i
“We can’t go out the back,” Ardin said when the plaintive wail ended. The tall display with the colourful song-sensitive Lacile flowers had helped to shield the three from the blast of the Pomboms. Layela could only see the bright smile on a little girl’s face, when she had shown her the song that would make it bloom.
A lifetime ago, she thought. The shortest life I have ever known. Tears welled in her eyes at the smell of burnt and burning plants around her, a bitter odour where before only the sweetest scents had intermingled. Her face was flushed from the heat and her clothing was sticky from sap, the blood of hours of care and love shed so easily. A sob caught in her throat. It was all gone. She felt naked and afraid, without security or haven. She had felt safe here. Only here.
“Layela,” Josmere whispered, the Berganda’s green eyes searching out hers. Layela tried to smile, but failed, barely managing to stop the tears from shedding.
“We need to go. Now,” Ardin said.
“Give her a moment,” Josmere snapped. “You have no idea what she went through for this.”
“I know what she’ll go through if we don’t get out of here now!” Ardin retorted.
“There is no other way out,” Layela answered, breaking the two up. She gave Josmere a wry smile. “It was something Yoma hated about this place.”
Plan your exits. Always plan your exits. It was too late now to regret not following her sister’s advice.
“We might have a better chance with the back, if they’re even still there,” Ardin mused, looking toward the back door.
“I would rather die than fall into the hands of that Kilita,” Layela spat venomously. Josmere looked at her with surprise. Layela had never revealed to Yoma and Josmere what had happened while she had been held captive years ago, choosing to let them draw their own conclusions.
“Advance!” The cry came from outside the shop, beyond the melted bars that had once protected it from petty thieves.
“I can’t believe I’m about to lose this contract,” was all Ardin could whisper, and Layela was too busy frantically trying to think of an escape route to ask him to elaborate. The soldiers were near, their boots scraping on the pavement outside, their stealth non-existent as they stepped over broken shards of glass. Glass. She could fight with glass, but it would cut her as much as her assailants.
As though reading her thoughts, Ardin handed her the gun she had dropped earlier and clutched his own close to his chest. Josmere removed her gloves. Ardin looked at her in disbelief and was rewarded with a nasty look.
Ardin shifted, and so did the two friends, waiting to attack as one. They could figure out loyalties later.
Then a woman outside yelped in delight and a shot was fired. An explosion ripped through the broken windows and the air turned a bright yellow, powdered specks falling and dancing around them like snowflakes. The air was burned and ripped out of Layela’s lungs. She gasped, her hands reaching for her throat as she dropped her gun and desperately tried to find a pocket of air. Tears streaked down her face as her eyes burned and her body suffocated and grew numb.
She turned at the touch of a hand on her back, recognizing Avienne despite the dust and the air tank in the woman’s mouth. She offered Layela a tank of her own, gesturing for her to breathe quickly and give it back to her. Layela gulped greedily, taking a deep breath before giving the small tank back to Avienne, who passed it to her brother. She motioned to Josmere to offer her some of hers.
“Don’t worry, I’m fine,” the Berganda said, unaffected by the strange acrid gas Avienne had unleashed upon them. Ardin signalled to his sister to lead the way and he handed the oxygen to Layela. She gulped again and passed it back to him, and they both stood and followed Avienne.
With little oxygen and too many wounds, running was out of the question, so they staggered after Avienne, Josmere somewhere behind them. The yellow air stung Layela’s eyes, but Avienne’s lack of concern comforted her. The woman might be reckless, but she certainly didn’t strike her as stupid enough to render herself blind.
Wisps of white suddenly graced the thick yellow air, and the sight of the soldiers littering the streets, their lips blue and eyes wide open and accusing, made Layela forget for a moment that she couldn’t breathe. The white mists dissipated as quickly as they had come, and the bodies were gone, leaving in their stead only writhing soldiers, clutching their throats on the ground, some still standing and bent in two.
She had seen how it would end for them, in but a few moments. She felt some sadness at their deaths, but quickly hardened her heart. Mama Knot had been a friend too, and they had probably destroyed it with their energy weapons. And the Booknots that Mama Knot had loved so much that it had smothered them. And the Lacile, with its gentle glow on cold nights, and the Growall’s perseverance…She staggered under the weight of loss, realizing that there was nothing for her to go back to now.
Ardin felt her weaken and his arm was around her in an instant. He passed the oxygen back to her, and for a moment, she leaned into his strength and let herself be partly carried. The burden of shattered dreams was too much for her to bear alone.
For just one moment.
i
Through the thick haze, Avienne somehow found the shuttle, waving at them to make sure they followed her. Ardin and Layela were just coming into sight when a soldier stepped out from beside the shuttle and threw Avienne into it. The side of her head bounced off of the metal, her oxygen flying away. She
