Windrunner's Daughter (31 page)

The sun hung swollen and bloody behind the smoke haze and Wren was reminded to put on her goggles. Unbelievably they were still tucked into the back of her belt. She rubbed them clean, pulled them over her tangled curls and settled them over her ears. Then she looked at Raw. His hair stuck to his head in sweat-soaked clumps. His eyes were bloodshot and his face soot smeared. “Are you sure you want to do this? You can tell me what to do. I can go alone.”

Raw shook his head. “It’s a two man job.”

“Right.” Wren looked up. The top of the Dome still seemed far above them.

“It’s almost mid-day.” Jay groped for her hand. “The gales will be starting up soon.”

“We have to get the O
₂
vented before the dust storm makes it impossible to open the panels.” Raw sounded more confident than he looked but he was right. With a mega storm on its way, the dust storm would be vicious. If they opened the panels in the middle of it, the Dome would be damaged, possibly permanently.

Wren opened her wings and her pinions rippled out, undamaged. “Are you ready?” she asked Raw.

His lips flattened and he too spread his wings. “I’m going to copy you.”

Wren nodded. She looked again at the burning colony. The venting O
₂
still blazed in the centre of the square. That was where she had to go.

“I don’t like this,” Colm groaned. His face was a picture of misery

“I’ll be fine.” Wren insisted. “And if I don’t make it, maybe I wasn’t meant to.” She cut off his reply by giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. “Wish me luck.”

“Good luck, little sister.” Colm touched her face.

“I can’t believe you’re doing this.” Jay pulled her in for a hug.

Wren wriggled free. “Look after Colm.”

Jay nodded and, as she stepped to the edge of the building, she heard him sob.

Wren tried to take a deep breath, but a cough surprised her, leaping into her chest and clenching its fist around her throat. As she straightened she saw Colm and Jay looking at one another over her head, their foreheads creased with worry.

“It’s the smoke,” she snapped.

Knowing she could say nothing more to reassure him, Wren backed up until her heels touched air on the other side of the roof. Then she dropped into a starting position and shook out her arms.  

Jay paced three long steps from the opposite edge of the roof. “I’m the red line,” he said solemnly.

Unable to risk a deep breath, Wren shut her eyes to centre herself, opened her arms and started to run towards her brother.

As she reached him with no sign of slowing, he stepped quickly back and she snapped out her wings. They locked with a satisfying
snick
and she leaped.

Wren dove past storey after storey. She forced her wings flat and prayed. Where was the hot air? Where the thermals that she hoped would boost her towards the top of the Dome?

The fountain of burning O
₂
was ahead of her and on her left. The third level of the pyramid was directly below her. She was falling too fast: she was going to crash. Wren tried to force herself outwards, away from the pyramid. The air was thin, but her fall provided some wind. She angled herself and screamed as her toes brushed stone. Then she was flying towards the flames. Too low, she was going to burn.

Her arms ached as she pushed and her lungs throbbed as an endless scream trailed in her wake.

And then she was inside the flame. Her goggles filled with orange light and her tunic smouldered. Her wings glowed and her skin burned, but she was rising. The blaze jetted her upwards with the force of the venting O
₂
and she screamed again as she shot in the direction of the Dome.

Frustrated flames reached for her as she was hurled upwards on their hot breath. Trembling, Wren leaned into the updraft and swooped back up the pyramid. As she crested the final storey, she saw Raw. He was clutching the edge of the roof, straining to look for her.

His scarred face twisted as he climbed shakily to his feet. She saw him shout something at Jay and immediately her brother looked up, his face slack with relief.

“Follow me,” Wren yelled.

Swiftly Raw marched to the far end of the roof and Jay took up position again. Then he hunched his shoulders and started to run.

Wren circled tightly towards the apex of the Dome, not daring to take her eyes from Raw’s launch. She opened her mouth to shout at him to lock his wings, but another voice over-rode her. It was Colm.

“Spread your wings, fool!”

Raw’s arms snapped out and his wings flicked into position.

“Jump!” As Raw’s toes hit the very end of the building, her voice blended with her brother’s.

She could barely watch as Raw plummeted towards the ground. She remembered seeing him fall once before. This was different, this time she didn’t care about the wings he wore, she only cared about
him
and it wasn’t
because he was the only one who knew how to adjust the solar panels. “Catch the thermal,” she prayed.

Then, suddenly Wren hit cooler air. The heat wasn’t strong enough to take her any higher. She looked up. She was barely two wing lengths from the apex of the Dome and she wasn’t going to make it. She started to drop.

“No!” she howled.

To her right the Dome sloped downwards, but long metal struts, like scaffold, filled her vision. They went from about two-thirds up the Dome to the very top; extra support for the weight of the solar panels. If she tilted herself correctly she just might be able to catch one of them.

She was falling faster now. She couldn’t spare a second to look for Raw. Instead she tilted her right shoulder, forcing the last of the hot air to take her circling sideways. The Dome-slope came up on her with terrifying suddenness and Wren realised that if she wanted to catch a strut she would have to unlock her wings.

“Oh skies,” she whispered. Panic thudded in her chest and, within a finger’s length of a metal joist, just as she started to fall again, Wren flicked her elbows and unlocked her wings.

Instantly her weight took her downwards. She threw her arms out and they slammed around the metal with bruising force.

Wren went from falling to dangling. She followed her arms with her legs and wrapped them around the pole, panting with terror.

Then she tilted her head and looked down. Her brothers were standing almost directly below, looking tiny. Where was Raw? She craned her neck, trying to see.

There he was, circling up the thermal, heading towards her. His voice reached her ears. He was yelling at her. Wren hugged the scaffold tighter.

Raw was heavier than she, he wasn’t even going to make it as high. But he copied her, heading towards the joist to her left. He slammed into it at least two body lengths lower than she had. The whole Dome seemed to quiver with the force of his landing.

“Hang on!” she cried.

“
Holy Designers
!” Raw clung like a bug to a gingko branch. His chest heaved.

“We’ll have to climb the rest of the way,” Wren called.

Raw nodded and Wren looked up. Her arms already ached and the scaffold looked steep and, now she was on it, impossible to climb.

She tried to force herself to let go with one arm so that she could pull herself up, but she couldn’t prise her fingers open. Her instincts said ‘cling’ and so she clung.

“You don’t have to wait for me,” Raw shouted. “Go on.”

“I can’t.” Wren coughed.

There was a pause and then: “I’m coming.”

Wren watched him haul himself upwards, arm over arm, propelling himself higher with his thighs. Once he was level with her he called from his joist. “Can you do what I do?”

Wren shook her head. “My arms are just so tired.”

“Okay.” Raw stretched across and grabbed her wing straps. He could just reach, but the Dome narrowed above them; they would get closer together. “I’ll pull you.”

“You can do that?” Wren swallowed and tried not to think about the amount of pain he had to be in.

In answer Raw used one arm and his legs to push himself higher up and dragged Wren after him. She resisted his pull at first, unable to relax her grasp. He grunted at her. She had to trust him.

“I’ve got you.”

“I know.” Slowly her fingers and thighs loosened. She didn’t let go, but she relaxed enough that she slid a few inches up the pole when he dragged her.

She looked up. They had a couple of body lengths to go; this was going to take forever if she didn’t help. With Raw holding her, Wren finally felt confident enough to reach above her with one hand.

This time when he pulled her, she pushed with her thighs and dragged herself with one arm and moved twice as far.

They kept moving. Wren tried not to look down. If she fell her wings would probably save her. Probably.

Her back grew hotter – the fire was still raging below. They had to vent the O
₂
.

The world shrank to the movement of her hands and legs. Sweat made her palms slick and her legs throbbed and trembled.

Raw drew nearer as their joists ran closer together. Then, suddenly, he wasn’t pulling her any more. She looked at him with one arm stretched above her head, and blinked. Her fingers touched a platform. They had reached the apex.

“Go.” Raw boosted her up and she pulled her chest onto the metal grid. He followed, panting.

“We made it,” she said. She rolled onto her back and stared upwards. The sun was almost directly over head. “It’s almost mid-day.” She groaned and rose awkwardly onto her knees. “What do we do now?”

Raw crouched beside her and looked up. There was a mechanism on the side of each panel and a large central node with a dusty screen and keyboard.

“All right, these are pretty much the same as ours.” He touched the semi-rusted hinges on the panel nearest him. “They were constructed so that when the Domes come down, the solar array can be repositioned on ground level. Right now they stay at one optimal angle because the populations of the Domes and therefore their power needs remain consistent -”

“And if they moved, everyone inside the Dome would die.”

“Right.” Raw rubbed his chin. “But when the atmosphere becomes breathable and the Domes come down, human populations will spread and more energy will be needed. So the panels were actually designed to rotate – when they’re needed to, they can track the sun and gather maximum possible energy.

“They go round.” Wren grasped his meaning immediately.

“Here’s the axis.” Raw pointed. Each panel had a line running through the centre.

“So, we can push them open?” Wren tried. She shoved the nearest panel with her shoulder, but it didn’t budge. Screaming sounded from below and she bit her lip. “It didn’t move.”

“It won’t. The panels are programmed to remain closed because they’re still on the Dome top. I’m going to have to re-programme the central panel.” He indicated the dusty screen. “When I say so, you need to depress the ‘unlock’ button on one of the panel, then you’ll have to push it open – it’ll be hard to move.”

Wren nodded. “I get it. How many should we open?”

“One should be enough.” Raw cracked his knuckles. “Ready?”

Wren moved into position under the closest panel. “Which button?”

“This one here.” Raw’s hand hovered over hers, warm. He took her finger and guided it to a square red button. “It takes two - I’ve got to key the button on the central node, while you do this one. It’s a failsafe.

“Because of sabotage?”

“Of course. After Keirnan’s Day the Originals put in as many fail-safes as they could, so don’t press it till I say so, or you’ll freeze up the process.”

He moved to the central node and rubbed the screen with his sleeve. “
Designers,
this is old.” He had to hammer at the keys to loosen them.

He thought for a moment, his green eyes narrow. Then he tapped the keyboard. He hesitated; then tapped again. Wren couldn’t tell what he was inputting.

She closed her fists and her eyes, resisting the temptation to check the colony below. “All right, I’ve reprogrammed its horizon. The computer thinks we’re at ground level. I’m going to release the tilting mechanism in three … two … one-”

Wren jabbed the unlocking button. Then, as her panel gave a metallic whimper and didn’t move, she set her shoulder to it. “Come on.”

“I’ve got to staying leaning on this button, Wren, or it’ll re-lock. You have to move it by yourself.”

Wren put her back against the panel and bent her knees; then she tried to straighten her legs. The whole panel groaned.

“You’re doing it,” Raw shouted.

“It’s not moving.”

“It will. Keep trying.”

She yelled and pressed her hands against the silicone at shoulder height. “
Move
!”

With a suddenness that shocked her, the panel suddenly tore free and swung outwards. The wind, that had been kept from the colony for so long rushed underneath with a howl and swept Wren off her feet. Her wings fluttered and she grabbed the edge of the panel. O
₂
hissed as it was sucked through the hole and past her into the atmosphere.

“
Wren!
” Raw yelled and leaped for her. He grabbed one of her feet and wrapped his other arm around the console.

Then there were flames. Blazing O
₂
raged past Wren almost too fast to burn. Screaming, she closed her eyes and wished for her goggles. She could feel her eyebrows charring and her hair crisping on her head.

Her cheeks and bare fingers heated and her tunic smouldered.

Her wings were almost tearing from her back, fluttering so madly in the power of the escaping gas that she was sure they would soon be torn into the sky.

Raw’s grip on her leg loosened. If he let go she would be dragged out of the Dome. She'd never survive another dust storm.

“Don’t let go,” she screamed.

Her ears throbbed as an alarm higher pitched than any she had heard before started to wail: low O
₂
.

Suddenly the panel shook as something hard slammed into it. Then more hands grabbed her; lending their strength to Raw’s they defied the wind, pulled her inside, and dragged her under the console.