Reclamation(169)
“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 run.
“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. Arla 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 Arla 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.
Arla 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 falling, 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. Arla 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.