Girl of Stone (The Expulsion Project Book 2)

by Norma Hinkens

  Velkan darts toward it and pulls out the knife, plunging it back into the cat’s neck for good measure. “It’s dead,” he announces, letting his shoulders sag.

  My breath comes in sharp, painful bursts. Seconds tick by before I dare take a step toward the carcass. The cat’s massive head lolls to one side, glassy eyes the size of Phin’s fists fixed on nothing. I remove the sharpened slat from its neck and stare in wonder at the intimidating creature. Its fur is thick and sharp as razors to the touch. Every part of it presents as a weapon or some kind of defense system. I swallow hard. If the cat needs this kind of protective armor, what else is out there on Razaran?

  Ayma and Phin step cautiously toward the horrifying creature, avoiding stepping in the dark, greenish-maroon blood already pooling beneath it. I might have suggested bringing a hunk of the meat with us, but the stench of the carcass almost makes me gag.

  “Good job, Trattora,” Phin says, softy. “You saved my life.”

  Weak with relief, I give him a shaky grin. But, the smile quickly twitches from my lips as a low thrumming fills the air around us.

  8

  I jump back from the carcass, darting another frantic glance around, searching for the source of the sound like a thousand beating wings drawing closer by the second. I raise my makeshift spear again, my muscles taut, but at what or whom I’m aiming this time, I have no idea.

  A thick cloud of winged insects darkens the sky above us, rapidly descending on the cat carcass. I shrink back in horror.

  “Bloodsuckers!” Velkan grabs my hand. “Run!”

  I tear my eyes from the sickening sight and sound of blood and marrow being vacuumed up by the thousands of bat-like crimson insects suctioned onto the cat’s carcass.

  With one accord we race along the trail in the direction of the landing pad. I don’t even want to think about what other terrors this planet harbors. All I want is to reach the safety of the stealth fighter and close the cargo door on Razaran for good.

  “What if those bloodsuckers come after us?” Ayma wails, as she pounds along behind us.

  “That’s what we’re not waiting around to find out!” Velkan yells back to her.

  My heart thumps so hard in my chest it feels like it might burst. I’ve never been so terrified in my life. Getting bitten by a sand sniper or gored by a three-horned shram were about the only wildlife risks I feared growing up on Cwelt. Seems the rest of the Netherscape is a much more dangerous place. Our only lucky break on Razaran so far was that the river didn’t hold any monsters, at least none that revealed themselves. I’m not eager to push our luck and hang around to find out what other surprises might be in store for us.

  “I can’t run anymore,” I gasp, wrenching my hand free of Velkan’s and coming to an abrupt stop. Despite all the hunting I’ve done, I’ve never run so fast in my life as I did just now. I bend over and rest my palms on my thighs, heaving for breath. Phin and Ayma race up behind us and throw themselves down on the trail, gasping.

  After a few minutes, I straighten up and smooth a lock of loose hair out of my face. “We should be far enough away from the bloodsuckers now,” I say. “Let’s just keep up a brisk pace until we reach the ship.”

  The others give grateful nods, too winded to talk. I lead off and Velkan falls in behind me. My heart still beats erratically, wholly unconvinced that the danger is gone, fully expecting Razaran to unleash its next terror on us at any minute. I want to believe we’re going to make it back to the landing pad, but after everything that has happened, my nerves are frazzled. Each sound of a critter scampering over some leaves, or a bird calling out to its mate, startles me into a heightened state of awareness, magnifying the fear inside my head until I even imagine footsteps ahead of us.

  Trembling, I raise a hand to stop the others and strain to listen in the night air. The distinctive crunch of dead foliage underfoot reaches my ears. Blood pounds in my head. Something really is out there. Another of those armor-plated wild cats? I turn to Velkan and whisper. “I hear something. Get ready.”

  His face tightens. He turns to the others and passes on my message. The distinctive sound of Phin loading a round into his gun carries through the night air.

  Ayma peers nervously around, smoothing a shaking hand over her dark hair, glossy in the moonlight. I don’t blame her for being afraid. She should be afraid, very afraid. We got lucky with that first creature, but if there’s a pack of them in this jungle, we won’t be able to fight them off. I’ve never seen anything so powerful and vicious before. Not even the face-eating monkeys on Diretus unnerved me this much. I listen intently for several more minutes and then a gruff voice drifts toward us through the night air. “You’ll never make it out of here. You’re wasting your time.”

  Puzzling over the words, I wait for someone to respond, but no one does. I look around at the confused expressions on the others’ faces and shrug. “At least it’s people and not cats,” I whisper.

  “Do you think it’s the body poachers?” Ayma asks.

  Phin shakes his head. “Not with those cat predators prowling around. Whoever it is, they’re not supposed to be out here either.”

  “I’ll circle around through the undergrowth and try and get a look,” I say, emboldened by the knowledge that it’s not another fearsome cat creature. I cinch my BodPak tighter and slip away before anyone can argue with me.

  It doesn’t take me long to spot two shadowy figures farther ahead on the trail, one marching behind the other. I stay hidden in the undergrowth and work my way ahead of them to take a closer look. Hunkered down beneath the huge waxy leaves of a jungle plant, I barely suppress a gasp when the first figure comes into view—the guard who was stationed at the pen! He stomps along, a thin scowl drawn across his lined face. I squeeze my lips tight together to keep from yelping out loud when seconds later, I see the tanner woman marching behind him, a look of sheer desperation engraved across her filthy face as she aims a gun awkwardly at the guard’s back.

  An electric shot of excitement goes through me. She’s escaped! She must have managed to slip her bonds and taken advantage of a sleepy, or possibly even a drunken guard. A slow grin spreads across my face. She’s enterprising to say the least, and not half as helpless as I imagined.

  My first instinct is to show myself, but I’m afraid I’ll startle her if I step out onto the trail. If the guard takes advantage of the few seconds she is distracted, he might manage to overpower her and retrieve his weapon. I retreat a few feet and slip back to the others to bring them up to speed. “You’re never going to believe this. It’s the tanner woman and the guard who was stationed at the pen! She’s taken him hostage!”

  Disbelief flits across Phin’s face. “How on earth did she escape?”

  I shrug. “No idea, but we’re taking her with us now.”

  Velkan frowns. “Not to Mhakerta. We’ll have to take her back to her home planet, wherever that is.”

  I dip my head in acknowledgment. I’m not thrilled about another delay to our mission, but the least we can do is help the tanner return safely to her planet now that she’s come this far. Everyone deserves to go home, and we can make that happen for her.

  “Did she see you?” Ayma asks.

  I shake my head. “I didn’t want to step out and startle her and risk giving the guard an opportunity to escape. I need to get ahead of her on the trail so she can clearly see me from a distance and know that I’m not a threat.”

  “We’ll position ourselves in the jungle on either side of you,” Phin says. “That way if the guard makes a run for it, we can take him down.”

  “Be careful,” Velkan says to me, as I turn to go. “The guard will probably make his move when you call out to the tanner.”

  “I’ll be ready,” I say, closing my hand over the hilt of my knife. I’d rather not use it on a person, but if my life or the tanner’s is at stake, I won’t hesitate to kill the guard. I smile reassuringly at Velkan and slip away through the undergrowth.

  When I step ou
t onto the trail again, I’m several hundred feet ahead of the tanner and her prisoner. Heart racing, I wait for them to reach me, making sure I’m visible as their footsteps draw nearer.

  They come to a sudden stop when they spot me. “Don’t be afraid,” I call back to the tanner. “I’m Trattora. I saw you on Diretus.”

  I pause and wait for a response, but the tanner remains tight-lipped. Tentatively, the guard turns his head and says something to her. I hope he’s not trying to dissuade her from talking to me.

  “We escaped from the body poachers too,” I holler, a little louder this time. “We can take you with us on our ship.”

  Without a word, the tanner jabs the guard in the back with her gun and he trots forward. They walk steadily toward me and come to a halt about ten feet away.

  The tanner jerks her chin at me. “You a pilot?”

  I wet my lips. “Not a very good one, but I have two friends with me who are pilots. There are four of us altogether.”

  The guard’s scowl deepens. Whatever thoughts he might have had of making a run for it have just been tempered by the reality that he is outnumbered. The tanner tightens her grip on the gun and casts a suspicious glance over the jungle on either side of the trail. “Where are they?”

  “Hiding in the brush. I can call them if you want.” She’s jumpy and I want to calm her, but I need to let her call the shots.

  She nods her permission. “Tell them to show themselves.”

  “Velkan! Ayma! Phin!” My voice echoes around me. One by one, they step out onto the trail and join me. Phin has wisely stashed his gun out of sight, but I have no doubt he could get a round off before the tanner could squeeze the trigger if he had to. She scrutinizes each of them in turn and then turns her attention back to me. “Take me to your ship. We’ll bring the guard in case the poachers come after us.”

  I give a tentative nod, wondering if I should try and talk her into tying up the guard and leaving him behind. I decide against having that conversation until we’ve reached the safety of the stealth fighter. In the meantime, the guard can be her security blanket if that’s what it takes to persuade her to come with us.

  I lead the way and no one objects to the vigorous pace I keep up. We’ve already wasted more time than we should have, and the closer we inch toward dawn, the greater the risk of being discovered. Thankfully, the tanner doesn’t object to Phin bringing up the rear, which gives me some peace of mind that we won’t be ambushed. Even though Phin’s bullets glanced right off that wild cat’s armor, he will at least be able to alert us of any impending danger.

  The steady pace lulls us into a sense of complacency, and I only sense the guard’s sudden movement behind me at the very last second. I spin as his fist connects with the tanner’s face and the gun flies out of her hand. I leap toward the guard and knock him to the ground before he can scramble for the weapon. He lets out a grunt of pain as his face smashes onto the rocky trail.

  The tanner drops to her knees and quickly retrieves the gun, visibly shaken.

  Velkan’s shadow appears at my side. “You okay?” he asks, pinning the guard to the ground with one foot.

  I nod. “I guess he thought it was worth a try before we reach the ship. We got lucky. It’s pretty obvious the tanner doesn’t know what she’s doing with that gun, but she’s not about to give it up.”

  Velkan reaches down and hauls the guard to his feet. Apart from a nasty gash on his forehead from a rock, he’s none the worse for wear.

  Velkan grabs him by the collar and yanks him close to his face. “Try that again and I’ll leave you hanging from a tree as a live meal for whatever predator finds you first. Do you understand me?”

  The guard scowls and gives a subdued nod.

  Velkan shakes him loose and shoves him forward. “Keep moving! You’ve wasted enough of our time already.”

  We’re only a quarter mile or so from the landing pad when I pick up on a familiar ominous droning. Faint, undetectable to the others as of yet, but instinctively I know they’re coming for us. “Bloodsuckers!” I announce to the others grimly. “They’re headed this way.”

  “It must be that gash on the guard’s forehead,” Velkan says. “Run for the ship, it’s our only chance.”

  The guard touches his fingers tentatively to his forehead, a frozen look of horror in his eyes. He knows exactly what’s coming and who they’re coming for.

  We break into a power dash, focusing all our energies on reaching the stealth fighter before the bloodsuckers reach us. But it’s hopeless. In less than a minute, they descend with frightening ferocity. They make for the guard first, but dissatisfied with the meager portion of blood they find there, they quickly turn their attention to the rest of us. Their pincers latch on and pierce my skin through my clothes in a thousand places. Fiery pain shoots through me as they suck eagerly at my blood. I whip out my blade and slice at them again and again, but for each one I dislodge, another one takes its place. All around me the others scream in agony.

  Phin lets off a couple of rounds, but the sound only causes the bloodsuckers to back off briefly before they alight again. To my right I see Ayma tumble to the ground under the relentless attack. I fight my way over to her and haul her back to her feet. “Keep fighting!” I yell, slapping a bloodsucker from her eyebrow. “Stay strong!”

  My skin is burning all over, one giant throbbing hub of pain. I can no longer feel the individual pincers when the bloodsuckers break through my skin. All I know is that if we don’t stop them, they will drain us dry of every drop of blood. I increase my frenzied swatting and spin in circles frantically trying to dislodge the new attackers. I step backward to dodge another swarm and the tanner woman bumps into me hard, knocking my knife out of my hand. She looks straight at me and something flashes in her eyes. Before I can retrieve my knife, she pounces on it and darts away. I stare at her, bewildered. I don’t begrudge her my only weapon, but it won’t do her much good against this multitude of bloodsuckers.

  Seconds later, my lips part in horror when I realize what she has in mind.

  9

  My jaw drops, a scream lodging halfway up my throat.

  The tanner’s claw-like hand shoots out and her split nails plunge into the guard’s hair and grip it tightly. She yanks his head back in a swift tug and whips the knife across his throat in the practiced manner of one who has slaughtered many times before. Blood spurts everywhere. Immediately, the bloodsuckers regroup, gravitating toward the fresh source of a bountiful food supply. The tanner drags the guard’s body over the ground for several feet to spread the blood and then drops him. Instantly, the bloodsuckers swarm over him and the trail of blood, hovering several layers thick.

  Calmly, the tanner wipes my blade on her pant leg and hands it back to me with a look on her face that dares me to utter even one word of reproof.

  “Go! Go! Go!” Phin shouts to us.

  “Run!” Ayma yells in my ear as she bolts past with Velkan. I give a slight nod to the tanner, unsure if I’m thanking her or absolving her, and then we both break into a mad dash for our lives. The few remaining bloodsuckers clinging to our skin hover up and away, as if instinctively sensing that they are leaving the feast. My knees knock but I push my legs to pump faster.

  By the time we reach the landing pad, I’m shaking all over. There are no guards posted by the ships, and now I understand why. The predators are out in full force on Razaran at night and they do a much better job of picking off any intruders than the body poachers could.

  While the rest of us keep watch for any hint of danger, Ayma keys in the entry code to the fighter and the cargo ramp yawns open. We hurl ourselves inside, simultaneously laughing and crying, awkwardly hugging each other in death grips.

  “We did it!” Velkan gasps, clutching me to his chest.

  Phin raises his brows. “Yes, we did, and we’ll have every body poacher in the Galactic underworld after us now.”

  “Not if we disable their ships,” Ayma says, with a sly grin. “Le
t’s get airborne and do some damage.”

  We hoot and holler, buoyed by the thought that we made it back to the safety of the stealth fighter and that the body poachers’ ships are about to be obliterated.

  Only the tanner woman remains reserved, standing to one side, her emotions locked in a place known only to herself. She doesn’t attempt to return the smiles we try to engage her with, and steps away when I approach her. I don’t push it, remembering my experience with Boshtee and his people. It could be a cultural thing, or she might be too traumatized to respond to our offer of friendship. Either way, I’m just thankful we were able to do something for her at last.

  Ayma and Phin slip into the pilot chairs and activate the controls. “Strap yourselves in,” Phin says. “We’re out of here.”

  Velkan and I waste no time sliding into bucket seats behind them. I turn to the tanner and gesture to the seat between Velkan and me. “Don’t be afraid,” I say. “We’ll take you back to your home if you tell us where you’re from.”

  “Namuto,” she says, her posture remaining rigid.

  “Great.” I pat the chair beside me insistently. “Put your harness on.”

  After a moment’s hesitation, the tanner comes over and perches dubiously on the edge of the chair. Despite my repeated demonstrations, she adamantly refuses to put the harness on. She’s not about to risk being tied up again and I can hardly blame her after everything she’s gone through. “I’m Trattora.” I point at myself, and then at her. “What’s your name?”