“Ladon, leap!” Khabri barks.
Time slows to a crawl. The Invaders regroup and move towards Ladon, but Ladon looks as if he has nothing but time. He looks up at the three of us, and I join them yelling for him to jump. He shakes his head.
“Tell Calista and Illadon,” he says. “I love them.”
He turns to face the oncoming attackers.
“NO! Jump, we can catch you,” Khabri yells.
“Fly, fools,” Ladon says. He attacks the pillar with his lochaber.
The first blow rattles it, and the ground we’re standing on rumbles.
“Ladon, no!” Shidan yells.
Ladon swings again. Before the shaft of his weapon connects, Khabri grabs me and runs. The ground rumbles loudly. Shidan leaps to his feet and gives us chase.
An instant later, the rumble becomes a roar. The ground for thirty feet around the crack collapses, and a massive cloud of dirt and sand explodes into the air, towering into the sky.
16
Khabri
I wrap myself around Anna, enclosing her in my arms and wings. Debris strikes my back as the cloud of dirt engulfs us. I lift her and run. I don’t know if the ground will continue to give way, but it’s too dangerous to stay here.
We emerge from the edge of the dirt cloud. Sverre and Shidan are right behind us, with Amara in Shidan’s arms. Almost as one, we come to a stop and turn to look back. No one speaks, but my hearts thunder in my chest.
Ah, Ladon. An act of bravery that is incomparable. Statues should be erected in his honor. They won’t be. There aren’t enough survivors on the planet to have time for honoring those who’ve sacrificed themselves, not when our own survival is far from assured.
The dust hasn’t fully settled before Amara runs forward but Shidan wisely grabs his mate and stops her. I set Anna down, but she stays close to my side. I wait four heartbeats, and then the dust has cleared enough to see.
The ground looks like a crater left after an impact. The cavern has collapsed and stretches from a wingspan in front of us clear to the cliff that is the back side of the Tribe’s home. Sverre walks forward, testing the footing before committing his weight. Sand slides into the pit, covering over the debris. I wait with bated breath, watching Sverre creep out to where we last saw Ladon.
There can be no doubt that he is lost to us. The destruction is great. He died to save all of us. Sverre reaches the approximate area where Ladon would have been, and he kneels. He throws stones aside and tries to dig down. The ground trembles, and the loose rock he’s on shifts.
“Zemlja,” Shidan says, staring across the desert. “Incoming, fast.”
I look in the same direction Shidan is, and it’s easily seen. The zemlja isn’t hiding its progress. The desert sands plume along its path.
“Sverre, we must move,” I say.
“I hear something,” Sverre says, digging faster.
The ground rumbles again, and then the rocks shift beneath him and collapse further. He is dragged down with them. His wings spread, flapping at the wind, but his leg is stuck fast.
“Wait here,” I order Anna, and I keep looking into her face until she nods agreement.
I spread my wings and bound across the debris. It shifts underfoot each time I land, but I move fast enough to not be caught. Sverre fights to free himself but the ground shifts more, and he’s sinking deeper.
When I reach him, I grab his arm and pull. He growls. Sharp rocks cut through the protective scales of his leg. The rock I’m on slides aside, and I lose my footing, falling onto my back, knocking the breath out of me.
Sverre falls backwards when I do, and his body weight pulls his leg free. The debris is shifting more, vibrating with the approaching zemlja.
“Hurry!” Amara yells.
Sverre and I help each other across the shifting ground, working our way free of the trap. There’s no time for mourning. The zemlja approaches, and we’re in no condition to fight it. All of us have multiple wounds. Protecting the human females while fighting a zemlja is not going to work.
We do the only sensible thing. We run.
I grab Anna without asking. She would never be able to keep up, and we need to move. As a group we run around the sinkhole, cutting a wide berth, heading towards the Tribe’s home. The rumbling of the ground grows louder. A few more bounds farther, and the ground is undulating.
We reach the cliff, skirting around its side and leaving the zemlja behind us. These large rock outcroppings will slow a zemlja down if nothing else. Once we reach the far side, we slow our pace, gathering as a group.
Anna looks back towards where we were. Tears stream down her face. Amara walks over and pulls her into an embrace. I exchange a look with the other males, and we all shift our weight awkwardly, giving them a few moments of grief.
“I can’t believe this,” Amara says.
“We should go back,” Anna says. “He might have survived.”
Sverre and I look at each other, both knowing that it’s not possible, but neither of us want to be the one to say it. Sverre shrugs, and I know it’s on me.
“Anna,” I say, trying to make my voice like a hand to wipe her tears away. “It is not possible.”
“He can’t be gone!” Amara yells. “How am I supposed to face Calista if we don’t try?”
“There is still too much danger,” I say. “We need to move, get what epis we have, and get back to the City.”
Amara shakes her head, but then she wipes her face with both hands, drying her tears. She takes Anna by her shoulders, pulling her around so they are face-to-face.
“Sometimes we lose good men,” Amara says. “It happens, but he sacrificed himself to save us. We can’t dishonor his memory by not doing what he wanted. Living. Going back at this point is stupid. There’s not only the zemlja. That plume and eruption will attract Invaders.”
Anna wipes her eyes with her sleeve and nods.
“Right,” she murmurs.
I admire Amara and her determination. She has the soul of a warrior. Shidan beams with pride at his mate, and well he should. Still, there is no time to waste. We head off on our return to the City.
“Calista is going to be heartbroken,” Anna says after we’ve walked for a long time.
“Yes,” I say. “It is a terrible thing to lose your soul mate.”
“I don’t believe in soul mates,” Anna says.
“How can you not?” I ask. “I knew, the moment I saw you, you’re the one I was looking for. When I first heard you humans had come to Tajss, I knew my mate was among them. I knew it because I felt you in my soul.”
“You were probably horny,” Anna says. “How long has it been since you’ve been laid?”
“Few females survived the Devastation. Those who did grew sick and died,” I say. “I do not understand your question.”
She shakes her head. “Why are there no females? Is it really across the entire planet no females survived? Why?”
“I am not a physician, but I know generally why,” I say. “Those of us who survived happened to be protected when the Devastation occurred. There were some females, at first. Even some children born afterwards.”
“There were kids after the Devastation?” Anna asks, eyes wide.