by Calista Skye
Harper's eyes and nose were still running, and she wiped her face with the sleeve of her jumpsuit. This was not the time to try to be sophisticated. “How soon will they be here?”
“Perhaps a day after Inferno can be observed from ship in orbit somewhere in outskirts of this solar system. Will need that time to get to Bosh.”
“A day? Will that be enough? Doesn't the Fire travel faster in an Inferno year?”
He gave her a tight smile. “Fire travels fast. But will be enough. With time to spare.”
One of the other men suddenly shouted and pointed. They all turned.
“Hmm,” Vrax'ton said pensively. “Perhaps not a lot of time to spare.”
Behind them were the hills and mountains they had traveled over. But now, huge flames could be seen behind them. They were ghostly, silently dancing pillars of intensely white and yellow, writhing and twisting and stretching far up into the atmosphere, way beyond the tallest peaks of the mountain range.
“Fire has not reached mountains yet,” Vrax'ton pondered. “Those are not normal flames from jungle on other side.”
Harper felt she was going pale. “Inferno flames.”
“Harper is right. Inferno flames, much taller and more glorious than ordinary Fire. Vrax'ton thought plants were heavier with Fire fuel than last time. Sharper smell. Plants know. But been many years since last time Vrax'ton was here. Could not be certain.”
The sight sent a chill down Harper's back. “I thought you said the Inferno started in the Ice Caves?”
Vrax'ton nodded. “Not everything known about Inferno Year. Possibly Ice Caves stretch under mountain to other side. It is known Caves are fantastically large. Much little time now. Inferno Fire travels very fast.”
He gave a couple of sharp commands and took Harper by the hand. Soon they were running through the grasslands towards the dark line of what had to be another jungle in front of them. Now they were no longer alone. The sight of the Inferno Fire had alarmed the inhabitants of the planet, and packs of animals were running along with them.
And others were waiting for them. Vrax'ton gave a sharp warning, but still the young almost-warrior in front didn't have time to draw his short sword before three large hergs were upon him and ripped him apart in a split second, almost casually.
Harper screamed in horror at the spray of blood that stood out from what had been a man, but which was now just a jumble of flesh. They kept running, and Vrax'ton and the two others disposed of several other hergs that had been preparing an ambush.
They ran on across the grass, and the new jungle loomed ahead of them. Harper didn't relish going in among the trees again.
She was breathing hard. “Won't we be hard to find for the ones coming to pick us up if we go into the jungle?”
Vrax'ton held her hand as they ran. Hard, as if he would never let go. “They will find. Vrax'ton and Harper now must make sure there is something for finders to find.”
Harper couldn't run that fast for long, and soon they had to slow down. She dared a glance behind them.
It was a sobering sight. Flames shot up from behind the mountains as far as the eye could see to the left and the right. It was an immense curtain of fire coming straight for them, and it continued upwards to the sky as far as the eye could see. It would be impossible to avoid by somehow changing direction. The fire front would burn along an uneven line all across the land mass they were on, as she had observed from Gideo Station many times. Except this time it would burn much faster than anyone on the base had ever seen or suspected.
No more packs of hergs tried to attack them, but the sight of the brave young man being torn apart by them had etched itself into Harper's mind. Such a terrible planet!
They came to the edge of the jungle, and they just marched straight in without hesitation. There was no choice. Now Vrax'ton was in front, along with the young man called Kar'x, while Eni'ar walked behind Harper and guarded from attacks from the rear.
The air in the jungle was damp and sticky with flammable chemicals, and sometimes a drop of fluid would hit Harper's head or go down the back of her neck. She got a couple of large leaves and after some experimentation turned them into a hat that would keep the stinky liquids from hitting her head, at least.
But it didn't make the walk much more pleasant. This jungle was even denser than the first one, and the insects and other deadly animals seemed to be ganging up on their little group. Vrax'ton's axe seemed to always be swinging and catching some kind of threat, and the short swords the two others had were dripping with all kinds of blood and guts from the many dangers. At least they hadn't seen any hergs – the predators preferred more open environments than the dense underbrush here.
Harper closed off a part of her mind to be able to cope with the ordeal. Vrax'ton and his men kept all the dangers from her, but once in a while a millipede or an exploding rock-like being or a snake with one head at either end got so close to her that their blood and fluids splashed on her when one of the warriors handled the situation and killed it at the last second.
“We'll seek higher terrain,” Vrax'ton said and looked behind them. “Must be higher up when rescue craft arrives. Will have trouble landing here.”
Harper just nodded. Even the herlee berries were of limited use now, because she was exhausted and probably dehydrated. Once in a while they came across a little stream, but they all smelled so rank and chemical it was obvious that they were not at all something anyone would ever want to drink.
To keep her mind occupied, Harper tried to come up with an explanation of why the Ice Caves were so important to the Fire. Probably the plants in this jungle made all kinds of nasty and flammable chemicals that would seep through the burned soil and collect in the cavern below. Probably the weird and complicated mix of fluids that was the result had a high freezing point, so that it would easily turn to ice. And then, when the Fire came closer and the Caves were full after they'd collected flammable liquids for years, the mix would help fuel it and create the Inferno.
She sighed and brushed a four-legged spider off her hand with her trowel. Her theory had many holes. But it was the closest she could get right now.
Many hours passed. They had gone a little to the left, and now the ground was rising. Turning her head, Harper could no longer see the mountains behind them. They seemed to be obscured by some kind of bright, white mist that looked more like a white sheet illuminated by the sun ...
The breath stuck in her throat when she realized what she was looking at. That was the Fire itself. It just looked like a solid sheet from this close, just a hard curtain of intense heat. Only when she looked up could she see flames that stretched very high up into the atmosphere until they disappeared into space.
Vrax'ton stopped and stood beside her. “Inferno Year,” he said. “The Fire has turned white.”
Harper shuddered. “Has it reached this jungle yet?”
“Vrax'ton estimates Fire is still on other side of mountains. If on this side, glorious heat would be in Harper's face. Mountains still shield us. Light from the flames is glorious and make seem closer than is true.”
Harper looked around. They were clearly on a hilltop, and as far as she could tell it was the only higher ground anywhere within many miles. “So what do we do now?”
Vrax'ton kicked the ground and a dry cloud of black ashes rose. “This is good place for rescue craft to land. Could be here at any moment. Harper and Vrax'ton wait here.”
Harper nodded, but the good and secure feeling she'd had that morning seemed far away now. The Fire that close made it impossible to relax. It drew her mind to it as a worry that was always present, like a monster following her every step and getting a little closer each time she'd look.
“I guess we don't have much of a choice,” she agreed. “I just hope your people are better at rescue missions than mine.”
The hilltop rose above the jungle. This forest wasn't as colorful as the one on the other side of the mountains. It was darker and more fo
reboding, and the trees and plants were heavier with the chemicals they'd made to fuel the Fire and help their own life cycle continue. When the Fire came here, it would have no problem staying lit.
The sun set, but it was still bright as day. The Fire illuminated everything within hundreds of miles and threw long, undulating shadows. And now, Harper was sure that she could feel the heat from it, like a pressure at her skin and in her chest. Yeah, that rescue craft could just come any time it wanted to now.
They sat in silence and just looked at the Fire. Harper found it hard to take her eyes off it. It had a hypnotic effect that it was hard to resist, like the northern lights she had seen during space training on Iceland back on Earth. Or the lights from the UFO the Gulg kidnappers had. She shuddered at the thought. Whatever happened now, it would be better than that, at least.
Suddenly Kar'x gave a happy exclamation, bounced to his feet and pointed. And sure enough, there was something moving in the sky. Something that was not a firebird or a piece of ash.
“Rescue craft has reached Bosh,” Vrax'ton said and calmly rose to his feet as if he had just been waiting for the bus. “Is very early, but Vrax'ton will refrain from punishing crew.”
Harper felt a smile spread on her face. Yep, it really did look like a spaceship or shuttle. “I don't mind that either. Better too early than too late.”
She looked at herself in a critical light, using the trowel's shiny handle as a mirror. After days on the Fire Planet, battling wildlife in jungles and savannahs, only interspersed with moments of sexual bliss with a viking-like warrior from the stars, she looked like a shipwrecked sailor. Her hair was all tangled and lank, her hands and face were grimy with soot and she felt clammy with sweat. Only her high-tech jumpsuit still looked as pristine as if it had just been broken out of its box, and the nanoparticles that coated it had kept the dirt completely off.
“I'd kill for a hairbrush,” she mumbled and tried to just use her hands to get some kind of style going.
“Harper is of fantastic glorious beauty,” Vrax'ton said absentmindedly with a man's lack of regard for the important things. But he said it like he meant it, too. Yes, of course he meant it. But she didn't want to look like a drowned rat when she met Vrax'ton's people.
The spaceship streaked fast across the sky without leaving any contrails, in parallel with the fire front. It was a dark little speck that would sometimes give off a glint of light. It was high enough up that it was still in sunlight, and it occasionally reflected some of it down to them.
Harper frowned. “Aren't they too close to that fire?”
“Craft is searching,” Vrax'ton said. “Begin close to Fire. If boys undergoing Trials were there, rescue would be urgent. Yet, crew leaving slim margin of safety. Vrax'ton may punish crew after all.”
Kar'x and Eni'ar exchanged muted comments while they stared at the incoming rescue ship, and Harper thought she recognized a worried tone in their alien speech.
The ship came closer, still along the wall of fire, and now Harper could see some details. It was long and sleek and elegant, very different from the stubby and utilitarian shuttles that Earth's Space Expansion used for their transport needs. It had a pattern on it that was similar to Vrax'ton's tattoos. They made it look aggressive and dangerous, and the spaceship up there looked more like a warship than any kind of rescue Harper had ever seen. Unlike airliners on Earth, this spaceship made no noise at all, but it was obvious that it was moving fast.
“Don't they see us?”
Vrax'ton scratched his chin, and now he was frowning, too. “May be so close to Fire instruments go crazy. Must move away from Fire! Acerex pilots very valorous. Some pilots much too valorous. Vrax'ton will now definitely punish crew.”
“Maybe on the next pass,” Harper suggested. “They'll move away from the Fire then.”
“Inferno Fire is different,” Vrax'ton fretted. “Crew has never seen anything like this. Pilot taking risks that are unacceptable.”
He had barely finished his sentence before the rescue ship turned sharply towards them and went into a dive right in their direction.
“They're seeing us!” Harper said, and her heart did a happy somersault in her chest.
But the joy died at the same instant. A huge column of light so bright they had to shield their eyes shot up from the root of the mountains, much closer to them than the Fire itself. It looked like a blowtorch of impossible heat that shot upwards from the ground – and Harper immediately knew what it was. “That's the hole where I almost fell into the Ice Caves. It's erupting!”
As they watched, the rescue ship continued on its course as the fire shot up towards it from below.
“Crew cannot see it,” Vrax'ton observed, then waved his arms desperately in a 'stop' motion, as if to signal to them. “Must turn away! Turn! Turn! Sev ing! Sev ing!”
Harper saw the point and did the same – the ship's crew could probably see them clearly on their screens, even if the ship was still too far away to discern movements with the naked eye.
But it didn't help - the ship continued ahead and came lower and lower, and the flame from below shot up towards it with a slowness that seemed studied, as if it were on purpose.
And then the searingly white flame engulfed the ship completely, almost lazily, and the vessel disappeared from view inside the immense column of heat.
But it was only gone for a second before it shot out from the vertical pillar of fire. It was just that it wasn't a spaceship anymore, just a ball of flames that had suddenly lost all its capabilities for flight and plummeted towards the ground, trailing a tail of sparks and burning debris. It was already disintegrating, and it hit the jungle below like a rain of burning pieces.
For a moment Harper just stood there, motionless and stunned, while her brain tried to understand what had happened. Then the sound reached them – a loud whooosh from the fire that had erupted, and then a sharp bang from the rescue ship being caught in the miles-high torch and its hull exploding.
Harper clamped her hands to her ears and watched the flame lazily climb ever higher, like a finger of death that was taunting them.
She looked up at Vrax'ton as the heart sunk in her chest. For the first time the large alien warrior was stunned. That shook her to the core more than anything.
She took his hand and clutched it. “This doesn't look so good. But you know, I think we'll make it after all.”
She had no idea why she said it. She certainly didn't feel like they'd make it. Not at all. Without a rescue ship, they were all dead. She knew that as well as they all did. But it seemed the right thing to say.
Vrax'ton shook himself out of his shock and looked down at her, then took her into his arms and squeezed hard. “Yes. Harper and Vrax'ton are more valorous than stupid crew. Will survive and enjoy.”
As they watched, the column of fire spread slowly to each side of the jungle, creating a new white, undulating curtain of pure heat. It was a new Fire that was much closer to them than the old Fire was. And it was coming for them.
The warrior turned his back to it and pulled Harper along with him down from the hill, away from the heat. The two young warriors followed close behind.
He squeezed her hand, and again she felt the certainty in him. He would save them.
Somehow.
“Yes, my love,” she said.
17
- Vrax'ton -
They had no choice but to keep going. Now the Fire would reach them much sooner than he'd thought. It seemed to have leaped many miles closer to them through the Ice Caves and erupted where the caves were close to the surface, probably through the hole that Harper had almost fallen into.
And their rescue ship was caught in it right at the time it was coming for them. In all his campaigns and raids on alien worlds, in all his battles and wars, he had never seen anyone have as bad luck as that. The pilot had been reckless and flown much too close to the Fire, of course. It looked like he had wanted to somehow display his bravery to anyone looki
ng. But still, the odds that the geyser of flame would erupt right under the rescue ship and pick it out of the sky like a hand reaching up was a little too much. It felt as if the planet was cursed, somehow.
No matter the reason, the pilot's bravado had contributed to killing him. It had probably killed Vrax'ton and Harper and the two proto-warriors, too. Now he saw no way to escape from the Fire Planet.
“Kar'x,” he said. “Eni'ar.”
The two young men turned their faces to him attentively, while still keeping watch around them. The fire planet had made them grow as men, which was precisely the intention of the Trials.
“Sire?”
He drew himself up to his full height and placed one hand on his axe and the other on his belt. “I hereby decree that you have both passed the Trials. You are now warriors of the Acerex.”
The two serious, worried and drawn young faces broke up into tired smiles. “Thank you, Sire.”
“Not that it makes much difference for this situation,” he said, now able to treat them as warriors and not try to hide the seriousness of their plight any longer. “But when you meet your ancestors at Ervod, and sit at high table with the legendary heroes of centuries past, you will meet them as men and warriors. You have earned your places at the high table in the Halls of Herjere. I fear you will soon be taking those places. But not from any mistake you have made. No dishonor attaches to you.”
They both bowed without a word, there was a moment of silent reverie, and then they all walked on.
Vrax'ton shot a glance at Harper, and she looked back and gave him a little smile and raised her eyebrows. She probably understood what had happened here, even if she didn't speak the language.
He smiled back. Even staring right into hell, that face would always send a ray of sunshine to his heart and a spark of fire to his loins.
