The gut busters would kill her but nowhere near quickly enough. The countdown had reached critical point—there could only be seconds left before the bomb went off.
I shoved the guns back onto their clips and then drew the sword. In the deep darkness of the tunnel, the glass blade shone with a bright blue fire. The queen screamed in response and charged. I held my ground and waited until the very last moment—until all I could smell was her stink and her fury, and her snapping mandibles were within slicing distance. Then I ordered the wind to dodge and duck, and, with all the strength I could muster, swung the sword. It hit her thigh, sliced through flesh and bone with ease, completely severing her leg. As her limb fell in what seemed like slow motion to the ground, the queen screamed, and somehow swung around on the other leg, slashing wildly with her claws. I swung the sword and met her blow with the blade, slicing the fingers from her left limb, her wrist off the right. Then I brought it around again and stabbed at her eye. She jerked back, unbalanced, and fell.
In that moment, the countdown in my head stopped and that imaginary red flashing light seized. What followed was a weird moment of silence. It was almost as if the earth and the air were holding their collective breaths.
Then there was an ominous whoomp, one that was far deeper than other two, and the earth all around me started to shake. A heavy rumbling noise ran through the tunnel behind us, getting louder and louder, gaining speed as a heavy orange glow began to light the darkness. Huge chunks of earth and stone started raining around me and the air gained urgency even as the heat and dust and freedom only knew what else battered my body.
Go, I told the air. Now.
She obeyed. But the rumbling had become so loud it was beginning to hurt my ears and it wasn’t just the ceiling tearing itself apart now, but also the walls. The queen disappeared under a pile of rubble and dust.
The air tore me sideways, into another, smaller tunnel. But the heat and the energy of the explosion continued to chase us, and this tunnel also began to collapse inward.
I didn’t want to die. Not before I’d completed my mission, anyway, and stopped the remaining children—for their sake just as much as much as anything else.
Where are the children? I asked.
They are ahead, the air said. But if we stop, that explosion will kill you as surely as it will kill them.
I can’t leave those bracelets on them.
You will die with them if you stop.
Then I’ll die. But not before I got those bracelets and somehow ensured they could never be used again.
So be it. Shall we once again steal their breath?
Yes. I hesitated. How many Irkallan are with them?
Only two.
Can you steal their breath as well?
Yes, but with each order, and each death, you are further weakened.
And I still needed the strength to order the bracelets hidden. Surely I could cope with two Irkallan. It was certainly better than facing two Adlin.
The air continued to sweep me through the shaking, breaking tunnel. Breathing was becoming more difficult thanks to the dust choking the air, and I couldn’t see anything now. Nothing more than the dusty orange glow that was the firestorm of energy and destruction pursuing us.
The children are down, the wind said. Be ready—the Irkallan are around the next corner.
I swapped my sword for the gut busters as we entered the sweeping corner. But the air was so thick with heat and dust now that I had no hope of seeing the Irkallan. And if I couldn’t see them, they surely couldn’t see me. I asked the wind to sweep me up to the crumbling roof as we neared the end of the turn. Dirt and rock thumped into every inch of my body, the force of each blow so strong it felt like a thousand fists were pummeling me.
It didn’t matter. Nothing did except killing the Irkallan and getting those bracelets. As the tunnel straightened and I got a vague glimpse of lavender flesh up ahead, I began to fire, filling the entire tunnel with a hail of metal.
As both guns clicked over to empty, the wind swept down from the ceiling and deposited me onto the ground. There wasn’t much left of the Irkallan after my barrage—just a mess of lavender pulp interspersed between the bits of bones and mandibles. The children lay under these bloody and broken carcasses, their grimy faces covered with gore and yet oddly serene—it was as if they’d felt death’s coming and had welcomed it.
I ran to the first child, knelt, and quickly pried the bracelet off his wrist. It would have been far easier to simply order the earth to bury both the children and the bracelets, but that would take for more strength than I had.
The air was so thick and hot that my body burned and every breath was now a struggle. The rumble that was the earth collapsing on the tunnel system was dangerously close again now, and the chunks of stone raining down from the ceiling were becoming body crushing. I didn’t have the time for finesse. I had to get the remaining bracelets off these children and then get somewhere safe enough to bury them deep into the soil before that raging storm of heat and destruction hit me.
I sent a silent prayer of forgiveness to the souls of the children then thrust to my feet and ran to the remaining four, quickly slicing the bracelets from their wrists.
As the ceiling directly above me fissured, I grabbed the last two bracelets and then screamed for the air to get me out of there. I was lifted up and flung forward in an instant, but the ceiling and the walls were chasing me now, snapping at my heels like a drakkon hungry for flesh.
The wind flung me around another corner and, just for a second, we were free of it all. I asked to be put down again, and the air obeyed so rapidly I did a stumbling run forward before falling to my knees. My whole body shook with fatigue and pain, and there wasn’t an inch of skin left that wasn’t bloodied or bruised. But I wasn’t finished yet.
I dropped my collection of bracelets and severed hands onto the ground in front of me and then buried my fingertips into the soil. There was no response from the earth and, after a moment, I realized why. The ground in this tunnel was dead. I swore and punched it in frustration, then called to the air and bid it to start digging. As dust began to spin around me, choking my vision and filling my lungs, the walls began to tremble and shake. Damn it, just how much farther would the explosive power of the M185 blocks travel? Surely it would have to ease off soon?
As the wind dug deeper into the dead soil, I began to hear the voice of the earth. I thrust a hand down into the hole and felt the slivers of power curl around my fingers. It pulled at me, draining the last remnants of my strength even as it answered my call.
Bury the bracelets so deep they can never be found, I said.
Our pleasure, the voices of the earth answered. And now, run. Or you die.
As fingers of clean earth rose up from the hole and collected the bracelets, I pushed to my feet and staggered away. But my head was spinning, my legs felt like water, and there was absolutely nothing left in the tank now.
The wind tugged at me, begging me to go faster, grabbing my arms and propelling me along as hard as it could. But my weakness was being reflected in its strength now, and we were both fading fast.
Somehow I pushed on, but I was running on nothing more than sheer determination. Then the walls started moving around me, the ceiling became fluid, and the floor started bucking and kicking. I stumbled and fell, landing hard on hands and knees. The air screamed at me to get up, to move, and I tried, freedom only knew, I tried.
But I couldn’t. My body was a dead weight that refused to move.
I closed my eyes and prayed for the end to be quick.
Then the earth fell on top of me, and I knew no more.
14