She shook her head at him, catching her breath. “Are you going to complain about the train thing again? I’ve only pushed you off of moving trains twice. It’s not like I do it all the time.”
“That’s true. I should count my blessings.”
“And don’t fall.”
They started walking up the latest slope as darkness deepened about them, stars beginning to appear overhead. The heights on either side loomed like the walls of silent fortresses. Their feet kept slipping as the treacherous footing of small rocks and other detritus slid beneath nearly every step.
Both of them stumbled to a halt as they reached a ridge that marked the crest of the slope, night shrouding the areas behind and before them. Kira stood unsteadily, her legs two pillars of agony, feeling dizzy from exertion as cold winds buffeted her and Jason. “Wait here,” she gasped.
Kira staggered forward, looking around. On the other side of the crest the land dipped down slightly before climbing a little, forming a small saddle at the top, and then dropping down. Higher peaks rose on either side of the saddle, their tops vaguely visible against the stars, the land between littered with rocks of various sizes which had fallen from above.
Kira forced her reluctant legs to carry her to the other side of the saddle. She looked down a slope that seemed slightly less steep than the one they’d climbed but much shorter. Though it was hard to tell in the dark, the slope seemed to end fairly quickly in another upward rise of land to the north and east and another peak to the west. The areas she could make out were covered with loose patches of soil and gravel, small, stunted plants, and occasional larger boulders.
She stumbled back to where Jason was sitting. He’d come off the crest and down into the saddle a little ways, propping himself against a stone the size of a carriage that offered some protection from the wind. Kira fell down near him, wishing the fire in her legs would go away. “The other side looks a little treacherous. I don’t think we should tackle the next stretch for a while.”
“Kira,” Jason replied in a voice slack with fatigue, “it doesn’t matter how rough the terrain is. If we don’t rest we’ll collapse. We have to take a break. A long break.”
Despite wanting to deny that, Kira knew the truth of it. She could feel the truth in her rubbery, pain-filled legs, and in the raw feel of her throat as she tried to pull in deep breaths of air that had grown thinner and drier as they climbed. The wind gusted, bringing a renewed sense of chill.
Kira got to her hands and knees, crawled close to Jason, and pressed herself next to him, grateful for the warmth and the sense of safety he offered. “Okay. We’ll rest.”
“I love it when you say okay.”
“Sure. Whatever. We’ll rest and maybe sleep for just a little while. Who gets the first watch?”
“I’ll take it,” Jason answered immediately.
She wanted to argue, but she was incredibly tired. Kira forced herself to get out the bottle she was carrying and drank half the water in it. She had been snacking on the small remaining pieces of hardtack throughout the day, holding them in her mouth to soften as they climbed. Only crumbs were left in her pockets. Her belly complained of the emptiness, loudly enough for Jason to hear.
“Take this,” he said, offering her a small piece of hardtack.
“You need it,” Kira said.
He laboriously laid the hardtack on a flat rock next to him, using his knife blade to split it. “Here,” Jason told her, giving her the bigger piece, which was about as long and wide as her thumb. “I made dinner.”
“I’ll do the dishes,” Kira said, picking up a crumb from the rock. She put the hardtack into a pocket to serve as breakfast. “I love you. Wake me in a little while,” she ordered before surrendering to exhaustion.
* * *
She woke up to the noise of something scurrying along the rock they were leaning against. Whatever it was ran off to the north to the fading sound of little paws. Kira blinked up at the stars, guessing that it was well after midnight. Jason had passed out, too, sleeping with the slack jaw and slow breathing of exhaustion. Despite knowing how dangerous it had been for both of them to be asleep, Kira didn’t feel any anger toward him. It was amazing that he had been able to stay awake at all for any longer than she did.
Shivering with cold, she snuggled closer to Jason, trying to stay alert. How long could they keep going like they had yesterday? Without any more food than the two fragments of hardtack they still had? Over terrain that still seemed to be all uphill, just as Jason had pointed out?
And, most importantly, how much longer could they rest here? She and Jason both needed more sleep, and this terrain was nothing to tackle in the dark, but the Imperials surely hadn’t given up their pursuit. Worse, the wind was moaning through the mountains loudly enough that she couldn't be sure of hearing them approach.
Kira reluctantly woke Jason. “We shouldn't have stayed here so long. We need to find a better place to rest where we’re not so exposed.”
“Right,” Jason mumbled, taking a drink of water and popping his last piece of hardtack into his mouth. “Can I finish breakfast first?”
“Sure. I need to take care of some business, anyway, before we start walking again. You do yours, too. I’ve got dibs on the backside of this boulder.”
Kira struggled to her feet, cold and stiff, wincing at the pain in her legs as overstressed muscles protested working again so soon. The first steps were agony, but her muscles started loosening a little as she went behind the rock.
Yawning, Kira headed back toward Jason. He was just coming out from behind a second large rock, moving as if every step hurt. She winced again, this time in sympathy for how hard it was for Jason to move. “You’re amazing,” Kira said in a whisper.
She came close and kissed him, something causing her to remember her mother’s advice and kiss with her eyes open. It felt weird, but also sort of interesting, to be looking partly past Jason as their lips met.
Which was why she saw the Imperial with a rifle in his hands struggling over the crest only a few lances away from them.
Kira used one hand to shove Jason aside while her other hand went for her pistol, drawing it as her thumb clicked off the safety. Jason, surprised, swung to one side, drawing his knife as she leveled her weapon at the Imperial.
The sound of the shot echoed deafeningly from the rock walls around them, shattering the silence. Her bullet caught the Imperial in the chest. He fell back at the impact, tumbling into another Imperial who had been close behind and knocking her down as well.
Kira spotted the head of another Imperial rising over the crest, a rifle barrel swinging their way, and snapped a shot at him. As the Imperial ducked, Jason grabbed her. “There might be a hundred just out of sight! Run!”
She nodded and ran with him, hearing a babble of shouts from the Imperials who were out of sight below the crest, commands being called and warnings being passed and at least one demand that she give up. Kira felt an inner chill that matched the outer cold as she heard the words “kill the boy” among the commands.
It was amazing how their tiredness and stiff muscles were forgotten as she and Jason took off, racing down across the saddle and up the other side. Kira risked a glance back and saw the dark silhouettes of easily a dozen Imperials over the top of the slope, some of them pausing to aim rifles. She and Jason went over the north side of the saddle and down the slope on the other side as rifles barked behind them, the sounds of the shots echoing and reechoing from the heights as if a war had broken out, the crack of the bullets passing close overhead lending speed to her feet.
Despite the darkness, they took the slope recklessly, sliding and slipping on loose patches, dodging among the larger rocks. Kira had to shift her view from the immediate area ahead to the bottom of the slope in order to figure out where to go next. Even at night, trying to climb the rising terrain to the east would be suicide with rifle-carrying Imperials on the top of the ridge behind them. Up ahead the slope ended in a welter o
f fallen rock that lay at the base of a mountain whose side offered no cover. But to the west the peak that rose on that side still blocked them.
She was about to despair when a patch of darker shadow grew into the mouth of a small canyon to the west of them, as if a giant had dug a trench in the side of the mountain with an immense sword. Kira jerked Jason to the left.
He followed without hesitating as more shots rang out and bullets whined as they ricocheted from boulders. “Get in front of me!” Kira yelled, shoving Jason before her so that she was between him and the rifles. The fire from the Imperials faltered for only a moment, then resumed. With the echoes crashing continually around them, Kira had no idea how many rifles were firing, but it sounded like more and more every moment.
Darting between boulders and trying not to slip on patches of gravel, Kira followed Jason into the canyon, where more rocks littered its bottom and a deeper darkness fought against the radiance of the stars above them. “Watch your step!” Jason yelled as he swerved. “Hole!” Jason swerved again. “Another hole!”
Kira narrowly missed planting her foot in one of the holes as she followed him through the canyon whose sides were getting lower. The gully curved slightly, then ended in an abrupt, steep slope that fortunately wasn’t very high. Kira took it at a run even though every breath of the chill mountain air was burning in her lungs, Jason even with her again, each helping the other whenever they started to slip.
They rolled over the top of that slope, taking a moment to lie there and stare back the way they’d come, gasping for breath. Kira still had her pistol in one hand, while Jason gripped the survival knife from the boat. With the sound of the rifle shots having ceased, Kira tried to listen for the Imperials over the sound of her own labored breathing.
“Those guys looked too worn out to have chased us very fast,” Jason got out between breaths.
“We have to keep moving,” Kira told him.
“They shot at you,” he said as they got to their feet again.
“Yeah,” Kira admitted. “Maybe they’re hoping to wound me enough to stop me but not kill me.”
“Or maybe Prince Maxim has decided that if he can’t have control of you to stop your mother, killing you will at least get you out of the picture.”
“Maybe,” Kira said. “From now on, we’ll have to assume we’re both targets.”
“So you don’t put yourself between me and Imperial rifles again,” Jason said, giving her a look that said he wouldn’t give in on this one.
“All right.” She looked around. “That way. Which is downhill.”
“It looks uphill to me,” Jason grumbled.
Kira led Jason along another, higher but still narrow cleft, this one almost choked with rocks and boulders. Rounding a boulder big enough to have hidden their sailboat, Kira saw a long, shallow channel leading down and toward their right. No longer worrying about compass directions, but only at putting distance between them and the Imperials, she took it, her feet sliding on the small loose rocks covering the slope. Jason cursed as he fell but came up again quickly, waving her onward.
The channel split, one side dropping fast down the side of a mountain and the other curving slightly upward. As Kira hesitated Jason tugged her in his direction and she yielded as they ran up a short stretch that gave way to a deeper cleft beyond. Jason led the way as they slid down the near side of the cleft, then climbed up the other side. This time Kira chose the path, pointing back east where a narrow pass cut between a pair of cliffs. They scrambled up the scree-covered slope to the pass, then between the cliffs, finally sliding to a halt.
Exhausted, Kira and Jason leaned against the near-vertical wall of rock at their backs and against each other, breathing hard.
It was at least several minutes before either could speak. “No way they followed us through that,” Jason wheezed.
“There are a lot of them,” Kira gasped in reply. “They can split up to search every route and still badly outnumber us. But it’s going to take them a while, because I don’t think they’re as motivated to catch us as we were to run.”
She realized she was still holding her pistol. Resetting the safety, she reloaded to top off her magazine and holstered it.
“Was it your Aunt Bev or your Aunt Alli who told you to reload at the first chance?” Jason asked, staring out at the tortured terrain about them.
“Aunt Alli.” Kira paused. “And Aunt Bev. And Mother. And Uncle Calu. And Queen Sien.”
“You have the coolest aunts and uncles.” Jason managed a grin. “I have one aunt, but she volunteered for the research habitat just outside the Oort Cloud, so I never heard much from her. My dad always claimed it was so she could get away from my mom. That may be the only thing he ever told me that was true.”
“What’s the Oort Cloud?”
“It’s this huge mass of rocks and ice and stuff a long ways from the sun. My aunt’s research station was about seven and a half light hours from Earth.” Jason pointed at the starlit sky. “Your star has an Oort Cloud, too. You just can’t see any of it because it’s too far from your star and too cold.”
“Does it matter?” Kira asked.
“Depends what you’re talking about,” he said. “Does it have any effect on you? Only in terms of the impact that mass has on the structure of local space-time. Long term, like life-of-the-universe long term, it adds up. Umm…speaking of life, you saved mine back there, didn’t you? Shooting that guy?”
“We’re not keeping score, Jason,” she reminded him. “You saved mine by breaking my focus on shooting and telling me to run! It’s a good thing I kept my eyes open while I was kissing you.”
“You had your eyes open?” Jason stared at her. “Have you always done that?”
“No! You heard my mother's advice back in Tiaesun. You were there!”
“Yeah, but…”
“Because she said it could save your life,” Kira reminded him. “And it did, didn’t it?”
He nodded, then gave her a sidelong look. “What was it like?”
She shrugged. “Different.”
“What else has your mother told you about that kind of thing?”
This time Kira smiled knowingly at Jason. “If you’re really lucky, someday you might find out.” She smothered a laugh. “Did I say that without looking like an idiot? Because I was trying not to laugh.”
“I don’t know. My mind just kind of blanked out when I realized what you were saying.” He half smiled at her. “When I first got to Alli and Calu’s place, it was pretty clear they were worried about what I might have done with you while we were off alone together. I was like, she said she’d hurt me if I touched her and that was all there was to it. Except when she kissed me.”
“And when you caught me to keep me from going overboard in that storm. Which you never mention to anybody.”
“I just don’t want to seem like I'm bragging or something.” His smile went away, replaced by an earnest look. “Alli and Calu have been so great to me. I wonder how I’d have turned out if I’d had them as parents?”
“You’d still be Jason,” Kira said. “And I might have grown up thinking of you as a big brother like I did with Gari. In which case I would not be kissing you.” She looked up, seeing the edges of the peaks to the east growing sharper as the sky began brightening behind them.
Jason laughed. “What light through yonder mountains breaks? It is the east, and Kira is the sun.”
She shoved him back into motion. “You’re obviously not too tired to make weird statements, so let’s start moving again. I have no idea which direction we went while running.”
“We took the easiest paths,” Jason said, then paused. “We took the easiest paths,” he repeated, sudden worry on his face.
“Oh, yeah, we did.” Kira grimaced. “That is so obvious a trail. We’ll need to take a route that follows some of the tougher options.” Jason groaned. “I’m sorry. But you know I’m right.”
“I’m the one who pointed it out,” h
e reminded her. “Which I’m kind of regretting at the moment.”
“I'm not. You think of things I don't. But maybe I can help you feel better. We didn’t finish that morning kiss,” Kira told him, leaning in to do that.
And keeping her eyes open again.
* * *
A narrow canyon framed by two heights, its bottom littered with rocks, offered the only reasonable way onward from where they had ended up. Kira and Jason walked through it, trying to keep to a pace they could maintain for a while. As Kira neared the end of the canyon, she looked ahead and almost missed the stone that turned under her foot.
She caught herself against the nearest large rock, angry at her own carelessness, and at the mountains, and at the Imperials chasing her. “I am so tired of every—” Kira growled, using a string of obscenities she had learned while a sailor on The Son of Taris.
“I haven’t heard some of those words for a while,” Jason said. “Are you okay?”
“I think so. But I almost turned my ankle. We’d be dead if that happened, Jason.” Kira cautiously pushed herself to her feet. “I’m all right. You know, I did accidentally use one of those words around Mother a couple of months ago. She gave me this clinical and detailed description of what it meant and I’ve never been tempted to use another in her presence. There are some things that you do not want to know your mother knows about.”
“Maybe some of those guys chasing us will turn their ankles,” Jason said as they moved on to the end of the canyon. “They have got to be totally worn out. They must have climbed through most of the night to catch up with us.”
“From what I’ve heard of Imperial military discipline, I should have expected them to keep going,” Kira said. “I shouldn’t have let us stop for so long.”
“We had to rest, Kira. I think we both passed out. Sorry. And if we’d gone on in the dark you or I probably would have sprained an ankle at some point. Or broken a leg.”
She paused, grimacing. “Yeah. Moving in the dark is too dangerous. Not nearly as dangerous as running through the dark while the Imperials shoot at us, but still bad. Wherever we stop tonight, it needs to be a place off any possible path, somewhere where even if they catch up, they won’t spot us.”
Blood of Dragons Page 19