The Black Lung Captain - Chris Wooding [184]
The final Mane was quick, but it couldn’t dodge Bess’s grasping hands forever. She snagged its ankle, pulled it writhing into the air, then grabbed its head in one metal hand and pulled it off, dragging a length of bloody spine with it.
They headed off in the direction of the landing pad. The sloping, angled streets of Sakkan were in chaos. People ran with no destination in mind. The unnatural fear brought on by the dreadnoughts had turned them into panicking sheep, fleeing the wolves among them. A man bolted screaming across their path, closely pursued by a Mane, which ignored them totally as it chased its prey into a side alley.
They didn’t intervene. There was nothing they could do. They had enough on their hands.
I tried to stop this! Frey thought angrily. I tried my best! But now it’s every man for himself.
The Manes were up above them, springing from roof to roof. Strange, feral howls drifted over the city, punctuated by gunfire and the shrieks of the unfortunate citizens. Frey’s crew were spotted from time to time, but the Manes sought easier prey than an armed gang. They hunted the vulnerable, those who were alone and unarmed. That was how they worked, according to the stories. They took the ones they could and killed the ones they couldn’t. The few who got away lived to spread the stories.
Frey’s mouth was dry. Were it not for Bess, they’d have been dead by now. The Manes were coming from all directions, and they weren’t like ordinary opponents. They had no weapons, but they attacked without fear, running onto their enemies’ guns. They were relentless, confident in their speed, able to absorb most wounds with impunity. But Bess was an obstacle they couldn’t handle. They hadn’t found a way to hurt her yet.
Frey and his crew retraced the route they’d taken to Grist’s warehouse, following the major roads. It was uncomfortably open and exposed, but he couldn’t risk getting lost. Besides, he suspected that the narrow alleys and side streets were where the Manes liked to catch their prey. At least out here he could see them coming.
Trinica.
He tried to cast her out of his mind but couldn’t. His last sight of her was burned on his memory. That face, those eyes; in the end, she’d given him nothing. No gratitude, no condemnation, no love or hate. A blank. And yet still he felt as if she was disappointed in him. As if he’d committed a betrayal.
I saved her bloody life! he told himself. And yet by doing so, he’d thrown her to the sharks.
She’d done worse to him, it was true. But no matter how strong the argument, he couldn’t convince himself. No matter which way he turned it, he didn’t seem to win. Even after everything she’d done to him, he felt as if he’d abandoned her. And it gnawed at him as they fled.
His thoughts were interrupted by a commotion behind him. They stopped and turned, guns ready. Several dozen people came fleeing out of a cross street and raced toward them. They sprinted past, eyes wide, flailing and stumbling as they went. The sight of Bess didn’t cow them in the slightest: they were already maddened with terror. One woman ran straight into the golem and knocked herself out cold. Frey could do nothing but brace himself against the stampede and fend off those who looked as if they were about to bowl him over.
In moments, the crazed crowd had passed. The crew looked at one another, rather amazed that nobody had been trampled.
“Well,” said Malvery. “They were in a hurry for something.”
“What worries me,” Crake said, “is what they were hurrying away from.”
Frey felt his stomach sink. As the screams of the crowd faded, he could hear howls and shrieks, swelling, multiplying, rolling toward them like a tidal wave.
“Run!” he cried, and they turned tail and followed the departing crowd just as a horde of Manes exploded from the cross street and came tearing hungrily toward them.
Frey’s boots pounded the cobblestones as fast as he could manage, driven by the fear of what was behind him. The noise of the horde was terrible: their wild baying seemed to be meant for him alone. He was amazed to