Chapter 17 #3
Relief flooded through me so completely I almost laughed.
"Good girl," I murmured, my other hand coming up to stroke her neck, feeling the strange texture of her hide under my fingers. "Good girl, Starfield. You're such a good girl."
Roone appeared beside me with a saddle—if you could call it that. It looked more like an elaborate harness, all straps and buckles and reinforced panels, designed to distribute weight evenly across the kuda's broad back and shoulders.
"I'll help you," he said. "I've watched Nansar do this dozens of times."
Together, we worked to saddle the kuda, though "we" was being generous since Roone did most of the explaining while I did the actual physical labor.
The contraption seemed strange and alien at first, but it wasn't that different from a regular Earth saddle once I understood the mechanics behind it.
I figured out quickly how the various straps fastened and interlocked, how to adjust the fit so it sat properly without chafing, how to secure the supplies I found stored in a chest in the corner of the shack—containers of water, dried food that looked vaguely like jerky, a thick blanket, a knife, basic medical supplies.
My hands moved through the motions with increasing confidence, muscle memory from summers spent helping my grandfather tack up horses taking over, translating across species and planets.
But this wasn't Texas with its big sky and endless horizons.
This wasn't summer vacation.
And I wasn't that carefree girl anymore.
When the kuda was ready, I turned to face Roone one last time.
"Go north." He pointed toward the horizon with one small hand, where the yellow sky of Palaydium made everything look like a half-remembered dream painted in shades of orange.
"Follow the ridge line—you'll see it clearly enough once you get moving.
Keep it to your left. You'll see rock formations that look like fingers.
The settlement is in the valley beyond those formations. You can't miss it."
"And you? Where will you be?"
"I'll go back through the tunnels. The same way I came.
Gather who I can from the prisoners and the desperate.
When you come back with the Welati—and you will come back, Merrilee, you have to—look for fires in the lower district.
Multiple fires. That's where we'll gather.
That's where we'll create the chaos you need. "
I wanted to tell him to be careful. To stay safe. To not take unnecessary risks. To run if things went wrong.
But we were past that now.
Past safety.
Past careful.
"Good luck," I said instead, my voice thick.
"You too." His large eyes met mine, serious and determined. "Ride fast. And save him."
He helped me mount the kuda—a process that involved more scrambling and awkward positioning and near-falls than I wanted to admit—and then I was up, my legs gripping the creature's sides, my hands tangled in the strange reins, my heart racing.
The kuda shifted beneath me with unexpected grace, adjusting to my weight, redistributing her balance, and I felt her power.
This was a creature built for speed and endurance. Built to survive and thrive in a wasteland that killed everything else. Built to run.
I looked down at Roone one last time, memorizing his face.
"Thank you," I said. "For everything."
"Save him," Roone said simply, his voice steady. "That's all the thanks I need."
I nodded, swallowing hard.
Then I pressed my heels into the kuda's sides and gave her the command my grandfather had taught me what felt like a lifetime ago, a universe away.
"Yah!"
The kuda surged forward with such explosive power, I nearly tumbled off backward.
The wasteland blurred around me, becoming streaks of purple and gray.
The kuda moved like nothing I'd ever ridden before—her long legs eating up the ground in powerful strides that had a rhythm both alien and strangely familiar. She moved with her body low and streamlined, built for speed and efficiency, every movement purposeful and controlled.
The wind tore at my hair and clothes, cold and sharp against my exposed skin, carrying the smell of dust and something metallic and bitter.
I leaned forward instinctively, pressing myself low against the kuda's neck, trying to become part of her movement instead of fighting against it, reducing drag, becoming one with this incredible creature beneath me.
The landscape was brutal in its beauty.
Rock formations jutted up from the ground like broken teeth, jagged and weathered.
Deep canyons carved massive scars into the earth, their depths lost in shadow.
Strange plants that glowed faintly dotted the terrain.
And everywhere, the ochre sky cast everything in those haunting shades of yellow and orange that made everything seem dreamlike and surreal.
I followed the ridge line exactly as instructed, keeping the rocky outcropping to my left, pushing the kuda as fast as I dared without exhausting her, finding a sustainable pace that we could maintain for hours.