Several of the men shot at them with their bullet guns, but the bullets didn’t even penetrate their shells.
Something to think about for later, Neira thought. For now, she and her team needed to get the Han’s men off the mountain. She tapped her right ear. “Wa-sna-win, come in.”
A brief moment later, the communication specialists easy voice came back. “Neira. Location.”
“The bay with the crabs. Call Rose off.”
An explosion filled the sky and fiery pieces of plane rained down on them.
Wa-sna-win didn’t immediately answer. She came back. “Orders issued. She’ll be close in case you need her.”
The planes buzzed low one more time. An explosion sounded to Neira’s right. The earth vibrated. Woodchips and broken branches flew at her.
“Both land eaters have been taken care of,” Wa-sna-win said brightly. “They’re all yours, akcit.”
Neira glanced at her team of warriors, at least the few she could actually see. Meeting Skah’s gaze, she nodded once. “Have at them.”
Skah twisted her lips into a smile, her blue eyes flat of emotion, and moved forward, her bow drawn.
I had found Jabr badly wounded, but still alive.
Mesi hadn’t been so lucky.
My heart clenched. Haji and Mesi had been the best of friends ever since they were little. I recalled being jealous of the girl more than once growing up. They had a type of bond I’d never have with him, and though we hadn’t spoken in years, I hated to see her blood drenched face and her limp body inside the crushed remains of her skitter unit.
Sounds of war drifted further away. Or lessened. I couldn’t quite tell. My search for my best friend grew more frantic as the yellow sun, Kala, rose higher in the sky, claiming dominance over Kel’mar, the great red planet that usually reigned. The storm was now nothing more than a muggy reminder that it had rained.
A boulder I severed in half shifted before I’d had a chance to move it out of the way myself.
My heart racing, I rushed over along with Jabr and Fahd. We worked to move the rubble, careful of where we stepped, not knowing if perhaps were standing directly on top of Haji.
Finally, a rear leg appeared, moving on its own.
Releasing a breath of hopeful relief, I worked my way forward, the smell of gunpowder and singed rock assaulting my nose.
The skitter unit’s head rose, clearing the rocked. The head reared back, then slumped forward, the chest plate opening as far as the rocks would allow.
Fahd gestured to Briac to bring his plow over.
Bracing the wide legs, Briac put his mechanical hands against the boulder and pulled, his four feet sliding up the mountain.
I moved to walk behind it as I couldn’t go the other way for fear of walking over my friend.
The boulder shifted.
I leapt out of the way.
It paused, then rolled down the mountain, cluttering and clanging as it broke into several pieces on its way down.
Haji opened the chest piece and stepped out, the front legs of his unit still buried in rock. He took in a great gulping breath of air, his dust laden eyes closed.
I gave him a brief inspection, saw no great amount of blood, and clasped him in a tight hug.
After a moment, his arms rose, his grip tightening as he continued to breathe.
I stepped back. “Are you all right?”
He opened his mouth to say something.
Wa-sna-win’s voice penetrated my right ear. “El’Asim, the Han are retreating.”
My eyebrows rose. “You’re joking.”
“No, sir. I am not. They are fleeing. Leader Neira says it is time to regroup.”
I lifted one corner of my gaping mouth and stared at my best friend in staggering disbelief.
“It is over?” he asked.
I grinned, fully immersing myself in the fact that we had won. This was a real battle and we had won. “Yes.”
His shoulders sagged. “Good.” He clasped my shoulder. “Then, let us gather our wounded and regroup.”
Vlerooon Bay: Neira
NEIRA SCALED THE CLIFF FACE, Shah by her side. Up close, the cliff wasn’t nearly as sheer as it appeared to be from farther away. Footholds and ledges littered the surface, making it passable.
Her foot slipped, sending a shower of dirt cascading downward. Neira had released the rest of her people to chase after their retreating enemy. There was no sense in facing them later when they’d bested them this day. End as many as they could. That’s what she said.
Her feet found the ledge leading toward the people of Tunnel Mountain. Or Peacock Rock. Whatever they wanted to called it. The island belonged to Garrett now. He could call it whatever he wanted, she supposed.
A tall, wiry man walked up to her, treading the ledge with ease. Flaps of his leather and silk clothes flapped in the wind crashing into them. He stood out stark from the dark rock face. Pale clothes. Pale skin. Pale hair. He raised a hand, a wary smile on his face. “Leader Neira,” he hailed, his voice powerful to overcome the sound of the crashing waves.
Neira kept her arm and shoulder to the cliff wall as she went to meet him. Nothing protected her from the fall over the side. At least while scaling the cliff face, she’d had her hands and toes digging in to keep her from tumbling into the tossed sea several feet below. “I do not have your name.”
His smile slid into pained embarrassment. “No. I did see you when you were last here. I’m Fitz.”
She bowed her head in acknowledgement and glanced over the ledge’s edge once more. “Crabs.”
He flattened his lips and nodded tightly. “They seemed like a good idea at the time.”
She watched the people who had been stranded on this cliff face enter the mountain through the single opening. They appeared relieved, but were not cheered. “I saw them taking your people away.”
He shrugged and turned toward the single opening into the mountain. “We’ll get them back. We know where the crabs nest. Most of our people will be alive when we go to retrieve them.”
Many called her a harsh leader. Few understood the harshness handed to people of the land. “I need to see Garrett. Do you know where he is?”
Fitz nodded. “Of course.”
Neira and Skah followed him along the ledge and then slowed their pace as they waited for the people in front of them still trailing slowly inside the mountain.
Fitz smiled apologetically over his shoulder.
She waved him off prepared to wait. She ran over the information she’d gathered from their excursion. This attack had been well thought out. The Han had attacked Rose Cavern, somehow knowing that was their most vulnerable location.
Or did he? Perhaps the Han was nothing more than lucky.
The Han did not rely on luck. No. He’d placed his lone drilling unit at Rose Cavern because he’d known where to place it. Which meant he had insider information, but who?
Perhaps, it didn’t matter who.
The nanites.
The programmer.
It had said they could control humans through their Marks.
Neira swallowed and rubbed the Mark hiding under her arm guard. It could be anyone.
Clearing the entrance to the tunnels, she stepped over the legs of a child who hadn’t made it. He was wrapped in the arms of his mother. A mother who didn’t cry, who didn’t sob.
Who were these Skyborne? Why did they think they had the right to destroy her world? So they could live? So they could breathe?
A man who was helping sort the wounded handed Fitz a torch. “Where are we sending our wounded?”
Fitz shrugged. “Don’t know. I’ll find out and send word.”
“We have a hospital,” Neira said softly, her instincts telling her to remain quiet.
“What?” Fitz asked.
“A hospital,” Neira repeated louder. “A place to take the wounded. Fourth floor of Enhnapi.”
“And where is your lethara?” Fitz asked, his expression folded
in question.
“White Skull Bay.” She didn’t know what they called it.
The man nodded and turned away. He worked on a teenage girl sitting on the floor at his feet, blooding pouring over her eye and down her chin. She took in a quivering breath, her hands shaking.
Neira knelt, taking the girl’s hand in her own. She squeezed it. She’d discovered in the past several months a growing iciness in her heart, a detachment from humanity. She didn’t want to be that kind of leader.
The girl’s blue eyes met hers with a fiery courage.
Neira willed her own fire to keep the girl’s will lit. Then, she stood and continued to follow Fitz.
The tunnels were tight. People littered them, sitting, standing, kneeling, laying.
Skah put her hand to the wall, bracing herself as she stepped over another prone body. “The walls are strong.”
“They’ve withstood a great deal more than man,” Neira said softly. “I should hope it would take a great deal more to tear them down.”
A giant branch tunnel opened up. Neira might have called it a cavern except that it was merely a room where several tunnels met.
A slight woman, her hair coated in dirt and face laced with grime, scrambled from one of the far tunnels. “Fitz.” Her breathy word barely made it across the space to greet Neira’s ears. The woman raised her hand and fell to her knees.
Fitz ran to her and knelt. “Kiey. Are you all right?”
She nodded. “Mostly, anyways.” She twisted behind her, refusing to let go of Fitz’ hand. “Garrett. Fitz. Garrett’s back there. He’s hurt. He came to find me. The ceiling slid.”
Fitz frowned at the tunnel behind her. “That’s Rose Cavern, Kiey.”
Her shoulders sagged. “They breached. I collapsed the tunnel.”
Fitz closed his eyes in frustrated exasperation. “By yourself?”
She tried to rise.
“Stay here, Kiey!” He extracted his hand from hers. “I’ll get Garrett.
Skah knelt beside Kiey and frowned up at Neira. “I will stay with the girl.”
Neira nodded and followed Fitz. Why couldn’t her leaders simply lead? Why did they feel the need to endanger their lives by running into danger?
The air thickened with dirt, making it difficult to breathe. She cupped the crook of her elbow over her nose and mouth. Keeping her eyes on the ceiling, she listened for the slightest sound that might alert them to it caving.
“Garrett!” Fitz ran a few steps then fell to the ground, coughing.
Neira looked around his stooped back and discovered Garrett lying on the sandy floor, a pile of rock pinning his legs.
“Ah, Fitz.” Garrett coughed. His hand came away with blood.
Neira grimaced and studied the cave in. They probably could get him out. The rocks laying on top of him, while big, were at the wider base, the fall-out portion of the slide. Blood in his lungs though, didn’t bode well.
She bowed her head to the dark face of the tunnel wall. When she’d offered to let Garrett and his people stay to protect the island, she hadn’t thought they’d come under attack. Not like this. If she had thought this was possible, an attack of this magnitude, she’d have told Garrett to find another place to reside and would have found a more militant force to reside inside the mountain.
As it stood, that’s exactly what she should do now.
She wanted to hold his hand, offer him consoling support. He was dying, whether it happened today to three days from now. He wasn’t going to survive long enough to lead his people through a second assault. And she couldn’t think the Han wouldn’t invade, allow himself to be defeated and then do nothing.
But he had been defeated. This attack force had been light.
She shook that thought off. They’d won. She had to concentrate on what mattered. She closed her eyes to gather her strength, and turned to Garrett, a grim smile on her lips.
He nodded at her knowingly, grasping Fitz’ hand.
“Do you have a new leader for your people, Garrett?”
He took her hand and gripped it tightly as she knelt at his head. He hitched his shoulder higher on the boulder behind him. “I do. Kiey and Fitz.”
Neira glanced at Fitz.
The young man’s face had gone slack.
It might have been best if Garrett had informed the man before this. “I will leave a defending force for you and your people, but you must leave.”
Garrett shook his head. “This is our home.”
“And the Han will attack again. Soon, Garrett. I can assure you of that.”
“No.” He coughed again, wiping the blood from his mouth.
Neira pinched her lips closed, trying to smell anything other than the smell of death mixed with dirt.
“The Han wasn’t here.”
Neira twisted on the balls of her feet. “I think we can free you from this, take you somewhere more comfort—”
“Neira!” Garrett barked.
She twisted back toward him.
“The Han,” he said slower, “wasn’t here.”
“He’s rarely in battle.” She shook her head and reassessed the wall. “He prefers to remain on the sidelines unless he’s needed.” Or to claim the end, his victory.
Garrett was quiet.
Neira sighed and turned back to him.
He raised his eyebrows. “He wasn’t here, Neira. His extra men. His extra forces. All of his land eaters, his rovers, his diggers. Three land eaters. One digger.”
She raised her chin as a wave of shock sent cascading tidal waves of chilled gooseflesh down her shoulders, back and legs.
“This,” Garrett said, looking at Fitz, “was a diversion. He’s not coming back. My people are safe.”
Neira’s lips formed an “o” as she mentally kicked herself. How hadn’t she seen this earlier?
“Your people,” Garrett released his grip on her hand and pushed it away, “are not. Go. We will collect your dead.”
Neira got to her feet and ran.
At the hospital in Enhnapi, Oki looked at Doctor Carson, her mouth open, unable to do much more than blink. “What are you telling me?”
Doctor Carson had sent everyone away except Synn’s red-headed friend, Keeley. She’d feared she knew why.
She was right. She was dying.
He bowed his head and looked at her through his nearly invisible eyelashes.
“It’s hard t’ say fer certain. Truly it is. But from all I can see, your organs are going into failure. Your body is quite literally attacking them.”
“And there’s nothing you can do?”
“No. I am ashamed to admit it, bu’ the medical field is too new as a field of science. We could call in the healers, let them pray over ya, or wha’ever they do, but I can’t say as how well that will actually work.”
Oki swallowed and stared around the large room, the scarves fluttering in the wind.
Men and women threw open the scarf walls, bringing in their wounded.
Doctor Carson patted her hand. “It looks like I’m needed. You rest.”
She bit off the curses she wished to release.
“But I would recommend you close your affairs now. While you still can. You’re a leader in this new world. Make sure your people are able to walk withou’ ya.”
Oki raised her face to the dried flax ceiling and nodded. Gripping the side of the cot, she slid her feet to the chilled floor. Bare hours ago, the hospital had been bathed in nothing more than lethara light. Sun shot through the scarves and through the slats of sea flax planks as if stabbing hope into the hearts of those filling the space.
She pushed herself to her feet and steadied herself. She was fine. The doctor had said she’d feel fine for a few days, maybe more. She slipped into her sandals and walked in a quick step through the growing throng of people and the littering of cots.
By the time she made it to the scarf wall, she was out of breath. Her heart hammered and stuttered, galloping and tripping inside her chest. She gripp
ed a pole and pressed a finger into her breast plate as if that would help her keep its pace down.
It didn’t, but her breaths slowed.
Chie, who had been walking slowly beside Hitoshi, dropped his hand and ran to Oki, her steps short and bound by her kimono. “What are you doing out of bed?”
Oki smiled and patted her best friend’s hand, leaning on her arm as she led them away from the hospital. She grabbed Hitoshi’s hand as they passed him and smiled up at him. “We will gather my husband and then we will leave Enhnapi.”
Chie shook her head. “What happened?”
Taking in a deep breath, Oki plastered on a bright smile. “I am dying. I have days. Maybe weeks. Perhaps months. But I do not have long, and I must get you ready.”
“Ready?” Chie frowned. “Ready for what?”
Oki raised her chin. “To lead our people, Chie.”
“I am not a leader. I am a servant.”
Oh, if only she understood what real leadership was. She would, though. Soon enough. “I couldn’t think of anyone better to lead them, then. As a servant, you still have a heart, and that, I think, is what our people need the most.”
Chie stumbled.
“But first.” Oki grinned, her breath expelling from her lungs in excitement. “I want to change out of these confining clothes. Let’s find something more like what my brothers’ people would wear. Yes? Something free and flowing.”
Tears drenched Chie’s dark eyes as she fought to hold them back.
Oki swallowed her sorrow and raised her smile to the sky she could almost see. “I want to die free, Chie. Let’s go.”
Aiyanna frowned, puzzled as she watched Oki, Chie, and Hitoshi walk toward the elevator platforms. She’d never seen such a mixture of stunned disbelief, sorrow, and excitement at once.
Fingers wrapped around her arm.
Aiyanna spun and stared directly into Hehewuti’s harsh face. She swallowed to contain her verbal assault of surprise. Instead, she raised her palms to her face. “High Priestess.”
Whispers of the Skyborne (Devices of War Book 3) Page 22