Gaby: "They make up for it by shooting a lot of arrows."
Hautbois: "I knew there'd be something."
There was the familiar staccato roar of a buzz bomb some distance away.
Gaby: "I still say there's something weird about that creature. I can't make it out, but it looks like a swelling on its back."
Hornpipe: "I see it, too."
Cirocco: "Your eyes are better than mine."
For a time there were just the sounds of breathing and occasionally the rustle of someone crawling over sand. Once Robin felt someone brush against her leg. Then Hornpipe shouted a warning. Something fell to the sand in Robin's range of vision. She had been staring at her thumbnail; now she shifted her eyes and looked at the intruder. It was a thin shaft of glass, half a meter long. One end was notched, the other buried in the sand.
"Anybody hit?" It was Cirocco's voice. There were a few negative replies. "They just shot those in the air. They must be behind that dune. In a while they'll get up the nerve to look over it, and they'll get a little more accurate. Get your slingshots ready."
Shortly after that Robin heard the twang of the Titanides' weapons.
Chris: "I think you hit that one, Valiha. Oops! Those were closer."
Cirocco: "Damn it, look at Robin. Can't we do anything about that? It must be hellish."
Robin had heard the last flight of arrows hitting the sand, felt a few grains rain on her legs. It was not a matter of importance. She heard more slitherings, and a hand grasped the arrow she had been looking at, pulled it out, and tossed it away. Gaby's face appeared, a few centimeters from her own.
"How are you making it, kid?" She took Robin's hand and squeezed it, then stroked her cheek. "Would it be easier if you could see things better? I can't think of any way to protect you, or I'd use it for all of us."
"No," Robin answered, from a great distance.
"I wish ... shit." Gaby hit the ground with her fist. "I feel helpless. I can imagine how you must feel." When Robin made no answer, she leaned close again.
"Listen, do you mind if I take your gun for a while?"
"I don't mind."
"Do you have any of those rocket slugs left? With the explosive tips?"
"Three clips."
"I'll need them, too. I'm going to try to pot a buzz bomb if it ever gets down low enough. You just hang on and try not to think of it. We're going to make a dash for the cable pretty soon."
"I'm all right," Robin said, but Gaby was gone.
"And I'll take you," Hautbois said, from behind her. She felt the Titanide's hand come around her and briefly touch her cheek, which was wet. "Do not begrudge the tears, little one. Not only is it good for the soul, but every drop protects us all."
31 Heat Lightning
"Just how smart do you think those things are?" Chris asked, watching the lone buzz bomb bank to the left for another high circling pass.
Gaby looked at it and scowled.
"It never pays to underestimate the intelligence of anything you meet in Gaea. A good rule of thumb is to assume it's at least as smart as you and twice as mean."
"Then what's it doing up there?"
Gaby patted the barrel of her borrowed weapon. "Maybe it heard about the one Robin shot down." She looked at the sky once more and shook her head. "But I don't think that's the whole reason. I don't like it. I don't like it at all." She looked at Cirocco.
"Well, you've convinced me. I don't like it either."
Chris looked from one to the other, but neither had anything more to say.
Above, the buzz bomb continued to circle. It seemed to be waiting for something, but for what? Periodically the arrows of the wraiths rained down in flights of three or four dozen. Fired almost straight into the air, the arrows had lost their lethal speed by the time they reached the ground. One had hit Hornpipe in the hind leg. It penetrated five or six centimeters into the muscle: painful, but easily plucked out since the point was not barbed. The barrages seemed designed to keep them pinned down more than anything else. Chris had read somewhere that in a war, millions of rounds were expended for just that purpose. But if the wraiths wanted them to stay put, there must be a reason for it. They were preparing some surprise, or a larger force was on the way. In either case Chris thought the logical move was to make a dash for the cable. They surely would have done so if not for the presence of the buzz bomb.
"Do you think the wraiths and the bombs are working together?" he asked.
Gaby looked at him and did not answer immediately.
"I certainly doubt it," she said finally. "So far as I know, the wraiths have never worked with anybody but other wraiths, and not very well then." But when she looked back at the sky, she seemed thoughtful. She caressed the butt of Robin's gun and trained it on the distant target, keeping it in her sights, coaxing it down with soft, cajoling whispers.
"The arrows have stopped," Valiha said.
Chris had been aware of it for several minutes but had not mentioned it in the illogical fear that the barrage would begin again out of pure spite. But it was true; for the half hour since they had dug their community foxhole the arrows had come in at one- or two-minute intervals, and now they were not.
"Maybe I'm a pessimist," Gaby said, "but I don't think I like that either."
"They could be gone," Hornpipe ventured.
"And I could be a half-assed Titanide."
Chris could contain himself no longer. There was no point anymore in reminding himself that Gaby and Cirocco were much older, wiser, and more experienced in this sort of thing than he was.
"I think we should make a run for it," he said. "Hornpipe is already hurt. If we wait for them to start shooting again, it could get much worse." He waited, but though everyone was looking at him, no one said anything. He plunged ahead. "This is just a feeling, but I'm worried that the buzz bomb is waiting for something. Possibly reinforcements."
He might have expected the Wizard to call him on that one. He had nothing to base it on except the fact that the buzz bombs had acted in concert once, in the attack that had killed Psaltery.
To his surprise, Cirocco and Gaby were looking at each other, and they both looked troubled. He realized that beyond a certain base of knowledge, it was impossible for even the Wizard to know just what Gaea might throw at them next. So many things were possible, and even the things you thought you knew could change overnight as Gaea created new creatures, changed the rules that governed the old ones.
"That's a very lucky man saying that, Rocky," Gaby said.
"I know, I know. I'm not discounting his feelings at this point. I don't have much more to go on, myself. But it could be that's just what that bastard up there is waiting for. No matter how fast we go, he'll have time for at least one shot at us, and the ground out there is flat as a pancake."
"I don't think I'll be slowed down," Hornpipe said.
"I can take care of Robin," Hautbois said.
"Damn it, it's you Titanides who have the most to lose out there," Cirocco shouted. "I think I could dig into that sand in a few seconds, but when you people lie down flat, your butts stick up a meter and a half."
"I'd still rather make a run for it," Hornpipe said. "I don't fancy lying here and becoming a pincushion."
Chris was beginning to think no decision would be reached. Cirocco, faced with two unreasonable choices, had suddenly lost the assurance she had gained during the trip. He did not really think that leadership, in any sense but that of fostering morale, was her strong point. Gaby needed time to gear herself up to assume a role that was basically distasteful to her. Robin was paralyzed, and the Titanides had never shown a tendency to dispute the commands of first Gaby, then Cirocco. As for Chris, he had never been the captain of his childhood sports teams or the one who decided where he and his friends would go or what they would do when they got there. In his troubled adulthood no one had ever asked him to be the leader of anything. But an urge to take control was growing in him. He began to think that if something were not resolved very quickly, this might be his hour at last.