Fall of Sky City (A Steampunk Fantasy Sci-Fi Adventure Novel) (Devices of War) (17 page)

I heard the crack ca-lack of the pincers much too close and turned. Too close to shoot. Too tired to push harder. It’d been a really long sky felled day.

There was more than one way to get us to the green.

I slid, lying flat on my back on the sand. One of the bugs charged me, the head pincers cracking at me. His head lowered. The pincers scooped sand.

I launched myself in the air, hurtling over his head, onto his body. I twisted to look behind me, found a target in the hundreds following, and shot one further back.

The bug I rode paused, almost as though he were confused as the concussion rocked through the air.

“What are you doing?” Joshua yelled.

“Just keep running!” I searched for anything that would keep me on that thing’s smoothly textured shell back.

The other bugs seemed not to see me. It was almost as though I were invisible.

My fingers found an edge to hold on to. The bug beneath bucked a bit and then turned to follow Joshua.

He cursed quite a bit, but I couldn’t quite tell what he was saying. I didn’t care. I was the one expending all the energy blowing these things up, for sky’s sake.

I twisted, sure I was going to fall off, but once the bug decided to run, the ride was smooth. A few more well placed shots took out several more of the bugs as far out as I could shoot. I was tired of being hit with the explosion. What was in their heads, anyway? We weren’t being sprayed with brain matter. If there was only air in their heads, then where were their brains?

Bugs. They were so weird.

I had to shoot a few of the bugs away from Joshua a couple of times, but in doing so, he was thrown to the ground, and each time he got back up, he glared at me. I didn’t have a lot of energy left to keep pulling the trigger.

We needed to find a bit of safety, lie low and recharge.

The bugs were starting to get smarter as we crested the last dune, Joshua speeding towards the green. Their pincers snapped at the air. I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that I was about to be made. They snapped closer and closer to me.

But by this time, there were skinny trees and tall, tall grass and…well, other green leafy things that were getting between me and them. Now that we were off the sands, Joshua gained ground and the ride was getting a bit bumpier. There wasn’t a whole lot to grab on to, and I was tired. I might aim further, but I didn’t hit anything far away. The last explosion had nearly knocked me off.

Joshua stumbled to a halt, his arms flailing.

That could only mean one thing. Cliff.

The bug I was on careened toward him. He turned to me, his eyes growing wide.

I raised the gun and pointed.

He fell to the ground, covering his head.

An entire row of bugs exploded around us. The head of the beast I rode cracked as I was blown off.

The swarm stopped, their heads waving in the air, their pincers snapping.

Another shot and there was a hole in the herd of bugs, an exit.

I struggled to my feet and pulled Joshua toward our exit before the bugs clued into what we were doing. The bugs looked confused, like they couldn’t find us.

I didn’t know what was going on there, but wasn’t going to ask any questions, either. We needed to get them to the sea, for whatever reason, and we were tiring.

We slipped past two of them along a tall cliff. The waves of the ocean slammed into the rocks and surged upward, spraying us with a fine mist and pummeling us with the force, even though the waves were several metres below.

Clack-clack. The hairs rose on the nape of my neck.

Clack-clack.

Oh, dirt! They’d found us.

The landscape thickened, making it harder for us to continue, but it also slowed them down as well. Where we could scoot through, crawl under, and plow around, they were stopped and oftentimes had to find a way over the obstacles. This was a bonus, but still didn’t buy us a lot of time. The hill fell away, bringing us closer to the sea. Periodically, I spied a long, dark sanded beach. The roar of the ocean filled my ears with happiness. My nostrils brought a sense of home.

Joshua and I broke through the thick vegetation and found ourselves on the beach. The water reached out to us, almost as if trying to pull us back out to the big waters.

We stumbled and looked around.

“What are we supposed to do now?” Joshua yelled over the roar.

“I don’t know.” The bugs had us surrounded on the land side. “Haj just said to get them here.” The only way out now was to swim.

“Did he mean we were supposed to get them
in
the water?”

“How am I supposed to—”

Something launched out of the water, long and thin, striped in black and green. It twirled and twisted, hissed, and attacked the bug, its mouth gaping open, sliding over the pincers and capturing the head whole.

“Oh, crap!” Joshua yelled, stumbling a couple of steps back. “What in the seven skies is that?”

“In the world of the bully,” I said, stumbling closer to the ocean.

“There’s always a bigger bully,” he finished for me.

“But that’s only one. What are we going to do about the other—”

I didn’t get to finish that statement as all of a sudden, what seemed like hundreds of those snake creatures leapt out of the water and attacked the beetles.

And me.

The thing was huge and that mouth? For the love of the great Sky Mother, the mouth was big enough to swallow one of the beetle bug heads whole. It could swallow me entirely in one bite! So why did it need fangs? Really?

I leapt out of the way as it came shooting out of the water at me. It crashed to the sand with several thumps as the rest of its body joined it. It was longer than three of me, easily, and once it was on the ground, even though it had no legs or fins, the thing was
fast
!

I didn’t realize I had any energy left. I ran, dodging the bugs and the other snake things and the vegetation. My feet carried me up a slight incline. I kept running, trying find something to hide behind or in.

Fallen tree. Beetle. Nope. Just a beetle leg. I grabbed the tree and launched myself over. The rustling slither of the snake creature sounded behind me. I twisted to see how close it was.

The sky-felled fangs were closing in on my feet.

I leapt over the tree and the fallen bug leg, raising my pistol. I pulled the trigger, tucking my feet back out of reach.

Nothing happened.

But by that time, it didn’t matter. The ground met my back. I rolled. The pistol fell from my grip. I scrambled to my feet. The snake snapped at me. I dodged, lost my footing and stumbled. I took a couple of reeling steps back.

My feet sank. My arms flailed as I tried to regain some sense of balance. All attempts failed. I fell back, and I found myself completely immersed in mud. I grasped for the dry land, trying to right myself.

But the more I moved, the more I sank.

Dread rolled over me as the snake creature stopped. It rose on its serpentine body. The forked tongue darted out. The snake paused for a moment, then slithered away. Safe. Right? Why didn’t I feel like it?

I was in quicksand.

And sinking fast.

CHAPTER 15

WHAT EXACTLY HAD I GIVEN UP?

I could
leap from one airship to the next with nothing more than a rope and a hope, but this staying on land crap scared me like none other. How was I supposed to cope with mud that was pulling me down, trying to suffocate me? Every move I made to swim out only dragged me deeper. I couldn’t wait to get back to my sky, where it was safe!

I might have yelled some. Maybe. There’s a very high probability. I was going to die anyway. In
mud
.

I heard Haji run into the area. “Synn!”

“Haj!” Ew! Mud in my mouth. It tasted aweful. “Haj.”

He looked down, and I swear to the Sky Mother, the man rolled his eyes at me. “What are you doing in there?”

“Drowning!” More mud in my mouth. I tried everything in my power to keep my face above the surface. “What does it—” More mud. “—look like?”

He looked at me like I was a sky-felled idiot. “Why—” He held up his hands, glanced back over his shoulder and shook his head in disgust. “Just—” He closed his eyes and let out a long sigh before opening them again and going off in search of something. “Just lay back.”

“Lay—” Mud. “—back? Are you mad?”

“Just relax!” He stomped off.

Was he joking?

But as soon as I relaxed and laid back, the mud stopped its sucking motion and I floated. Sort of.

He came stomping back with a stick and shoved it at me. I grabbed hold and he pulled me to safety. He continued to grumble as he stomped back to the beach. “You are the only man I know who would believe he could drown in mud.”

“That was quicksand, Haji,” I said, pointing back the way we’d come. “It’s named that for a reason. That stuff can kill.”

“In stories your grandmother told you to scare you.”

I saw my pistol in the greenery and scooped it up as I followed Haji. We broke through the trees and onto the beach. We found skeletal remains of beetles, but all the snakes seemed to be gone.

“Stupid air man,” he grumbled some more. “So stupid.”

Joshua stood up from where he’d been kneeling beside the carcass of one of the bugs. He stopped and took a couple of steps back when he saw me. “Wha’ happened to you?”

“Mud,” Haji said at the same time I said. “Quicksand.”

He snorted, blinked, and then started laughing.

I rolled my eyes and headed for the water. I stank, but then I remembered what had happened the last time we’d come close to those waters and stopped. “Are those snakes going to come out again and eat us?”

Haji looked at me like I was a moron. “Do you know anything other than air creatures?”

The incredulous look on my face cracked with the drying mud. “No?”

“Those were sea snakes, natural enemies of the sphynktor bugs. They caught the scent of the bugs, and that’s what brought them out here. Sometimes, Synn, you are beyond stupid.”

I glared and headed toward the crashing waves. “So I should be safe, then.”

“From the sea snakes, yes.”

My feet were already in the water. I stopped and took in a deep calming breath. “Then what should I be careful of?”

“Mud nearly killed you, Synn,” my best friend said with a shake of his head and an open handed shrug. “You’re hopeless.”

That was helpful.

I used the sand to scrape off a lot of the mud. Now, all there was left to do was to dry off, though I wasn’t looking forward to the feel of dried salt all over my skin and clothes. It was still better than smelling like dung. I swear, something died in that pit.

The trek back to the plane took much longer, but we didn’t have to worry about getting lost. We just had to follow the trail of dead beetles.

Joshua kept us entertained with his findings upon his initial investigation of the sphynktor bugs. The man loved science. That was for sure.

Haji filled us in on things we wouldn’t be able to see; habits, what the things like to eat, which weren’t people. Apparently, the bugs enjoyed eating birds.

“So why were they trying to eat us?”

“You assume they wanted to eat you,” Haji said, walking with ease up the dunes.

I looked drunk in comparison. My feet weren’t used to the uneven ground of the dunes which moved all wrong. They were used to a flat surface that rocked with the air currents.

“They were probably just curious.” Haji disappeared on the other side of the dune. I had to run to catch up so I could hear him. “When you shot at the one who was investigating, they took it as a threat and attacked.”

“Just for the record,” I said, sounding winded, “I was not the one that shot them.”

“No,” Haji said derisively, “you’re the one blowing them up.”

I sent him a churlish look.

He ignored me.

“So you’re saying they’re peaceful,” Joshua said, his long legs carrying him over the dune behind us.

“They’re a nuisance,” Haji said, glancing up at Kala high in the sky. Sang barely peaked over the horizon. “They’re very curious and easy to upset.”

“It’s a good thing you knew about the snakes.”

“Everyone has a natural enemy.”

We spent the rest of the trip in relative silence. I was too tired to carry on a conversation and navigate the cursed sand. The pistol might be a fantastic idea for using my gift instead of ammunition, but it wore me down. I needed to find a better way.

By the time we got back to the plane, the only things visible were the tail and two and a half propellers.

Joshua groaned. “Do ye have any idea how horrible this is?”

I paused, drooping in place. Though I tried to stand up straight, I was failing. I imagined the
Yusrra Samma
being buried in the sands, and my heart wrenched. That was my home and she belonged in the air, not stuck in the ground. I nodded and clapped him on the back. “I apologize for my part in all of this.”

He shrugged it off. “We knew we had ta leave, but we were stalling. ‘Sides, when the queens see our inventions are complete, they take ‘em from us and send ‘em off to be replicated. It’s better this way. At least no one else will have wha’ we discovered.”