Elei's Chronicles (Books 1-3) (59 page)

Her hair spilled loose on her shoulders, and the way her brows arched over her eyes, the way her golden lashes rested on her cheeks... Elei could only stare, the words fleeing and hiding, leaving him speechless.

Kalaes snorted and caught his arm. “Morning to you too, and good night. Come, fe.”

They brushed by Sacmis who was dragging a sleepy-looking Hera. She spared the two of them a brief glare in way of good morning. The door shut behind them, leaving him and Kalaes in the narrow confines of the cockpit.

Elei sank into the driver’s seat. He checked the systems and reached for the map, his mind elsewhere, torn between the dream and Alendra’s face as she leaned back in the seat, a golden mask, a mask of glass.

“Well, now.” Kalaes settled in the other seat, running his hands expertly over the levers and buttons, adjusting their route. “What was that all about?”

“What was what about?”

“You need to talk to her, kid. Something’s bugging her, and you need to hash it out.”

“No, I don’t.” His fingers shook on the suspension lever and he pulled his hand back. “I can’t.” The heat on his cheeks was familiar and he knew his neck must be a lovely shade of red.

“Why not?”

Because he couldn’t bear to hear what she had to say, just how much he disgusted her, just how stupid he was to like her. “Because.”

“She’s being a bitch.”

“No, she’s not!” Elei snapped. “Not her fault.”

“Whoa,” Kalaes said, and turning Elei saw his brows lift. “You really do like her, don’t you.”

Elei bowed his head. He did, dammit, though he couldn’t fathom why. She was pretty, but that alone shouldn’t be enough to make him defend her. There’d been something in the way she’d trusted him to save her in the sewer tunnels, the way she’d offered to get him into the Gultur palace, the way she’d asked him then if he was okay.

Why had she withdrawn after that? Or maybe he was only imagining things and there had never been anything to withdraw from.

“Hey, are you in there?” Kalaes snapped his fingers in Elei’s face and it was all Elei could do not to shove him off, his whole body jerking in reaction, images from memory and dream mingling.

“The hells?” He tried to hide the shaking in his hands. 

“Sorry, couldn’t help it.” Kalaes grinned. “If you can maybe stop thinking about the pretty girl for a moment, then we could decide which route to take, eh?”

Elei grunted. “If you stop being a smartass, then yeah, we could.”

Kalaes laughed and spread the map. “Fine. We should avoid big cities and market towns. Hera wants to go north, to Abydos, says she’s got a contact there. But I think we should go this way.” He traced a route and Elei let the road out of his sight for a moment to see.

“You want to take a detour via Baris? That will lose us at least two days.”

“I don’t think Abydos is our best option,” Kalaes said. “It’s full of Gultur. It’s a big trading center since it’s close to the northern ports. I bet there will be roadblocks because of the whole mess.”

“Then where?”

“Go to Baris first, then find another north-western town.”

Elei nodded. “We can try that.”

They drove past huge fish farms controlled by the Gultur, their high electrified fences stretching for miles, hoping that nobody would pay them any attention. The gray light cast by the cloudy sky made the chainlink glint. Dead animals littered the fence, dogs, cats and foxes. At least Elei thought the reddish fur was a fox. He hadn’t seen one in years. Another shape moved among the corpses, perhaps some hungry mortal there to grab a fresh carcass.

They left the fish farms behind. Glancing at the map, Elei turned north, heading toward the town of Lato. He looked sideways at Kalaes who sat still, staring ahead. “What town did you have in mind?”

“Town?” Kalaes blinked.

Elei grinned. “Who’s distracted now? A town near Baris, you said.”

Kalaes quirked a brow. “Was just thinking about our route. So...” His eyes were still distant, though, and a shiver ran through his shoulders. He looked at the map again. “I say we avoid Tyra. How about Brauron?”

“That’s not close to the coast, is it?”

“No, ’cause security will be tighter there. Brauron’s inland, but there’s a large bay close by. Maybe we can get a boat to ferry us across.”

“Got any money?”

“To rent a ferry?” Kalaes gave a short bark of laughter. “I don’t own a single dil, fe.”

Elei licked dry lips. “We’ll need to steal a boat.”

Kalaes shrugged. “What else is new?” He stared at the road ahead, his eyes not tracking, as if something else entirely was playing before him. “Stealing’s my specialty. Damn handy talent to have for surviving on the streets. A requisite. Do it or pissing die. And when that’s not enough, then...” He trailed off.

Before Elei had a chance to ask what he’d been about to say, Kalaes shook his head. “Well, I bet Hera has the money for a boat. No worries, fe.”

Right. No worries
. Elei studied Kalaes, who looked too pale in the morning light slanting through the windshield, and wondered what little horror, what little splinter from the past had torn into his friend’s mind, and if Kalaes would ever tell him.

No worries at all
.

Chapter Five

E
lei steered
the aircar through the gray winter landscape, letting Kalaes doze. He seemed so tired. Looked like the nightmares had taken their toll, and then he’d stayed up for nights in a row taking care of Elei. He just needed rest, and he’d better have it while he could.

No telling what would happen after the next turn.

He navigated the route Kalaes had proposed, skirting the small towns of Alie, Pera and Priene, and hamlets not marked on the map. Dakru seemed endless as he drove north-west under a cloudy sky that stretched like a blanket overhead. On his left, the mountains rose like towers, eyes watching everything, judging, controlling.

And below ground stretched miles of tunnels and chambers and vents and the gods knew what else.

He narrowed his eyes at the road ahead. A dark bulk rose against the dazzling early afternoon light. The thing towered over the crossroads, glinting like metal. It stood on enormous spiked wheels, a rectangular beacon of doom.

Slowing the aircar, Elei reached out and shook Kalaes. “What in the hells is that?”

Kalaes slid one dark eye open, groaned softly and licked his lips. “What’s what?”

Elei pointed.

“I’ll be damned.” Kalaes straightened, and what little color was in his face drained. “A war machine. I haven’t seen one since...” He buried his fingers in his hair and Elei wondered what he’d meant to say. Then Kalaes scrambled out of his seat. “Slow down, but don’t stop completely. We have to find a turn before the crossroads.”

“A turn where?”

But Kalaes hurried to the cockpit door, yanked it open and yelled, “Hera, get in here right now.”

Slowing down, Elei thought he saw the huge machine tower shift. Lights blinked on its surface and panels moved and — holy gods, were those canons turning toward them?

“Kal,” he said, his own voice sounding strained in his ears, “they’re going to fire.”

“Shit.” Kalaes stumbled back to his seat and checked the map. “There’s a road going south.”

“More security that way.” Hera moved in between them, her hair hanging black and soft around her face. “Gods. A war machine.”

“We’re screwed either way.” Kalaes hit the panel with his fist, starting the wipers.

Elei switched them off, a tremor in his hand. “Is the road south the only exit from here?”

“That or we turn around,” Kalaes said. “If we get the chance.”

“Don’t turn around!” Sacmis burst into the cockpit and grabbed the back of Elei’s chair. “They’re designed to shoot when they see the maneuver. Better turn south.”

The seconds were ticking. Hera said nothing, chewing on her lower lip, while they advanced.

“No other turn, fe,” Kalaes glared at the map, “so south it is.”

Elei took a breath and swerved as smoothly as possible into the exit. The mountains soared before them, steep and high, the light glancing off their sheer slopes.

“There’s a village five kilometers up this road.” Kalaes lifted his gaze from the crumpled map. “We could make a stop and find out why the hells there’s a war machine in the area.”

“I do not see signs of any conflict,” Hera said, looking out of the window. “But with the unrest, I believe there’s only one explanation for the machine’s presence.”

“And that is?”

“They’re trying to block the road to the coast.”

“Why?” Elei glanced at the barren expanses on either side of the road. The ground became rockier as they approached the mountain range, and dry. No algae ponds here.

“To protect the western cities from the infected Gultur who turned against the regime,” Sacmis said, startling him.

“And to prevent them from reaching the other islands,” Hera said. “They hope to contain the insurgence.”

“How are we going to reach the coast then?” Elei asked.

Hera shook her head and said nothing. Sacmis laid a hand on her shoulder, but Hera shrugged it off and stalked out of the cockpit to the cabin.

“Yeah, let’s have some space in here,” Kalaes drawled, and Sacmis gave him a hot glare before following Hera out.

Elei opened his mouth to ask him to cool off, but Kalaes winced and laid his head on the backrest. “Hey, are you all right?” he said instead.

“Yeah, fine.” Kalaes waved a hand back and forth dismissively. “Headache.”

“You get them often?”

“No, I reserve them for special occasions.” Kalaes pressed his forearm against his eyes.

It wasn’t an answer, but Elei decided to let it go. He drove in silence as the houses of the hamlet Kalaes had mentioned rose from the light mist like bent old people. He stopped behind a market hall and a trout cistern. On market day this had to be a cheerful place, but today it was empty to the cold wind.

He powered down the engine and leaned back in his seat. Then he heard the outer door open onto the deck, hinges creaking. Someone stepped out, climbed down and walked around the aircar, a longgun held loosely at their side. Elei held his breath when golden hair caught the light.

Alendra stalked the empty market hall, then disappeared between two houses and returned a few minutes later, lifting her face and giving a thumbs-up.

Clear
. No Gultur vehicles. First good news all day. Elei stood up, stretching, and Kalaes stirred.

“You go ahead, fe. I’m coming,” he said quietly and Elei wondered just how bad that headache was.

Elei crossed the cabin and stepped out to the deck. If his earlier experiences with Hera were anything to go by, he should be present when she decided to interrogate any unlucky mortals. He scanned the narrow paths between the houses and saw her vanish around a corner.

With a pat to his holstered Rasmus, he climbed down the ladder and jumped to the rocky ground. His thigh twinged, a distant echo of pain. Breaking into a run, he went after Hera, Alendra joining him on the way.

Predictably, they found Hera holding a frightened woman by the scruff of her neck. “What’s the war machine doing here? Have there been battles in the area? Speak.”

Sacmis watched, arms folded over her chest.

“Hera...” Elei said in warning, taking the last steps that separated them.

Alendra gave a shout and raised her gun.

Drawing his Rasmus before even he saw what she was seeing, he turned, a hush falling over the world. Rex stirred in a feeble attempt to help him and showed him his targets in deep, flashing crimson.

Ten armed Gultur had emerged from a house, longguns aimed.

“These police,” he said through gritted teeth, “aren’t here on vacation, are they?”

“For Sobek’s sake. We’ve been betrayed? How?” Hera shot Sacmis a murderous glance. “If it was you—”

“No Hera, I did not betray you,” Sacmis growled. “Dammit.”

The Gultur advanced in a row, so there was no escaping their line of fire. “Give yourselves up,” one of them shouted, her voice sharp and cold. “Throw down your weapons.”

Elei glanced at Hera and Sacmis, their guns half-raised but not aimed. Alendra still pointed as though she’d not heard them.

He could start shooting and run toward the nearest house. He’d probably have a moment of surprise he could use, but that’d leave the others exposed. Maybe if he just—

“Is this one of yours?” Hera called to the advancing Gultur and poked the muzzle of her gun into Sacmis’ side. 

“Hera,” Sacmis hissed, her eyes wide and dark. “What—”

“Is she important to you?” Hera went on, prodding Sacmis. “Would you miss her if I killed her?”

Dammit, Hera
. She was bluffing, right? Elei inched closer, in case something went horribly wrong.

One of the Gultur stepped out of the line, the one who’d spoken before, obviously their leader. “We do not know her. Your own side betrayed you,
senet
.”

Hera cocked her head to the side. “My side? You mean the Gultur?”

“You gave up on that side long ago, did you not?” The leader mimicked Hera’s pose, head to the side. “No, I mean the Undercurrent. The resistance. You’re too much trouble. Not worth it.” Her lips stretched in a cruel smile. “You have nobody watching your back.”

Nine
. That damned old woman had turned them in. Elei kept his face blank. The stakes loomed higher than he’d thought.
Power
. Someone in the Undercurrent wanted to be at the top.

His finger clenched on the trigger. If he stepped in front of Alendra and Hera, he’d protect them from the bullets until his gun emptied, and maybe by then they could find cover behind the house.

He was already stepping forward, the colors around him intensifying, his possessed eye throbbing, when a thrumming sound penetrated the descending quiet of battle.

Couldn’t be...
He turned a fraction and gasped. He grabbed Alendra and pushed her toward the other two women. “Move!”

The aircar, Kalaes at the controls, was descending on them like a diving hawk and accelerating. Shouts, a few wild shots, Hera yelling.

An impact.

An explosion of white light.

And the silence returned.

***

A hand shook Elei and he blinked. When had he closed his eyes?

“Elei?” Alendra’s small face came into view, wearing a worried frown. “Are you okay?”

He took stock of his surroundings — rough earth under his back, gray sky above, and his body — various bruises he discovered as he tried to move, his right arm, and
ow
, his shoulder. “Fine.” He stood with her help among the decrepit houses, and it all rushed back with a deafening screech. “The aircar.”

It stood about thirty feet away, its door ajar.

Hera and Sacmis were getting to their feet, faces blank with shock. They pointed to the aircar and ran for it, their movements fluid.

“We need to go,” Alendra said softly, “before their reinforcements arrive.” She tugged on his arm, guiding him toward the aircar, and although he could walk just fine, he didn’t mind her warm fingers clenched around his bicep, her scent so close.
Not at all
.

Then her words sank in.
Reinforcements. A look-out party
. They’d been waiting for them. The Gultur leader had said the resistance had sold them out.
Five hells
. He caught a glimpse of the bodies of the Gultur on the ground. He’d expected gore and body parts, but they were whole, only knocked out by the impact of the aircar, some already moving, fumbling for their guns.

Guns. Shit
. “Run!”

He twisted out of Alendra’s hold, grabbed her hand and ran toward the aircar, nothing fluid in his movements — just limping on as fast as he could. He pushed her before him to climb the ladder and she clambered up, lithe and quick, hair glinting like silver. The Gultur at the edge of his vision were pulsing red centers with the blue glint of guns in their hands. Cursing under his breath, he climbed up, the back of his neck itching. He thought he heard the soft click of bullets sliding into chambers as he grabbed the last rung and heaved himself over the ledge to the deck.

Bullets slammed into the side of the aircar and the cabin, and the metal screeched.

“Go!” he shouted, and grabbed the rail to get to his feet. Pain splintered through the old wounds in his leg. Hera dragged Sacmis inside as he scrambled past the door after Alendra, and more bullets zipped, hitting the aircar. “Go before they hit the energy reactor.”

“Got it,” Kalaes called from the cockpit and the hum of the aircar’s engine rose to a teeth-gritting pitch as he hit the acceleration hard.

The aircar lurched forward. Elei stumbled into the cabin and grabbed a wall handle. They shot out of the hamlet, another rain of bullets smashing one of the back windows, showering them in glittering glass. Cold wind rushed inside as the aircar raced down a narrow west-bound road. Elei grabbed the frame of the cockpit door. Entering, he stumbled to the co-driver’s seat, sank in it and splayed his fingers over the map.

“Hey, Kal,” he said. “Thanks. For saving us.”