The Naga gathered between us and Levant’s tent were very different from what he looked like. Perhaps they had been here in the cold for a very long time, because they had evolved to have a pelt. Thick, pale fur covered their long, sinuous bodies, and jagged spikes rose from their shoulders that looked like ice crystals. I saw large pale eyes, even paler manes fanning out around their faces, and otherwise a lot of bone spears and little else. No clothing, no gear, just… bone and fur.
“There shouldn’t be any Nage here. This is impossible!” Levant said, and I shuffled a little closer to him because I felt like those pale eyes watching us were turning hostile. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders, and the two of us moved sideways, as if we were going to try to circle around them as we moved away from the hole. Forget the winch, forget my ship, it was clear as day we needed to put as much distance as we could between these guys, the Burrower thing, and ourselves.
They turned with us, tracking our movement, spears of bone jutting our way, not quite pointed but almost. A few sleds were haphazardly pulled together beyond the crowd of perhaps three dozen bizarre-looking aliens. Naga, like Levant, yet clearly not. I’d been confused by Levant’s blend of technology and much more barbaric tools—like the furs, the stone knife, and the laser knife he wore on his belt. These guys did not appear to have any technology at all. They were barbarians, pure and simple.
Barbarians, we might have interrupted some kind of sacred ritual, because some guy with tribal paint all over him was roaring in fury. Beyond him, a mountain of fish had been spread out in the grove the Burrower had made when digging the first hole toward my ship. “Are they?” I began to whisper, and flinched back when spears went up. “Are they sacrificing fish to that hole-digging Revenant?”
“It appears so,” Levant whispered back. He seemed as stunned as I was, perhaps more so because I knew nothing of his world, and he’d been convinced there was no one here at all. “I need to report this to the Shaman Council,” he added. “A lost Clan… I can’t believe it.” Not just lost, from the looks of it, but savage. They were beginning to work themselves into a rage, milling together, shaking their spears, and roaring. Unlike Levant, I could not understand a thing they said, and I wondered if they could even talk at all.
Then the Burrower approached, and for the first time I saw it. No wonder Levant had been absolutely certain there was no dealing with that beast. Not that it was an actual beast, that much was obvious the moment I saw it. It still reminded me of one, simply because it was so massive, and it moved across the ice like a worm. In a straight line, its body silently spinning,and the front shaped like a massive, gaping maw. This thing was the size of a skyscraper, which made that skyscraper-sized hole make sense. Holy Hannah, I’d never seen something that big move before. No wonder these strange, savage-looking ice Naga guys were worshiping it! It must look like a god to them.
Blue glowed from the depths of the spinning maw-thing, and I half-expected there to be the sound of thunder. The creature was oddly quiet, though, extremely so. You would not even know it was there unless you were, like we were, staring right at it. It was a little terrifying how quiet it was, in fact, but I did not think it would stay that quiet if and when it turned its maw down into the ice and crunched a path through it.
The savage Naga were getting out of its path in a hurry, their tribal leader furiously waving his spear around. They were turning on us, and I didn’t think running to Levant’s camp was going to be enough to keep us safe. He might have more high-tech gadgets there, but they’d cut through the tent walls like it was butter. “What do we do?” I asked. Both of us had continued our sideways, circular shuffle, but at the approach of the Revenant, Levant halted.
“We can’t outrun them,” he said. His expression had turned grim, far grimmer than when the tunnel had threatened to collapse on us, and that had been pretty dire. The fur-covered Naga all appeared to be male, and they looked pretty damn angry. The Revenant was also still steadily moving forward, and it matched what Levant had said: some were just built for destruction. This one seemed to churn through everything in its path, and that included the pile of fish these savage aliens had laid in its way.
“Back into the hole. Perhaps the Burrower won’t destroy your ship, but will pass by again, like it did last time…” Levant sounded like he didn’t believe his own words. His tail was already back at the edge of the hole, too, sliding against the rim. We had to make up our minds, right now.
“I don’t mean to be alarmist,” Auby chose that moment to say, loudly, “but those Naga look like they want to eat us for lunch and use our bones as toothpicks. I think they’ve devolved somehow. Is that possible? Can Naga devolve?” He hadn’t backed up as much as we had, and he stood like a fluffy purple blob between us and the approaching horde. I wanted to reach for him, but Levant held me back, as if he feared that even the slightest motion forward would set off an attack. He could be right, but I hated it. He’d be difficult to digest, but surely Auby looked like dinner on six legs to them.
“I don’t like our odds going back into that hole,” I said. Weirdly enough, I had a thing about heights, the kind you could fall down. A slope, a stair, the edge of a balcony, that kind of thing. Once in my plane or jet, height didn’t matter; it was certain death if you crashed, and I found that a relief. Rolling down into that massive hole, half slide, half fall, would hurt like hell, but we might survive it only to be in agony. No thanks.
“What about the machine? Can you try to access it with your tablet?” Levant looked at me as if I’d just told him water could burn. The Revenant was approaching, and pretty soon it was going to force the savage Naga to move aside entirely. They wouldn’t attack us if we were directly in its path, but being in its path was certain death if we couldn’t somehow stop it.
“I can’t control the Burrower! No one’s ever tried. I mean, now would be a really good time to do it, and I’d like nothing better, but I’m not all-powerful… I can’t.” Levant tucked his clenched fingers around the hilt of one of his knives, but he did not pull it free from his belt just yet. His arm also tightened around my shoulders, and I had this sudden feeling he was preparing to toss us both into that hole. The stubborn bastard would take the brunt of the fall, too; I just knew that’s what he’d do, and I hated how the thought made me feel warm inside.
“Are you indicating Digmaster 6-20D?” Auby piped up. “I have its passcodes. Do you want access right now?” I blinked, then reached up to wipe snow from my face with slightly soggy fur mittens. Had the tiny robo cow just said what I thought it had said? We had no time to hesitate; the Burrower was getting closer, and the Naga were about to charge and chase us into the hole. Still, I found myself glancing away from Auby to meet Levant’s eyes.
“Yes, the Digmaster. Can you halt it and… make it chase away the savage Naga without harming them?” Levant said. Auby shook its furred head, ears flicking back and forth, its long, shaggy tail sweeping through the snow. That appeared to be a very definitive no, but the little fellow made a cheerful prancing circle as if that was a good thing.
“No, but I can open its doors and let you into the control room. Does that help? Boo, those Naga look like they’re about to attack! Let me fix that.” He hunched down into the snow, bowing all six legs, and then his eyes flashed with a bright blue light. A noise like an air raid siren exploded from his cute pink mouth next. I screamed in pain and covered my ears. I think Levanthowled in agony too, but I couldn’t tell. In any case, the guy threw his hands over my ears, not his own. So very noble of him.
As the sound let up, I discovered that it had done exactly as Auby had no doubt intended. The savage Naga had scattered in all directions. He’d scared them off, but it wouldn’t take them long to regroup. Already, they were circling back and raising their spears.
“Yes, Auby!” I shouted, even though the ringing in my ears hadn’t let up. “Let us into the control room right now!” Auby gave me this smirk over his furry shoulder that said he’d known that, but he was going to take his time, relishing the moment. He seemed very fond of being the one coming to our rescue right now.
With a hissing noise, the kind hydraulic brakes made, the Burrower came to a halt, and something whirred and clicked just behind the terrifyingly huge drill head. A door opened, or rather, a hatch. It wasn’t very big, just a round hole suddenly spiraling open like an iris. I wasn’t sure, because I still hadn’t fully recovered my hearing, but I was pretty sure this infuriated the savage Naga even more.
Levant wasn’t quite steady as we rushed forward, his big, way too long body swaying and curling awkwardly through the snow. That arm around my shoulders that had previously felt like safety, like he meant to protect me, now felt heavy. I was almost, but not quite, pulling some of his weight to help him close the distance between us and what I hoped was safety.
The hatch was high up, I couldn’t reach it, and there were no convenient steps or handholds. I suspected this was because themassive, worm-shaped body rolled and shifted when it was in motion; it was just a matter of chance where the hatch ended up. Not helpful right now, how were we going to get in? That dark gap tempted me with safety, and already, I was beginning to hear again, and what I heard wasn’t good. Shouts, screams, growls, and howls. The savages were preparing to charge; perhaps they thought they needed to protect their god. Not good.
Levant picked me up so abruptly that I screamed, and, more surprisingly, he lifted me high on his tail. That hole was no longer so distant, and though he swayed and I feared he’d drop me, he managed to toss me through the hatch. I scrambled to my hands and knees, turned around in the very dark and very narrow passage, and was just in time to catch Auby when the calf was tossed in after me.
We had to grab hold of both of Levant’s arms to pull him in after us, his big backpack nearly getting him stuck in the opening. He had blood, dark red, on the side of his face. I could see that because Auby had lit a blue light behind his eyes again, using them like a pair of headlights to illuminate everything. There was a ladder against the wall behind me, where the narrow passage abruptly changed angle and went straight up. I hooked my arm around one of the rungs and pulled harder. With a tearing noise, Levant ripped free and managed to haul the rest of him into the small passage.
It didn’t really fit; it wasn’t meant to fit a human, a tiny Revenant, and a full-grown Naga male. I was forced to climb up the ladder, even though I could not see where it was headed. “Are you okay?” I asked, and when the answer was some kind of hissing noise I could not decipher, I realized it was the first time in hours that he’d let go of me entirely. How quickly I’d gottenused to a curl of his tail or a touch of his hand being on me at all times, it felt strange to discover I was without it now. Wrong, even. I didn’t want to miss out on a single thing he said, even if it was just “yes, I’m fine” or “damn it, Auby, a warning would have been nice.”
The ladder wasn’t very tall, only six rungs led up to another round opening. This one was already open, but I had a feeling that was Auby’s doing as well. Beyond it was a room, a small room with a low ceiling. Lights glowed very faintly along the edges of the floor and in sinuous, curving strips along the ceiling. When I hauled myself inside, they burned brighter until I could see everything clearly.
A control room, all right. With a bank of windows at the front that probably once looked out over the front end of the worm. They’d been frosted over completely, so it was impossible to see what was happening outside. Much more interesting were the many banks of computers and screens, along with all kinds of controls. From something that looked like the joystick of a gaming console, to wavy-shaped keyboards and panels with switches.
Auby clattered with his little hooves as he appeared through the hole behind me. He pranced into the room with a cheerful noise, circling it and sniffing at corners like he was reacquainting himself. It was a bit dog-like, except he wasn’t a dog; he was a robot. Itwasquite cute to watch.
Levant groaned behind me, and I quickly turned to help him. He’d been smart enough to take his backpack off, and he pushed it into the chamber ahead of him. I helped him crawl through the narrow opening, although it might have been more hindrancethan actual help. “Can you believe this?” I whispered, tingling with both excitement and awe. “I was right! And we actually managed to get inside! You know this means we can dig out my ship, right?”
Levant gave me a nod that was surprisingly grim. Why was he grim? Was he not happy that we got to see the inside of this insane, massive machine? That we could rescue my ship from the ice? I swallowed as I watched him circle the room, hunched low on his tail. It should have looked awkward, but it was obvious there was a good reason the ceiling was not tall enough for me to stand under. A Naga didn’t actually need that height. Levant could perch low on his tail with just as much ease as when he raised himself to tower over me. It was pretty cool.
