by P. R. Adams
The creature didn’t leave much to track it, as if anything would dare to.
Tarlayn was waiting for them not too far beyond the point where Riyun had been forced to turn back. She didn’t seem upset by having to wait or surprised by the condition he and Hirvok were in. Instead, she seemed almost serene as she stared into the dark ahead.
Riyun’s optics couldn’t make out anything more than the occasional dancing lights, but she saw something. “What is it?” He bumped up the magnification on his helmet.
The old woman smiled. “It isn’t something you can see. It’s something that is felt, a connection between a wizard and the source of all power.”
“And you’ve been here before?”
“Not inside. We all come to the edge of the abyss to make our connection.”
“To the crater above?”
“Yes.”
He took his helmet off to see if that would make a difference. It felt as if a cold wind blew from somewhere far away, carrying deep scents he could only assume were associated with the beginnings of the planet and the magic it would contain.
Earthy. Brine-like. The smells were…salty, and…stagnant. Yet he also caught hints of ancient jungle, bubbling fires…
Sulfuric.
Primordial. That was the sensation.
Sapphire lights flickered in the dark, and he caught himself taking a step. Stopping took effort. He glanced back at her. “This power—you share it?”
“There is too much for any one person to control.”
“I thought you said Meriscoya—”
“He wants it all. It would be too great even for him.”
“Well, it feels pretty intoxicating.”
Her eyelids fluttered. “You can feel it?”
“Calling me.” There was no missing it. “Seems to me, anyone with a strong connection to this power would want to have all of it.”
She drew up to her full height. “That would be succumbing to weakness.”
“It doesn’t feel quite right calling this Meriscoya weak after seeing what he can do.”
That produced a frown, and Tarlayn walked toward the source of power. “The greatest strength comes from control, and denial is the greatest measure of control.”
“Right. Unless you think about what those dragons did to those cities.”
She continued away from him.
Done with me for now. Riyun waved for the others to move closer, but the idea of power and addiction kept contrasting against the wizard’s words. There had to be more to her thinking than a simple belief that denial and control were superior to raw power. “Tawod, where did your drone go offline?”
The demolitionist separated from the others and pulled a control tablet from a hip pouch. He powered the device on and showed the display to Riyun. “This tunnel goes another couple hundred feet, then it forks off left and right. More forks off each of those, and in one of those forks, there’s a steep drop-off. It’s like a big ravine.”
Or an abyss. “It went down in the ravine?”
The young man’s shoulders sagged. “I was trying to get a look at the other side, and the power went out.”
“Power? Not controls?”
“I could still track the control signal through the transponder. For a second or two.”
“You think you could find it?”
“The ravine?” The display turned into a map that originated not too far back from their current position and ended at a huge black spot. “Maybe five minutes from our position.”
There was no indication of threat on the map, and the drone had better sensors than their armor. “You and Naru take point. Eyes and ears open.”
“A-all right.”
Riyun put Lonar behind the two youngsters, followed by Quil. Javika came next, with Riyun at her side. As much is it annoyed him, he left Symbra at the rear with Hirvok. This apparently gave Javika some sort of delight. An unfamiliar hip sway infiltrated her step, and Riyun could’ve sworn she chuckled once or twice as they headed deeper into the tunnel.
“You like having someone watch over Hirvok?” It was the only thing Riyun could think of.
The tall woman didn’t break stride. “It is good to have the two of them back there.”
Riyun grunted. He didn’t understand her thinking, but he reasoned it must make sense to her. “This magic the wizards use—can you sense it?”
“In what way? I am no wizard.”
“None of us are, but I could feel it. I think I understand why he would do what he’s doing: greed.”
“There is money to be had?”
“Probably. I don’t think that’s what he wants. I mean, greed and the lust for power.”
“Power as a currency?”
“Among these wizards, I guess. Maybe among these people? Wouldn’t you give someone so powerful anything they asked for?”
“The powerful must sleep with one eye open.”
Would someone capable of influencing dragons really need to watch his back? It seemed unlikely. What was much more probable was that Meriscoya would simply create defenses and alarms to protect him from betrayal. Then again, for someone like Javika, that was merely a challenge to be overcome.
Tarlayn joined them when they turned into the side tunnel where the drone had disappeared. She seemed content to watch the demolitions expert and hacker as they made their way through the winding underground passage. And when they stopped, the old woman nodded. There was a satisfied look on her face as she advanced toward the ravine edge.
Riyun cautiously followed her. “You know anything about this?”
“Another aspect of the abyss.” The older woman stopped when the tips of her feet extended over the lip of the gorge. She breathed in deep and slow. “The power here is perilous.”
“I’m pretty sure the fall would be just as dangerous.” Riyun couldn’t bring himself to look over the edge. One second, the sensation was of a bottomless pit, the next was like standing next to a generator.
“He has been here.”
“Meriscoya? I thought you said you guys did your ritual at the edge of the pit?”
“He has been here recently.” She pointed her staff into the inky depths. “He was seeking something specific. Down there.”
Great. As if the ravine wasn’t a threat all by itself. “Any chance you could get more details?”
“No. I can feel his presence, though. And he wasn’t alone.”
Another wizard? Riyun waved Naru and Tawod over. “Show me where the drone went down.”
Tawod guided them along the edge of the ravine. “Without satellites, and with whatever interference is going on down there, we can only be so accurate.”
“Plus or minus a hundred feet—” Riyun glanced over the edge, then pulled back. It was as if the depths whispered to him to jump. “We’re going to need that drone to spy on this Meriscoya and his dragons.”
“It might be completely destroyed. It could have fallen from a pretty good height.”
“It was a sturdy model, right? Lightweight materials—”
“Right.” The demolitionist peered into the ravine. “And it had emergency landing capabilities if the signal died. But this—”
Naru rose to her tiptoes. “There!”
Riyun put his helmet back on and flipped on the full range of optics. “Tag it.”
“Um—” The hacker pointed down the side of the ravine. “You see that ledge down there?”
Where she pointed, a white dot flashed on his helmet display. “I see it, but I don’t—”
He saw the drone then, a dull gray globe in the center of the ledge.
Tawod must have seen it then, too, because he scooted along the edge of the ravine until he was over the ledge. “It looks good! The wings are intact! Our cables!”
The young man pulled off his backpack and uncoiled the sturdy cable that acted as a reinforcement to the pack’s frame.
Riyun was in no condition to descend, or he would have begun uncoiling his own cabl
e. “Now that we can see it, there’s no—”
Far below, hidden in the black depths of the ravine, something shrieked. Wings flapped, and he caught movement at the edge of his optics.
Naru shivered. “Something’s down there!”
“It must’ve heard us.” Riyun brought his weapon around to the ready position.
Tarlayn frowned. “That sound…”
Tawod waved Naru forward. “I’m going down.”
The hacker brushed her hair back, the blue ring dimly glowing in the dark. “What about trying to re-start it remotely?”
“Won’t work.”
“We could try getting a cable around it.”
“Not in a million years. Look, it needs to be brought up, and it’s something I can do.” The demolitions expert glared at Riyun. “Unless no one trusts me to do something so simple.”
Riyun scanned the darkness with his weapon sights. “Let’s see what that noise was. Maybe it’s just coming to see who’s in the neighborhood.”
“Or maybe it’s going for the drone.” The young man set the drone’s control tablet a few strides back from the edge. “If I hurry, I should be able to get down there, hook it to my belt, then climb back up. If it has power, I can launch it to return to the control tablet.”
There were only occasional hints of movement below. Nothing revealed itself enough for Riyun to get a shot off. “The drone’s safe for the moment.”
Tawod knelt at the edge of the abyss. “Look, you were the one who said we needed it.”
“And we do. But it can wait.”
“I’m not going to take that chance.”
The cable sailed out over the ravine, then swung back against the rock wall. The demolitionist tested the knot where he’d tied off the end of the rope against a natural anchor point, then tested the harness and hoop the cable ran through.
Naru took her backpack off as well. “I’m going with him.”
Riyun looked around, confused and a little angry. Hadn’t he said no? “We’re not going down there.”
But they were. Tawod helped the hacker into the harness that reinforced the bottom of her backpack while she uncoiled her cable, then ran that through the harness hoop. She mumbled something about her hours in a simulator, then put her back to the ravine, ready to follow him down.
Quil moved closer. “They are retrieving the drone?”
Riyun wanted to be angry, but all he could manage was bafflement. Was it because he had nearly been killed by the bug thing? Had they lost all respect for him? Or were the two of them trying to show their worth? Tawod was obviously annoyed by the diminished role he played with the team compared to how he perceived himself. Was Naru’s behavior a reflection of her bond with the young man or something else?
They weren’t listening. That was what mattered.
The lieutenant lowered himself onto all fours and crawled toward the anchors. If his arms hadn’t felt like wet noodles, he would have hauled them up to make his point.
Instead, he grabbed the hacker’s cable and held tight. “Move as cautiously as you can.”
It was a pointless comment, but it was all he had. Tawod was already approaching the ledge, and there was still no sign of whatever made the screeching noises.
The demolitions expert kicked away from the wall, released the cable, and landed on the ledge next to the drone. When Naru drew closer, he went to her and helped her down. The two of them craned their necks and looked into the black depths, then dropped to their knees and began fiddling with the remote-controlled aircraft.
Quil readied his weapon. “That sound…”
The beating of wings and shrieking grew closer.
Riyun got to his feet. “Hurry!”
A shape resolved in the open space beyond the ledge. Then another. Then a third. They were a little larger than human, with widespread wings and pointy heads. Rather than hands and feet, there were talons.
And they were ascending toward the ledge quickly.
The wizard gasped. “What has he done?”
“Meriscoya? These are his?” Riyun sighted on one of the winged beasts and squeezed off a short burst.
The thing didn’t even react.
Had he missed? “Quil.”
“I see.” The pseudo squeezed off a burst of his own.
One of the things twitched and dipped back into the black, but it didn’t look like it was dead, and the other two were still climbing.
The hum of the drone’s motor was barely audible over the gunfire and flapping wings, but Riyun saw the vehicle rising in his peripheral vision. “Get out of there! Now!”
Tawod pushed Naru up her cable, but one of the winged terrors flew over the ledge and wrapped powerful talons around her shoulders. It tugged and flapped loudly, not as if it intended to fly away with her, but as if to pull her from the cable.
Quil drifted away. “Lieutenant, the drone—”
Riyun had already seen it: The final winged thing was pursuing the machine. “Drive it off!”
There was no clear shot, but Riyun kept his gun trained on the monster terrorizing Naru. Tawod was alternately swatting at the thing’s legs and stepping back on the ledge to try for a clean shot.
Then he found one, a moment where the thing let go of its screaming prey, perhaps seeking a better grip.
The demolitionist fired two bursts. The first caused the beast to make one of its shrieking noises and clutch at the ravine wall. The second silenced the shrieking, and the monster slid down the wall to bounce off the ledge and plummet into the depths.
Quil’s gunfire was similarly effective, sending the third one flapping errantly and spinning down.
The drone flew over Riyun and settled on the ground beside the control tablet. A relieved laugh escaped, and he found strength to begin hauling Naru up. “Come on!”
Tawod joined in the shouting. “Go! You can do it, Naru!”
A dark shape shot over the ledge behind the explosives expert: the winged thing that had flown away!
The young man turned, brought his weapon around…
And the thing swatted it away, to clatter against the ravine wall. Then it grabbed the demolitionist.
And with a few mighty flaps, it dragged the young man to the edge.
Tawod punched the thing. “Lieutenant!”
Riyun turned to Quil. “Shoot it! Quil!”
“There is no shot.” The pseudo moved along the ledge.
The winged creature pulled Tawod until his torso was over the abyss. His arms windmilled. “I—I—”
A burst of gunfire from Quil’s gun stilled the beating wings.
And the monster fell from sight. Carrying Tawod with it.
31
Riyun dragged Naru up the last several feet and grabbed her by the back straps of her armor. She was sobbing, and he wasn’t sure she could have finished the climb on her own. He wasn’t sure he could have, not after losing Tawod. It wasn’t as if they’d been close, and Riyun had seen more gruesome and sudden deaths, but the demolitions expert had seemed so close to escaping the abyss.
And then there was the bizarre nature of it all.
Death on the battlefield—whether in an urban engagement or an open expanse of land far from civilization—always had a sense of normalcy to it. People fought; people died. That all changed now that they were far from home, stuck on an alien world, trying to make sense of the impossible: magic, supernatural beings, and the crazy science that made it all possible.
The lieutenant strained for any hint of the flapping wings or strange shrieking of the beasts from the depths, but no sounds came from the darkness below. There was only Naru, sobbing and clutching his shoulders. Her fingers squeezed hard against his armor.
“Why?” Naru sucked in a breath and pushed away from him. “Why didn’t she stop them?”
The hacker looked past him, and he realized she was talking about Tarlayn, who stood between them and the drone. Her malformed fingers wrapped tightly around her staff. Her face was rigid
with shock.
Riyun patted Naru on the back. “I’ll talk to her.”
“She brought us down here. She said this was the source of their power. Then she just stood there. Why?”
“I’m sure there’s a reason.”
Javika was there, quietly separating from the darkness, hand extended for the hacker. “Come.”
Naru sniffled. “I’m okay.”
“Yes. But the drone is not. Quil will require your help.”
Riyun rose and pulled the young woman to her feet. He couldn’t see anything obviously wrong with the drone, but it wasn’t like Javika to make something up to distract someone from their mourning. The Biwali warrior was always blunt and practical. “What’s wrong with it?”
“It will not power on.” Javika glanced over her shoulder at the machine. “Quil cannot access it.”
“The command tablet…”
Naru shuffled over to where Tawod had set the device down. “He—Tawod—” Her voice caught.
Riyun held a hand out and examined the tablet when she handed it to him. “Nothing’s coming up.” He tried a few of the more advanced options he knew for drone control systems, but the tablet simply wasn’t seeing the drone.
Naru knuckled tears from her eyes. “We couldn’t interface with it down there either.”
“But you got it started.”
“We didn’t know…how. It launched on its own.”
“And flew up here? By itself?”
Javika’s lips compressed into a line. She was just as skeptical as him. “Explain this to Quil.”
Naru took the tablet back. “I’ll try. But you need to talk to Tarlayn. She should’ve—”
Riyun squared his shoulders. “I’ll talk to her.”
He waited until the two of them were at Quil’s side, standing beside the small drone, then headed over to the wizard. It was becoming easier to call the old woman that. Riyun had seen too much to deny the existence of magic and her abilities with it, but now he had to reconcile that magic and her abilities with Tawod’s death.