Hunted

autonomouscreations.

“Maybe.” Flash gold was her father’sinvention, and she did not think much of it was out there in theworld, if any. She had read of witches animating inanimate objectsand controlling them, and thought that a more likely explanationfor the swarm, but she could not be sure. She lacked the breath toshare her speculations.

Cedar grunted, then cursed. He was runningdirectly behind her and taking the hits.

“You don’t have to…do that,” she said.

The effort of holding the pace was catchingup with her. Without the packsack, she would have an easier time,but she was unwilling to leave her tools behind. She could havedropped the drill or the metal carcass, but she might find anotheruse for the former, and she had to check out the latter assoon as there was time. This woman’s work was incredible.

“Veer right,” Cedar said. “The river bendsahead, and we’ll run into some rapids if we keep goingstraight.”

“It’d be nice if…someone would have…madea trail for us.”

“We’ll meet up with it soon.”

When Kali tried to follow his instructionsand run right, movement in that direction made her falter. Two ofthe creatures swooped out of the canopy.

Cedar’s rifle cracked. One of the constructsflew backward, smashing into a tree. The other returned fire. Thebullet was too small to track, but Cedar cursed and dropped hisrifle. He snatched it up and caught up with Kali.

“They’re herding us,” he said.

Yes, she was getting that feeling. “To cornerus…at the river? I’m hot and tired enough to jump in and… takemy chances with the current.”

“With all that gear?” Irritating thathe did not sound out of breath. “You’d sink like a goldbar.”

Before she could think of a retort, the treesand undergrowth ended, and she stumbled onto a granite bank, dampwith spray. In the center of the river, white rapids frothed andchurned, but Kali’s gaze went to a shallow niche filled with calm,dark water-and a brown-clad figure standing in a metal boat. No,not a boat. The lower half of the flying machine, the half they hadnot found in the wreckage. The furnace and boiler appearedundamaged, and puffs of gray wafted from a narrow smokestack. Somesort of screw-style propeller kept theflying-machine-turned-land- vehicle-turned-boat from drifting outinto the rapids.

Kali slowed down, not sure what to do next.Stop and talk? God knew she was curious about this woman. Or turnright and run downriver, taking her chances navigating thetreacherous slabs of rock framing the waterway?

Cedar had no trouble deciding what to do: hefired his rifle.

The transparent barrier still protected thepiloting area, but since the woman was standing, her torso roseabove it. The bullet slammed into her chest. Or it should have. Itclacked, as if hitting rock, and ricocheted off without the figurereacting. Actually she did react. She tilted her head and gaveCedar a look that managed to convey, even with goggles covering hereyes, pity for such a simple creature whose only solution toproblems was gunfire.

He seemed to get that message too for hegrowled like a bear roused early from hibernation.

Click-whirs grew audible over the roarof the rapids. The flying constructs drew closer, forming a tightsemicircle at Kali and Cedar’s backs. One buzzed a couple of feetfrom her ear.

“What do you think of my cicadas?” the figurecalled. The head wrapping did not cover the speaker’s lips, so thevoice came out clearly. It definitely belonged to a woman, an olderwoman, Kali guessed. “Incase you’re thinking of fleeing, I shouldinform you that you’ve experienced only Setting One of theirfirepower. There are three settings.”

“Who are you?” Kali asked. Maybe thequestion should have been, “What are you?”

Though the voice and the swell of a bosombeneath the brown wrapping made femininity clear, Kali struggled tobelieve this was a mere woman. Cedar had shot her the daybefore-they had seen blood-but no sling cradled the arm, nordid the figure appear wounded now.

“Who do you think I am?” the woman asked, asmile in her voice.

Kali glanced at Cedar, but his face wasmasked, and he said nothing.

“A witch who studied engineering?” Kali saidto the woman. “Or an engineer who studied witching.”

“Witching.” The woman chuckled.

“Oh, good,” Kali muttered. “I amuse her.”

“Your first guess is most accurate.” Shesmirked. “Huzzah.”

“And what do you want with me?” Kali asked.“It is me, right? I couldn’t help but notice your littlebutterflies had a fixation for my bottom.”

“I’m here to kill you.”

Cedar took a step forward, his knuckles whitewhere he gripped his rifle. “If you try, I’ll kill you first.”

“Not likely, dear,” the woman said. “Youdon’t seem too bright.”

“Why?” Though Kali did not think Cedar wouldbe rash enough to charge the woman, she put a hand on his armanyway. The hard knotted muscles beneath the sleeve testified tothe tension in his body. “Why kill me? Most people just want tokidnap me. Which is a might inconvenient, too, but preferable todeath.”

She eyed the woman’s vessel as she spoke,mulling over a way to sink it or push it out into the rapids. Ifthey could manage that, the river might sweep their foe milesdownstream before the woman could pull herself to shore. That wouldgive her and Cedar time to escape. But if the “cicadas” truly had asetting three times as powerful as the one she had already felt,she might be filled with holes before she could reach the shallowsand the boat.

The woman’s gaze fixed on the drill. Kali hadturned it off, but the flake of flash gold continued to glow, as itwould for all eternity unless someone destroyed it. Maybe it wasvisible from the boat.

“The secret of flash gold must die,” thewoman said.

Ah, yes, visible from the boat indeed.

“Most people want the secret,” Kalisaid, “which I don’t have, by the way, so there’s no need to killme. As far as I know, nobody living has the secret.”

Kali subtly poked through the innards of thebroken cicada, looking for a clue that might let her nullify themall. If they were decommissioned somehow, charging the boat mightbe a less foolish proposition. Her fingers tingled as she touchedsome of the fine gears. Magic?

Cedar watched her hands through hoodedeyes.

“You know how it’s made even if you lack thepower to imbue it,” the woman said. “You’ve studied your father’snotes, I’m sure.”

“Notes?” Kali said. “Was he supposed to leavenotes? He must have forgotten. He was busy dying.”

“Ezekiel kept excellent notes. I know. I washis research partner for more than ten years.”

Kali blinked. “You knew my father?” She hadnever met anyone outside of Moose Hollow who did. Old Ezekiel haddone a good job of falling off the map when he came north. IfSebastian had not blabbed to the wrong people, all thesetroublemakers would never have known of her existence.

“Yes, did he never speak of me? Amelia?”

“No.”

“That figures,” the woman said, voice likeice. She-Amelia-picked up something. A small bronze box. Some sortof controller for the cicadas? Had she grown tired of chatting?

“My father didn’t speak to me aboutanything,” Kali said, trying to buy more time. She went back toprodding the wreckage of the broken cicada. “If you were lovers orsomething, he might still have cared. I just wasn’t…a confidantof his. He barely acknowledged me.”

“Because you lack power, I imagine. If thearrogant coot hadn’t been obsessed over looks, we mighthave…”

She did not finish, but Kali could guess.They might have had a child. So, this was some spurned woman herfather had not chosen for a lover. Maybe Amelia wanted Kali deadfor more reasons than flash gold.

“Sorry, he didn’t love you,” Kali said. “Butit’s not my fault. Killing me won’t-”

“It will ensure no more flash gold is evermade,” Amelia snarled. “It’s bad enough that it exists at all, butnow