Elei's Chronicles (Books 1-3) (76 page)

And behind, in the distance, tall towers of buildings, windows reflecting the day’s dazzle, and the sweeping curve of a heavenway, supported on concrete, square pillars. Abydos, great port of the north. Not even in his wildest dreams had he imagined he’d ever set eyes on it. Or on Dakru, let alone what lay beneath the ground.

He glanced around and found Hera standing, hair whipping behind her, an arm around Alendra. She was talking, her words broken by the wind. Kalaes leaned against Sacmis. He glanced back at Elei. His mouth moved as if speaking but Elei couldn’t hear him.

Then Hera apparently noticed he was still on his ass in the dirt and came to help him up. He took her hand, rose, almost fell on his face when his leg folded underneath him.

“We need to boost Rex before
telmion
brings you down.” Hera’s voice echoed in his ears, and her arm went around his waist, warm and strong, anchoring him. “We were talking about this with Sacmis, and it seems for once luck is on our side.”

Luck?
Elei blinked.

“Marking the place,” Hera said and shoved with her foot a couple of rocks under the cover of the vent, keeping it open just a little. “Mark it too, Sacmis, it’s about a hundred paces from the nearest house.”

When Hera hauled him toward the house, he didn’t struggle. He began to struggle when she drew her longgun and kicked in the door, though by then it was too late.

A woman and a little boy, their eyes huge, sat at a narrow table, a meal set in front of them.

“Put away your gun, dammit,” Elei said. It hurt to speak, and his voice was like nails dragging across metal. “It’s a kid.” And that made perfect sense to him, although by the look on Hera’s face, for her it didn’t.

“I will not hurt you,” Hera said, and, to Elei’s relief, she lowered her gun until it pointed to the floor. “We need water and food. It’s urgent.”

Okay, true, maybe it was urgent. Water would be good. He leaned against the doorjamb as the floor began to slide from under him. Sacmis appeared with Kalaes and Alendra.

“What’s the meaning of this?” Another woman entered the room, stocky and old, aiming a gun at Hera. “What do you want?”

Oh, great
. Hysterical laughter filled Elei’s throat, choking him. He stumbled forward and raised his hands.

The room tilted, and his knee buckled. Nobody was there to stop him from falling this time. He crashed, sprawled on his belly. The sounds faded, leaving him suspended in the void.

Then they rushed back in.

“Idiot, what are you doing?” Hera was saying, somewhere to his right. “I had this under control.”

He wanted to laugh at that, but he was too tired. Wanted to say he was okay, but that would demand too much energy, and besides, it’d be a lie. His head throbbed, his stomach roiled, and his leg burned like fire.

“Poor boy, is he okay?” the woman said, coming to stand over him. “You come in with your gun ablaze, what was I supposed to think?”

“I apologize,” Hera said, her voice a little scratchy. “As you can see, we’re in a bad shape. If we can only rest here for a while, drink some water and eat some of those k-blooms I saw in the fields outside...”

K-blooms? Rex perked, sent a jab of energy through Elei.
Sugar
.

“Yes, please,” he whispered.

***

Elei couldn’t get enough of the water and the sweet k-blooms, but at some point Hera pushed the dish back and glared at him.

“Enough, you’ll be sick. Rex only needs some encouragement, we do not want it getting out of hand. Equilibrium. That’s what we want.”

Elei glanced at Kalaes who’d eaten his fill and was fast asleep against the table, the black mop of his head laid on his folded arms. Alendra yawned, clapping a hand over her mouth. She caught Elei’s eye and gave him a tired smile.

“Is the battle heading our way?” the old woman asked, the one who’d held the gun. She sat next to Elei. “Is it far?”

Why was she asking him?

Rex was waking, pumping up his heart, clearing the fuzz from his head. The woman clearly thought they’d been in a battle, which would be the logical explanation —
‘we came from underground’
didn’t sound half sane. ‘
War is coming
,’ Mantis had said. Well, it was here.

“You need to tell us what you know,” he said. “Have you heard of any battles close by?”

“Well, not here in Abydos, not yet,” the woman said, worry lines etched around her mouth. “But, last I heard, the front was moving north, toward us.”

“Which side is winning?” Alendra asked.

“The regime is winning.” The old woman clucked her tongue. “As we expected.”

Hera stirred, pushed back her chair and stood up. “We need to get going. We, uh... We thank you for your hospitality.”

Both women and the little boy stared at her. Elei stared too. Hera was obviously making an effort to be polite and it showed in the tense set of her shoulders, her strained voice.

Alendra shook Kalaes and he looked up, blinking. “Wha’?”

“We didn’t even get a chance to introduce ourselves,” the younger woman said. “I’m Nera, and this is—”

“No time now,” Hera said, business-like. She grabbed Elei’s arm and pulled him to his feet where he swayed.

Well, at least the pain in his leg was lessening. “Hera...”

“We need your vehicle,” Hera said, ignoring him. “It’s of the utmost importance we leave immediately.”

“Now listen, girl.” The old woman squared her shoulders, lifted her wrinkled chin. “We did all we could for you. We’re a poor family and can’t afford to—”

“You listen.” Hera banged her fist on the table, politeness forgotten, making everyone jump and setting Elei’s possessed eye pulsing. “Unless you want the regime to win this war, too, you’ll give us your aircar and help us do what we must.”

Okay, there went discreetness. Of course, time was running out, he realized now, and at least Hera wasn’t about to steal the vehicle behind their benefactors’ backs.

The old woman’s eyes had narrowed to slits. “You’re with the Undercurrent.”

Yeah, well, that had been pretty obvious, hadn’t it? Elei set a hand on the grip of his Rasmus, ready to threaten and bully their way out of this mess. The little boy gave him a wide-eyed look that made him wince.

Dammit
. He kept his hand on his gun, but wasn’t so sure he’d draw it. He tried to look stern, at least, but his vision was still bleary and his head pounded. All he really wanted was to curl up somewhere and rest.

“We’ll help you,” the old woman said, pulling a key from her belt. “I hope you know what you’re doing. Take the aircar, but there’s barely enough dakron to reach the center and no more silla to mix it with. It won’t take you far.”

Hera swore softly under her breath.

“Mama, no. You can’t just give it to them!” The younger woman, Nera, made as if to stand, but she must’ve seen something forbidding in her mother’s face, because she sat back down and heaved a sigh. “Without the aircar, we’re done for, mama. You know it.”

“It’s a war, Nera, and it’s coming our way. We have to pick a side.”

“Maybe you do.” Nera’s mouth thinned. “I have Mal.” She patted the little boy on the back. “I can’t afford to take sides.”

She was putting her child above the world. How could Elei begrudge her that?

The silence grew, over-tense, ready to shatter.

Hera growled deep in her throat. “The key.” She strode over and plucked it from the old woman’s hand.

“Listen,” Elei said. “We will pay you back. I’ll find you.”

Nobody said anything, and Hera clenched her jaw as if to stop herself from saying something nasty. She turned on her heel and headed outside. Everyone got up, nodding their thanks, and trooped toward the door. Elei noted with relief that both Kalaes and Alendra were moving under their own power.

He took one last look around the shabby room and the people who’d saved their lives, even if a bit unwillingly, tipped his head and left, closing the door behind him.

***

Hera drove them to the outskirts of the city, through empty streets and past deserted squares. The old vehicle sputtered and listed to the side. Its air cushion was struggling and the equalizers had seen better days.

Elei sat crammed in the back seat with Kalaes and Alendra, Cat perched on his shoulder.

“We need to contact Mantis,” Hera said as they turned into a street lined with shops, their fronts barred and dusty.

“Any idea how?” Kalaes muttered, checking his gun with shaky hands. He still looked gray about the face, and the spidery white marks of
palantin
on his neck blended with his skin.

Elei cringed when he saw a line of aircars ahead, but it wasn’t a blockade; they were leaving town. He turned and scanned the horizon toward the east. A low, malevolent cloud sat on the plain in the far distance. Dust. It rose in plumes, presaging the arrival of something huge.

“War machines?” Kalaes whispered, turning even paler.

“They’re still far,” Hera said. “But it’s obvious they’d move the war this way, away from Dakru City and Bone Tower.”

Shit
. “I knew we wouldn’t be lucky for long.”

“Actually, luck is still on our side, even if it does not seem that way,” Hera said in that infuriatingly calm way of hers. “If the battle front is moving here, then this is where Mantis will be. He does not strike me as the sort to watch from afar.”

“He will be here,” Sacmis said. “If he’s alive.” The way she leaned closer to Hera, the way Hera smiled back at her... If Elei had to guess, he’d say they’d forgiven each other.

Elei bit his lip. “So is this the final stand of the resistance?”

Sacmis looked away and said nothing.

“Slow down,” Kalaes said, tapping Hera’s shoulder. “I think there’s a patrol ahead.”

The aircar coughed and jerked, throwing them forward, then back. “Damn fuel.” Hera slammed a hand on the armrest. “Sobek’s balls, I’ve had enough.”

“You were saying about luck?” Kalaes drawled.

Hera huffed, then swerved into a narrow street, speeding past dark facades.

“Running away, how brilliant.” Kalaes smacked his hand on the seat in front of him. “If the patrol took no notice of us before, it’s bound to take a look now!”

Alendra twisted to look behind. “They’ll come after us.”

“It makes no difference,” Hera grated. “They’d check us. That’s the purpose of a blockade. How many mortals you know who have eyes different colors and who travel with two Gultur?” She stopped the aircar. “And we’re out of fuel. Get out.”

Nobody moved. The engine died with a rumble and a pitiful hack.

“What do we do now?” Alendra asked, and all faces turned toward Hera who sat still, back straight, staring ahead.

Because Hera always had a plan, an answer, an idea.

“I do not know,” Hera said, each word hammered into the silence.

“Hera?” Sacmis this time, head cocked to the side, gray eyes narrowed. “What is it?”

“Nothing. I...” A faint tremor went through Hera. “I cannot think straight. Can someone... Gods damn it, get out of the damn car!” Her whole body shook.

Kalaes and Elei traded a questioning look.

“The friggin’ patrol’s coming,” Kalaes said, popping the door open. “Move it.”

Kalaes and Alendra spilled out, boots thumping on the cracked asphalt. Elei followed and turned to watch as Sacmis helped Hera out. He felt more than saw Kalaes haul himself up and take a step forward, hands clenched at his sides.

Hera stood at the center of his vision, a beacon of pulsing light, colors running up and down her body. His pulse thumped in his ears. What was happening? Her scent washed over him like a tidal wave, a towering, crushing wall of sweet perfume, laced with acid. Her small face was lengthening, twisting out of shape, a snarl curling her lips.

“It’s Regina,” he heard Sacmis say, and the words came and went, low and then loud, returning like strings, looping around his neck. “It’s spiking.”

His breaths came quick and shallow, and he was stepping forward, his hands patting his belt for a knife, anything to cut Hera, slice her throat open and spill her blood. “Can’t let her.”
Kill us, touch us
. “I’ll stop her.”

“Elei, stop.” Sacmis’ voice sounded desperate. “Leave! If you drink her blood, Rex may mutate into gods know what, and you may not survive it. And even if you do, she’ll kill you. Go!”

“Get away from me.” Hera fought against Sacmis’ hold, her words distorting. “I’ll kill you, I swear it by all the gods!”

“We have to run.” Alendra grabbed Elei’s arm, tried to haul him back. “Elei, come on.”

Elei shook his head. All he could see was a creature with a dog’s snout and sharp claws struggling to get free of Sacmis’ arms.

“You bastards!” Hera shouted. “Stupid mortals. Stop mocking me, I can see the sneers on your faces. Run before I catch you!”