Mirror Space - Marianne de Pierres [107]
Trin saw the thick, ridged, red skin and long, sweeping reptilian tail.
Checclia. Huge checclia.
It flicked its tail, catching the Carabinere with an almost insolent whip across his forearm, and bounded towards the ligs. The insects tried to lift and scatter but seemed sluggish from ingesting the flowers.
The checclia leapt upon the back of the closest one, ripping its abdomen in half in one bite. It clawed the lig’s wings, which made a sharp crackling sound as they tore.
‘Vai,’ shouted Trin. ‘Vai! To Juno Genarro!’
The group broke into a run, energised by fear and fuelled by the weed stimulant. Even the weakest of the women found strength. But other checclia were emerging rapidly from their holes. Trin tripped over one, lurching to recover his balance.
Thomaas and Cass Mulravey and her ragazzo were next to him. One of the reptiles sprang from its hole and ran up Thomaas’s back, digging claws deep into his shoulders. He stumbled and fell, shrieking in pain.
Cass Mulravey stopped to help him, dropping her ragazzo to the ground. She beat at the checclia with her bare hands.
It twisted its articulated neck-and snapped at her flailing arms, hissing.
Trin ran back and pushed her aside. He kicked the checclia in the side of the head with his boot, as the Carabinere had done. It stopped snapping at Mulravey and turned its attention to Trin. The dark, lidless eyes seemed to regard him in a calculating manner. In a considered move, it bit deep into Thomaas’s neck.
The man writhed with uncontrolled agony.
Panicked, Trin kicked it again and again until it released its hold. Dark blood trickled from its jaws. It flicked its tongue to catch the drips and launched itself towards Trin.
He dived sideways, knocking Mulravey over.
But the checclia’s intention was elsewhere. It connected with a descending lig and hooked its teeth into the end of its abdomen. The lig struggled for altitude and lost, pulled to earth by the checclia’s weight.
Its fight was short-lived and pitiful.
A sweet and cloying scent filled the air as the lig perished.
Trin and Cass Mulravey dragged the small, thin Thomaas to his feet and forced him on towards the rest of the group, who waited in the shelter of the brush-line.
Joe Scali had hold of Djeserit, who was trying to return to them. He pushed her into his cousin Tivi’s arms and came himself, but Mulravey wouldn’t relinquish her hold of Thomaas.
‘Can - do - it,’ she gasped. ‘Take - ‘bino and get back.’
‘Principe?’
‘Back - Joe,’ said Trin. ‘More - coming.’
Joe snatched up the ragazzo, and ran as the ground around them turned into a mass of emerging checclia.
Thomaas had become a dragging weight against his shoulder, and Trin’s own strength faded. He fought an overwhelming desire to shrug the man off and leave him. A flash of memory brought with it the same rush of emotion he’d felt in Loisa when the silos had exploded. Seb Malocchi had fallen as the fire rushed towards them. Trin hadn’t wanted to stop and help him. But the moment took him out of himself, to another place.
Suddenly, Thomaas wasn’t connected to the irritating Cass Mulravey; he was simply a fragile ‘esque, one of his kind, and his kind were too few.
Trin fumbled in his pocket for a weed pod and crammed the stimulant into his mouth. He repeated the action, this time forcing Thomaas to take it.
‘Chew and swallow,’ he ordered.
Mulravey reached for her own supply, and did the same without waiting for his bidding.
Trin felt his vigour return almost immediately, and he hoisted Thomaas higher. Mulravey responded with the same energy. They covered the last distance on a rush of adrenalin, falling into the waiting arms of Juno Genarro and Vespa Malocchi.
The Carabinere dragged them deep into the shelter of the thick undergrowth, where they lay, breathing hard.
Trin’s muscles twitched compulsively, and his heart pounded. Djeserit crawled to his side as he jerked and spasmed.
‘You saved Thomaas, Principe,’ she said. All the wonder and devotion had returned to her voice. ‘We should have kept