to be friends.”
Birch let out something that sounded surprisingly like a human snort, and flicked his tail at Adam. He crouched down and jumped, landing on my good shoulder with enough force to rock me, then rising up with his hind legs on my shoulder and forepaws pushing at the side of my head, so that he could see over the top of the grass.
I rolled my eyes in commiseration with Adam.
Torliam rose from the ground, tilted his head back, and wiped his face while he breathed in deeply. “I am home,” he said. He turned to me. “I thank you, Eve of the line of Redding. This will not be forgotten.”
“You’re welcome,” I said awkwardly. “So, where’s this other ship?”
“Not far. The other ship is no match for my Lady, but it will do. If we walk slowly, we will make it before the sun sets.”
“Let’s go, guys. Load up,” I said.
Blaine strapped an impressive amount of supply-laden packs to his suit, challenging Jacky for the spot of most supplies carried. He seemed to be walking fine, so I figured either Sam had been able to heal the wound in his leg, or Blaine’s suit was doing all of the work for him.
The rest of the team grabbed one or two packs each. I tried to grab my own, but Adam and Zed reached out to stop me almost simultaneously, and I gave up without much of a fight. My arm hurt, and I felt weak already. My skin still stretched tight over my bones, and probably would for a while. I pilfered one of the supply packs Jacky was carrying, which contained what limited food supply we hadn’t abandoned, and took another handful of nutrient bars. My body needed fuel.
Birch had his own little pack, which he seemed quite proud of. We filed out into the sea of grasses, Torliam leading the way. We heard the sounds of a far-off monster scuffle, and then some pained yowling as one of them lost the fight, but we couldn’t see it, and it was beyond the range of my
Wraith Skill. After walking at a quick pace to keep up with Torliam for a couple hours, we crossed the path of a gigantic snake.
It turned to look at us when the grasses parted on it, but after a quick staring match with Torliam, it slithered off, its huge muscles rippling.
“Largely harmless creature,” he said. “Though I do not doubt it would consider you humans a pleasant meal.” I’m pretty sure he was smiling at that thought, though I couldn’t see his face.
Shortly after that, we arrived at the edge of the field and entered a wooded area. I was relieved to see that the trees, while gigantic, weren’t the same type as those twisted creations of the first Trial I’d been in. I’d had my share of dreams about those spores feeding on the still-living bodies of humans, growing into vaguely human-shaped colossals.
After another hour of walking the sun began to slant sideways through the trees, which opened up onto a clearing, within which were another ship, smaller and clunkier looking than Lady Ladriel, and an Estreyan-sized log cottage.
I looked between Torliam and the cottage, and for some reason, was startled. Despite what I’d seen of Estreyer, all the technology and the abandoned cities, somehow I’d never imagined the aliens, Torliam’s people, living in houses that weren’t so different from a human’s.
Torliam inspected the clearing for danger while we waited at the tree line, and then let us into the cottage. He was obviously familiar with the area, and I wondered if this had been his house before he came to Earth. The inside was sparsely furnished, and covered in dust and Estreyan-sized cobwebs. There were also a few Estreyan-sized spider corpses lying at the edge of the wall.
“Gross,” Gregor said with a shudder, but he still leaned in close to examine their hulking appendages. He held his hand up to the body, then grinned over at Blaine. “It’s bigger than my hand! Even bigger than my old pet tarantula.”
Torliam waved a hand, and that blue mist burst from him again, dispersed thinly, and caused a violent gust of wind to blow through the cottage, gathering the dust and cobwebs along the way and forcing them out through an open window.
