The whine of the drill started up again.
Loud and shrill, like a painful scream.
Disgust swelled in Karr’s chest. It squeezed at the place where his sword wound should have been. He placed a hand to his chest, falling to one knee.
What was there that Karr could do to turn things back around? Rise up against his brother and Rohtt and the crew? Steal a rifle, shoot the Crossman, and then what?
He’d get nowhere.
He’d never been a fighter.
And down below was an army and a monster king.
“Nothing,” Karr muttered beneath his breath. “You can donothing.”
Because he was a coward. Because he always had been, when it came to truly living. He’d been beneath Jeb’s fist, and then beneath Cade’s, and when he’d tried to run and start a life for himself… well, that escape pod was never a true plan.
He’d come here and he’d died.
And he didn’t know how in thehellhe’d come back to life.
His heartbeat pounded like a war drum, in time with the workers below as they dug into the mountainside. Each hit, his chest tightened, like he couldn’t breathe.
He bent over, leaning against the railing to try to calm himself.
You’re fine. Deep breaths, Karr. It’s all in your head.
But when he sucked in another breath… his lungs failed him. The oxygen readings on his S2 screen were in the green; he shouldn’t be struggling for air. Karr gasped, but again, it felt like nothing entered his lungs. He felt like he wasdrowning,pressed beneath the heavy weight of water.
“Cade.”He gasped his brother’s name into the com.
Only static answered.
“Cade.”
He barely got the word out as he stumbled towards the door, his vision filled with flecks of white. A few more paces, and he’d reach the door. Another thirty seconds, for the airlock to clear and open the door wide.
He wouldn’t make it inside.
Karr’s legs went out from under him just as he reached the door. He stretched, trying to reach the lock panel.
Breathe!his body commanded him. But he was suffocating, buried alive inside his helmet.
Some part of him still tried to hold on as his body reacted on instinct, reaching for the latches on the back of his helmet. He flipped the latches and yanked the helmet free, then took a gasping breath of Dohrsaran air.
He’d expected pain. He’d expected his lungs to fold inwards and revolt against the poisonous alien atmosphere,but at least he’d be able to take a single breath, get himself inside the airlock and pay the consequences in the med bay.
Instead…
Karr took another breath. It was dry air, the kind you’d expect from a land made of sand and no sea. But it was not painful.
If anything, it wasfresh,a far cry from the air inside the helmet, and certainly the air inside theStarfall,which always held a hint of metal to its taste.
Karr turned and hauled himself to his feet as he stared out at the planet. He risked another breath. The wind sighed gently by, tickling his skin. He could feel his heart, a steady beat inside. It was almost calm.Almost,if it weren’t for the sound of the hammers and the drill below.
Beat, hammer, beat…
Beat.
