Mirror Space - Marianne de Pierres [61]
‘As Mira-fedor climbed, Wanton observed crevices.’
‘Caves?’
‘Not large enough to be caves, but depressions. Wanton suggests that Mira-fedor takes cover in one of them.’
Mira peered down at the swirling water. It had steadied. ‘I’ll carry you in my clothes again so that I can have both hands free,’ said Mira.
‘It would be more sensible for Mira-fedor to reinstate Wanton’s position on her neck.’
‘No.’ Mira spoke firmly, holding the Extro at eye level. ‘Even if you do not wish me harm, it is possible they will reach me through you.’
‘That is a reasonable evaluation,’ Wanton agreed.
This time she slipped the Extro into the seam of her sleeve and began to climb downwards in a slow, careful spiral. Fatigue made her clumsy and slow.
There was not a lot of exposed rock left and no crevices that she could see.
She peered back out at the pillow surface of the Hue. The Aves grew larger as they closed on the mamelon; three times her size, at least, and distinct enough for her to see the tubular array along the length of their wings.
‘What are those things on their wings?’
‘Wanton cannot see, but would expect that they are weapons.’ Wanton’s projected voice was muffled.
‘Guns?’
‘No.’
Mira began to pick over the rock with renewed urgency, this time tugging at anything that looked loose. Over on the far side of the mamelon, a boulder shifted as she stood on it. Climbing above it, she placed her feet on the top and began to bear down. Using a rocking rhythm she attempted to dislodge it.
It came free without warning, and crashed down into the water below. Caught by the momentum, she slid after it, scraping her side as she clung to the edge of the hole it had left. But the soil came loose in her fingers and she banged into the slippery rock below as she scrabbled to stay out of the water. Her belly bumped cruelly into sharp protrusions.
This time she didn’t have the strength left to pull herself higher and she hung there helpless.
Insignia, she cried.
I am close, dear one. Be stro—
But a noise above her filled her mind; a drone that sent a vibration through the rock itself. Water sucked at her clothes, weighing her down. She slipped down into it but as her head was about to dip below the frothing water, something gripped her captive’s robe and pulled her back. For a moment her heart lifted.
Insignia.?
Coming. I’m coming.
Then she felt the pain of a cruel grip and an Ave towed her into the sky, retracting its legs as it lifted her high above the mamelon.
She glimpsed the water racing along its course beneath her; and then the strange twisting concourses and quilted top of the Hue.
The Ave pulled her close into its belly; so close that she felt the slippery touch of its skin and the wet warmth of its body. The claws that held her were crawling with small insects that jumped onto her and ran inside her robe. She feared slipping as it swung in a sharp sloping turn back towards the place it hadentered the Bare World.
Sharp squeals punctuated the flight towards the open button-top in the Hue. The other Aves gathered at its wing tips, all calling out in the same high-pitched noises, until the sound itself left her almost unconscious.
‘Mira-fedor! Mira-fedor! What is happening?’ Wanton’s voice sounded tiny and so distant that she barely registered it.
Mira lifted her sleeve to her mouth and licked dry lips. ‘The Ave is taking us back.’
‘No, Mira-fedor. We must not—’
She dropped her arm away from her ear so that she couldn’t hear the Extro.
‘Nothing,’ she mouthed at the muddy water below. ‘Nothing I can do.’
Hopelessness overwhelmed her. Not even the defiant kicks from the child in her belly gave her strength. She hung, helpless, in the Ave’s grasp and closed her eyes as the wind stung her, the squeals struck through her core, and she became numb with the futility of her situation and the exhaustion of a body pushed beyond its endurance.
Whatever it is, let it be quick, she thought.
Mira?
Insignia’s voice was stronger in her mind, but even that failed to stir her.
I am here. Do not