“This is not what I signed up for.” Bly's voice was just audible.
“It's not what any of us signed up for. Are you going to whine about it, or are you going to help get us out of here alive?” The sharp words weren't from Virn, they were from Clin.
They seemed to settle everyone, focus them.
“I want my weapon returned.” Dray spoke up into the silence. “I want Lucy and my hands untied, and I want my weapon.”
“No.” Virn didn't even glance back at them.
Krian shot, and a bark of pain sounded. Suddenly Bly and Clin, on either side of him, shot at well.
There were some howls and then silence.
Bly squinted into the darkness. “It's run away. But was it just one, or are there more of them?”
“The young males are usually on their own. If that's what that was, we're all right.” Rua didn't move from his shooting stance.
“I'm not trusting that. We need to find Graven and then go.” Krian lifted his shockgun a little higher.
“Agreed.” Virn looked back at Lucy and Dray. “Pack up everything as fast as you can. We're leaving.”
Dray gave a nod, and Virn swung back to guarding the circle.
“Look for anything useful to pocket,” Dray whispered quietly in Lucy's ear.
She nodded. That's where her mind had gone, as well.
She rolled mats and stored them, and found Clin had been being an asshole when he'd given her and Dray one to share. There were at least two spares in the storage holds.
Never mind. He would experience karma. She would make sure of it.
She would be karma's handmaiden.
Chapter 25
Dray kept an eye on the Tecran while he gathered blankets and used his remaining focus to scan the contents of each storage hold as he stuffed them inside.
There was nothing obvious to take that would help Lucy and himself, or if there was, he didn't have the time to look thoroughly enough.
He accepted it, accepted speed was the more important thing now, and hoped he'd get another chance to pry and see what he could find.
Lucy started to hum, and he flicked her a quick look, stunned that she could create that kind of music in the situation they were in.
Suddenly, one of the Tecran shot their weapon again, and the sound of a kol's answering rage had Dray scooping up the last few items and throwing them into the nearest storage hold and slamming it closed.
A howl went up, and it felt as if a kol's jaws closed around the back of his neck.
He rubbed the spot, his eyes on Rua, who'd been the one to shoot.
“You done?” Virn's tone was pitched higher than usual.
“Yes.” Dray's fingers itched for his shockgun.
One of the Tecran must have it with them as a spare, because he hadn't seen it in any of the storage holds.
“Time to go before that howl brings his friends.” Rua said what they were all thinking.
They climbed on quickly and rose up, the Tecran taking the hovers to their highest elevation, and as they began moving forward, the front and side lights flickered over the scrubby ground and illuminated four sets of eyes.
Dray felt Bly shudder in front of him as one of the kol leaped up at them.
It couldn't reach, but Dray could see its thick ruff, its massive teeth bared as it jumped.
When Krian turned his hover back, Bly went stiff.
“Form a line, Graven has to be here somewhere.”
Dray wondered if Bly had forgotten about his teammate, but if so, he didn't balk at the order, he turned his hover as well, and shone his light at the ground.
The kol followed them, howling, leaping and snapping at them from below.
Dray didn't think there was a chance Graven had survived.
“He's here.” Virn shouted. The hover didn't descend, which Dray assumed it would if there had been any chance the soldier was alive.
Graven was far enough from the camp that Dray guessed he'd been dragged away.
Bly caught up with Virn and Dray peered down. Graven lay on his back, eyes open and unseeing, his body savaged.
The hovers congregated above the body. No one said a word over the snarls of the kol below.
Then Virn revved his hover's engine and roared off, and one by one, the others followed him.
Dray saw Krian was the last to leave, and he looked over his shoulder to watch him, but when the kol that had followed them began savaging Graven's body again, Krian, too, turned and followed Virn.
It was at least a few hours before dawn, so they flew high. No one wanted to be low enough to be pulled off their hover by a kol.
The landscape beneath them got rockier as they moved closer to the coast.
As the sun slowly lit the sky, Dray could see hardy plants with tiny leaves huddled in narrow fissures, and lichen and moss that covered the rocks in vibrant reds, greens and blues.
Up ahead, Virn lowered the hover and landed.
They alighted around him and Lucy slid off Virn's hover, bending over to stretch.
“We'll take a break, get something to eat and drink. See which way we need to go from here.” Virn took out a handheld, began tapping at it while the others unpacked supplies.
“You're not going to say anything about Graven?” Krian's voice cut through every other sound.
Virn looked up. “What is there to say? I am sorry he was killed--”
“Sorry? You led us there. You put us in the flatlands.”
“Under orders.” Virn lowered the handheld and took a step forward, the move overtly aggressive.
Dray shifted until he was behind Bly, and then started moving toward Lucy.
She turned, as if attuned to him, catching his eye and then turning back to look at the confrontation happening directly in front of her.
She stepped to the side as if to give the Tecran more room.
In small increments they edged closer to each other.
She was careful to keep just behind the Tecran, and he let her cover more ground, so she came to him, putting more distance between her and what was looking increasingly like a violent confrontation.
Rua had entered the argument, trying to calm both Krian and Virn down, and was shoved by Virn for his efforts.
“You want to make a break for it?” Lucy finally reached him, resting her bound hands on his bicep for balance and going up on her toes to whisper in his ear.
It felt intimate, like last night when they'd slept close together, sharing warmth.
He closed his eyes, his mind frozen for a moment.
“They'd run us down,” he forced himself to whisper back. “Even if we stole a hover, they've got three others, and there is nowhere to hide out here.”
“I know.” She sighed as she said it. “It was a nice fantasy.”
Her hands were still pressed against him and he could feel how cold they were, even through his cloak. He lifted his own bound arms over her head and lowered them to rest on her hip, pulling her closer like he'd done the night before.
He sensed her surprise, and then, with another sigh, she laid her head on his chest. His hands clenched in her cloak at the sharp jump of his heart.
“Maybe they'll kill each other.” He bent his head down, his voice rough. “And solve our problems for us.”
He saw the twitch of her lips. “What are they doing now? I'm too tired to open my eyes.”