“I won’t,” Shy said.
Their rover’s door rested a full four feet off the ground, and even with a stool to stand on, Tayel had to help Jace inside. She stepped up the edge of the car after him, and shimmied in to take her seat. Shy followed in after her, and then Fehn, filling up the back row. The door slammed shut behind them. Only the front windshield and two slatted windows on the sides of the car let in any light.
Tayel fumbled with her harness while Varg filled in the remaining row ahead of her and the two driver’s seats in front. Another two climbed up the sides of the car, their heavy footsteps dull thuds on the roof.
Balcruf turned in the co-driver’s seat. “Everyone ready?”
His kin’s affirmatory howls deafened Tayel, but the pain didn’t drown out the nerves. She tapped a jittery beat against her seat as the floor-to-ceiling high garage doors pulled apart ahead of them. Visible trails of windswept snow sucked inside with the draft, and half a hundred engines roared. They shot into the white plains.
Tayel steadied against the roller coaster motion, grasping at the bench seat in front of her. For minutes, all she could see was white dust and specks of other rovers as the speed sucked her into the backrest. It was when they inclined up a hill she could finally see the sky. Pitch black as ever — as black as space — the sun a slightly larger dot than the rest of the stars. The rover climbed for what felt like forever, until it reached the top and leveled out. A slow, cautious roll that brought them to the edge of the mountain, and into view of the extensive valley below.
Tayel’s heart stopped.
It was the same view in the flexi-screen Otto had given her back on Delta, as though she’d been transported momentarily to the photographer’s spot. Cryzoar stood in the middle of the valley, an enormous, circular wall encasing it from the vast fields of glittering snow. Crystals as large as ships protruded from around the walls, bright pink, green, and blue things twinkling in the light of the moon and stars.
It was the same view. Except for the fires. Except for the raiders. Except for the massive, disc-shaped mothership which overshadowed everything below.
Chapter 27
Tayel could hardly fathom the size of the thing. Easily the circumference of the city below, the mothership loomed above its army, casting everything in shadow. A line of Rokkir fighters dispatched from its glowing hangar bay. The vessels raced toward the procession of snow rovers, forming angular shapes against the stars. Tayel bounced her mag baton in her lap. Alhyt, the thread of ships just kept going.
“Fall back a bit from the others,” Balcruf commanded the driver. He banged the ceiling twice — hard — and something heavy and loud dropped into the snow behind them.
The rover shuddered to a slower pace. Tayel snapped forward against her harness. Other rovers sped past, their enormous wheels kicking up rooster tails of white as each vehicle’s trebuchet arm dipped into the snow behind it. Varg atop the vehicles kept low to the roof, their fur rustling against the wind as their paws hovered near their weapon’s controls. Tayel squinted. A trailing trebuchet arm gathered a ball the size of a boulder in its scoop, compacting and melting the snow into a shiny, rock-like slug.
“Look there,” Balcruf said.
He pointed to the sky, where the undersides of Rokkir ships started to open up one by one, lowering short, sharp-edged poles into the open air.
“Veer left,” he ordered. “Keep plenty of space between the other cars.”
The jutting pieces of metal under the Rokkir ships shimmered, and globules of dark aether formed at their tips. Like a droplet of water, one fell, and Tayel instinctively braced for whatever came next. The aether exploded on contact with the ground. A plume of white erupted from where it dropped, and the shockwaves knocked her around between Shy and Jace. She braced herself against the seat ahead, heart hammering.
Cryzoar’s city walls still loomed in the distance, looking just as far away as when they first entered the valley. An intense longing to be there — to be out of this rover and away from the overhead siege — sparked panic. Her chest tightened, her breathing became more rapid.
A trebuchet on the rover ahead fired. The glassy snowball ripped through the air like a bullet, and made contact with a Rokkir ship. The resulting explosion swallowed them both. Fiery debris crashed all around Balcruf’s rover, peppering the roof like rain. Another dark aether bomb plummeted to the snow, flipping the vehicle to the right, and the shockwaves from multiple attacks started to compound.
Tayel closed her eyes against the rattling. Balcruf’s orders and the booming thunder of explosions blurred together. Forces pulling her left and right as the car wound a snake-like path through the snow made her head spin. Every shudder made her tense, until, when her muscles could tighten no more, she pulled into herself. The screeching metal and rain of debris felt far away, just sounds in a void she wasn’t truly part of.
The rover sped forward. Tayel sucked back into her seat, opening her eyes as the wind was knocked out of her. They passed into the mothership’s shadow and veered to follow the curvature of the city wall, now close enough she couldn’t see the top of it. The closer they got, the fewer explosions rocked their car. Rokkir vessels angled away from close proximity to the wall, flying toward rovers more exposed instead. Guilt and relief battled inside her as they left the fight behind.
“Almost,” Balcruf growled. “There! Where the wall is lighter in color.”
The driver pulled up within a few yards of the immense structure, and the rover came to a halt. Dozens of other cars which had escaped the fray gathered and stopped around them.
The side doors slid open. Tayel shivered at the draft, content to make it seem her teeth chattered from cold rather than fear. She unclipped her harness, helped Jace with his, and jumped out into the snow. Her boots dropped through two feet of the stuff before landing on something solid. It was like her calves were ensnared in ice. She clipped her weapon to its strap. A ship roared overhead.
“Get to the wall!” Shy yelled.
Tayel sprinted forward, but the ship’s delivered payload knocked her off her feet. The shockwaves wracked her bones as snow from the bomb site came down on her like a waterfall. A few pounds of it turned to ten, twenty, thirty, and in seconds she struggled to breathe. Shouts and cries turned to muffled hums. Adrenaline spiked through her. She clawed at the snow, pushing forward on her hands and knees until she broke free.
“Tayel!” Shy ran to her, gripping her arm with both hands and tugging her out from under the rest. “Hurry. Can you walk?”
Tayel nodded quickly. She fought the numbness in her limbs as she ran the rest of the way to the wall. Three Varg attacked a light patch in the structure, digging their claws in and pulling away chunks. Others checked their weapons or dragged the fallen to safety, while others still manned the parked rovers’ trebuchets, keeping Rokkir ships off everyone’s backs.
“What’s happening?” Tayel asked when she reached the wall. Cold radiated off of it, its blue surface entirely made of ice.
“They’re trying to dig through,” Fehn said. “Are you okay? We saw you go under.”
She waved his concern away. “Thanks. I’m fine.”
“For now, maybe. There’s no way they’ll make it through before the ships kill us.”
“C-can we help them or something?” Jace asked.
Three other rovers arrived, letting out a dozen more Varg. A Rokkir ship touched down a hundred yards away to let out a handful of troops, setting the precedent for more vessels to begin landing. Tayel grit her teeth.