The Blood Racer (The Blood Racer Trilogy Book 1) (13 page)

              Sighing, I yanked the radio cord out of my leather helmet. Perfect. Lex was making me his personal favorite to win. No doubt a lot of other people would follow suit. Pretty soon, everybody in the entire Dominion would know my name. As I thought about it, the notion was a little bit exciting to me. I had some notoriety around the Gap, but nothing spectacular. Nothing like this. I was practically a celebrity, and it had happened in just a few minutes. Apparently, I already had a nickname: the Blood Racer. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. I hoped no one discovered that it was born from something I said sarcastically. To be honest, though, I sort of enjoyed it. I wondered how many people back in Adams were listening, hearing me get recognized for my flying. I enjoyed that thought, too.
           On the other hand, that was a lot of pressure, a lot of expectations to live up to. Lex had said that a lot of people were betting on me. If I were to lose,
they
would all lose, too. How many people would be furious at me for that?
              I reached up and squeezed my forehead with my hand, questioning my sanity. I had to be insane, after all, throwing myself into the race without any real thought to it. I realized, with a bit of dread, that this would probably be ninety percent of my race, me sitting in the cockpit of the
Kicker
with nothing but my own thoughts and doubts.
              This was going to be ever so much fun…

              The day passed exceedingly slow. I stayed just a few seconds behind Audra, never letting her out of my sight as the sun passed by overhead. Now, as the afternoon was on the verge of turning into the evening, I still had the glinting shape of the
Mistress
off of my bow. Somewhere just off my tail, I knew Rigel was still there. He hadn’t deciphered the clue, either. I knew Rigel well enough to know that he couldn’t have deciphered that riddle. He had pulled the same strategy that I had. He had waited to see which way I would go, just as I had for Audra.
              The hunger was getting to me. I hadn’t eaten a thing all day. I was already feeling tired and drained, like I needed a nap. Even worse than the hunger, though…was the thirst. I also hadn’t had anything to drink since waking up in a rush and flying to Rainier. My lips were dry and beginning to crack, and my throat was feeling raw and course. I needed some water in the worst way. In reality, I knew I could physically survive for a few days, suffering the inevitable effects of dehydration, but I didn’t want that. I
really
didn’t want that. Maybe it would rain, and I could stick my head out of my roof hatch, or something. Unfortunately, the skies looked as clear as they ever did on a summer afternoon. There were plenty of clouds, but they were all puffy white. As miserable as it was, I was out of luck until I reached whatever destination we were heading for.
              I felt the urge to get up and walk around for a minute. I had been sitting in the pilot seat all day, hunched over and staring out at the blue sky through my windscreen. My back was killing me, and my legs had gone numb hours ago. I hadn’t moved for fear of losing sight of Audra. She was my only lifeline in the race so far. If I lost her, I lost it all. But, at the moment, there didn’t appear to be anything on the horizon except the distant line where the sky met the dark grey Veil. I obviously had some time.
              Spinning my chair around, I slowly peeled myself out of it, feeling all the joints in my legs cracking and popping. With a loud groan, I held onto the ladder in the center of my cargo bay and stretched out my back, wincing as the cramped muscles pulled apart. I hadn’t flown this far or this long in quite some time, not since I first finished building the
Cloud Kicker
. On those days, I would fly out as far as my fuel tanks would go, teetering on the half-full mark. The point of no return, it was called. It was as far as you could go and still make it back home. Plenty of times, I would fly out to that point and contemplate going on, to throw myself to the wind and see where I’d end up. I never did, though. I never had the courage. Besides, I couldn’t just leave Zanna and Echo. They were two of the few things that gave me the will power to wake up in the mornings. As it happened, another of those few things was currently flying somewhere behind me.
              I turned my gaze toward the tail of my ship. I had no windows in the bay. They were a structural weakness, after all. Instead, I stared at the metallic walls of my hull, wondering just where Rigel was. How far away was he? As I pondered that thought, it suddenly occurred to me that I was competing against my best friend. We had both entered the race, and that meant that we were facing off against one another. There was only one winner, and he wanted it as much as I did. Maybe more. He had talked for so long about wanting a way out of Adams, a way out of his dead-end future. We had both wished aloud for such a thing. And now, we were both chasing it at the same time. Soon, we’d be fighting over it.
              My stomach felt like a hunk of brass had been dropped into it. This is exactly why I hated the race. It creates division, it promotes competition and strife, even amongst friends. What was I going to do? Of course I wanted Rigel to be able to have the life he wanted. He deserved it more than anyone. Even if I were drop out, though, it was still no guarantee he would win. Aside from that, I wanted the prize, too. Selfishly, I also wanted the money that would free me from my life of meagerness. Sighing, I decided that it did no good to dwell on it now. I just needed to get back to the cockpit and keep my eyes peeled for a destination. Giving one final stretch, I shuffled back toward my chair and sat down, spinning around to face the windscreen. Immediately, my face fell in horror.
            Audra was gone.

              “Are you kidding me?” I shouted, frantically strapping myself in. I blinked my eyes and hunched over toward my windscreen scanning the sky in front of me. I thought maybe I had just missed her, or she had pulled further ahead. Unfortunately, neither was the case. She had vanished. I whipped my head around in every direction, trying to see a trail from her thrusters, or the glint of her hull, anything that would tell me where she had gone. After a moment, about a click above me, there was a small hole in the center of a large cloud, still ruffling from the force of a craft.
              “There you are,” I muttered. Without wasting a second, I yanked back on the yoke and stomped on my hydro switch, listening with relish as the thrusters kicked in and shot my ship straight up, and I aimed the nose right for the same hole Audra had made. As I entered the cloud, I immediately began feeling the turbulence, tossing around my guts and rattling my bolts and welds. Thankfully, it only lasted a few seconds before I emerged on the topside of the cloud. Kicking off the thrusters, I cast a glance in every direction again. Sure enough, in the distance to the port side, flying almost perpendicular to the heading she had been on, was the
Mistress
, speeding away above the clouds. Punching my throttle, I hammered my thrusters once more, until I was just a few seconds behind her.
              I finally released a breath that I didn’t realize I was holding, and panted with relief, leaning back in my chair. I don’t know how, but she had clearly known I was following her. Looking down at my compass only confirmed it. We were now on a totally different heading than before. There was no doubt in my mind that she had planned it. She allowed me to follow her. Did she know all along that I would? Or did she just assume that there would be
someone
that would? Either way, she had intentionally led me in the wrong direction, and then tried to lose me before heading somewhere else.
              “Good plan,” I admitted aloud. I wish I could have seen her face when she realized it had failed. I wanted to feel smug, to pat myself on the back for staying with her despite her cunning ploy. In reality, though, if I had returned to the cockpit just ten seconds later than I had, she would have been gone, and I would have been irrevocably lost. Was there some way that she was able to see me? Had she known that I was away from the stick when she went booming into the clouds? She almost had to. Her timing was impossibly good. Too good.
              With the lowering sun now slightly off my port side, the tinted lenses darkened on the new goggles that Nichols had given me, which shielded my eyes from the ultraviolet rays. I took a few deep breaths, willing my heartbeat to return to normal, and wondered where Rigel had gone. Was he still behind me? If he hadn’t been watching, he was lost. No question. Even so, he should have seen the vapor trails from my thrusters. He would definitely have followed them. I was tempted to climb up to my roof hatch and poke my head out to try and spot him, but there was no way I was leaving this cockpit again. I wasn’t going to give Audra another chance to get away. No matter what kind of pain or discomfort I was in, I was not going to get out of this chair, not until we arrived at our first stop.
              As it so happened, our destination was only about twenty minutes away. My legs hadn’t even had the chance to fall asleep when New Eden came into view, emerging from the clouds like a mythical palace. I had only heard stories about the place. From Sparks, mostly. I had seen a few sketches of it, but I had never been there before in person, and I wasn’t prepared for just how magnificent it was.
              New Eden had to be roughly two miles across, and was colored completely white, most likely to blend in with the sky. I was glad that the cloud cover was relatively moderate. If it had been any heavier, the city would have been almost impossible to spot. It was circular in shape, just like every other floating city in the Dominion, but it had six massive, white spikes that curved up around the edges of the metropolis with their ends tapered to points at the top. Together, they made the entire city look almost like a colossal, closed tulip flower. In between the ‘petals’, I could see perfectly stacked high-rise buildings, which rose up, becoming narrower in incremental levels. On each level of these buildings, as the sections got smaller, there was space toward the edges, which had been filled by green trees and bushes. The city looked almost like a forest that had ascended into the sky. Aside from the blindingly white façade, green was the only other color visible.
              Half of the entire space of the city was dedicated to their arboretum, which grew most of the fruits and vegetables for the entire Dominion. Every city had their own smaller versions of it, and people often kept their own gardens, but the majority of all the crops that were consumed came from this city alone. Where Rainier supplied ore and minerals from the mountain, New Eden supplied the fruits and vegetables that kept most people alive.
              I was so busy gawking at the city that I almost lost track of Audra again. She had dipped down below the thin layer of clouds and was rounding the side of the city. I didn’t know just where the docks were in this place, so I had to continue following her. As I went, I began to feel a familiar nervousness creeping into my chest. Reaching up, I pulled my radio cord down and jacked it into my helmet, listening to the chatter that I was picking up.
              “The first of the racers are coming in now!” shouted an unfamiliar voice. It wasn’t Lex or Reed, so it had to be some local commentator from New Eden. I didn’t wait around for any of his announcements, though. I immediately reached up and switched off of the civilian band and scanned the tower frequencies. I only had to search for a moment before finding the low, clear voices that I needed.
              Flipping on my microphone, I cleared my throat. “New Eden, this is the
Cloud Kicker
on final approach. Requesting permission to dock.”
              At once, a calm, male voice came back to me. “Copy that,
Cloud Kicker
. We have you on final. Cradle number two is open for you.”
              “Roger,” I croaked out, turning my microphone off before I had the chance to let my trepidation show. Still following Audra, since I knew she was headed for cradle number one, I spotted the giant “2” that had been painted red to stand out against the white metal of the docks.
              I flipped the switch to power up my VTOL turbines, and throttled way back on my main engine before killing it all together. There was a stiff breeze, though, billowing around the edges of the city. It was nothing I hadn’t dealt with before, but it took me a moment longer to properly position the
Kicker
on the cradle. At last second, I reached down next to my seat and cranked the lever to lower my landing gear. As I was touching down, I saw Audra shooting across the whiteness like an arrow as she cleared the cradle and made her way up onto the docks.
              Voices were still in my ears as I shut down my turbines. “New Eden,
Foxire
is on final approach. May I land in your lovely city?”
             
Darby,
I thought as I pulled the cord from my helmet. I was momentarily glad to hear her voice, but I quickly remembered that she was my competition now. Regardless of how pleasant she was outside of the race, I needed to stay ahead of her. Audra was already pulling too far away.
              Spinning around in my chair, I quickly slung open my main hatch and dropped onto the sturdy cradle that I’d been assigned. Immediately, there was a young worker there, giving me a nod with a large mask over his pale face. I assumed it was likely to help filter out the exhaust fumes, a luxury that would probably never be seen in Adams.
              “Your ship will be refueled at once,” he said. “Any hydrogen tanks you wish to fill, as well?”
              “Two in the back for my thrusters!” I shouted, already running away from the
Kicker
. I didn’t even thank him for helping me, or for letting me know I’d be getting free fuel. I was glad for it. My tank was mostly empty, as it was, but I was too busy trying to find Audra among the sudden crowd of people that was beginning to gather along the outer edge of the docks.
              As I drew nearer to them, I noticed that the citizens of this city all wore very subdued colors, various greens and browns. There was an occasional blue shirt or overcoat, but they were mostly calmer, like the colors of trees and soil. Despite the tones, the clothing was all very well made, custom-tailored, by the look of some. These people were just the common townsfolk here, but they would have appeared as royalty to the citizens of the Gap.
              I felt odd as I ran past them. I could see their faces lighting up, their smiles widening at the sight of me. Did they know who I was? Or were they just excited that the race had come to their city? There were no signs here, no ribbons or confetti, no flags, nothing of the sort. There was a lively spirit, but they hadn’t sullied their city’s appearance with race memorabilia. I admired that. I even managed to wave to a few of them as I passed by, which sent many of them - the teenage boys, especially - into fits of laughter and cheering.
              Ahead of me, I was able to see Audra just up the street ahead of me, dashing around the edge of a large, rectangular building, which was just as white as the rest of the city. As I got closer, though, I could see the slight wear on the façade. Dirt stains, streaks from a recent rain, even small cracks where the white paint was beginning to falter. If I hadn’t been so focused on the details, I might have noticed the long, slender arm that shot out from the back corner of the building and slammed across my chest.
              The impact was impressive. My upper body was stopped instantly, but my legs had tried to keep running, which resulted in me slamming down hard on my back, feeling the air burst out of my lungs as I landed. I also felt the back of my head bounce off the ground like a piece of old rubber. My throat let out a choked, raspy groan and I blinked my eyes repeatedly, trying to keep the blackness in my vision at bay. Before I could even ponder what had happened, Audra Carina was looming down over me, her face just inches from mine. I felt her slender fingers clench around my jaw like a vice, holding my head to make sure I was looking at her.
              She was sweating, and her dark eyes were wild, burning with cold fury. “Always watch your corners, kid. And
stop
!” she spat, waiting a moment before calmly adding, “following me. This race is so dangerous, Silver. Unless you want to end up like mum and dad, you will stay
off
my tail!”
              I could feel her sweet perfume wafting over my face. Or was it her breath? I couldn’t tell in my dazed state. Either way, it didn’t seem right, smelling something so pleasant while staring at a woman so malicious. She was beautiful, but she was dark. I didn’t enjoy having her so close to me. Thankfully, in a flash, she was gone, taking her sickeningly sweet scent with her.
              Finally able to draw a steady breath, I coughed and slowly rolled onto my side, breathing deeply a few more times before slowly pushing myself to my feet. I suddenly felt weaker than ever. She had caught me off guard and had completely incapacitated me with one hit. I suddenly despised her more than I had ever despised anyone. And that was saying something. As I spun around in a circle, however, I realized that she was gone. I had lost her.
              “Oh, no,” I breathed. Which way had she run? I closed my eyes, trying to remember, but I found nothing. I couldn’t even recall hearing her footsteps as she left. I cursed to myself and took off at a wobbly run, rubbing a hand over the throbbing spot on the back of my head. There wasn’t a lump, but it sure did hurt. I would have loved to have given her an identical sore spot, but I truly had no idea where she had gone. The streets of the city were relatively empty. I wasn’t sure if it was because of the race, but there didn’t seem to be much going on. Maybe everyone was just down at the docks.
              As I stumbled through the perfectly straight, symmetrical streets, I did encounter a few people. They stared at me in awe, but kept to themselves. I wanted to ask them where I was supposed to go - or even ask for a drink of water - but I knew as well as they did that assisting the contestants was strictly forbidden in the race. All I could do was toddle my way through streets and alleys that looked identical. Even the buildings blurred together, white on white, a blank maze that gave no hint of direction. The only thing I could use to orient myself was the periodic roar of the crowd in the distance, cheering as each new racer landed on the docks.
              I felt the urgency rising within me. Several people had landed since I had been searching, and I was no closer to finding where I needed to be. What was I even looking for? Audra? Some other contestant that I could follow? Every second that passed brought me more frustration, more panic. Was I going to do this the entire race? Follow other people? As I poked my head out of an alley onto a wider, more populated street, I emerged right in front of another woman, who had to stop short to keep from plowing into me.
              “Elana!” Darby shouted, a smile lighting up the pale skin of her face. The first thing I noticed was the lack of falcons on her. Apart from that, I saw that she was breathing heavily, just as I was, and looked just as lost. I knew she was my competition, but at that moment, I was unbelievably glad to see her.
              “Darby!” I shouted back, resisting the strange urge to hug her.
              “Did you figure out that silly clue?” she asked, sounding desperate.