“I feel tense just looking at it.” Ethan sounded frustrated.
“I can just imagine what’s happening at headquarters,” Velda agreed, feeling her own stomach clench at the sight. “This is the first overt action against us, ever. Even during the Faladine War we got off lightly, with Arkhor being the main focus of the attacks.”
She was antsy with her need to move. The more she saw the space shower, the more she felt the urgency of getting back to headquarters.
“We’ll need to sleep at some point, but let’s get a good distance from the camp first,” Ethan said.
Because there would be people coming to get them, Velda thought. People in league with these men who had tried to kill or hurt them. It seemed unreal, but she had passed her attacker on their way out, and he was real enough.
When they were far enough away from the camp, Ethan threw the men’s comms units into the bush, and they kept going in the dark.
And all the while, the sky rained pieces of gold.
8
It wasmid-morning when he finally called a halt.
Ethan expected Velda to complain before now, but she had stoically followed him, getting quieter and quieter.
They’d managed a few hours of sleep the night before, on the bank of the river, and had then continued on as dawn broke.
“Rest time.”
She didn’t respond, just took off her pack and sat down where she was standing. Then lay back on the ground.
“You should have told me to stop sooner.” He looked down at her, worried now.
She blinked up at him. “I’m fine.” She sat up, took off her boots and socks, rolled up her trousers, and then scooted on her behind to the edge of the river, which they had finally met up with again.
It was why he had decided to stop here. The water was clear and shallow.
Velda slid into the river bed, and closed her eyes.
“Cold?” he asked.
“Freezing, but my feet are thanking me for it.”
He looked at her boots, and realized they were fancy city boots. The heel was low, and they looked well-made, but hiking material they were not.
He guessed if she had anything more suitable in her personal pack, she would have put them on.
When he looked back up at her, he saw she was watching him.
“If I needed you to slow down, or if my boots were hurting me, I’d have said.” She heaved herself back onto the bank and wiggled her toes. “I’m your boss, remember?”
“I remember.” He grinned, crouching beside her, and picked up one of her feet. He studied it, just in case.
She was right, her feet were fine. He began to knead the one he was holding and she groaned and lay back down again.
“Keep going,” she demanded. “And that’s an order.”
He chuckled, massaged the other one, and then reached for his pack to get the pot for some water.
She sat up again, cross-legged, and sorted through the meals. “You ever been this deep into the range?” she asked.
“No.” The mountains were all around them, now. So far, they had managed to find a way through that was fairly easy going, dipping down to the river a few times, but mainly sticking to the ridge just above it.
At some point they’d leave the river behind them, as it rose to its source, but hopefully they’d pick up a new stream running in the opposite direction eventually.
