"My guess is that this first encounter didn't go so well," I said.
She nodded, a slow motion that carried a perception of weight. "That's putting it mildly."
#
The Seekers scattered in every direction. Donovan's mount soared off toward the mountains in the north as my own split off the way we’d just come. I spun my head around to the left and saw Colvinra and the squad leader shooting off toward the edge and the dragons. A shadow drew my eyes up and made me forget about the Seekers.
A flight of dragons, greenish in the scales, spread out above us. Bodies long and lithe, with stunted arms and long sweeping tails, they flew on wings translucent green to match their scales. The beasts swept past us and turned in the air. Two bore down on us and forced my Seeker to turn the mount down the ridge as he tried to escape. Yellow-tinted bone structures jutted out above their eyes and swept back like hair frozen in place. Their golden yellow eyes did not blink as they flew past us, pulling up into the sky with a pump of their wings.
The Seeker downshifted his mount and pulled it hard to the left, pivoting away from the swooping attackers. The mount lurched forward, shooting back across the ridge as one of the dragons cried out, a shriek that sent shivers down my back. Our attackers pumped their wings to pull up and spin in magnificent form through the air to come after us. The mount jerking to the right drew my eyes forward to see a third dragon diving down at us from the left. The three creatures spread out, one above, two from the sides, and dropped down before our mount. My Seeker yanked back hard on his control handles as he eased off the accelerator, and our nose shot straight up. I gripped him as a sudden burst of energy shot the mount up into the air.
Down below us, one of the dragons twisted in the air to crash into the ground. Realization dawned as to what the Seeker had done. Using the gravity beams that kept the mount afloat, he had locked on to a dragon, and used it to pull and push the mount up this high. Before he could bring the nose down, the dragons streaking past below us executed sharp turns away from him, and he lost his anchors. He realized the danger and spun the mount around so now we faced straight down at the ground. What was left of my stomach exited the back of my body as we plummeted straight toward the shell below. At what seemed the last moment, the Seeker yanked hard on the controls, and power surged inside the mount, repelling us from the ground. We slowed our descent just above the ridge peak and hung there for an instant. The Seeker shifted the directional gravity beams in front and behind us and the mount shot away, back in the direction we'd come from.
Ahead, the other mounts, harried as well, streaked back toward each other. My Seeker tried to turn to the north only to find a smaller dragon swooping down toward him. He took the hint and fled back to the group. The Seekers brought their mounts into a large circle and kept moving around, never holding still. Without a signal, they all turned inward, crossing each other's paths at close range and resuming formation, circling. They kept doing this as the dragons surrounded us. All of the Seekers left their pulse guns in their holsters.
"Why are you doing this?" I asked as we crossed the circle in another shift.
"Makes it harder for them to single us out," he called, leaning hard to the left into a turn, me leaning close behind him. "So they can't grab us." He shrugged with his right shoulder. "Least, we think it does."
I got a look at Maryn as we crossed one more time, expecting him to be terrified. He laughed with delight, his mouth split open in a smile as he pointed up at the circling predators.
"Kid doesn't know what's happening, does he?" the Seeker asked.
I shook my head, then realized he couldn't see me. "No, he knows they exist, but to him, they're something out of a story." The creatures flew back and forth around us, gliding through the air with little movement from their wings. "We haven't had this kind of raid in this part of the shell since before he was born."
The Seeker grunted. "Been the same all across the edge, with one exception." He turned the mount into another crossing move. "That's why we came this way, hoping to stay away from that blasted raider city."
Shrieks echoed down from the dragons as they circled us. I couldn't tell if they were frustrated or just trying to unnerve us. They didn't seem confused by the Seekers' tactic as much as they seemed patient. Their eyes darted back and forth, sizing us up. Once or twice, a smaller one darted out, swooping over the circling mounts and screeching at us. Patient as they might be, this stalemate of sorts would not last, and the Seekers realized that. They started calling out to each other, seeking guidance. Colvinra and the squad leader barked out for silence when they did.
In the next instant, the dragons struck. Half their number swooped down into the circling mounts with such speed the Seekers had no time to react. With terrifying results, the dragons crashed down into the speeding mounts. A dragon collided with the front of our mount, and I found myself soaring through the air, head down, cloak sweeping about me. My body slammed against something squishy and slid to the ground. The wind was knocked from my lungs; I gasped for air as momentum carried my body away from the dragon it had collided with. As I came to a halt, air raced into my lungs, and they gulped it up. I shook my head to clear my vision and looked about.
Nothing except dragons remained airborne, including those that attacked us having taken off again. One dragon dove down from above and a Seeker struggled in its claws when it took off, his useless pulse gun falling to land near me. I pushed myself up and ran toward the carnage of Seeker mounts, still unable to see either of my brothers. A Seeker leapt over his downed mount and ran toward me, waving his arms and screaming.
"Get back!" he yelled. "Run!"
"No!" I ran right past him, ducking under his arms, eyes searching for my brothers.
I heard the screech an instant later and did the only thing possible: collapsed to the ground and curled into a ball. The Seeker vanished in the grasp of another dragon, a piece of his cloak tearing free and falling to the earth near me.
Just past the falling cloth, a Seeker clung to Maryn, arm around his neck and a pulse gun pointing up at the screeching beasts. Something happened inside me. Something clicked, like an emotion I'd never felt before kicking in. A thought filled my head and burned itself into my memory. "That's my baby brother. Let him go!" I'm not sure if I said it out loud, but I heard it in my head, and it moved me to action. Searching around for something I could use, my eyes locked on the only thing nearby: the pulse gun dropped by the other Seeker.
I lunged for it as the Seeker moved with Maryn toward me, eyes and pulse gun trained above. I grasped the weapon in my hand and pointed it at his exposed back. As I pulled the trigger, unleashing the massive air pulse the gun generated into him, another thought filled my head. "Don't you ever touch my brother again!" The pulse hit him square in the back, knocking him forward. The force of the blast sent Maryn tumbling to one side. With him clear, I took aim and fired again. And again. And again. Pulse after pulse poured into the tumbling form of the Seeker, knocking him farther and farther away. Maryn crawled away toward a large rock, but I didn't relent. He had to pay. They all did. The others were out of my reach, all the ones that took my mother, my sister, and my father, but I had this one, and he would pay. I fired again and sent the limp Seeker crashing over a rock. He fell partially from sight, and all the rage, all the emotion, everything, just poured out of me like air from a balloon. I fell to a knee, one hand gripping the pulse gun. The cool metal calmed me, giving me something to focus on. Dragons. Dragons were the problem now.
Maryn peeked out from behind the rock. I moved toward him, keeping a wary eye on the sky, pulse gun gripped in my hand. I weaved around rocks and found myself in an open stretch leading to Maryn’s hiding spot. How had he made it that far out? I pushed the thought down, gripped my body scarf in one hand and the pulse gun in the other, and sprinted the last few meters to the rock.
Just as I neared it, something flew into my peripheral vision. One of the larger dragons
, golden claws extended, dove toward me. It moved with such speed, there was no way to make it to safety. I pushed my feet out farther behind me and dove to the ground.
Right when the claws should have struck, a resounding crash echoed above me. I landed unharmed behind the rock and rolled to find Maryn tucked under an outcropping, screaming his lungs out. Pain burst up my side from what I suspected would become a glorious bruise on my hip. I hobbled toward Maryn and looked for the attacking dragon. What greeted me made me stop dead in my tracks.
There, hovering over us, flew the largest dragon yet. The creature was green from head to tail, a bright, emerald green shining in the core-light. What made it stand out even more? It dwarfed every other dragon present, its wingspan easily half again longer than those of the rest. Above and swooping back from its head, it had a reddish-gold bone structure that looked like hair swept in the wind, flowing down its neck to merge with giant ridged scales jutting high from its spine.
It hovered over us and bellowed a cry at the other dragons. After that, it turned its head to look at me. Eyes deep as a pool of gold with a vertical slit of black like that of a cat stared back at me. I looked up, mesmerized for a moment as the beast hovered. It lowered itself to the ground, wings beating to keep it in place just over me. The creature's body neared, pushing me backward onto the ground, my eyes still locked on the beast's, my head craning to look at the head beyond mine. A moment later, the dragon took off and flew away. I pushed myself up to watch its flight. As it left, the other green beasts, scattered by the arrival of the larger dragon, vanished out of sight in the distance. The beautiful creature held my awe-struck gaze until it dove down, out of sight below the shell's edge.
Only then did my eyes fall back on the scene before me. The Seeker's mounts lay in ruins tossed about, and I saw no sign of their owners. My heart began to race as my eyes sought after signs of my other brother. Movement to one side drew my eyes and a sigh of relief as Donovan peeked out from behind another rock. I grinned and looked down at the outcropping where Maryn had hidden.
He was gone.
Chapter 9 - Into a Trap
Panic filled me as I climbed over the rock face, looking for signs of my brother. I called out his name and heard Donovan doing the same. It did no good. There was no sign of him. I collapsed to my knees and felt a numbness growing inside me, overwhelming the slicing wound laid bare by my mother and sister leaving. It spread, filling me with a sense of nothingness. I hugged my arms tight to me and rocked, a few tears still falling despite my numbness. What lay around me became distant.
Donovan appeared, standing before me, mouth moving. I closed my eyes, trying to block him out. Hands grabbed me and shook me. A voice filled my ears, angry, saying something. I squeezed my eyes closed, placing my hands over my ears, closing myself off.
A stab of pain ripped across my face, jarring me back to reality. My eyes shot open to see Donovan shaking his palm.
"Micaela, don't do this," he whispered.
I touched a hand to my smarting cheek.
"You hit me?"
He nodded. "You weren't listening to me."
"You...you hit me?"
"I slapped you. Sorry, I didn't know what else to do." He looked down at the ground, flexing his hand as he shook it. "You were...closing off."
I stared at my brother, my cheek tingling from where his hand had hit me.
"Maryn's gone."
He nodded and sighed. "Yes, taken."
"They've all been taken," I whispered, images of my mother, sister, and father joining Maryn's face in my mind.
"Well, good riddance to the Seekers."
I shook my head, but kept silent. Donovan didn't notice and kept talking.
"We can't stay here," he said, trying to pull me to a standing position. "They might come back. The mounts are useless and we don't know how to operate them anyway. We'll have to walk."
I resisted his tugging, though he spoke the truth. "Where do we go? They'll just keep looking for us."
"I don't know, but we can't stay here. Now, get up. You’re too heavy for me to carry." With that, he let go and moved toward the ruined mounts. "I'll look for some supplies, but we need to get moving."
I turned my head to watch him. "Where are we?"
"Somewhere east of the settlement. I climbed up to that ridge to get a look around." He ducked behind one mount and reemerged holding a water pack. "The water pipe's out of sight, so we're pretty far from home." He paused to look at me. "We're pretty far from everywhere."
His words carried an implication. I pondered them for a moment as he continued his searching. This far out, the only thing we'd find were raiders. I shook my head and pushed myself up. Raiders wouldn't attack a Seeker convoy. A wave of dizziness struck, forcing me to pause, my eyes closed until it passed. When I opened them, the scene before me reminded me of one crucial fact. This wasn't a Seeker convoy anymore.
I rushed to help Donovan gather what supplies we could carry. We stuffed them into travel sacks, wrapped our long scarves over our heads and bodies, and set off into the desert. At first, we marched south, directly toward the shell's end, the high mountains at our back. The plan was to turn west and make our way along the edge back to our settlement. From what we knew, raiders stayed far from the mountains to avoid Seeker patrols. While we wanted to avoid both, Seeker patrols were more coordinated and prevalent. We could go months and not see hide or tail of a raider. If we spent one day traveling between the outlying settlements and the mountains, we would see a Seeker patrol.
So, to the edge we went, thinking ourselves clever. Donovan kept a wary eye behind us, convinced more Seekers would come searching. We didn't travel in a straight line, cutting back and forth across the landscape as best we could. At times, Donovan's instincts seemed dead on. There were moments when it felt like unseen eyes stared at our backs, or a glimpse of a shadow on the edge of my vision drew my gaze. When I looked, nothing was there. After a while, the feelings went away. The day grew long. Gel nutrient packs from the Seekers’ mounts gave us ample food, but our water supply would become a problem. How long we had, it was hard to tell. Our minds were preoccupied with our possible pursuit as well as our missing brother. At least, mine was. The wound grew larger, more raw. Another part of me ripped away. As we walked, I found myself moving closer to Donovan, drinking up his presence. The only thing left to me. Yes, I was very distracted, and so was my brother.
So much so, we didn't realize we were walking right into a trap.
#
That night, as we rested near the edge, a slight ridge to our backs, a low running gully cutting down the edge side providing us some shelter from the wind, my mind drifted, lost in quiet thought. The initial shock of losing yet another family member had begun to wear off. It's not that I was okay with it happening. Still, part of me accepted it. This was becoming my lot in life. As I sat there staring at the sky, the realization bloomed that part of me expected it. Glancing at Donovan, I wondered when he would leave. Part of me panicked at the thought, but another part accepted it. It was going to happen. The only questions were how and when.
For his part, Donovan put on a good face, but underneath he was angry. He held his tongue, for once, but a storm boiled under the surface. As the night shield fell, he grew restless, pacing back and forth and grabbing rocks and flinging them toward the edge. This close, the night shield added an eerie effect to the air. Emanating from the citadel at the center of our shell, the shield gave us the illusion of night in a world of perpetual core-light. Here, the night screen dimmed the light, but I could still see the brightness from the core reaching up past the rocks that formed the end of our shell.
"Why did you leave Mother's necklace on that pile of rocks?" Donovan asked, his voice cutting through the silent night air.
I looked up, a bit confused. "I don't know. It seemed the right thing to do."
He stood, a rock in hand, eyes on the vast sky before us. "We found it. On on
e of our little excursions. Maryn thought he'd found some lost treasure. You'd have enjoyed the story he made up to explain how it got there." He dropped the rock and turned to look at me. "He wouldn't let me leave it." Something hung from his other hand, dangling in the night winds. "I made him give it to me for safe-keeping. I managed to distract him enough the rest of the day that he didn't tell you." He looked away, shifting back and forth on his feet.
"I miss her," I whispered. Donovan nodded. "Keep it."
He looked back at me, eyebrows raised. "I know how important it is to you. That's why I found it odd you'd leave it there."
I shifted, tucking my legs against my chest and staring out into the night sky. "You need it more than I do."
He sighed and tucked the necklace back into his pocket. He grabbed the rock he had dropped and flung it toward the edge. We remained silent after that, memories keeping me company. I didn't want to be silent, but at that moment words felt like they would just make me lose it. I cursed the Seekers, the Central Dominance, and my father for his water project. Myself for continuing it. Why hadn't I just left it alone? They might never have come looking for us. Maryn might still be with us. Had Father just let it be, he might never have been arrested. I buried my face in my arms and began to weep.
Donovan kept grabbing his rocks, flinging them as far as he could. I could hear the anger as he grunted with each throw. It matched the sorrow filling me inside. After several moments, I heard him begin to mutter things.
“What?” I asked when he exclaimed something mid-throw.
“We have to do something!” he hissed, rounding on me. “I’m tired of running. I’m tired of being chased or arrested. I’m tired of being lost out here in this forsaken wasteland we call home when our family is in the hands of those mongrels.”
“What do you expect us to do?” I asked, waving a hand around me. “Especially out here.”
“You should have been helping me look for them,” he said, reaching down to grab another rock. “With your help, I might have found something.”
Rise: Tears (Future Worlds Book 1) Page 8