Kira opened her eyes, seeing the sun above. Late afternoon. It was still a little while until nightfall. “Hey, Jason.”
“Yeah?”
“You’re a Mage.”
He didn’t answer for a moment. “I am?”
“Yeah.” She looked over at him. “That lightning Mage must be deciding one of us is a Mage. But how could it be me? You, on the other hand, are from Urth.”
Jason nodded in understanding. “And I’m a demon.”
“Right. If we have to explain anything, we have to make it look like it’s you.”
“Mage Demon. Or is Demon Mage? That’s quite a promotion from stupid sidekick.” Jason and Kira flinched as a bullet knocked chips off a stone, the sharp-edged fragments hitting the very narrow strip of dirt between them. “I’m not going to have to go around boasting I’m a Mage, am I?”
“No. We still act like it’s a big secret.”
“Okay. Do you have any water?”
“Yeah,” Kira said. “One canteen. Have you got any food?”
“Some dry rations.”
“And we’ve both got extra ammo. We’re all set.”
“Yeah.” Jason looked up, rolling onto his back once more. “Here’s comes another one climbing up. Let me know if lightning boy is going to try again.”
A lull came, punctuated by shots at unpredictable intervals. They lay as low as they could on the pebbles and the dirt, the sun beat down on them, and the occasional breezes couldn’t reach them. Kira worked the canteen out from her pack and took a drink, not too much since it might have to last a while, and passed the canteen to Jason.
He drank as well, then with a sudden grin leaned over, staying low, and quickly kissed her. “I didn’t tell you yet today that I love you.”
She smiled back, resting one cheek on the dirt as she gazed at him. “Do you want to get married today?”
“Sure.”
Another bullet cracked off one of their sheltering rocks.
Kira cautiously lifted herself up to look toward the heights where the lightning Mage and the men and women with rifles waited. “Maybe we really should. I mean, there may not be a tomorrow.”
“Have you got the paperwork?”
“No. That doesn’t really matter, though.” Kira lowered her head to the dirt again just before two more rifles fired, their bullets passing through the space where her head had been. “But I’m not eighteen yet. That does matter. They’re waiting for it to get dark, Jason.”
“Hey, we’ll make it out of this,” Jason said. “Why do you suppose they let us get to the librarians instead of ambushing us on the way there?”
She looked at him, realizing he was trying to distract her from thinking about how short their future might be. But the moment he asked that question the pieces fell into place for her. “Because they were behind us. They came in on that Imperial-flagged passenger ship that was arriving at the port as we were riding up to the city.”
His gaze on her grew puzzled. “How do you know that?”
“It just makes sense. They posed as tourists or business people or something. It took them a while to get ashore because they had to look harmless and smuggle their weapons into the port with them. They found out we’d left for the tower, followed us toward the valley of the librarians, and when they realized we were approaching on the way back they set up that ambush. That’s why we had the overhang to shelter under not far behind us. If they’d had time to pick the perfect spot, they wouldn’t have chosen one where we could find cover if we lived long enough to reach it.”
He nodded. “Yeah. That does make sense.” Jason’s gaze went to the heights. “I wonder if Maxim is out there with them?”
“No.”
“No? How can you be sure?”
“If he was close I could tell. I could feel if he was nearby.”
Jason’s expression once more became questioning. “Maxim is a Mage?”
“No. But I’d still be able to tell. It’s complicated. I can’t explain it.” And she couldn’t, not even to herself. Why was she so sure she’d know if Maxim was out there? How would she be able to tell? But Kira felt an inexplicable, cold certainty inside her. When she got close enough to Maxim, she’d know.
The rifle fire continued sporadically as the sun dipped toward the peaks to the west, casting long shadows across the area where Kira and Jason sheltered. Jason fired back whenever anyone came into view, his shots accurate enough to discourage the attackers even if Jason didn’t know if he’d scored any hits.
However many shooters there were shifted position through what was left of daylight, trying to find angles that would allow them to bounce bullets off the rocks into Kira or Jason. All of the attempts failed, but Kira felt a chill as one ricochet slammed into the dirt next to her arm. Fortunately, the shooter had no way of knowing how close that shot had come, and moved to another position before trying again.
To her own amazement, Kira fell asleep at intervals, awakening each time to see the shadows had grown longer and darker.
As the blue above faded into black spangled with stars, Kira checked her pistol for at least the hundredth time since they’d hidden among the rocks. “How are you doing, love?”
“Okay,” Jason said, lying on his back, his carbine resting across his chest. Like her, he was dirty from hugging the ground, dusty from hits on the rocks around them, and sweaty from the long period lying among the rocks with little breeze as the sun beat down. “How about you?”
“Okay,” she replied, earning herself a grin. “Feeling exotic.”
“Exotic really is a good thing. I wasn’t kidding about that. I’m a little hungry, though. Has your mother done anything about getting taco trucks into mountains like this?”
“Not yet,” Kira said, knowing he was trying to raise her spirits. “How are you doing on that shave ice stuff you said you were going to make?”
“I’m still working on it. There’s this girl I know I want to share it with.”
“Oh? She’s special, huh?”
“Yeah,” Jason said. “And I think she likes me.”
“I bet she wants to marry you.”
“You think? Why would a girl like that be interested in a guy like me?”
“Maybe she wants to find out what shave ice tastes like.” Kira carefully got her arms under her so she could raise herself up rapidly and took a quick look over the rocks before dropping back down. “It probably won’t be much longer before they try to rush us. Keep your ears open. There’s enough scree on the ground that we should hear something if anyone tries to get close.”
“Which way do you think they’ll come at us?”
“If they’re smart they’ll rush us from all sides at once, just popping up over the rocks,” Kira said.
“Why didn’t they do that already? This isn’t like the position we held against the legionaries. We only had to cover one side and part of another. Here if they rush us from all sides we couldn’t possibly stop them.”
Kira shook her head. “These aren’t legionaries, Jason. They’re mercenaries, and Mechanics, and Mages. They won’t charge guns in broad daylight. They’re waiting until dark to minimize the risk to themselves.”
“Maybe we should move.”
“I was just thinking that we should, but it’s still too light.” Kira looked at the sky again. Only a few clouds drifted up there, not enough to darken the night much more. But the moon was sinking fast toward the peaks of the mountains. “They’re waiting for it to get darker, too. Once the moon sets they’ll probably start moving toward us. We’ll have to move then, too.” She watched the two dots of light that were the Twins chasing after the moon. Until Jason had arrived, people on Dematr had thought the Twins to be small, natural moons chasing the primary moon. But he’d told them the Twins were actually two parts of the great ship that had come to Dematr from Urth. “You kind of ruined the romance of the night sky for me, you know. The stars are just other suns, the Twins are wrecks of that ship, the moon… w
hat’s the moon like?”
“Sort of like this,” Jason said. “Rocks. Dust. But without the plants or birds or animals or insects or water or air. Or people.”
“See? Now why would I want to go there?”
“I’d go there if you were there.” Jason looked around them. “Speaking of where to go, they’re going to expect if we leave these rocks that we’ll either sneak back toward the soldiers at the ambush site, or sneak toward Altis.”
“Yeah,” Kira agreed.
“So maybe we should sneak down the slope away from the road a little more?”
“Maybe we should. Can you remember what it looks like that way?”
“There are more rocks. That’s about all I remember.”
“Good enough,” Kira said, looking up again. The moon was touching the peaks. “They’ll move when the moon sets. We need to move before then.”
“Now?”
“Yeah. I’ll go first, you cover me.”
“Kira, maybe I should—”
“I’ll go first. Cover me.” She looked back over her shoulder, then squirmed around, reversing direction without exposing her body above the rocks where even now the moonlight might reveal her. Finally facing down the slope, Kira eased into the narrow gap between two rocks, having to turn sideways to make it through. The sound of her careful, slow movements sounded immensely loud against the quiet backdrop of the mountains.
She reached the narrowest part of the gap. Her chest pinched by the rock before her, Kira pulled her upper body through into a small area mostly clear of stones. A little farther down the slope she could dimly see the rocks Jason had mentioned. They didn’t look nearly as good an improvised fort as the ones behind her, but in the dark would hopefully be safe enough.
She paused, trying to breathe slowly and quietly, straining her ears for any sounds. Nothing.
Crawl again, moving each limb carefully, trying to set them down without dragging against the loose pebbles below her. Her butt caught in the same tight spot that had pinched her chest. Muttering an extremely bad word under her breath, Kira wriggled through.
She got to her feet, staying low, her pistol in one hand, looking around and listening. The moon had set more than halfway behind the peaks. “Come on. We don’t have much time left,” she whispered.
Jason followed, painstakingly dragging himself through the same gap. Kira moved a few steps with infinite care, giving him room.
He pulled clear, not having suffered any apparent hang-ups, and came to his feet in a crouch.
Kira led them to the next cluster of rocks, moving faster and staying low. There wasn’t room in the middle for both of them, so Kira gestured Jason into a gap that had one side open but the other three covered by boulders coming up to or above Kira’s waist.
They settled carefully into place, sitting right next to each other inside the gap in the rocks, Kira finally breathing easier. She put her lips close to his ear. “I’m glad you made it through that narrow space.”
He replied the same way. “It wasn’t that tight.”
“Not for you, maybe. If I was built like Devi, I never would have made it through.”
They sat quietly after that, the faint sounds of insects gradually rising around them as the moon sank out of sight and the night deepened. Kira found herself getting drowsy again despite her tension. She was so tired…
The scrape of something on rock. Very faint, but audible over the other noises of the night. Kira’s sleepiness fell away. Jason had his carbine up, ready.
Another soft noise, off in a different direction.
A boot crunching on a pile of scree.
Kira tried to sense where the lightning Mage was. He hadn’t moved, as far as she could tell. She couldn’t sense any other Mage nearby. At least this time they’d only be dealing with rifles and maybe pistols.
She caught a glimpse of a shadowy shape moving past their hiding place, toward the rocks where Kira and Jason had been throughout the day. Jason looked a question at her and she shook her head. Not yet.
One more faint sound, somewhere upslope.
“Now,” someone said in a low voice.
As the sound of people scrambling over rocks suddenly sounded nearby, Kira nudged Jason and they both reared up above the rocks around them, facing toward their former rock fort. Several figures were visible standing on those rocks, their weapons pointed downward, illuminated by muzzle flashes as the sound of shots boomed through the night.
The firing ended as quickly as it had begun. “There’s nobody—” someone began.
Kira fired.
Jason fired a moment later.
At least one shadowy figure fell with a cry of pain before scuttling away. The others scattered, surprised. Kira fired a couple of more shots at the figures running away through patches of lighter and deeper shadow, thinking she hit another. Jason fired only once again after taking careful aim. She thought she saw a running figure drop and grabbed Jason’s arm. “Come on!”
Kira led them in a rapid dash to the side, spotting another cluster of rocks and veering in that direction so they could drop into it as the echoes of the gunfire were still fading.
She lowered her forehead to the scattered pebbles beneath her for a moment, trying to catch her breath, closing her eyes and calming herself. Raising her head again, she nodded to Jason, who lay on the ground nearby. “Okay?”
He grinned, the expression strained by tension. “Okay.”
Kira bent her head up enough to see the stars.
There was still a lot of night left.
“Do you think they’ll try again?” Jason whispered.
“What do you think?”
“Yeah. Any water left?
“Nope,” Kira said. “Any food left?”
“Nope. Still got plenty of bullets, though.”
“Then we’re good.”
She wasn’t sure how much later it was when more faint sounds warned of people searching for her and Jason. Kira huddled up against a large boulder with jagged edges, the remnant of a larger chunk of mountain that must have fallen and shattered when it hit down here. She held her pistol ready, breathing as quietly as possible through her mouth. Jason did the same a little ways to the side, a gap in the rocks here separating them.
A dark patch moved above her, blocking the stars, the head of someone peering over the rocks, the barrel of a rifle visible pointing over Kira’s head. If the attackers had used hand lights, they could have seen her and Jason, but they either lacked those or were afraid to use them since it would make anyone who did so a perfect target.
After long, heart-stopping moments, the dark figure pulled back. Kira heard faint noises as the searchers moved onward.
Staying awake required all of her will power, as waves of fatigue rolled through Kira. She couldn’t move, couldn’t stand up, walk, do anything to help stay awake except bite the inside of her cheek hard enough to hurt.
Yet as her exhaustion peaked, Kira started to feel a strange sense of confidence. Of being almost indestructible. Maybe she should make some noise. That would bring the ambushers running, and she could shoot them. Shoot them all. It’d be easy.
A scuff sounded as someone stood up on top of the rock Jason was hiding behind. The mercenary gazed around from the elevated position, his rifle canted down toward the ground and Jason where he sat motionless.
Kira saw the searcher’s head lower to check his footing. Saw a jerk of startled discovery.
She fired, knocking the mercenary off the rock.
Kira kept low, lunging across the gap to Jason, the pair of them rolling over the rocks facing upslope toward the road, landing on their feet and scuttling away from where Kira had fired. She caught glimmers of movement in the night, shadows there then not there in a moment’s time, all around them wherever she looked. Jason kept moving, angling up and to their right, trying to get clear of the search area.
The open slope seemed endless, no cover worth the name anywhere, until Kira saw a cow-sized b
oulder to her right and yanked Jason that way.
They crouched next to the boulder, trying to blend with the shadows near it, Kira wishing she still had her dark Mechanics jacket. How many more times could they get free? If only she was the monster the Imperials thought, she could take advantage of the night and…
That strange confidence filled her again. Blazes, why not?
She saw a searcher creeping cautiously past and leaped out at him, knocking him down and kneeling on his chest, using her hand to tilt back the startled man’s head, then brought her own head down, trying not to notice the smell of the man and the roughness of his unshaven face and neck, opening her mouth, her teeth biting hard enough on his neck to break skin, the smell and taste of blood suddenly filling her nose and mouth.
The man screamed in terror, hurling Kira off with fear-driven strength that left her rolling to a stop. A hand closed on her arm and she almost struck out before realizing it was Jason helping her up.
“She’s hunting!" the man she’d bitten shouted, his voice high-pitched with fright as he ran up the slope toward the road. “Tried to drink my blood! She’s hunting us!”
Spitting out the blood in her mouth, Kira spotted more rocks down the slope. She and Jason stayed low, moving slowly and quietly, as men and women began shouting through the dark on all sides.
“What happened?”
“She went after Bern! It’s true!”
“Let the women finish this! They’re safe! I’m done until dawn!”
“The blazes we’ll do it alone!” a woman shouted in reply. “She likes girls, too!”
The voices were all heading for the road, accompanied by the sounds of feet sliding on gravel as attempts at silence were abandoned. Kira kept moving the opposite way, pulling Jason along.
She found several boulders in a clump and put them between the two of them and the road before stopping.
Jason’s voice was the barest murmur next to her ear. “You like girls, too?”