Blood in the Fire (Timelaws Trilogy) (8 page)

Prison Caves - November 2184

Luke

Anton’s lips moved, but I couldn’t make out a word the kid was saying. It felt like blood was pounding against the inside of my skull. I thought my brain might pour out of my ears to get away from the high-pitched buzz in my head. Suddenly, the wall in front of us exploded. It was silent, but a large cloud of rock-dust mushroomed toward me. I brought my arm over my eyes as we were engulfed. The moist cave smell became stronger.

Bright flashes penetrated my sealed eyelids and warm air slammed my skin as Anton incapacitated the guards on the other side. The magic rumble didn’t produce one sound.

Was Mark still next to me? In chaos like this, it would be just like my brother to get high on the excitement and try to throw a punch or something. I reached out with my free arm to grab him.
Stop!
Tamer yelled in my head.
Luke, don’t move a muscle.
I froze.

Eln, move back!
Anton yelled telepathically. The noise of their voices on top of the alarm was enough to make me crack.

You have a wizard standing an inch away from your hand,
Tamer explained.

I forced my eyes open, despite the dust. The guard was right in front of Mark. My fingers hovered in mid-air above the enemy’s shoulder. A bright flash erupted from behind the crumbled wall. Took all my self-control not to flinch, but Sir Wizard, Nerves of Steel, didn’t react at all.

Tamer climbed the ruble.
Anton, are you alright?
he called out in alarm. I held my breath as I waited for an answer.

We’re in,
Anton said. The guard stood firm as his eyes washed over every corner. My heart stopped when he looked at Mark. Nothing changed on his face. As the dust cleared, another two guards came into view. The one in front of my brother turned and went toward them. I exhaled a relieved sigh and rushed to the makeshift door we’d blasted. Mark followed.

We have Eln,
Anton announced.
Let’s go!

My vision blurred. Dark tones from inside the cave were overtaken by bright sun-soaked hues of hazelnut and gray. The sound in my skull disappeared. Next thing I knew, Anton, Mark and I were in some kind of forest. I whipped my neck around and tried to take it in. The leaves and grass were all the wrong shape and color, but, glory halleluiah, was I grateful to be somewhere away from that brain-blasting noise. Still, it was weird. The grass was brown and fat. Trees were the same color only instead of leaves, they looked to be covered in zucchini shaped bulbs.

“Where’s everyone else?” Mark asked.

“Eln is locked up on our ship. The autopilot will take him back to the station so the rest of us can teleport straight home,” Anton replied. “Tamer will camp out on an orbiting moon until we find Liz.”

I took a couple steps to get a get a good look around. The grass crunched beneath my feet. My heart was still pounding, but the adrenaline was wearing off. “Where is she?” I asked. Anton closed his eyes and mouthed something. Working some kind of spell I guess.

“This way,” he said, then pointed through the trees and began walking. “She has herself cloaked so wizards won’t detect her, but her ID signal puts her a couple miles that way.”

“ID signal?” I asked.

“Yes,” Anton replied. “Her uniform emits a unique signal that gives me a general idea of where she is. Not specific enough for a teleport though.”

“Damn! That is one big-ass bug!” Mark exclaimed as he flared his arms to shake off a large, blue insect.

“Yeah, do me a favor and try not to get bit by anything, okay?” Anton replied as he sidestepped to avoid Mark and the bug dancing past. Mark stumbled over some shrubbery as he continued to struggle, but Anton caught his arm and steadied him. “City boys,” Anton mocked, shaking his head. The bug flew off.

“Shoot kid, you bet your little behind I’m a city boy and proud of it. I bet there ain’t a decent looking broad for light-years round these parts and you know somethin’, Anton, I don’t grow these guns to impress the trees.” Mark flexed his right bicep to emphasize his point. I gawked at how quickly Mark could shake off everything that had just happened and resume his usual, cheerful banter.

“Yeah, I’m sure they’d be really impressed,” Anton replied, grinning, “up until they noticed that baby fat you’re
towing
.” Mark spun around and took a swing at magic-boy, which he ducked.

“Enough horseplay,” I said, catching Mark before he could make another run at Anton. “What’s your plan once we find Liz?” I took several long strides to catch up. Mark fell behind us, mumbling something about his non-existent baby fat.

“Once I have her in sight, her cloak won’t be an issue anymore. I’ll give Tamer our coordinates and he’ll teleport us home.” That word,
home:
music to my ears. I’d had my fill of adventure. The dead branches and sinister looking shrubs impeding our way weren’t warming me up to this planet.

“And you’re sure she’s okay?” I asked. Anton stopped in his tracks. I wondered if an insect had stung him.

“No, I’m not,” he said. I looked to see what he was staring at as Mark stepped up next to me. We’d reached a high point in the terrain. Ahead of us, the ground sloped down toward a small valley with a cliff on the other side. At the top of the cliff, I could see black smoke and a bright blaze.

“Could just be a forest fire,” Mark said, but I could see someone wearing a blue wizards robe standing upwind from the fire.
She can’t be there
, I thought.
That fire’s too big.

Anton continued to squint at the flames. “There she is,” he yelled and pointed. A gust of wind blew the black smoke in the other direction. That’s when I spotted her.

What’s she doing!
I wanted to shout, but I couldn’t find my voice. Liz ran toward the edge, away from the flames. I held my breath, thinking she would stop before she made it to the end, but she kept going. And then, at full speed, Elizabeth leaped off and began to fall.

Help her,
I begged. But I was paralyzed. I’d never realized how slowly a human could fall. It took maybe four long seconds before she disappeared into the trees below.

“Nooooo!” Mark yelled at the top of his lungs. His voice snapped me out of my trance. Before I’d had time to process my thoughts, Mark exploded into a dead run.

“Why didn’t you save her?” I asked as I grabbed Anton’s shoulders and shook him.

“There wasn’t enough time,” Anton replied. “I couldn’t think of a spell that fast.” His face was ashen. Then he freed himself from my grip and chased after Mark. I took the rear.

No one could survive a fall from that altitude.
The thought hit me like an avalanche. My heart leaped into my throat. I didn’t think I could breathe, but I kept running. Gravity worked against me. My body was heavy. I stumbled over a rock, but regained my footing. The soles of my shoes pounded the dirt floor. I ran.
Keep running. Everything will be okay if you run fast enough.
My legs got caught in the shrubbery below, but still I kept going.
Maybe it wasn’t her.
Only it had to be her. Who else with black hair and a dark red dress would it be?
It wasn’t her
, I told myself again.

My calf muscles burned as I pushed my way through the brush. Anton and Mark struggled to do the same. Mark emerged first with Anton on his tail. I gasped for air, but a knot squeezed my stomach. The bottom of that cliff was still at least two miles away. Soon, I would have to stop. Not yet. It wasn’t her. I would get there and see that some other girl had jumped off. Or maybe she’d had time to finish a spell and teleport. The mental picture of her fall was still vivid in my mind. There hadn’t been any time. Not enough to do anything.

My side ached. Mark made a running leap over a tall bush and continued to sprint ahead. Anton tried to do the same and landed on the other side. I was right behind him. The bush caught my front leg and I fell into it head first. Thorns and dry branches tore my shirt and scraped my skin.

“Mark stop,” Anton called, then jogged back to me. Magic-boy was breathing pretty hard, but not as bad as me.

“I’m fine,” I gasped. “Keep going.” Mark stopped and doubled over.

“She knew she was heading for the edge of that cliff,” Anton said as he grabbed my arm and helped pull me up. “It’s possible she started a spell before she jumped.”

I broke free from the dry plant and rested my fists on my knees while I heaved for air.
She could be alive
. I knew she was. Deep down in my gut, it just didn’t feel like she was dead. Mark walked toward us.

“Do you think she teleported?” he asked between huffs. His fist was jammed into his side and his eyes stared up at the sky. He tried to avoid looking at us so we wouldn’t notice the tear marks on his cheeks.

Liz is his best friend. Ever since that girl was old enough to talk, he’d spend hours in her room telling her things even Mom and Dad didn’t know. Mark bragged about her to his friends. He went on about how smart his baby sister was. He brought her along to poker games to prove it and didn’t give a damn if they judged him. She was the toughest person he knew, and it was on them to get cool with that. I didn’t want to picture Mark without her. Who would he recount his pranks to? Honestly, sometimes, I thought he pulled half the stuff he did just so he could tell her about it later. The knot in my stomach tightened.
She’s alive,
I reminded myself.

Anton shook his head no in response to Mark’s question. “Not enough time to input coordinates,” he said. “But maybe she used rapid deceleration to soften her impact with the ground.”

“Can’t you communicate with her mentally?” Mark pushed. “Does it have a range or somethin’?” His face was flush from running so hard, but his breathing was easier than mine.

“Yeah, it’s got a range,” Anton answered. “We can use magic to boost that though.”

“And?”

“I’ve tried reaching her….” He paused. I noticed his posture was stiff: legs planted, shoulders back, like the way you stand right before a fight. “No response,” he said at last. My stomach lurched. I felt like I’d been punched.

“Come on, let’s go,” Mark said, giving Anton a light blow on the shoulder to get him moving before he broke out into a jog. Part of me would have liked to stand there and pant a minute longer. That wasn’t an option.

“We’ll make it to her,” I said because Mark needed to hear it. I was trying hard to believe it myself. A welcome breeze blew through the trees and cooled my hot skin. At least the weather was on our side.

“Teleporting isn’t as easy as it seems?” I asked as we weaved between multiplying trees. I needed to keep talking. All I had to do was act like she wasn’t hurt or worse, and it wouldn’t be real. Liz was sitting at the bottom of that cliff, bored out of her mind and wondering what was taking us so long.

Anton grunted. “Not if you don’t want to land inside a rock or in mid-air it’s not. Even if you know where you’re going, you’ve got to take planetary motion into account. Ideally, you make sure you don’t materialize upside down, naked or with a body part in the wrong place.” That last bit sounded uncomfortable. I hadn’t realized I risked leaving a foot behind when Liz brought us here.

“What’s worse is that teleports are impossible to mask permanently,” Anton continued. “Which means that they can be followed if someone knows how to look. That’s why we use spaceships.” Anton barely paused to take air as he spoke. The kid was in good shape. Probably could have gone ahead if he hadn’t been concerned about losing Mark and me. I smiled. My sister would kick his butt if he showed up and told her he’d lost her knuckle-headed brothers.

If she’s even alive.
My chest tightened. I started running faster. The muscles in my legs were burning again and the pain in my side throbbed worse than ever. I was grateful for all of it. Anything to keep from thinking. I gained on Mark, but when he heard me behind him, he picked up the pace. Anton seemed glad. He went up ahead and paced alongside Mark. I don’t know how long we carried on. My lungs longed for oxygen, and my muscles were screaming for me to stop.

And then, when I thought I couldn’t go another step, Anton stopped. He reached out and grabbed Mark’s shoulder to halt him too. “Quiet,” he said. “Listen.” All I could hear was the sound of my own heart pounding. Then the wind picked up and carried with it a faint moan.

“Mmm...”

I wasn’t even sure I’d heard it, but Mark’s eyes lit up. Anton broke out into a sprint. Mark smiled and pounded me on the shoulder. “Come on,” he said, and galloped after. I don’t know where that boy gets his energy. I Thought I would drop to my knees right there and never move again, but I went after them.

“Elizabeth!” Mark exclaimed with glee. I couldn’t see her yet, but hearing the joy in his voice sent a wave of relief washing over my sore body. I might have even laughed if I hadn’t been breathing so hard. They both stopped up ahead and Mark went down on one knee.

“Looks like you got a pretty nasty cut on your head there,” he said gently. I watched him pull a handkerchief from his pocket. I still couldn’t see Liz but presumed she was out in front.