Nameless Powers preserve me. What have they DONE?
Eric saw the flash over the top of the Wall. It turned the clouds sulfurous yellow and bounced back to earth again. Then came the noise, like a roll of thunder that meant to go on forever.
No! Eric stumbled between the boulders, tripping over stones and brush, trying to follow the vapor trails dissipating into the formless clouds. The rumble kept on, steady, endless. Nameless Powers preserve and forbid…no!
Now the light on the clouds was burnt orange, sienna, and scarlet. Eric stood panting in his tracks. The thunder still rolled.
He turned and sprinted back to the sledge.
"What…" began Heart. Eric snatched the reins and the stick out of his hands.
"Move!" he screamed to the oxen. "Go!" He smacked their backs until they both gave outraged bellows and lumbered forward.
"What's happened!" Heart shook his shoulder.
"A bomb!" Eric wielded the stick mercilessly. The thunder wouldn't stop. It wasn't ever going to stop. He knew it. The oxen lowed from fear and broke into a heavy, jolting ran.
"What?" shouted Heart. "Talk, Hand!"
Smoke now. Huge black billows rose up to block out even the light on the clouds. The oxen balked and stamped, but Eric drove them on. Heart still clutched his shoulder, watching the boiling black smoke. His mouth was moving. Reciting the litanies. Begging for preservation and guidance from the Nameless, for something he couldn't possibly understand.
Too late, brother-in-law, a voice sniggered in the back of Eric's mind. Way, way too late.
The oxen were stampeding now and Eric was barely hanging on to the reins. The sledge bounced and skipped over stones, jerking around like a toy in a high wind.
Suddenly, Heart let go of Eric's shoulder and snatched the reins from his hands. He threw his whole body backward, dragging the reins back until the oxen screamed and tossed their heads. They slowed, though, and finally stopped, puffing and shaking.
"What're you doing!" Eric shouted. "We have to get to Narroways! We have to…"
"Then tell me why!" Heart ordered. "What's happened?"
"A bomb, you idiot! A…" Heart's mystified expression stopped him and Eric realized he was using a Skyman word. "The Skymen have just dropped…a ball of fire over Narroways. The city's probably ashes by now. Aria might be…might be…" He couldn't make himself say it. The smoke was spreading out, embracing the clouds and covering them over.
"We have to get to First City!" cried Heart. "Now. They have to know. Our family. Our frie…"
"There's no time! We have to find out if Aria is all right. That Unifier base was right outside Narroways!"
"She's just a Notouch!"
Eric grabbed Heart's tunic collar. "She is not just a Notouch! She was never 'just' a Notouch!" Eric slammed him against the support pole and the whole sledge rocked. "She has more guts and loyalty in her hand marks than you have in your whole heart!
Heart's eyes searched his face. "Hand, have you taken leave of your senses?"
"You'd better hope I haven't," Eric shoved him away. "You'd better hope I have sense enough to remember that I might need your help to get to her. Because if I forget that, you aren't going to be able to run fast enough to get away from me!"
"You forget who you're talking to!" Heart raised his palms. The gold circles all but glowed, even in the cloud-dimmed light.
"No, you forget." Eric stabbed a finger at him. "You forget I know exactly what you can and cannot do, and you forget that I have lived over the World's Wall for ten years and you don't know anything about me anymore."
The blood drained from Heart's face, leaving his cheeks as pale as dry dust. "You're a greater Heretic than even I would have believed."
"I suggest you remember that, too." Eric searched his brother-in-law's face for any sign of real rebellion or courage. "Drive us to Narroways, Heart of the Seablade, or stand here and wait for whatever the Skymen decide to try next, I don't care which."
Heart lowered his eyes. Slowly he lifted the reins off the railing. One step at a time, Eric moved to the back of the sledge, out of arm's reach.
Heart whistled to the team and, with only minute snorts, they started forward again at a fast walk.
Eric pressed his fists against his thighs and forced himself to keep still. He watched Heart's broad back. His shoulders tipped and tilted as he drove the oxen on, but he did not look back, not once.
Aria didn't know how long it was before she was able to uncurl herself. The world around her was completely dark. She blinked her eyes a few times, just to make sure they were open. Soft creaks and groans still sounded overhead, and here and there she heard a muffled thump, maybe from a piece of equipment fairing, maybe from a rock landing on the canyon floor. There was no way to tell. She hoisted herself onto her hands and knees. The surface under her palms was smooth and cool. It reminded her sharply of the feel of the stones.
"Jay?" she whispered into the darkness.
At her right hand, a man moaned softly. Aria still wore her tool belt from the Amaiar Gardens. She fumbled around to find the clip that held her penlight. She flicked the switch and shone the light around until the narrow beam landed on Jay's face.
"Are you all right?" she crawled over to his side.
He nodded. "Didn't land quite right, but I think I'm all here." With a grunt, he sat up. He laid a hand on his hip, right above his holster and winced. "I'm going to be feeling that for more than a few days."
A crash sounded overhead. Startled, Aria glanced up. "What happened?"
Whatever he said, Aria's disk didn't pick it up.
"What…" she began.
"Listen," Jay said. "There's Vitae in here with us and they might have heard us fall." He unsnapped his holster and drew the weapon. "Stay behind me and keep the light as steady as you can." He stood up and staggered, but caught his balance quickly.
"Wait." Aria put the light down and unlooped her sling from around her belt. She unsnapped one of the belt pockets and brought out a handful of stones she'd kept from the fray with the Narroways soldiers. "There's not much room in here." She loaded the sling and hefted it to test the weight. "But it'll be better than nothing."
Jay scowled at her weapon. "Just make sure you miss me."
"This despised one will do her best, my Lord Skyman," Aria answered blandly. Jay gave no sign of having caught her sarcasm. He just hefted his gun and slipped carefully down the corridor.
Aria, suppressing a sigh, picked up the light in her free hand and followed.
Because he didn't dare take his eyes off Heart, Eric didn't see when they finally crossed the Narroways road. He didn't need to. He could hear the fading thunder of the attack. It bounced off the walls, a bizarre staccato noise, not like real thunder at all.
Heart was chanting again. From the slow rise and fall in the cadence, Eric guessed it was the entire prayer for safety.
A moment later a strangely dry, hot wind blew the first faint scent of smoke through the sledge.
"I'm taking us to the overlook," said Heart through clenched teeth. "Unless you want me to drive us straight into a fire."
"All right." Eric felt like kicking himself for forgetting the overlook. It was one of the many escarpments in Broken Canyon's chaotic breadth. From its ledge, you could look down the length of the canyon and see the city itself. Narroways usually kept a watch there.
Eric genuinely doubted there'd be one there now. He tightened his fists until his knuckles turned white. The dry wind scraped gently against them. A small black flake settled between the knuckles of his index and middle fingers. Eric stared at it. Another came to rest beside it.