“Light and fast,” said Ed Regis. “Dump the rifles and packs.”
We did. Ed Regis transferred the remaining food and water into his own backpack, which he kept. The rest of us now had nothing but our tattered clothes and a few pistols between us.
“Three days, right?” Ed Regis said to Alia. “We can still make it.”
Up we went, using the terrain for cover, occasionally having to dash or crawl between the rock formations as more bullets greeted us from below. Fortunately, we were already so close to the top of the slope that, within only a few minutes, the Angels no longer had line of sight on us.
I was bringing up the rear with Ed Regis so I didn’t immediately see what caused Terry to swear as loudly as she did the next moment. Anxiously making my way around the rock that was blocking my view, I saw the cause of her frustration.
The descending slope was so steep that it could hardly be called a slope at all.
“This is a cliff!” shouted James. “You led us onto a goddamn cliff!”
“Shut up, James!” Terry and I shouted in unison.
James looked like he had been slapped. I felt a bit sorry for him, being thrown into this horrid mess on only his second mission. He was much like I had been: unstable and panicky. But we didn’t have the time to nurse him through it.
“There’s got to be a way down,” I said, looking down over the edge. But there wasn’t. Not without the ropes and gear we had just dumped.
“Nothing for it,” said Terry. “We’ll just have to keep going.”
She meant keep going north along the edge of the cliff, which ran all the way to the next mountain peak where the slope was gentle enough to descend without dying. Until we got there, however, we would be easy targets.
It wasn’t much more than half a mile, though, and I hoped we might make it before the Seraphim behind us reached the top and re-established line of sight. Our path between the two peaks quickly turned into a knife’s edge, with dizzying drop-offs on both sides. We jogged forward as fast as we dared, single file, Terry first, followed by James, Alia, then me, and Ed Regis last. To our rear left, I could see the mountainside where we had ambushed the Seraphim. Fortunately, the curvature of the mountain kept us out of view from the Angels who were no doubt scrambling up the slope, and the jagged mountainsides were so steep here that our pursuit would have no choice but to follow our roundabout route.
A rifle shot rang out behind us. We stopped and turned, wondering how the Angels could have already reached the top of the slope. But there were no Seraphim yet to be seen on the path behind us.
“Look!” shouted James, and he didn’t have to point for us to know what he was talking about.
One Seraph, a flight-capable telekinetic, was hovering high up above the spot where I had shot their leader. The telekinetic was holding a bulky scoped rifle in his hands.
“So they did have a flyer,” muttered Ed Regis.
The Angel telekinetic was smarter than me so he wasn’t about to rush at us without the rest of this team. But there was nothing we could do to keep him from sniping us from the air. Praying not to catch any bullets in our rears, we kept going as fast as we could.
Fortunately, it takes an extraordinary amount of psionic focus to levitate yourself and a big metal rifle at the same time, and the telekinetic wasn’t finding it easy. He fired several more rounds, but none of the bullets landed close enough for us to even hear the ricochets.
I was certain that it was only a matter of seconds now before the telekinetic ran out of psionic energy and would have to give up and land, but then Ed Regis suddenly let out a surprised yelp behind me. A lucky bullet had hit Ed Regis’s backpack, and in his surprise, Ed Regis had lost his footing. Turning around, I tried to grab him, both with my hands and telekinetically, but it was too sudden. Ed Regis toppled over the edge and slid down the near-cliff more than thirty yards before coming to a stop on a little ledge. If he had fallen over that ledge, it was another one hundred yards or more, but this time really straight down.
“Ed Regis!” I called down.
He didn’t reply, but he seemed to be moving a little.
I glanced back up toward the Angel telekinetic, but he had already dropped out of view. Most likely he’d need a good long rest before he flew again.
Terry wasn’t taking any chances, though. “Come on!” she shouted, leading us forward several more yards to one of the few rock formations on the narrow edge that we could use for cover.
“Ed Regis!” I shouted again, and Alia joined me, cupping her hands around her mouth and shouting, “Ed! Are you okay?!”
Ed Regis finally turned his head and looked up at us. “I’m alright!” he shouted. “Get moving!”
“He’s not alright!” I said angrily. “He’s got nowhere to go. The Angels will shoot him as soon as they get up here.”
“We can’t get down to him,” Terry logically pointed out.
“I can,” I said through clenched teeth, all the more furious because it was true. If I didn’t, it would mean I had deliberately refused to, and that wasn’t about to happen.
I turned to my sister and said quickly, “Alia, you’re the leader now. You get Terry and James to the Historian for me. If we both survive this, I’ll see you there.”
Alia shook her head. “No, Addy! You can’t go!”
“He saved my life and yours,” I said, putting my hands on her shoulders. “I’m not leaving him.”
Alia gave me an anguished look. I knew what she was going through because I was going through it myself. “I know you’re scared,” I said gently, “but you wouldn’t leave him to die, either. You know you wouldn’t.”
Alia grabbed my right arm. She looked like she was about to say something, but then she just nodded acceptingly.
“You’re an idiot, Adrian!” spat Terry. “You’d do this for a Wolf? For that Wolf?!”
I nodded. “Yes, Terry. For that Wolf. Take care of Alia for me.”
Without waiting for a reply, I jumped over the edge, using my telekinesis to slow my descent only when I was almost at the ledge. I had to carefully save my strength for what I was about to do next.
Landing lightly beside Ed Regis, I asked, “Are you injured?”
“No,” groaned Ed Regis.
“No broken legs or anything?” I asked. “That was a hell of a fall.”
“What are you doing down here, Adrian?”
I scowled at him. “What goes around comes around.”
“You can’t lift me and yourself back up this slope,” said Ed Regis.
“There’s no going back up,” I agreed. “But there’s always down.”
Now that I was down here standing on the edge of the cliff, I wasn’t at all sure I really could save this man. Despite his months in Angel captivity and all this time rationing our limited food supplies on the mountain, Ed Regis was a big and muscular man, and I suspected that he weighed as much as Terry and Alia combined.
“Just hang on to me,” I said. “We’ll jump together. I’ll get you down safely.”
Ed Regis caught the uncertainty in my voice. “Have you ever done this before?”
I looked at him for a moment, wondering if he preferred the truth or a lie, especially considering the good chance that we were both about to break our necks on the rocks below.
“Not successfully,” I answered honestly. “Throw your backpack over the side. Your boots, guns, belt and jacket too.”
Ed Regis did as I requested, and I also threw everything metal I had on me over the ledge.
Once we were as light as we could be, I took two deep breaths and said to Ed Regis, “Alright, arms around my neck. Time to fly.”
Ed Regis looked at me, suddenly afraid. He shook his head and said, “You don’t have to do this for me, Adrian. It’s okay. Just go.”
I punched him in the face. Not a nose-breaking punch, but hard enough to knock him back to his senses. Grabbing the front of his shirt, I hollered, “I am not going to let you die here, so
ldier! Put that in your goddamn database!”
Chapter 16: Those Without Reason
Like the last time, it was more a controlled crash than a controlled descent, but when my ears stopped ringing and I staggered to my feet, I discovered that we had both survived the fall. It was hard to feel happy about this. Though I wasn’t bleeding, I felt horribly drained and weak, my head spinning, and I could barely limp the few steps I needed to gather my scattered gear. I had hit the ground sideways, and my whole left side felt like it had been pierced by thousands of knives.
Ed Regis wasn’t much better off but he helped me put my boots back on and, shouldering his backpack, grinned down at me. “That was one hell of a fall.”
“We’re alive, aren’t we?” I mumbled weakly.
“Let’s keep it that way. Come on, up you get, Sir Knight.”
“Please don’t call me that,” I said as Ed Regis helped me to my feet.
The slope that stretched downwards from the bottom of the cliff was still pretty steep, but we didn’t have time to be careful. The Angels would soon be able to spot us from above, and I couldn’t put it past their flying telekinetic to chase us down if he saw that there were only two of us. Ed Regis was limping slightly too, but he helped me along until I recovered enough strength to keep up on my own. We somehow made it down the slope without falling or hearing any more gunshots from behind.
We knew that Alia’s team should have descended somewhere to our north, but the terrain was exceptionally rough in that direction so we decided to continue toward the Historian rather than attempt to regroup with them.
“If we’re really lucky, their finder is dead,” said Ed Regis.
“What difference does it make?” I said, pulling along my deadened left leg as quickly as I could. “I’m sure there are destroyers who can sense me.”
“True,” said Ed Regis, “but what are the chances of them having a healer who could track your sister?”
The chance was small, but not comfortingly small. The Seraph leader had probably split up his team suspecting an ambush, and, in doing so, he would have left any healer he had behind. Besides, a telepath, if they had one, could track Alia just as easily as any finder or healer. Still, that was Terry’s problem now. Mine was getting Ed Regis and myself to the Historian.
Despite having only two uninjured legs between us, we made fairly good time and didn’t stop for the night. The moon was the thinnest sliver possible without being gone altogether, but the sky was cloudless and the starlight seemed just a little brighter than usual. We had several dangerous slips and falls in the darkness, but since there was hardly a place on my body that didn’t already hurt, a few extra bumps and bruises couldn’t make much difference to me anymore.
Whenever I could, I used my telekinetic power to augment the strength in my left leg, which, along with my left arm and side, had turned deep purple and throbbed with every step. Ed Regis had to rely solely on his own tired muscles, but whatever pain he was in, he kept it to himself. As we pushed ourselves forward one mind-numbing step at a time, I felt as if we were daring each other to be the first to give in and ask for a rest. I kept my mouth shut.
It was only well after dawn of the next day that our strength finally gave in and we rested several hours. Ed Regis offered to take the first watch, but when I woke in the early afternoon, he was fast asleep.
We ate one last meal, and then Ed Regis dumped everything but the last of our water, putting the remaining two small bottles into his jacket pockets. It looked like even the mighty Wolf had finally reached the end of his endurance. Even without his backpack, Ed Regis’s pace didn’t improve much, for which I was grateful since I was still struggling to keep up.
Near nightfall of that day, we stumbled upon a small crack in the mountainside. The cave was only a few yards deep, and Ed Regis and I debated the merits of staying there for the night. If the Angels found us, the narrow opening would nullify their advantage in numbers, giving us a fighting chance. On the other hand, we would be trapped inside and they could just wait us out.
“Being underground would hide my power a little,” I suggested. “They’ll have more trouble pinpointing us.”
We carefully dragged ourselves in through the crack.
It was pitch-black inside until Ed Regis turned on a little flashlight that was designed to be mounted under the barrel of one of his pistols. The white light illuminated the rough walls and low ceiling of this claustrophobically tiny space, which was even smaller than the two-man tent we once used. We couldn’t even sit up properly in here, but at least the cave was dry and had a moderately flat floor.
We both groaned in pain as we stretched our stiff bodies on the hard, dusty ground, lying face up, side by side, with our heads toward the cave’s entrance. Once we were settled, Ed Regis turned off his light, leaving us in total darkness.
“How much farther is it?” asked Ed Regis.
“We’re making good progress,” I replied. “Just not in the right direction.”
As always, we weren’t traveling in a straight line to the Historian’s mountain, and today’s hike had taken an especially long detour around yet another un-climbable peak.
“How much farther?” pressed Ed Regis.
“Two days,” I said. “Two days in a straight line.”
“You could have flown there by now.”
“I can’t fly more than a few minutes at a time.”
“You know what I mean, Adrian.”
By taking frequent breaks to recharge my strength, alone, I could have easily crossed more difficult terrain. But that wasn’t an option in my mind. “We’re going together or not at all, Ed Regis.”
“You already saved my life on the cliff,” said Ed Regis. “You don’t owe me.”
“I do owe you,” I said firmly. “Your life isn’t saved till I get you to the Historian.”
I didn’t want to argue that point any further, and by Ed Regis’s silence, I assumed that he understood.
Technically, I could hardly claim to have saved his life (or my own for that matter) simply by getting us to the Historian alive. We had no gifts to trade for information, and even if the Historian did answer our questions, it would be another mad run against the Angels to get back to civilization. Unless we could replenish our supplies and get some proper gear and weapons, our chances of returning alive were next to nil. Right now, however, the mission was simply to get to the Historian. After that, what was unknown couldn’t be helped, and I hadn’t the strength left to worry about it.
I realized that I was so dead tired, my nerves so stretched, that there was no way I could simply close my eyes and fall asleep.
Ed Regis seemed to be in the same situation. “I’ll take first watch,” he said.
I asked playfully, “Like you did this morning?”
Ed Regis laughed embarrassedly. “Sorry about that, Adrian. So much for professionalism, huh? I’m okay now.”
“Actually, I’m not that sleepy right now either.”
“Still, one of us should sleep,” said Ed Regis.
“Let me have that light again,” I said, pulling myself up slightly and resting on my elbows.
Ed Regis held the light for me as I pulled off my belt and stuffed the buckle under my shirt.
Watching me, Ed Regis asked, “What are you doing?”
“A little trick I learned from the Slayers,” I said as I lay back down, feeling extra dizzy from the draining. “This will make it harder for the Angels to find me.”
“Doesn’t that mean you won’t be able to get a good rest?”
I scoffed. “We’re hiding under a rock in the middle of nowhere with nothing to eat and hunted by Seraphim who might catch up with us in the middle of the night and throw a grenade in here. What makes you think I’m about to get a good rest either which way?”
“You’ve got a point there,” laughed Ed Regis. “Still, it must be pretty uncomfortable to remain drained for so long. Especially when you’re injured.”
&
nbsp; “Don’t worry about me, Ed Regis,” I insisted. “I can deal with it.”
“I know you can,” Ed Regis said quietly. Then he shook his head slowly, looking at me in wonder as he said, “You know, even when we first met, years ago, I really was very impressed with you. It took a while before I realized that I wasn’t dealing with some dumb little kid that I could scare into submission.”
“Which is why you threatened to kill Alia,” I reminded him.
“Yes, but we would never have actually done it.”
“I know that,” I said with a grimace. “I really kicked myself for believing you.” Then I smiled and added, “But you never got Cindy.”
Ed Regis smiled too. “No, we didn’t.”
Ed Regis turned the light off again, and I whispered into the darkness, “It all seems so long ago. If someone had told me when I was twelve years old that soon I’d be flying and getting shot at and killing people and traveling around the world to meet a 3000-year-old man, I would have wondered what drug he was on.”
I heard Ed Regis chuckle. “I wouldn’t have believed it either if someone had told me last year that I’d be joining a team of Guardians to seek out the greatest psionic in all history.”
“What’s so great about psionics, anyway?” I muttered.
“You tell me,” said Ed Regis. “You’re the one who can fly and use your fingers like guns.”
“So what?”
“That doesn’t register as being special in any way?”
Ed Regis couldn’t understand because he wasn’t psionic. “Not really,” I said. “I mean, what’s it all good for anyway? My power never saved my life or anyone else’s. At least, my life would never have needed saving if I weren’t psionic. They call me a destroyer, but a bullet from a gun is far better than anything I could shoot from my hands. My powers didn’t help us in that ambush. What good is being telekinetic aside from being able to jump out of an airplane without a parachute?”
The Quest (Psionic Pentalogy Book 4) Page 29