She inspected us with almond-shaped green eyes before speaking. “You’re not Ish-Nul.”
It was a statement of fact, not a question. Her small mouth and full lips pursed for a moment before relaxing.
The priestess didn’t seem to be the spiritual guru I was expecting. She was also a lot younger than I’d expected, no older than mid-20s. I wondered why the Ish-Nul had called her a priestess. To me, she looked more like a scientist. She was dressed in the heavy but well-fitting clothes befitting a blacksmith, including a leather apron that almost reached the knees of her trousers. Her boots were leather as well, and little burn marks spotted them.
I realized I was staring and cleared my throat. “My name is Jacob. This is Beatrix. Reaver is outside. Skrew and Yaltu will join us later. We’re here to rescue you.”
“A pleasure!” she said with a gleeful yip. “I’m Nyna.”
“Let’s go,” I said as I motioned for her to join us down the stairs.
As Beatrix and I started to move, Nyna paused.
“Oh, wait!” she exclaimed. “I forgot my tools! I can’t leave them!”
Beatrix sighed deeply and rolled her eyes. “We will get more tools,” she said through gritted teeth. “Leave them!”
“No,” the priestess snapped from somewhere deep in her prison cell.
I could hear her shoving boxes over and metal things bouncing and rolling across the floor. A moment later, she reappeared with a colorful leather backpack and a smile.
“I’ve been hiding these from the rushada guards. The guards are tough, but they’re also stupid. I probably could’ve left them out in the open, even told them what they were, and I still could’ve kept them.”
I wanted to be angry at the delay, but her mischievous smile was infectious. It wasn’t infectious enough for Beatrix, though. That woman was all business.
Beatrix made it clear she’d had enough talking by marching down the stairwell. I motioned for the priestess to take a position in the middle while I took the rear. Reaver emerged from her cover as soon as I got to the bottom, and we assumed a diamond formation with the priestess in the center.
“Nyna, this is Reaver,” I said. “Reaver, Nyna.”
Reaver grunted while the priestess beamed. She seemed not at all frightened by her circumstances.
We turned to the hole I’d cut in the fence—toward our escape—when the pair of spotlights I’d seen earlier landed on us. The brightness momentarily blinded me, but a half-second later, my eyes adjusted, and I saw the source of the illumination.
They were two lights shoulder-mounted on a mechanical giant standing more than eight feet tall. Black-, silver-, and copper-colored pipes zigzagged across its bulky torso. Two arms ended in fists the size of my torso and two smaller arms shook like a beetle’s antennae. Surrounding one arm was a massive gun ringed with barrels, each connected to each other like the spokes of a bicycle wheel. The mech’s legs were protected by armored plating and buzzed with electric motors and servos.
The mech had us exactly where it wanted us: out in the open and unprepared.
“Oh,” Nyna said with a snap of her fingers. “I knew I forgot to mention something.”
“Was it this mech?” Reaver asked.
“Actually… it’s a golem.”
Chapter Five
I scooped up Nyna with one arm as Reaver charged the mech, firing her rifle from her hip as she ran. Her target was too close for anything else, and though the weapon was slow to fire, it left red blotches on the machine’s armor.
At first, I thought she might be panicked, because each of her shots hit somewhere else. The first struck the hip joint. The second blasted the elbow of the smaller arm. The third hit dead center. But she was looking for a weak spot.
As I came to a sliding stop under the building, I lost sight of Beatrix. She’d cut around to the mech’s left side as it tried to follow her. It was a good way to divide its attention, and would at least buy enough time for me to rejoin them.
“Stay here,” I told the priestess as I set her down gently but quickly.
“But I can help,” she pleaded.
“I’m sure you can, but stay here for now. We came here just for you, and if you get hurt or killed, then this was all for nothing.”
She pouted and crossed her arms. I hoped she’d still do what she was told; I didn’t want to have to fight a giant machine and pull her out of the fire at the same time.
With no more time to consider the matter, I turned my attention back to the battle waging behind me, drew Ebon, and charged.
The golem was taking a swing at Reaver’s right arm. She caught the giant fist, dug her heels in, and still managed to slide a foot across the dirt before stopping. A new noise, mechanical and high-pitched, drew her attention up.
Tubes on the machine’s arms began to spin, but before I could call out to her, she recognized the danger. She let go of the mech’s first and rolled forward between its legs. Less than a second later, the multiple barrels on the arm tore a hole through the air where she’d been standing. The slugs kicked up the nearby soil into a cloud of dust. The gun discharged so fast, there was no way I could count how many rounds had been fired.
Beatrix came charging in next, red-blazing hammer held high above her head. She had to throw herself flat on her back to avoid the incoming firehose of bullets, and though I couldn't see the rounds, I did see them kick up the dust just above her head.
I threw Ebon as hard as I could. The sword twirled through the air like a
