“I will.” She touched the scar on the side of his face and smiled.
He helped boost her into the saddle and handed her the reins. He remained where he stood and watched as they rode out of the compound and turned south, in the direction the storm and the naydo had taken. It wouldn’t be hard to follow its trail. The gigantic windstorm had left a swath of scorched earth nearly a hundred yards wide, and miles long. Miles that disappeared into the distance, seemingly without end. They hoped they’d find Mattox somewhere along that trail, if not at the end of it.
Atty glanced over at him one more time before nudging her mare forward. In his head floated the feeling of optimism. It was her way of telling him to have faith. With her leading the group, he did.
It wasn’t until they were out of sight that Yulen returned to work.
* * *
The warmthof the morning sun awoke him. Mattox shielded his eyes from the glare and tried to get his bearings. He discovered he was lying on a section of roof, as he’d suspected last night. The approximately nine-by-ten-foot piece rested on top of a tall bush no more than five or so feet off the ground. The shield he’d felt beside him sat at an angle against the roof. He guessed he’d either landed on the roof, or he and the roof had ended up together on the bush.
Either way, he’d been damned lucky. Including the fact that the shield could have sliced into him like an axe.
He attempted to sit up again, when the roof tilted, and his body began to slide off. He realized at the last second that his legs wouldn’t obey him, and he landed heavily on his side.
Pain unlike anything he’d ever felt went through him, stealing breath and all thought from him. He gasped and cried out as the agony continued to pour through him. Beating the ground with his fist, he fought against the pulsing fire until it eventually faded to the point where it was bearable.
He tried to reach down and feel his legs, and to discover what was causing the numbness. His hands encountered the warmth of blood, but his body didn’t register his hands. Not until he touched his waist.
Sunlight glanced off the metallic shield, shining the blinding rays directly into his face. With a bit of juggling, Mattox managed to prop the object to where it kept the sun from blistering him.
“There. Do your job.”
His voice was hoarse, his throat tight and dry. He was rapidly becoming dehydrated, and he needed to find some water. Only the question wasn’t where. It was how in the hell would he be able to get to it?
His head swam. It had to be because of blood loss. He considered crawling underneath what slim protection the roof could afford him. “You can at least crawl, can’t you, D’Jacques?”
He sniffed the warm air. There was no scent of rain, or any sense of it. But he did discover that the foreboding pall that had been sitting on top of him for the past couple of days was gone.
“It was the storm. The naydo. That’s what it had been warning me about.”
Tentatively, he tried moving his legs again, only to be hit with a fresh jolt of pain.
“Arrrgh! Ihurt!Fuck this!”
Unable to move, or do anything more, he closed his eyes. Maybe after a little more rest, he’d be able to…
* * *
Something flashed in the distance.Once…twice…thrice… Caralas waited for it to appear a fourth time, but it didn’t show.
Initially, she thought the something shiny was being moved by the wind, which caused the sunlight to reflect off of it, until she remembered there was no wind. The air was still and oppressive in the growing heat.
Even so, she began walking in that direction. It was as good a choice as any she’d made thus far. Although she knew which direction was north because of the sun’s position, it didn’t help. She had no idea which way to go. She didn’t have a clue as to where Alta Novis lay, or any compound, for that matter. She couldn’t tell where a main road was located, much less any other frequented route of travel. And even if she did come across one, which way would she follow it?
“What difference does it make? With a little luck, I’ll eventually come across someone or someplace that can point me in the right direction. Like finding a stream and letting it lead me to a river. Find a road, Caralas. That’s half the battle won right there.”
But first, she had to solve the mystery of the flashing shiny thing.
21
Found
There was more debris in this area than she’d seen previously. Caralas paused to check behind her. The trees also looked shredded, but not completely destroyed. If that monster windstorm had been this way, it must have skimmed over it. Most of the ground-hugging shrubs and bushes looked unscathed, but there was a hellacious amount of crap that thing had sucked up and vomited out along the way.
The flash came again but didn’t repeat itself. She stopped, hoping it would, when something else struck her. What if it was someone who needed help? What if they were signaling, hoping to catch someone’s attention? “Oh, geez, why didn’t I think of that earlier?” She started to pick up her pace, when she heard a voice, faint but clear.
“Arrrgh! Ihurt!Fuck this!”
