Chapter 10 #2
“Sorry,” she muttered, sprawled on top of him and crushed in his embrace.
“I dropped the flare,” he said, his voice rough, strained. His chest rose and fell as if he’d run farther than she had. “The water lapping the shores sounds more distant. Perhaps it cannot follow?”
“One less attack to worry about,” she said, trying to break free. When he let her, she slipped off him. “Now what?”
She raised her nose; they were closer to the source of the breeze, but she couldn’t find it in the pitch black pressing against her eyes.
“Foolhardy?” She sniffed. “Yes, I’m the fool. We should’ve left with Coll,” she said. “His med-E.D. is magic, but I still need to know Padya is healing. He should’ve been my priority.”
“You would not leave Seba behind.”
“You’re right.” She slumped and flicked aside a tear. “This is my fault.” She dug the heels of her palms into her eyes, willing the tears to stay back.
Illan’s breath hitched, loud in the silence. She threw out a hand, found him, and gave his belly a pat.
“What’s the matter?” she asked.
“Nothing,” he said. “Stay here. I will fetch the flare.”
He staggered to his feet and headed the way they’d come.
In an instant, his body heat was gone. She angled her head, listening for his footsteps.
Silence engulfed her, along with the darkness.
She opened her mouth to call to him, desperate to not be alone, but she pinched her lips to stop herself.
Making a noise might bring back the creature or lure another.
Time ticked by, measured by the steady drip-drip of water.
She pressed a hand over her eyes, then removed it, praying there was a difference.
Her ears were honed for his approach and anything else thinking of making a meal out of her.
She lifted her chin to the cave’s ceiling, wondering what was above it.
Had they ventured under the lake or the ucdeas territory? Elorach, she hoped not for either.
If something happened to Illan, she’d be trapped. No. She couldn’t think like that. If he didn’t return, she’d head back and find him.
Her lungs seized when a drag-stomp across the sand reached her.
“It is me,” Illan said, bringing with him a blinding spot of light.
She stared despite her eyes burning. “Why are you limping?”
“The great creature—”
“You’re hurt?” She fumbled with her pocket and yanked out a med-gun. “Sit. Let me see.”
“I am…fine.”
She snorted. “A lie.”
He scowled and sank to his knees. “Very well.”
He thumped his chest. His armor parted, but when he tried to shrug, he struggled. Pain twisted his features.
She gasped. “Idiot,” she snapped, grabbing the armor’s collar and peeling it off with a gentleness she was far from feeling.
As breathtaking as she found his chest, she couldn’t take the time to admire it. His hiss reminded her of his pain, and she shuffled around him, palming the med-gun.
She froze at the lacerations across his back. Blood and a familiar brown ooze coated the edges of his wounds.
“The creature did this?” she whispered.
So Seba must have encountered it, as well. At least she knew the med-gun could heal the wounds. In the meager light, the jagged edges of his skin knitted shut. She didn’t blink, not wanting to miss this marvel.
“How do you feel?” she asked, running her fingers where the slashes had been.
He shivered. “Better. I might need new skin.” His voice was hoarse.
“What? Why? The med-gun did well.” She eyed his discarded armor; shredded metal fibers like torn cloth threads mimicked the lacerations.
He offered her a smile. “It prevents scarring and adds protection during the continued healing below the surface.”
“We must find Seba.” She pocketed the med-gun and gestured to his hand. “Try your wrist thingy. Maybe Coll or Brac will hear?” She winced at the pathetic hope in her voice.
“We call it an Optical Data Implant or O.D.I.,” he said, then shook his head. “The rock will offset our transmission.”
“We should…” She drew in a steadying breath and stilled. “Do you smell that?”
When he said nothing, she met his gaze. His focus was on her. The air in her lungs seized. The earlier euphoria he’d sparked within her leaped to life. Her cheeks warmed.
“Illan?”
“Yes…I smell it.”
A splash had him leaping to his feet, taking her with him. He tucked her behind him, shielding her with his body. Heat poured off him. Before she could control herself, she splayed her fingers across his bare shoulder. Together, they waited.
Nothing charged at them from the shadows.
Except…
She lunged around him and fell to her knees when a familiar tread sounded from the darkness. Illan tried to stop her, but she held out her arms. Seba padded toward her, a ceaza in his mouth.
“You sly Seba,” she scolded, burying her face in his wet fur.
He grumbled something, dropped the catch, then nudged her with his head.
“This is how he must have helped your father.”
Tears burned her eyes. “Seba’s family,” she managed.
“He is,” Illan said. “Now be a good Seba, and show us the way out.”
He growled at Illan.
She laughed, happier than she could recall being in a long while.
Seba pulled away, his gaze fixed on something in the darkness. He pushed her in the direction he’d come from.
“What is it?” she asked, her voice cracking.
Illan stood between her and whatever Seba was focused on. “We need to move,” he said, his back to her.
A distant thwack-thwack accompanied his warning.
Ice shivered down her neck. “Elorach, not that creature—”
Seba whined.
She scrambled to her feet. “Take us home, ohara.”
He bolted.
She followed him, checking over her shoulder for Illan. With the weak light from his flare, she made sure to place her feet where Seba had until he veered right, galloping over water. A sand bank had formed a bridge to who knew where. And in her new boots and pants, the splashes barely registered.
She halted with a grimace. Before her was a solid wall of rock.
“Seba?” she called.
“He wants us to go up,” Illan said, offering her the flare. His breath was warm over her ear and cheek.
She lifted the light high above her head and caught pink eyes gleaming at her.
Balancing on the edge of a rock was her big friend.
Clenching the light stick between her teeth, she searched for a spot where she could lodge her toe.
Then a crack for her fingers. She raised herself a little at a time; with each toehold and finger grip, she made progress.
Illan gazed outward when the creature’s movements echoed in the cavern. The water below his feet rippled, forming waves. Yet, he didn’t budge.
“Illan,” she called.
He glanced at her, then threw himself onto the first ledge, easily finding holes and footholds to reach her.
The stench of rotten ceaza and burned dava reached her.
She gagged, and hanging from one hand, she threw the other across her mouth and nose.
She dared to glance down, her vision worsened by the light so close to her.
A gigantic lump of limbs barreled toward them, snapping teeth on every inch of its tentacles.
Its central mouth was agape in a silent scream.
She swallowed her fear and scaled up the rock, paying attention to a grip at a time. Illan would die first if they didn’t reach the platform of rock Seba stood on.
He roared at the creature.
Bright spurts of light painted the edges of her vision red. A peek below showed Illan firing at the creature.
She pulled herself onto the ledge, nudged Seba aside, and sprawled. Spitting out the stick sent it rolling toward the back, illuminating the scene.
She thrust her hand down to Illan just below her and yelled, “Hurry.”
He harnessed his blaster, then leaped, catching her hand palm-to-palm.
She gritted her teeth against the influx of sensual imagery, keeping her focus on his upturned face.
His weight dragged on her arm and shoulder.
The burn made her whimper, but she tugged him up.
Scrambling back allowed her to use her legs for added leverage, but it was too late.
A scream tore from her at the deafening pop.
The agony was excruciating, and her grip slackened.
Then Illan was gone.
“No,” she cried out, struggling to draw the blaster with her good hand while her numb arm lay limp beside her.
Frustration had her blaring his name until she held the heavy weapon.
She tapped the yellow button with her chin and fired at the creature below.
Each shot did nothing but fizzle when it struck its skin.
At least it wasn’t climbing toward her. She tossed the blaster aside and grabbed the flare to peer over the edge.
Illan’s body wasn’t beneath the creature. Had he landed in the water on either side of the sand bridge?
“Illan,” she hollered. A sob strangled her throat, and she buried her nose in Seba’s neck. Minutes ticked by, the silence peppered with thwack-thwacks from the creature’s limbs hitting the rock below. “What are we going to do, Seba? Maybe find Brac?”
A slap of flesh on stone froze her. She peeked down again, half expecting the creature to be looming over her.
Instead, blue fingers clamped the platform’s edge, then Illan appeared.
She gasped, joy spilling her tears as she offered him her good hand. He met her gaze and accepted her aid. She pushed back, using her legs, until he sprawled before her.
He lay there, catching his breath.
Seba lunged onto him, giving his cheek a wet lick.
She giggled. “I think he likes you.”
“Indeed,” Illan muttered, then crawled toward her. “Come, let me heal you.”
She winced, glancing at her arm cradled in her lap. In her shock, she’d forgotten about it. “I’m sorry I drop—”
“Not your fault,” he said, sitting beside her to run his med-gun over her shoulder. Its pop back into the socket was so unexpected that she yelped. The fresh wave of pain held a note of heat, but that also eased.
Seba whimpered, then peered up.
She followed his gaze, catching a bright white spot of light.
“Shall we?” Illan asked as he pocketed his device. “I am done with this place.”
“Same,” she said and used the rock at her back to clamber to her feet.
The remaining climb was bolstered by the possibility of freedom.
The air tasted sweeter. The closer they got to the light, the more she realized it was nothing but a crack.
Warmth poured from it, making her shiver, and a moan escaped her when she stood in a strip of sunlight.
She drew in a deep breath, squeezed her eyes shut against the glare, and raised her face to the sun’s rays.
When her eyelids no longer burned, she chanced a peek.
And froze.
Not twenty feet away was a pack of ucdeas, their stares fixed and their heads angled in curiosity.
“Elorach,” she muttered, her heart deafening her. She didn’t dare move or raise her voice higher than a whisper, not wanting to trigger an attack. Sinking her fingers into Seba’s raised hackles, she gritted out to Illan the second he joined her, “Teleport.”