Earthbound, p.4
Earthbound, page 4
“No. Keep going,” she said between breaths.
He pulled them under a nearby building and navigated through the stilted supports. They emerged a street over, and Knox pointed, a half grin pulling at his cheek. She followed his line of sight to a messenger hovercraft.
“Loghin pulled everyone from the lower fields this morning, so I figured Rayn’s craft would be parked.”
His eyes glinted with no small amount of pride.
“How very clever of you,” she said.
The small machine had a bench seat across the front and few comforts, but a generous motor. Its flatbed was wider than the cab section and was used for an endless variety of tasks around the cluster. Knox jogged ahead and started the machine.
Emilia reached for the roll bar and pulled herself into the vehicle.
Before he engaged the drive, he flashed her a pleading look. “Any chance you want to stay with your mother? I could drop you off there first.” Worry lay in tension lines around his mouth.
“Enough,” she said, giving his hand a quick squeeze. “We go together or not at all.”
He nodded, considering her words. “The baby?”
She noted his poorly concealed concern. “They are tucked in safe and sound. As you said this morning, we are the same now; the normal amount of fragile.”
He let out a breath and a wry-sounding chuckle. “So I did.”
Bless the Sky, this man was her everything. He knew her, heart and soul, and made her infinitely brave. Why doesn’t he want me to go with him to the Capital? She couldn’t help but feel unnerved by his not-so-subtle manoeuvring with Tehran. The only reason that made any sense was the trip presented a greater danger than he let on. She pushed the conversation from her mind. They would discuss it later, and she would join him. She’d never let him face the Order on his own again.
Emilia glanced at Knox as he drove through the cluster, a cloud of dust tracking behind them. His brow creased and his lips pressed into a thin line. Something had him deep in thought, but she’d learned long ago Knox often needed time, not prompting.
As they cleared the edge of town, he finally spoke. “I don’t think we are equally fragile—yet.”
She raised an eyebrow curiously. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I am still—connected maybe?—to the Sky.” He glanced at her from the side of his eye. “I was disavowed, but I feel a remnant of something. Maybe because I laid down my power rather than breaking my oath or an assurance, it’s different?”
She glanced at the scar on his hand, the words sour in the back of her throat. “You aren’t healing. They made sure you were no longer an Overseer.”
He seemed unperturbed. “It’s definitely not the Sky’s power, but more a sense she hasn’t completely abandoned me.”
Emilia’s stomach flipped at the thought of him holding onto any piece of those who abandoned him—deity or not. Knox directed the craft onto the path leading to the upper fields and towards the sound of the alarm. The road opened, and he accelerated. Emilia’s eyes traced his face, a mix of concentration and excitement moving across his features. The afternoon sun pulled at the hints of red in his beard and hair. His straight nose and strong jaw were handsome even in profile.
“Best I can equate it to is the power we have as Acolytes before taking our full vows, but instead of the invulnerability Acolytes carry, I’ve been left with residual strength. Maybe there is always a remnant,” Knox mused, raising his voice over the rush of wind as they passed through a grove of fruit trees.
The hopeful lilt to his voice stabbed at her. She wanted to believe he could hold onto even a small piece of his former self, but as far as she could tell, the Order never gave anything without strings attached. “You deserve far more.”
A flicker of doubt crossed his features. “Maybe not, but at least I can still serve.” He flashed her a smile, a sparkle returning to the silvery grey of his eyes.
Dread gathered in a knot at her throat, and she gripped the roll bar tighter. He would always stand between others and danger regardless of whether he had the Sky’s strength behind him or not.
“I’ll be careful, Em. I have far too much to live for to throw it away being reckless.” He glanced at her and reached for her hand, giving it a squeeze. “I don’t know how I ever got so lucky as to have you.”
His smile loosened the bands of worry around her chest. She loved that smile. It was warm and open, a side of himself he showed very few people.
“You are pretty lucky,” she teased.
A chuckle broke through, and he rolled his eyes.
As the road climbed, maples and oaks vibrant in the greens of summer stretched toward the light, creating a canopy over the road before they suddenly gave way to sky and the sharp relief of the Resolute Mountains cutting into the blue. Here, plateaued fields were used to grow hardy varieties of mountain grains, which would be turning golden in the coming weeks. Knox slowed as they climbed from a depression of one of the low foothills.
Voices yelling, the hum of other hovercraft, and most disturbingly, the sound of earth moving echoed across the veldt. It came in the scratching note of a metal tool through dirt or the echo of rocks rolling down a loose cliff face, but louder. The harsh grating of stone on stone filled her chest. Knox threw her a worried look and pushed the vehicle forward.
They crested the rise to the worked land of the plateau and Emilia tried to make sense of what she was seeing. Chaos reigned. The once-planted field had been transformed into a rough sea. Mounds of earth had been tossed skyward and reformed into cascading waves, frozen towers on the once-flat surface. Hovercraft zipped over the rough terrain, ferrying workers out of the squall. The unlucky ones remained trapped in the violent earth, limbs captured in their retreat and held fast as earth solidified.
Desperate cries pressed like knives into Emilia’s gut, and she spotted Tehran running into the churned field, clambering over the incongruent peaks and valleys as fast as he could manage towards a young woman who was trapped.
“There!” Emilia pointed Knox toward Tehran. The girl had been caught in the roll of a wave, her body pinned near the surface. Her face was half pressed into the dirt with only one arm free, desperately clawing at the solid earth.
Tehran dropped next to her and joined the effort to dig free the soil nearest her head. The girl wriggled as he pulled great scoops of dirt away from her face with his hands. Her chest broke free a moment later, and he grabbed under her arms and heaved her out of the ground.
Knox pushed forward, engines whining with strain. She could tell from his expression that he was taking in the field with an analytical eye, triaging the whole scene.
Tehran spotted them, and with the girl’s hands clasped around his neck, he crouched and launched himself out of the dip in the ground. Knox guessed his trajectory and stopped short of Tehran’s landing.
Tehran’s amber eyes blazed as he stepped up to the craft. “It’s still here. It resurfaced a moment ago.”
That sound they heard must have been the creature. Emilia shuddered. Tehran lay the dirt-caked girl onto the flat deck of the craft. She sat up stunned, tears streaming down her face.
“Come up here with me,” Emilia said, shifting tight next to Knox and patting the seat. On shaky limbs the girl climbed through the open roll frame and gripped the side bar. Emilia rubbed her back, murmuring assurances. Up close she realized she knew the young woman. The youngest Leven girl? “Winnie, right? You’re safe now.”
The girl’s eyes flicked to Emilia at her name, and she gave a sharp nod before her eyes returned to scanning the landscape. Tehran grimaced as he hopped up on the flat deck and crouched down, hanging on to the back of their seats. “We’ve seen two more liquefaction points since we started pulling people from the field.”
“The granits?” Knox asked.
Tehran’s mouth pulled tight, and he gave a sharp shake to his head. “Bigger.”
Bigger? They had nothing bigger in the Mercurial. A cold dread curled in Emilia’s gut.
“Let’s get those we can to safety quickly then,” Knox said. He started a search formation while Emilia and Tehran kept their eyes on the ruined field. Earthbound impacted matter around them, usually in a bubble two to three times their size. By the traces left behind, this beast was truly enormous, much larger than the one Tehran and Knox had described in the lower field.
Liquefaction astounded Emilia. The fact that creatures of the earth could fluidize solid matter while maintaining its distinct physical properties boggled the mind. Soil remained soil but moved as liquid around the beasts. For reasons unknown, plants and organic matter remained unchanged.
“How many are missing?” Knox asked.
“At least a dozen,” Tehran answered. “Loghin brought all the crews up here to work in safety. Being near the mountain he didn’t think anything bigger than a skuttle could get close.”
Emilia’s eyes prickled with tears, and she noticed Knox’s jaw flex in similar emotion. She wove her fingers into his and gripped his hand tight, turning her knuckles white.
“Head to the irrigation sub-station. It’s safe amongst the dense groves of trees.” Tehran motioned with his head toward the far end of the field. “Em, they could use some help organizing people, and figuring out who we are still missing. I know you—”
“I can do it,” she said.
Knox redirected the craft and made for the trees, the engine’s whine increasing in pitch. He gave her a side-eyed glance, and she could read the relief in his posture. “Thanks, Em.”
She cast a meaningful look at the deformed field. “I’ll be of more use off the field. Be careful out there—we have a fight to finish later.”
He pulled an exaggerated grimace and snorted. “I knew we weren’t done with that.”
She squeezed his arm. “Of course we’re not. I’m never letting you go without a fight.”
He slowed the craft as they neared the field’s edge, hazarding a quick look in her direction and holding her gaze for an extended beat. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Moments later, Emilia stood with those at the pump station, her arm around Winnie, and watched the small craft skipping back across the rough earth, carrying the culmination of her heart’s dreams out into the earth’s tempest.
Leap
Tehran
Tehran muttered a curse as Loghin’s thick frame waved them down from atop a crest. Knox slowed the craft and shot a wary look Tehran’s direction.
“Was that Winnie you brought in?” Loghin shouted as they pulled next to him.
Tehran nodded. “Safe. Nothing but shaken up.”
Loghin’s whole bearing sagged in relief. “Thank the everlasting Sky.”
“Hop on,” Knox said, with a tip of his head to the flatbed.
Loghin’s features picked up familiar edges, scowling. “Not on your life. I’d rather ride with the infernal Earth goddess herself than the likes of you.”
“If you’re not getting on, then get out of the way,” Tehran snapped. “People are dying while you’re basting in your self-righteous vitriol.”
With a curse, Loghin turned and spat into the earth, taking a step back.
Without further encouragement Knox had the craft shooting toward the centre of the field. “Self-righteous vitriol?” he asked, laughing. “Where did you pick that up? Sounds like something Patrem Solace would have said to your father.”
The laughter that should have come remained locked in his chest. He usually welcomed banter, but in this moment where lives rested on his shoulders, it felt trivial.
“I’m going to run down the furrows. Stay on the outside edge of these largest crests and I’ll meet you at the far north corner of the field.”
Knox dipped his head in ascent. “Got it. If you need me, signal and I’ll be there.”
◆◆◆
Tehran jogged down into a jagged depression, searching for signs of survivors. The sound of Knox’s craft melted into the distance, leaving the field eerily silent. Earth folded like heavily starched fabric, holding at impossible angles. Ahead, a fleshy protrusion jutted from a low swell, and he pulled at the packed soil until he could make out an elbow. The skin was cold, and when he searched for a pulse, he found nothing. He dug at the earth, and it piled around his feet. The least he could do was bring this poor soul home to their family.
Sharp rocks and pressed earth cut at his hands. Raw flesh mended as quickly as it tore, the cost exacted in the momentary pain of each wound. Patrem Solace’s words came to mind unbidden and with it a memory.
The function of pain is empathy. Accept it; remember it.
As the elder by a few months, Knox had been the first to grab the glowing iron billet from the fire. Tehran had followed suit and clutched the one next to it. The first oaths an Acolyte took, affirming their connection to the Sky, made them impervious to injury.
Injury, but not pain. They dared not disobey. Their Patrem’s word was law.
The skin touching the iron had seared in agony and deadened almost instantaneously. The surrounding tissue had not been as merciful, sending waves of gut churning pain up Tehran’s arm in a violent rush. His knees gave out, and tears coursed down his cheeks in rivers.
At Solace’s word, the two half-cooled billets dropped to the ground and he and Knox had stared at their hands in shock. No damage betrayed the torment. No echoes of the debilitating sensations pulsed through his limbs. Impervious yet vulnerable.
They would both grow to learn pain left its own scars on a soul, invisible but no less impactful. From this moment forward, Patrem Solace never shied from exposing Knox or Tehran to the hard truths of the world, their lives—their comfort and safety—were secondary to preparing them each to serve as Overseers. Tehran once proudly believed his oaths represented the highest calling.
And now? Knox held no such oaths and yet served. He drove his hand into the rocky soil, letting the sting of scraped flesh push back the questions. Tehran fumbled for a grip on the still body. No one deserved to be left locked within soil like a discarded root.
A tremble ran beneath his feet.
The sound of crashing rock swelled beneath him like an oncoming storm, and he launched himself into the air.
An earthbound beast crested, liquefaction pooling outward with incredible speed. Tehran knew the creature was large, but nothing could have prepared him for the sight of its massive, diamond-shaped head breaching the surface. Easily the size of a building, it stretched forward on an equally powerful neck. The creature’s oversized movements were discordantly graceful within the fluidic soil. Its open jaws snapped at the ground he’d been standing on a moment earlier, swallowing the body he’d been trying to reclaim.
His instinct to jump had saved his life, but his escape plan was quickly losing merit as he began falling back towards the ground. Even as he fell, Tehran could not process the scope of what he was seeing. It might as well have been a moving hill rather than a beast. From this height he could make out the individual plates of armour it wore as skin and the iridescent pits along its sides.
His only hope was to land on the beast’s bulbous back and jump again before the ground could take him. A thrill of terror coursed down his spine. He wasn’t going to make it. There was little Tehran could do to control his vector at this point, and he was going to miss the earthbound by at least several strides. All the strength and invulnerability he possessed would not save him if he was trapped within the earth.
A frenzied whine and streak of silver shot beneath him. His feet hit the deck of a hovercraft.
Knox looked back over his shoulder. “Jumping straight up? Really?”
Tehran choked out a breathless laugh, relief flooding through him like a fresh breeze. “Seemed like a good idea at the time.”
He dropped to a crouch as Knox crested a bit of earth and caught more air than the craft was strictly designed to handle. The machine dipped low and scraped the ground as he recovered.
“What’s the plan?” Knox asked.
“Let’s give this thing something to focus on other than what’s left in the field.” His stomach churned at the thought of those who would never again be reunited with the Sky.
“Sounds good,” Knox yelled over his shoulder while looking ahead. “The compartment along the deck has tools. It’s as good as we got for now.”
Tehran popped open the compartment and pulled out a long wooden rod with a wedge-shaped iron tip. The reinforced pole was used as a cantilever when doing repairs, but was hardly a weapon. The imbalanced weight made him miss his star mace. If we get through today I gotta get Gorrde to make me a new one. Knox reached the farthest corner of the field, slowed, and turned.
“Wanna try to play catch again?” Tehran asked.
“Read my mind.” Knox eyed the long rod. “Is that thing going to even break its skin?”
Tehran shrugged. “Not likely, but if I hit one of those sensory nodes, maybe we can drive it off.”
Knox raised an eyebrow.
Tehran couldn’t help but laugh. “Where’s your optimism?”
“Optimism?” Knox scoffed. “That left right about the time this thing showed up.”
The near miss with the earthbound had his gift primed and coursing through his veins like a barely contained current, buoying his emotions. The Sky’s power didn’t visibly change the bulk or nature of his body; instead, it manifested as energy and heat flooding through every fibre of his being. Through his oaths, the Sky shared a part of herself with him, improving his senses, giving him strength, speed, and stamina. Protecting him from damage and harm. Each time the warmth filled him, it felt like coming fully awake from a deep sleep.
“Hold out a little hope, will you? We’re buying time. If we can drive it off, Em will come up with something to knock the living earth out of that thing.”
Knox snorted a half laugh. He stared across the distance to the group under the shade of several massive oaks at the far end of the field.
“She’s safe,” Tehran said, reading his thoughts. “Great earthbound or not, it’s avoided the deeply-rooted areas.”
