She rolled over, head spinning, body aching. The horizon swayed like a rocking boat as she broke free of branches.
“My wing!” Jace cried. He held his right wing to his chest with his left talon, beak quivering. “My wing — Tayel — Tayel it’s broken!”
“We need to go!” Shy yelled. She swung the FTL drive around to her back and slicked a river of blood from her arm.
A chunk of stone collided with the grass a foot away. Tayel looked up. Stalagmites grew out of the castle wall two stories above, from where they’d fallen. Whoever that man was didn’t matter now, but hunting horns blew in the not so far off distance. They weren’t safe. There was no time to deal with Jace’s injury; there wasn’t even time to take a breath.
She helped him stand.
“No,” he squawked. “I can’t run! I can’t!”
“You have to.” Tayel’s own voice sounded far away.
He whined, but ran after Shy toward the forest, holding his wing and chittering in pain. Tayel kept a hand at his back. His pace was slow, and Shy grew smaller by distance, but Tayel would not run ahead of him. She would not let him go and escape on her own. She’d come too far for that.
Chapter 18
Tayel scrambled after Shy, the princess’ sense of direction their only compass. The pale white light of the moon through the canopy lit their path. Every footfall shot pain up Tayel’s calves, and her arm stung as the wrap came loose. They’d been running for so long. Nothing looked familiar in the forest. Behind them — who knew how many paces — their pursuers blew hunting horns and yelled direction to each other. Fear and adrenaline pushed Tayel to her limit, but she wondered if Jace hadn’t already reached his.
He ran at a pace that for her would have been a jog, yet his legs seemed unable to pump any faster. She kept a hand at his back, exerting pressure whenever he slowed down. He sucked in raspy breaths and held his broken wing to his chest.
“Keep going,” she huffed. “We’re almost there.”
Liar. She had no idea where they were or how far they had to go. All she knew was Jace could not afford to stop. None of them could.
Maybe it was fatigue, but the events which took place before their sprint through the woods felt like a dream. The calling, escaping the guards, running through the castle, and the man — Ruxbane — all seemed so far away. Thinking about the expression on his face when he saw her made her run a little faster. He hadn’t bothered with Shy or Jace; he came directly for her.
She broke into the clearing after Shy and Jace, stunned by how everything went from obscure to recognizable in a few short seconds. Shy’s ship sat in the center of the wide span of moonlit grass, harsh light falling out the open door. Fehn stood behind a makeshift barricade of empty fuel barrels, the aether-tech shotgun from the ship’s small weapons cache casting his arms in neon green.
Tayel stopped behind the barricade, and Jace collapsed in the grass a few feet away.
Shy ran past them all. “Get ready; they’re coming!”
“What happened?” Fehn’s voice growled with urgency. He flicked his eyes to Jace, then back to Tayel, his eyes narrow.
She tested her weight against one of the barrels. “At the castle, we—”
Shy poked her head out of the ship, and tossed a shield. “Put that on, quick!”
Tayel snatched the bracer out of the air. Made of leather and dotted in chrome studs, it didn’t look very flexible. She struggled to slide it over her wrapped burn. Hopefully the extra layer would protect it from any further damage.
“Fehn!” Shy yelled. “Do you know how to install an FTL drive?”
“Are you kidding? No!” he yelled back.
She whipped her head to Jace, then her gaze zeroed on Tayel. “Xite!” She disappeared back into the ship.
“Hey,” Fehn shouted. “What about a shield for Feathers?”
“He can’t fight,” Tayel said.
The sound of hunting horns, closer than before, pulled Fehn’s eyes away from her. He sprinted the short distance to the barricade and crouched behind it.
Tayel activated her shield, prompting a soft buzz and an acrid stench. She rubbed one hand over the other — slick and smooth from the reduced friction.
“Tayel!” Shy appeared in the door again and tossed the mag baton.
Tayel caught it. The glowing white etchings snapped to life, illuminating her clothes and casting her shadow darker against the grass.
“I need time to install the FTL drive,” Shy said, eyes intense — hardened, cold, but wide with fear. “You’ll have to hold them off. Don’t” — she grit her teeth — “Just, hold them off.”
A sick feeling slid up Tayel’s throat. Shy wouldn’t be there to help. It was just Fehn. Just her. She swallowed with effort, realizing how long she’d gone without water.
Jace stood. He stepped toward the ship, but his glossy eyes focused on the noise from beyond the treeline.
“Jace, come here,” Tayel croaked.
She let him step on her good arm as a lift, and hoisted his weight until he could roll in himself.
“There has to be something I can do,” he said.
“They’re coming!” Fehn yelled.
Jace’s chest rose and fell rapidly, his feathers lifting as they puffed. Tayel had to protect him. She didn’t get him out of the Rokkir’s clutch only to let him be caught again.
“Stay on the ship,” she said. “Get away from the door; just get in and stay put, okay?”
She tore her eyes from him, and sprinted to Fehn. Two guards had appeared at the edge of the clearing. One brandished a bow. The other held a torch in one hand and either an aether-tech lance or a halberd in the other; Tayel couldn’t tell from the distance, but she didn’t want him up close anyway. The brush around the clearing rumbled with the arrival of more guards. She couldn’t give them more time to organize.
She stood from the protection of the barricade, relying on the shield to defend her. She focused on the man with the bow. A rapid burst of suppressing fire snapped against the shielding, mild heat peppering her arm where the lasers had hit.
“Red!” Fehn shouted.
She flung her baton’s steel ball. It zipped past the bowman, rustling through the trees. He pulled back an arrow as another flurry of laser fire ripped through the barricade, and she ducked, squeezing the leather grip on her weapon. The sphere flew back. It crashed into the bowman and knocked him on his face before soaring back into the baton’s crevice.
Three more guards ran into the clearing. Fehn leaned out of cover. Booming gunshots rose above the guard’s shouts. A second bowman fired an arrow. The steel-tipped projectile speared Fehn’s left shoulder, unleashing a whip of electricity from the arrowhead. His body tremored, his eyes closed, and Tayel tugged him back into cover.
“Go now!” someone shouted, and footsteps charged the barricade.
“Fehn.” Tayel shook him, heart hammering.
He had to get up, and fast, but he only grunted.
“Fehn! Please!”
The rumble of pounding feet touched her knees through the grass.
She couldn’t sit there — cowering — she had to move. If she didn’t, Fehn would die, and none of them were going to die. They all had to leave together.
She stepped out of cover and into the path of the man with the aether-tech lance. Her heart stopped. He stabbed at her, but she dodged, using her practice against Shy’s polearm to inform her movement. He thrust again, and Tayel sidestepped, bringing her baton down hard on his exposed hand. He shrieked, and with the grip on his weapon loosened, Tayel snatched it away. He turned and ran.
A booming gunshot fired from nearby and she started, dropping the lance. A guard behind her — much too close — slumped forward, and Fehn’s shotgun smoked with the shot. She jumped into cover with him as laser fire torched the grass around their barricade.