The Tecran really seemed to think the only address worth having was on the cliffs.
“Is it just the people who live in Fa'allen who are obsessed with the cliffs?” she asked. “Or are there different Tecran cultures on different parts of the planet who do things differently?”
“They're all like this.” Dray held out his cup for Virn to take, but the asshole didn't take it.
“Put it away yourself.”
The words were short, and Virn's featherlike hair was clumped together it was so wet.
She saw Dray nod and walk to the back of the hover, and it was only because she'd spent time watching him that she noticed the sudden stillness in him. The spike of anticipation.
He'd wanted an excuse to rummage in the storage hold of the hover. Virn had just given him one.
To give Dray a bit more time and less scrutiny, she turned, cup in both hands, and held it out imperiously.
“You can take mine. I'm done.”
Virn flicked the cup out of her hands and stomped on it.
It cracked audibly under his boot.
“Temper, temper.” She let her eyes laugh at him, even though she felt a frisson of fear.
He'd had time to think about what he'd been ordered to do. And the other members of his team had had a chance to express their frank views, none of them positive. He was starting to feel a little trapped by circumstances.
It was not completely out of the realm of possibility that he'd decide the easiest way out was to murder her and Dray and bury their bodies on this endless, foggy, forsaken moor that would have given even Heathcliff and Cathy pause.
“I won't put up with your disrespect.” Virn stomped on the cup again, so it broke into two pieces.
“You want to calm down.” Dray was suddenly back, standing beside her. “If all Tecran soldiers are as undisciplined as you, I'm sorry we didn't choose to go to war. We'd have won it in a heartbeat.”
He was drawing Virn's ire, making him focus his aggression on Dray, not her.
It settled something in her.
Because although she knew it was crazy, that no one from Earth could come save her, she had still felt abandoned.
She didn't even need someone to save her. She just needed someone to try.
He was trying.
Although she worried he was trying a little too well, and that he'd push Virn too far.
Virn reached out, grabbed the part of Dray's restraints that drooped between his wrist and jerked him forward. “I would watch what you--”
Something sent up a howl, a long, wavering note that rose her hackles and caused every hair on her arms to stand up. It seemed to be coming from somewhere close, although in the thick mist it was impossible to even tell the direction.
Virn dropped his hold on Dray. “Time to go.”
He moved to the hover, not wasting a moment, and the other members of his team moved just as fast, just as quietly.
She didn't argue. Even though she was dying of curiosity, she didn't ask what was making the noise. She jumped up and had to lean back against the back hoop for balance, because Virn didn't stop to retie her hands behind her, or even tie her on.
She felt a glimmer of hope despite the unsteady beat of her heart as the howl was joined by a second, and then a third.
Virn made mistakes when he was under pressure. She and Dray would need to keep sharp, wait for their chance. If they were patient, it would come.
The hovers rose and then shot through the swirling gray white, and she had to tighten her grip on the seat with her inner thighs. There was no way she was holding on to Virn himself.
In her head, she sang Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights.
It made a great soundtrack to the howls that were now behind them, and the fear she could sense from Virn.
She looked over to the hover Dray was on, saw he hadn't been tied on either.
They exchanged a look.
Yes. They would find a chance. But not if they couldn't take a hover when they ran. Because Lucy didn't think whatever was howling behind them was friendly.
Kol.
Dray had researched Tecra thoroughly before he'd even set foot on the Urna, and he had read up about kol--the top predators on Tecra other than the Tecran themselves.
He noticed all the soldiers had unsnapped the flap on their shockgun holsters, and there had been no show of bravado. They'd gotten onto the hovers, and they'd moved.
He hadn't even considered kol when they'd left the facility, and by the surprise on Virn's face, neither had their unstable prison guard.
Virn, Dray could tell, was just now realizing all the ways he'd been screwed over. Maybe the kol would be his breaking point.
After half an hour, when the howls were far behind them, Virn pulled to a stop, not getting down from the hover.
“We can't camp here.”
“No shit.” The soldier Dray had heard the others call Clin revved his hover engine.
“Where then?” The one they called Graven rubbed a hand through feathery hair that was slick with moisture, then flicked the droplets off his fingers.
“Back to the coast. The kol keep away from there.” Clin looked behind him, and the other soldier who sat behind him on the hover, Rua, shifted, then gave a nod.
Virn looked over at Bly, the soldier who rode in front of Dray. “You have a suggestion?”
Bly pulled out his handheld. Tapped it. “I know there's some cliffs near Stunnelly that are riddled with caves. You have to climb down to them, so we'll definitely be safe from the kol. And we could use Stunnelly for supplies.”
“How far?” Virn swung off his hover, his boot striking Lucy's arm as he did so, and walked over to Bly.
The blow didn't look deliberate, but he neither paused nor apologized.
Dray could feel the fury build up in him again at the casual use of force.
He looked over at Lucy, but she didn't look back. Her face was serene, as if she hadn't even noticed what happened.
Except she must have.
Clin joined Virn, and they bent their heads over the screen.
“It's five hours away!” Clin stepped back. “Mainly because we've been headed in the opposite direction for hours now.” He looked boldly at Virn, fury in his eyes.
“I was putting distance between us and the facility.” Virn stared back.
“Well, we won't be getting there before dark. We'll have to find a place to sleep tonight.” Bly put his screen away. “Got any ideas?”
“I say we leave them out here, head back to the facility.” Rua spoke for the first time.
There was a moment of silence, and Dray carefully looked over at Lucy. Her gaze was locked on Virn.
“That's not the deal.” Virn's voice was low.
“The deal sucks.” The soldier behind Graven, Krian, gave a snort.
“We're involved,” Virn said. “We participated by guarding her at the facility. And we get a promotion out of it.”
“Sure we will.” Clin's cynicism seemed to run deep.
“You leave, you can't go back,” Bly said.
“You sure about that?” Graven asked, too much in step with Krian to not have already discussed it with him.
“What, you mean just go back as if nothing happened?” Bly's eyes narrowed.
Krian lifted his shoulders. “What are they going to say?”