Chapter 25
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FIVE
SHOCK
Rocks tumble and the tunnel shakes, but I see the Lasap hatch in front of us.
Even at dusk, the snow is horrifically bright after the pitch dark of the tunnel.
Risk shoves the hatch shut and spins the lock before taking large steps away from it, legs sinking into the fresh snow, and we follow.
Exactly like he said, a boom echoes behind us, and I spin back.
Dark yellow flame spews from the garage. A massive sheet of ice drops down, covering the hatch, and fire shoots out of the outpost windows far overhead.
We watch the destruction for a moment before we turn away. There’s nothing to salvage. No reason to try to put the fire out.
I feel a moment’s disappointment.
“I saved a few things before we left for the meeting,” I tell Arc, nodding toward the bikes’ hiding place.
Kissu waits for us in the snow beside them.
His fur is coated in the blue powder, and when he sits perfectly still, he could almost disappear.
“I know I’m missing half my suit.” Arc pauses, shaking his head. “No, I’m not going to take the time to change.”
Watching the one-sided conversation would be amusing if I wasn’t antsy.
“He knows where she is,” Arc says.
I pet the zurgle’s head. “Thank you for doing that. I know it wasn’t fun or safe.”
He puffs up his chest and sneezes.
“No one saw him. He’d like to remind you that he’s been hiding from the people in Calisan for long enough he can get around people who aren’t looking for him here.”
“Where are we going?” Risk pulls the cover off our bikes and Kissu hops onto Arc’s.
Arc exhales as he climbs on too and grabs his helmet. “Back where this all started.”
RISK
We park the bikes a distance away, trekking the rest on foot.
The snow is thick, floating down in heavy chunks, but it isn’t enough to obscure Kissu’s tracks, even when he gets further ahead of us than I’d like.
Following a zurgle who wants to be followed isn’t hard when we’ve been hunting the cavrinskh for so long.
I send a general message, letting the others know that no one was in our outpost, and tell them to let it burn. We all have more important things to worry about.
The entrance to the Maker’s lair is through a long, dark fissure that cuts beneath the lab he tortured us in.
“I’ve circled this caldera thousands of times,” Arc says. “How did I miss that he was here?”
“He might not have been. If he was working in the outer caldera most of the time…”
“I can’t hear anything inside. But Kissu is sure they’re here.”
“He probably coated the walls in Lasap to keep you out,” Shock guesses, my voice and mutation failing.
Chrys is inside. And she’s not scared. The bond is useful for so many things, but I’m most grateful for that right now.
Arc’s emotions through the bond though…
Shock grabs him by the back of his neck and drags him forward until he can press their foreheads together. “We all make it out.”
“But are we all in one piece?”
Shock lifts his head, eyes flicking back and forth, searching for that in the future.
He doesn’t know. I don’t either.
“We should call Drift and the others for back-up,” Shock says it, but I can feel his hesitancy along with Arc’s unsettled nerves.
“They’re making sure their people are safe,” I remind him. “And it’s not going to be open in there. Tight quarters and too many bodies don’t mix well.”
“When we tell them, they’ll try to make us wait.”
“Can we afford to wait?” Arc asks. “If he hurts her…”
“He won’t,” I tell them. “He needs her.”
We all know why.
The compounding disgust is nauseating.
I survey the top of the fissure’s walls. There are no visible cameras. No defenses. If I couldn’t feel Chrys, I’d never have thought to look here. It’s just another crack in the inner caldera wall.
No one could blame Arc for missing it.
“I can blame myself.”
I don’t call Drift.
I call the one person I trust to ask no questions and to kill the Maker if we can’t first.
“Your outpost is on fire,” Fault says flatly, and in the small image of him in my visor, I see him putting on his suit already.
“Let it burn.”
“I assumed it was empty. What do you need from me?”
“He’s alive.”
He nods. “Word travels fast. Where is he?”
“Pin my location. When we get inside our tracers might not work.”
“Got it. I’ll be there before you know it.”
He hangs up.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Arc asks.
“He’s the only one who hates the Maker more than you,” Shock reminds him. “I think it’s a great idea.”
While I check my gun, Arc looks down at Kissu.
“Stay close.” It’s a good idea. He’ll screw up any cameras.
“We might need you to get Chrys to Ward’s outpost.”
“He’s not there.” I look at the dark windows.
“What do you mean? He’s always there.” Arc looks too.
“He’s with his bondmate in Ilidi. He won’t be back for two days.” I don’t share who he’s with.
They both share a look before Shock says, “It’s still the closest option to keep her warm.”
I agree, looking down at Kissu, I tell them the pass code for Ward’s outpost and hope we don’t have to use it.
Then again… we can’t go home.
Arc chuckles, but it’s low and mirthless. “He really does want to take everything from us, doesn’t he?”
We go in slow.
We all know the goal.
The walls rise higher around us as we wind our way through. When the ice turns to rock, the first signs that it’s not a natural formation appear. Tool marks where the tunnel was widened. Bars on the first set of doors we find.
What’s behind them is unsettling.
A handful of cavrinskh loll on the hard-packed floor, like lazy dogs waiting for something to catch their interest.
Kissu stays back from that door.
“They’re not chipped,” Arc says, his tone flat, and I follow his gaze to the nearest of them.
There is no dark spot between their eyes, no sign of an incision.
“He hasn’t taken control of these ones yet.” I look closer. “They’re barely older than pups.”
“Is that better or worse?” Shock asks.
“At least we know why we thought we’d seen filloum pups before.”
One rolls from its back to its feet and lopes to us, stopping a meter from the cage to watch us with interested, not hostile, eyes.
“I guess he likes hurting kids, no matter the species.”
“We’ll deal with them later.” I turn forward, trying to fight back the unsettled feeling in my stomach.
I push it away, inhaling deeply and reaching out for Chrys. In our bond, she’s calm, and that helps. She’s close.
That helps too.
CHRYS
Movement catches my eye on the monitors behind Atker, and I’m relieved he’s sneering at me instead of paying attention to the fractured image of three men sneaking their way into his lab.
“How on Earth do you expect this to work?” I ask, making sure I keep his attention.
“You’re not on Earth anymore.” He rolls his eyes and I wonder if he might just let me go if I could be more annoying.
“Earth, Isia, it doesn’t matter. I’m going to get sick if you keep me here. And since we both know I’m not who you want, I’m just a convenient incubation vessel—”
It’s disgusting that those words are what amuse him.
“—What was your plan for that?”
“I have somewhere to house you until it’s time, and someone to help with any complications.”
“The waitress from the zurgle cafe?”
He curses under his breath. “Damn zurgles. If I had time, I’d get rid of them, but no.
I have to spend my time fixing what other people broke.
I don’t want to do any of this to you. I didn’t want to do any of it to begin with.
” He inhales so deeply and exhales so heavily, for the first time, I am a little scared.
“If you don’t shut up, I will muzzle you until I have time to remove your vocal chords. ”
I don’t have a comeback for that. Mostly because I believe him.
I grip the bars a little tighter. There are too many monsters here. If they come in to save me, I don’t think they’ll get past the door before they have to retreat and I would really like to get out of here today.
Sitting back in the chair again, I look up, trying to think, and that’s when I realize the darkness overhead isn’t rock.
Head tipping to the side, I trace a dozen pipes and connectors.
They might not hold my weight… they’re probably dirty as hell… But I see light.
No point in not exploring.
When Atker isn’t looking, I jump up to the closest one to the ground and heft myself up.
Very dirty, yes, but also sturdy as hell. Getting myself up onto it, I scrub my hands on my pants. I don’t need to slide off the next one I jump to because my hands and the pipe are too slip-slidey.
It’s a maze up here. I have to twist and wriggle to get through, but there is something up here. Whether or not I can fit through…
He curses and I hear the rattle of metal moving. The cage door screeches open.
“Get down from there!”
I find another foothold and boost myself up.
“What do you think you’re doing?” He huffs. “Answer me!”
“And lose my vocal chords? No thank you!”
The light… is a crack, not a hole. “Damn.”
“I’m not going to remove your vocal chords.” He exhales long and slow… again, a familiar sound from dealing with high school teachers.
“You can’t stay up there forever and if you try to and fall…”
I didn’t realize risking my life was going to be leverage.
“Fine. I’ll come down, but you and I need to work out some terms and conditions.”
I scrub my hands on my pants—they are filthy—and retrace my path back down.
If nothing else, I distracted him for a while. I’ll keep distracting him if I can.
Sitting on one of the pipes, high enough up I know he can’t reach me, I say, “I don’t want to stay with Paisley.”
“What?” His face scrunches up like it was the last thing he expected me to say.
“She’s rude and I think she tried to drug me. I assume that was for you, but maybe not…” I pretend to muse on it. “Oh! And I don’t want to be cooped up inside with no field trips. You’ve seen how I get when I’m bored.”
He stares at me and for a moment, I think he’s fully glitched. Then he blinks. “Is that all?”
“I’d also like a pony.”
“We don’t have those here.”