come. It was a mad sprint to get away from our attackers and back to the ship.
We didn’t get far. A handful of Flighters appeared ahead of us, climbing up and over a pile of rubble. We ran right into them. I pulled out the wooden blowgun and held it low, ready to whack the first Flighter who got within whacking range. I expected to get pounced on by a gang, but only one of them came at me. The guy wasn’t a fighter, but he was fearless. He charged with no regard for his own safety, swinging his arms wildly, hoping to land a lucky punch. I backed off, easily blocking everything he threw. He drove his head into my chest and pumped his legs, driving me backward like a tackling dummy.
I had no trouble pivoting and using his own energy to throw him over my hip. The Flighters were relentless, but they didn’t know how to fight. I looked quickly toward the others and saw both Siry and Loque fighting one Flighter each. That didn’t make sense. I saw at least ten of them jump off the pile of rubble. Why were they coming at us one at a time? I sprinted toward Siry and launched myself at his attacker, driving both my feet into his rib age. The Flighter grunted and dropped away.
“Twig!” Siry shouted with such fear it made my heart clutch.
The next few seconds were painful. The Flighters’ plan came clear. They weren’t as clueless as I’d thought. Siry and Loque and I were attacked by one each because the rest had jumped Twig. They were going to take us out one at a time. Poor Twig was the first target.
“Siry!” she shouted desperately. “Help!”
She was swarmed by several Flighters who dragged her back toward… somewhere.
I had to make a snap decision. It was one of the toughest things I’d ever done. Siry made a move to help her… and I stopped him.
“No!” I shouted. “You can’t help her.”
“Pendragon!” he protested desperately.
“Look!” I said, pointing beyond the group that was dragging poor Twig away. The mass of Flighters that had first attacked us was growing. There must have been fifty of them headed our way. If we went after Twig, it would be over. For all of us. Siry understood. It didn’t make it any less painful, but he understood. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the look of horror on Twig’s face as she was dragged away from us. I could only hope she’d survive the ordeal and we’d get another chance to save her.
“We’ll help her, but not now,” I said to Siry.
The look on his face was gut-wrenching. This was way more than he bargained for when he set out on a grand adventure with his friends to explore Ibara.
No, to explore Veelox.
“C’mon!” I shouted to get him moving.
Siry reluctantly backed away. We both turned to run. Loque had shaken the Flighter who had attacked him and ran with us. We were down to three. Who would be the next target? Ahead of us to our right, more Flighters poured from another building, cutting off the street and our route back to the ship.
“This way!” Loque shouted, and turned left, headed toward one of the derelict buildings.
It was a dangerous move. There were three of us and dozens of them. If we were clever, and lucky, we might be able to lose them inside one of the empty buildings. If we weren’t lucky, the building would collapse on our heads. If we stayed in the street, they’d have us. Jumping into a building was the only move we had. Loque knew it. Siry and I weren’t far behind. We followed the blond thief through the first door we came to. Inside was a mess of crushed furniture and broken shelves. It might have been a store at one time. It might have been an office. It might have been a zoo for all I cared. All I wanted was to get through and shake the mass of Flighters. I quickly realized I was with the right guys. They may not have been warriors, but they knew how to dodge the authorities. They had plenty of practice running from the security force in Rayne. To them, running through the twisted labyrinth inside this building was no different than blasting through the dense tropical jungle near their home. I had trouble keeping up with them as they jumped over piles of junk while always looking ahead for the best route.
The Flighters had even more trouble keeping up. There were too many of them. Being only three was definitely an advantage. Loque led us through several rooms of debris. It was almost as if he knew where he was going. Finally he blasted through a doorway that led to a huge, empty atrium. After running through a maze of dark, junky rooms, it was a breathtaking surprise to suddenly land in such a huge space.
It was a giant, glass building. The ceiling and two of the walls were made of colorful stained glass. At one time it might have been some kind of cathedral. The spectacular mosaic pattern was a seascape, complete with schools of fish, coral, whales, and vibrant plant life. The colors were incredibly vivid, made more so because the sun shone through to make them come alive. The whole mosaic was amazingly intact, though there were hundreds of places where sections had fallen out to let unfiltered sun shine in, creating laserlike beams of white light that crisscrossed the entire space. The three of us stood beneath this spectacular glass dome, staring up in awe, trying to catch our breath. It was an awesome sight that I would have appreciated a whole lot more if we hadn’t been running for our lives.
“We’ve got to go back,” Siry said, gulping air. “They’ve got Twig.”
“And they’ll get us, too,” I said. “We’ll go back, but on our terms.”
“I shouldn’t have brought her,” Siry cried. “I shouldn’t have brought anyone!”
“It was our choice,” Loque said. “There were plenty of chances to back out.”
“Guys, not the time to second guess,” I cautioned. “You can beat yourselves up all you want later. Let’s shake those goons first.”
Crash!
The sound came from the room we had just run through. The Flighters were smashing their way through. I did a quick scan of the immense atrium, looking for the best escape route.
“We won’t make it across this space in time,” I concluded. “I say we dig in somewhere and hope they miss us.”
There wasn’t time to debate. Loque took off again, running along the wall until he found another doorway. He jumped inside. We followed. It was a small room with no light and no exits. If the Flighters found us, we’d be trapped. But there was no turning back, because the Flighters had entered the cathedral.
Siry jumped behind the wreck of something that might have been a cabinet. Or a desk. Loque and I followed, trying to make ourselves invisible. I got down on my belly behind the ancient piece of furniture and found a small opening to peer through. I had a perfect view out the door. No sooner did I settle in, than I saw several Flighters running through the cathedral to the far side. It looked like our plan had worked. They thought we’d kept going. But there were a lot of them. They could have spread out to search the cathedral. We had to be absolutely sure before moving.
It was burning hot in there. Sweat poured down my face. I was about to reach up and wipe my nose, when a shadow crossed the doorway in front of us. I froze. A Flighter crept past silently, on alert. They were searching for us. I didn’t even want to breathe, for fear he’d hear me. I didn’t put my hand back down either. That’s how nervous I was about making the smallest sound. The Flighter barely glanced into the room and kept walking. I kept still. Good thing. Right behind him was another guy who poked his head around the corner and looked directly into the room. Could he see us? Did it matter?
Not if he called a couple of his scurvy pals to come in and turn the place inside out. I mentally prepared myself for that, imagining them entering the room and calculating the best moment to leap up and attack.
The Flighter took a step inside, scanned around, then stepped back out, and kept walking. I figured those guys weren’t all that brave on their own, that’s why they traveled in such big packs. I didn’t dare look to either side to see where Siry and Loque were, for fear I’d make a sound. Another Flighter stalked quietly past the room, glancing in. Then another. I saw several more Flighters in the middle of the cathedral, searching for us. My hopes started to rise. If they hadn’t come in this room yet, they might not at all. As the minutes passed, I saw fewer and fewer of the grungy guys walking by the door or out in the atrium. Still, I didn’t dare move. For all I knew they were waiting together outside the door for us to stupidly walk into an ambush. Without saying a word we all knew we’d have to wait long enough to make sure they were gone.
Time passed. Five minutes. Ten minutes. I lost track. After not seeing or hearing a Flighter for the longest time, I finally risked turning my head to look at the others. Siry was a few feet from me. He wasn’t even looking out the door. He sat with his back to it, his legs curled up. He hugged his knees tightly, staring ahead, unseeing. He looked bad. Not scared, but worse. He looked stunned. I could guess why. His glorious quest had turned into a terrifying odyssey. Twig had been captured. She was probably the must vulnerable of the group. Now she was in the
