“You four.” Balcruf jogged up carrying a lit torch. “When the wall falls, we’re the first to go through.” He waved them to follow.
“How long will that take?” Shy asked.
He didn’t answer. Up ahead, six feet of wall eroded in a small avalanche, catching the three diggers under its weight. Varg pulled their brethren free. The erosion revealed a tunnel behind where the soft-packed snow had been stacked. It angled steeply downward — under the city.
“We go now,” Balcruf commanded. He ran forward.
With the army of Rokkir landing behind them, and the still frequent rumblings of dark aether bombs, Tayel didn’t argue. She followed his lead. The tunnel was wider than she expected, wide enough to run three across. Balcruf’s torch spread light over the whitish blue walls, and the ceiling dripped from the heat. He counted heads as everyone funneled in.
“Isn’t it bad that the Rokkir can see us going in?” Jace asked.
“Do you have an alternative?” Shy countered.
Balcruf nodded to himself as the last of his kin made it inside. “We have ways to go. Keep up.”
Running. Of course. Tayel gestured Jace ahead. He wasn’t the best runner on a good day. With a broken wing and devices and tools in tow, he would need a push every now and then to keep going.
“Hey.” She touched his shoulder. More than anything, she wanted to offer him a break, but stopping wasn’t an option.
“I’m okay,” he said.
Tayel hoped so. She hoped it wasn’t just bravado covering up regret. Balcruf set a light pace, whether for consideration of his short-legged allies or concern for the structure of the tunnel, Tayel wasn’t sure. In either case, being away from the explosions and Rokkir forces was a relief. Running, she could do. She could do it for hours.
They ran for long enough she started to guess the distance. Every now and then they’d pass an offshoot tunnel, foregoing it to remain on the main path. One of these would be the one the majority of the Varg would take to execute the other half of this crazy plan. She blew out a long, labored breath. With everything she’d just been through, it felt like they should have won already. But there was still so much more to do.
She imagined the great crystalline structures in the city above them, the wide cobblestone streets, the famous buildings from the movies or flexi-screens she liked to browse at Top Sector shops. Maybe they’d passed under the cryotech facility or the galactic embassy where Modnik’s visitor’s had to land. It was fleeting to think about, knowing in reality all those places were probably destroyed.
Balcruf slowed at a turn that gave way to what looked like a dead end, but Tayel wasn’t making that bet. The wall ahead was solid, but light in color. Probably more soft-packed snow to dig through.
“We’re here,” Balcruf said. He gestured to the wall, and two Varg ran to it, digging in with their massive claws.
Tayel didn’t have the energy to brag she’d guessed as much.
“Once we’re outside, do not speak,” Balcruf said. “Follow our lead to the roof, and when the patrol comes…”
“We’ll be ready,” Shy said.
“Good.”
The blood drained from Tayel’s face as the reality of her upcoming task set in. Talking about it that morning seemed easy — easier than convincing Jace to stay behind, but the idea of taking down a Rokkir patrol now made her stomach twist into knots. Shy smiled at her — a quick assuring thing rather than a warm gesture, but it did nothing to help Tayel’s nerves. Just reminded her what she had to lose.
The wall to the outside fell. She stepped aside to let the Varg follow Balcruf, and followed after everyone else, stepping from snow to wet cobblestone and the feeling of open sky above her.
Shattered glass littered the alleyway. Across from her, the brick building didn’t have a single window intact. To the right, a massive green crystal marked the end of the path, and to the left, the city street, its light poles unlit and its walkways abandoned.
Fehn tugged on Tayel’s sleeve and pointed up. The Varg climbed a steel water drainage pipe, making their way up the stout two story building.
Jace stared upward. “There’s no way.”
Balcruf whipped around and shushed him. He cocked is head at Jace’s puffed feathers, then knelt to the ground. He tipped his head toward his back. Shy nudged Jace forward until, with a frantic look in his eyes, he grabbed a talonful of Balcruf’s overcoat and held on. He huddled close as the two of them ascended.
Shy went after. She climbed a few feet before Tayel walked toward the pipe. Angle brackets fastened the metal to the brick, leaving enough room for a foot. Up the wall, Shy nested her boot in a bracket and moved to the next one.
“Trouble?” Fehn whispered.
Tayel shook her head. She had climbed plenty of urban architecture in Delta’s worn down undercity streets. It wasn’t the climb, but the memory that slowed her. She placed her foot in the bracket, stepped up, and grabbed another one, each movement as simple as climbing a ladder. One bracket at a time, she made steady progress up the building until Shy gave her a hand onto the roof.
Enormous crystals jutted out and over the square space, providing an angle of shadow — and cover. The Varg gathered at the edge of the roof facing the street. One set up the radio tech that would draw Rokkir attention, while the two who would act as bait received silent encouragement from their kin. She caught sight of Jace near the rest of the Varg. He watched her, eye ridges low with worry.
Fehn joined Tayel and Shy, unfastening his gas mask from his belt. He waved it in the air. Tayel obliged, unhooking hers as well even as her fingers trembled. She took a steadying breath. She’d be fine; she had Fehn and Shy to… Anger built up at the thought of relying on them. She had to pull her weight this time, from start to finish.
The Varg with the radio tech waved once, and Tayel shuddered. It was a clear signal that sent the two lures running toward the drain pipe without hesitation. They disappeared over the edge of the roof as Balcruf signaled for everyone to lie low. Tayel complied, keeping near the drain pipe with Fehn and Shy, watching the narrow view of street she had for any sign of Rokkir patrols. Her pulse throbbed in her ears.
The two young Varg acted as though they searched in the open, moving from one building to the next. Agonizing seconds passed. Tayel tried not to even breathe in the quiet. The fake patrol started to near the edge of what she could see. She sat up a bit.
A medium-sized cargo carrier edged into view beside the roof. Tayel froze. There hadn’t been the whisper of an engine, or the whine of an electric drive. Not even a shift in the wind hinted the Rokkir patrol’s presence. The Varg below wouldn’t have to act surprised at all. The vessel slid forward through the air, perfectly center over the street and silent as space. Tayel pressed down the desire to yell, to shout for the Varg to run. This was part of the plan. They would be okay. She just had to do her job, and they would be okay.
The two lures had just the time to yelp before the underside of the ship let loose a plume of yellow-brown gas. It hit the ground heavy like water, cascading outward to fill the nearby alleys ten feet high. It swirled below like murky brown clouds, and the ship descended silently into the haze.
“Now,” Shy whispered, and she jumped to a stand.
Tayel hurried to follow, heart hammering as she pulled the mask down over her face. She hadn’t missed how these things smelled or how they narrowed her view, but she pulled the straps tight and ran to the edge of the roof behind Fehn. He slid down the pipe after Shy, and Tayel followed, landing at the bottom on her feet.