by Blooding, SM
He flinched.
I blinked, the pain subsiding. “Do we?”
“I may know of a way.”
I narrowed my eyes and leaned on my hands. “How?”
“I could build a radar.”
“And then you could find it?”
He nodded. “I don’t have all the materials, and there’s no real way ta get all of them.”
My whole body rocked with the pulse of the pain in my head. “We can find them.”
“Once we get you back.”
I sat there and rocked for a moment. Once we got me back. I repeated that over and over. “So you know someone who can help?”
He nodded again, then dropped his head, his heels knocking against the crate under us. “Yes, but findin’ her is goin’ ta be difficult. She moves around a lot, staying with the Great Families.”
“Who is she?”
“Ino Kilak.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You mean the Ino witch?”
“Do you know her?”
I stared at him incredulously and then remembered. “Right, you’ve been with the Hands for a while. My mother is the head of the Ino Family.”
“I thought you were El’Kasim.”
I raised an eyebrow at him, waiting for him to catch up.
The expression on his face was priceless. “Oh, now it all makes sense. You and the Mark of the Wands.”
“The Mark of fire,” I corrected.
“Now it makes sense why you fell to the House of Primus.”
I reached up and rubbed my eyebrow. “You know, now that we’re out, we should regain our names, our languages. We’re no longer the instruments of the Hands.”
Joshua nodded. “You’re quite right.” He switched to Keltak. “But would you understand me?”
I grinned and answered in the same language. “I was raised on an airship. We traveled the world. I might know it better than you.”
He snorted. “I doubt that.”
“I’ve been speaking it freely longer.”
His expression clouded.
“What do we do after my head’s fixed and we find the Yusrra Samma?”
“Hide?”
We were both quiet for a long while, listening to Yvette and Haji argue and to the sands settle on the plane.
“Do you think you could do that?” I asked. “Hide, I mean.”
“What else could we do?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. Fight back.”
“How? They outnumber us. Now tha’ we’re gone, we no longer have access to their technology.”
I bit down on my lips and narrowed my gaze on the floor. “Maybe, but we know the air better than they do.”
“Do we?”
I opened my mouth.
He cut me off. “You do. We don’t.”
“But the Great Families do.”
“So you’d stage a coup?”
“Perhaps?”
Joshua’s head fell back, his hands remaining on the crate. “How do we know that the Families would be any better?”
“They would be,” I said indignantly. “They have to be. We are the Great Families.”
He chewed on the inside of his cheek and shook his head, his fingers pulsing on the wood beneath. “First the Priests, then the Hands, then wha’? The Families? I think there’s an issue with a single governin’ body.”
I shifted on the box to face him. “You know your Family—”
“They’re all dead, Synn,” he said, his voice rising in volume. He bared his teeth and swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “You want me to trust yours?”
I nodded. “I know them.”
“But wha’ gives them the right to rule me? Why must my freedoms be stripped? Why can’t I rule m’self?”
“We would be ruling ourselves.”
“You should—”
Something scratched along the top of the plane.
Joshua and I turned and looked at one another, listening.
A thump followed with more scratching. Something was crawling around up there.
“Do ye thin’ we were followed?”
I shrugged. “I didn’t see anyone, but maybe?”
He grabbed the lightning gun Keeley had set down.
I picked up my pistol.
Together, we headed for the door at the back of the plane.
It wouldn’t open. Joshua joined me, pushing against the door. It budged and sand spilled over, but it was open enough for both of us to squeeze through. The sand had piled up against the frame of the plane. We ducked underneath the tail, stepping to the side to get a better view of the top.
I walked backward, scanning the skies.
They were open, blue and beautiful.
My feet took me up another dune. When I’d gotten about half-way, I saw…
My mouth fell open. I didn’t know what I was seeing.
Eight spindly legs clack-clack-clacked on our partially buried plane, sending sand cascading off the sides. Large pincers on its multi-jointed lower body tried to penetrate the skin of the plane.
On the head were two large iridescent eyes and clasping horizontal pincers that seemed to be chewing the air.
The head swiveled in our direction, and the butt stopped moving.
It was about a quarter of the size of the plane, and it was staring at us like we were food.
“Do you know what that thing is?” I asked.
“I was abou’ to bloody well ask you, Mr. I’ve-Traveled-Around-the-World.”
I raised my eyebrows at his complete lack of humor. “I haven’t spent a lot of time on actual land.”
“So tha’ would be a no, then?”
I shook my head, staring at the thing.
The butt rose straight in the air.
The area right behind my ears began to ache.
Joshua picked up his lightning gun, pointed, aimed and fired.
He caught the thing square in the chest.
It gave off a high pitched scream and fell on its back, then slid down off the plane, its legs wildly beating the air.
We both stopped. What was it going to do next?
It turned itself back onto its feet. The pain behind my ear increased.
The sounds of hundreds of clack-clack-clackings filled the air.
Joshua and I shared a wide-eyed look of horror.
All around us were more of these creatures, their pincer butts held high, their clawed noses snapping at the air.
We were lunch.
CHAPTER 14
QUICKSAND AND SINKING FAST
Joshua let out a very unmanly yelp and ran for the plane, his feet kicking up sand.
The bugs paused. Large eyes watched his progress.
And then they skittered.
I followed Joshua. He wasn’t leaving me alone to fend for myself.
Haji and Yvette met us in the bay. “What is going on out there?” he demanded.
“Bugs,” I said, listening for any signs that they were breaching the plane. I took off one of the ridiculous low cut shoes and dumped the sand out of it. What I wouldn’t give for a pair of boots.
“Tha’ wasn’t a bloody bug.” Joshua removed the lightning cartridge and dropped it on the crate. “It’s a sky felling monster, and we’re out of ammunition.”
I held up my pistol. “As far as I know, this doesn’t run out of juice.”
“Only in your hand,” Joshua muttered, putting down his gun. “What are we supposed to do now?”
The plane whined as its outer skin was torn.
Haji stared at me intently. “Did you shoot at the sphynktor bug scout?”
Joshua shrugged. “Maybe. The thin’ was on m’ plane and I wanted him off.”
Another grinding noise tore through the cargo bay.
“Well, you effectively pissed it off.” Haji turned and headed deeper into the plane. “One of you two need to distract them and draw them to the sea.”
“Do you have any idea how far away that is?” Joshua asked.
“No,” Haji said matter-of-factly, ducking through the arched doorway that led to the cockpit. “But we also don’t have any weapons that will take out an entire swarm, which is what you’ve brought down on us.”
I followed.
The sound of something hard being drawn across the skin of the plane stopped me.
“We’re running out of time, Synn,” Haji said. “Just take them to the sea, and then be mindful of what rises from the waters.”
My expression twisted in perplexed incredulity. What was I supposed to do with that?
The sound of many legs attacking the door reached us.
“Crap.” My fingers flexed on the pistol. We were out of time. I walked back to Joshua. “How far away and in what direction is the sea?”
He closed his eyes and shook his head, pointing toward the tail of the plane. “A long ways off. It’s going to be a long run.”
For all that Yvette looked calm, her voice betrayed just how scared she was. “Can you get those things out of here? Now, s’il vous plaît?”
Legs jutted through the door, big buggy legs.
I bounced on my toes, tossing my head. My neck cracked. I shook out my arms.
“Are ye ready yet, fighter?” Joshua asked.
“Shut up.” I raised my gun and charged the door, calling on my energies and waiting, waiting…pulling the trigger.
The legs disappeared and a high pitched scream filled the air.
I came to the door and paused. The only thing I could see was sand. I wasn’t dumb enough to think I’d scared the damned thing off.
I hadn’t. After pushing my way through the door, I saw it off to the side, two legs in half, the pincers chopping the air. The pain behind my ear hit me again, and suddenly I was surrounded by monstrous bugs.
Joshua pushed through the door behind me. “Plan?”
“I shoot. We run.”
“Great plan.”
I raised the pistol and aimed for the closest one. “You lead. I follow. I have no idea where we are.”
He nodded. “Make a hole.”
I pulled the trigger.
The electric lava raced out and found a target. The cracking and hissing of the melting shells and the bug screams filled the air. The bugs paused, their eyes shifting, their pincers still.
The pain behind my ear relaxed.
I raised the pistol higher, bringing the electric lava closer to the head.
The screaming got worse.
And then it exploded.
The force slammed me into the back of the plane. I scrambled to my feet, searching the immediate area for my gun. There.
“Wha’ in the bloody sky? One blows an’ they all blow?”
I looked at those surrounding us. I’d taken out the one I’d been firing at, but the explosion of his death took out both bugs on either side of him and the one with the bad legs. Interesting. Well, that made things a bit easier. “Take cover.”
“Take cover?” he demanded. “Where would ye like me to do tha’?”
I backed up and aimed for the next available head. It exploded and three more fell. I picked another, the muscles behind my ears aching, and more fell.
“Would you stop shooting at them and do what I said?” Haji shouted. His head poked out low in the doorway.
I chose another and shot. Huge dead bodies littered the area, but they just kept coming. How many more of them were there?
“Trust me, Synn,” Haji yelled, “you do not have enough ammunition. A full swarm’s several hundred.”
“Hundred?” The repercussion of the explosion pressed me into the plane’s outer skin. I was starting to feel drained. “There aren’t that many here.”
“They’re calling. Can’t you feel it?”
I shot him a dark look and picked another head to target. By now, though, they were learning and they ran, their pincer butts held high, scattering all around us, away from my immediate line of sight. “Feel what?”
He rolled his eyes and disappeared back into the plane. “They’re going to get in. Draw them away and get to the sea.”
Damn Nefertarian. Haji could have told us more, warned us better.
Joshua was still picking himself up from the last blast, glaring at me and at the world in general, his red hair disheveled.
“You ready to make a run for it?”
“Rather tha’ than gettin’ knocked on my sky-felled arse every time you decide to shoot somethin’?” He crouched, at the ready. “Jus’ head for the sea?”
“I don’t know what Haji’s thinking, but yeah.”
“Then, let’s—”
They converged.
I pointed, aiming for legs this time. Joshua had a point. Getting hit with the explosion of their heads hurt. I found a hole in their line.
“Go!”
We took off, running as fast as we could. We topped one dune and tumbled down the other side. More of those sky-felled bugs came out of the sand, their feet clack-clacking over the dunes.
I twisted and shot, hitting mostly the body and finally the head. I turned and pushed harder as the wave of the repercussion rolled over us, throwing us over the other side of the next dune.
Running in sand was no joke. My legs and chest burned. It didn’t help that the air was so much thicker down here on land. It felt like I was drowning.
After a few more dunes, I knew we weren’t going to make it. As we topped yet another pile of sand, I glimpsed green. Green. Green meant water.
Oh, for the love of sky.
I tripped over my tired legs and shot behind us, causing another explosion, quickly followed by yet another buying us time. Enough? I hoped so.
The bugs were catching up. The closer we got to the green, the closer they got to us. They were well equipped for running on sand. They practically glided over it.
I heard the crack ca-lack of the pincers much too close and turned. Too close to shoot. Too tired to push harder. It’d been a really long sky felled day.
There was more than one way to get us to the green.
I slid, lying flat on my back on the sand. One of the bugs charged me, the head pincers cracking at me. His head lowered. The pincers scooped sand.
I launched myself in the air, hurtling over his head, onto his body. I twisted to look behind me, found a target in the hundreds following, and shot one further back.
The bug I rode paused, almost as though he were confused as the concussion rocked through the air.
“What are you doing?” Joshua yelled.
“Just keep running!” I searched for anything that would keep me on that thing’s smoothly textured shell back.
The other bugs seemed not to see me. It was almost as though I were invisible.
My fingers found an edge to hold on to. The bug beneath bucked a bit and then turned to follow Joshua.
He cursed quite a bit, but I couldn’t quite tell what he was saying. I didn’t care. I was the one expending all the energy blowing these things up, for sky’s sake.
I twisted, sure I was going to fall off, but once the bug decided to run, the ride was smooth. A few more well placed shots took out several more of the bugs as far out as I could shoot. I was tired of being hit with the explosion. What was in their heads, anyway? We weren’t being sprayed with brain matter. If there was only air in their heads, then where were their brains?
Bugs. They were so weird.
I had to shoot a few of the bugs away from Joshua a couple of times, but in doing so, he was thrown to the ground, and each time he got back up, he glared at me. I didn’t have a lot of energy left to keep pulling the trigger.
We needed to find a bit of safety, lie low and recharge.
The bugs were starting to get smarter as we crested the last dune, Joshua speeding towards the green. Their pincers snapped at the air. I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that I was about to be made. They snapped closer and closer to me.
But by this time, there were skinny trees and tall, tall grass and…well, other
green leafy things that were getting between me and them. Now that we were off the sands, Joshua gained ground and the ride was getting a bit bumpier. There wasn’t a whole lot to grab on to, and I was tired. I might aim further, but I didn’t hit anything far away. The last explosion had nearly knocked me off.
Joshua stumbled to a halt, his arms flailing.
That could only mean one thing. Cliff.
The bug I was on careened toward him. He turned to me, his eyes growing wide.
I raised the gun and pointed.
He fell to the ground, covering his head.
An entire row of bugs exploded around us. The head of the beast I rode cracked as I was blown off.
The swarm stopped, their heads waving in the air, their pincers snapping.
Another shot and there was a hole in the herd of bugs, an exit.
I struggled to my feet and pulled Joshua toward our exit before the bugs clued into what we were doing. The bugs looked confused, like they couldn’t find us.
I didn’t know what was going on there, but wasn’t going to ask any questions, either. We needed to get them to the sea, for whatever reason, and we were tiring.
We slipped past two of them along a tall cliff. The waves of the ocean slammed into the rocks and surged upward, spraying us with a fine mist and pummeling us with the force, even though the waves were several metres below.
Clack-clack. The hairs rose on the nape of my neck.
Clack-clack.
Oh, dirt! They’d found us.
The landscape thickened, making it harder for us to continue, but it also slowed them down as well. Where we could scoot through, crawl under, and plow around, they were stopped and oftentimes had to find a way over the obstacles. This was a bonus, but still didn’t buy us a lot of time. The hill fell away, bringing us closer to the sea. Periodically, I spied a long, dark sanded beach. The roar of the ocean filled my ears with happiness. My nostrils brought a sense of home.
Joshua and I broke through the thick vegetation and found ourselves on the beach. The water reached out to us, almost as if trying to pull us back out to the big waters.
We stumbled and looked around.
“What are we supposed to do now?” Joshua yelled over the roar.
“I don’t know.” The bugs had us surrounded on the land side. “Haj just said to get them here.” The only way out now was to swim.
