I looked up and saw a huge shadow, darker than the starlit night sky, falling straight toward us.
“Run!” Adrien grabbed my hand and pulled me forward. I stumbled once on my blanket as I tried to direct my telek toward the falling tree. I managed to stay on my feet, but I couldn’t feel any power or detect even the hint of a buzzing noise.
Jilia was right behind us as we ran through the barely standing tent frame. The tree slammed down, the several-ton trunk flattening the remnants of the tent. The ground vibrated from the weight of the impact.
“Where are Tyryn and Xona?” I shouted, trying to clear some of the debris off my faceplate that had been blown up when the tree landed.
“Jilia!” Adrien knocked into me as he spun and turned back the way we’d come. I turned too and saw Jilia on the ground, pinned by a heavy branch.
“Are you guys okay?” Xona ran up beside us, Tyryn right behind her. “Where are the attackers?” She had two laser weapons out, and she swung them around in every direction trying to find out who had hit us.
“There’s no one,” Adrien said, running over to Jilia and straining to get the branch off her. “It was just an accident.”
I hurried over and tried to pull with him, but the branch was still attached to the tree and didn’t budge an inch.
“Is she—” Xona started, but Adrien cut her off.
“She’s alive.”
As if on cue, Jilia groaned, a small sound, but enough to make us redouble our efforts. Tyryn dropped to the ground beside Adrien, but even with all his muscles put to the task, the branch wasn’t moving.
“Can you move the tree off with your telek?” Adrien asked.
I gritted my teeth, trying to call my strength forward with my mind. But nothing happened. I felt a slight buzz of power, but then it was gone again.
I looked at the flattened tent bits barely visible in the moonlight and then at the mangled trees all around us. Realization slowly dawned. Adrien had called it an accident, but only now did I realize what he meant. It was me. I had done this. When I’d used my power during my nightmare, I must have accidentally unleashed it in reality.
“I think I used it all up.” I met Adrien’s eyes. He swallowed and nodded, taking a quick look around and then turning his attention back to Jilia.
“Move out of the way,” Xona said, pulling a weapon from her ankle.
“Back up, back up,” Tyryn said. Adrien and I pulled back as Xona pushed the trigger. The stream of bright laser cut a shocking red in the darkness. After a couple of minutes, the laser had sliced through the thick branch and Xona set to work on the other side. Finally she’d cut through it, too.
Tyryn and Xona grabbed both ends of the log left behind and hefted it off Jilia. Jilia coughed and sputtered a few times, blood on her lips.
“What do we do?” I asked frantically.
Jilia’s face was pale, but she was blinking and looked alert. Her chest rose and fell easier now that the branch was gone. “I’m healing what I can,” she whispered, closing her eyes tight with her hands on her abdomen. Sweat broke out on her forehead. She worked until rivulets ran down her face.
She finally exhaled again and looked back up at us.
“Are you gonna be okay, Doc?” Xona asked.
“A few broken ribs I can’t fix right now,” Jilia wheezed. “But the internal bleeding is stopped.”
Xona helped her up while Tyryn looked around anxiously. “What the hell happened here?”
“It was me,” I whispered. The weight of guilt sank in even as I said it. “I had a bad dream.”
Xona looked back and forth between the damage and me and took a step back. Tyryn just stared.
“We’ve got to get out of here,” Adrien said, unfazed. “We’re completely exposed.”
Tyryn nodded. “The Sat Cams will have caught the disturbance, even all the way out here. They’ll come to investigate. We gotta run.”
“Shunt,” Xona kicked hard at a fallen tree branch.
Tyryn bent down and gently lifted Jilia. “Xona, go get the transport started.”
She nodded once and then sprinted off.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered.
“This is how life in the Rez goes.” Adrien hurried forward with Tyryn and waved for me to follow. “Midnight escapes, running with only what you got on you. We’re used to it.”
“But it’s my fault—”
“All that matters now is that we get out of here safely.” Adrien took my hand as we ran.
Xona already had the transport up and hovering by the time we got there.
“Won’t they be able to track us?” I asked, jumping inside and buckling the strap across my chest.
“The outer hull on the transport is built to deflect infrared screening,” Tyryn said. “In the night, we should be almost invisible.”
I felt my stomach rock as we lifted higher through the trees. Leaves and twigs scratched down the windows, but soon we were up past the tree line and off into the night sky.
“Where do we go now?” Xona asked.
“Henk knew we’d be headed his way in a couple of days for transport to the Foundation,” Tyryn said. He glanced down at the console screen. “As long as we don’t bring any heat his way, he won’t mind us showing up early.”
I glanced out the back window at the tops of the trees. By moonlight, I could see that the circular area I’d flattened stood out like a giant target.
I turned away again and saw Adrien watching me, but I didn’t meet his eyes. Guilt ate like a worm through my stomach. This was all my fault. I closed my eyes, wishing there were a way to rewind time.
Chapter 7
XONA AND TYRYN SPOKE QUIETLY in the front seats. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but Xona glanced back at me several times. Well, glared back might be a better description.
Otherwise, it was quiet, almost peaceful. Jilia and Adrien were asleep, and Adrien’s head lolled against the wall behind him. I memorized his sharp cheekbones and the way his jaw tapered down to his pointy chin. His thick lips were opened slightly as he slept, and I wished that I could kiss him. Anything to wipe away the memory of what I’d just done.
I unbuckled my belt strap and moved closer to Tyryn and Xona. I didn’t have a very good view out the front window, but I could see the distant bright lights ahead.
“We’re heading into a city?”
Xona ignored me.
“Right outside it,” Tyryn said. “There’s a factory there.” He pointed below, where I could just make out the outline of a cluster of structures. “The factory’s chief engineer is an Upper. Officially, he works for Comm Corp, but in actuality he’s a Rez spy.”
“Really?” I’d never met an Upper who worked with the Rez. Uppers were usually the enemy, the privileged class who used people for drone labor without any qualms.
The engines quieted as Tyryn settled the transport down in a covered transport bay. It jolted only lightly when we made contact with the ground.
“’Allo mates!” someone called just as Tyryn opened the back door of the transport. A very tall wiry man was waiting for us. His face was covered in dark stubble as if he hadn’t shaved in a week, and he smiled widely when Adrien woke up, unclipped himself, and stepped out of the transport.
“Shorty!” the man said, clapping Adrien hard on the back. Adrien was only an inch shorter than him, both of them well over six feet.
“Henk.” Adrien grinned back.
“You folks are early. Glad to see ya ain’t got any holes in you.”
Adrien didn’t say anything, but he did embrace the man.
