To reset the scene, I killed one captor, the second I had coaxed away. That man could not react in time to save his compatriot, but he now would kill me. My bare feet broke open anew as I sprinted over the jagged ndscape and into the paltry cover of wilted trees and dry brush.

  -An Unrepentant Coward

  ###

  The gates to the Dark Element’s facility, named ARPA by the letters spackled across the side of the building and the pylon sign outside, opened for the coming of a man. The customary robes the Dark Element wore made the typical assassin shapeless and undefined, but not this man. Even under his thick robes, his rge stature cut a defining shape.

  He. Was. Massive.

  And Nadiné, his wispy partner, tread in his shadow as they skirted along the frosty beach. Though her face was covered, the crow’s feet around her dark eyes betrayed a firmly middle age. Powerful in her own right, her new assignment as this man’s Squire had caused nothing but strife. The wet work in the city would be breezy, in comparison, if a single word of the numerous emergency messages were true.

  And Nadiné knew it would all be true; it always was.

  She could hear the panic before she could see it, their agents scouring the cliffsides. Nadiné had been involved in the tunneling and construction of the jail cells along with a team of other Metal and Combustion Syches. The notion that someone could break out, of what they got into the habit of calling ‘The Pit’ during construction, seemed ridiculous.

  She and the giant jumped away from the road as three trucks sped past, splitting at the intersection and starting their canvas of the isnd—not that the westward route could be traveled far. If you weren’t in the Taerose caravan, you wouldn’t make it further than the first ascent.

  Halfway across the parking lot, Nadiné could make out the front doors and the crowd huddled outside. Lavdan was the officer of the facility now, and Nadiné couldn’t help but feel she may have just escaped a noose by getting a promotion. She paused, noticing the drag marks in the snow that only bodies could have created. You learned what that looked like working this far north. On approach, a crowd of three bck hooded Syches dispersed into swirling winds as she and her superior approached. Lavdan stood with his back against the double doors, clipboard in hand. He fumbled to bring his hood over his meticulously shaved head to no avail.

  Instead he gave a stiff salute with the free hand-- the wrong hand.

  “Knight Zagan!” Lavdan saluted, his entire body jerking into position fast enough to give him whipsh. “We weren’t expecting you back until at least mid-day.”

  The rge man looked around the ndscape, at the patrols moving further up and disappearing onto the pteau. His fist caved in the man’s chest.

  “What happened!” the giant spat. Stooping his colossal frame, he grabbed the fetal man by the scruff of the neck and hoisted him to his feet.

  Nadiné sighed. Definitely gd she got that promotion. But her brain nagged: this wouldn’t have happened under her stewardship.

  Zagan said, “That was for whatever you are going to tell me.”

  She froze as his gaze found her mid meditation: Don’t react. Don’t betray weakness. Gods below, he looking for disobedience. Her heart was certainly not obeying any insistence it stay calm. His shark eyes passed over and back to the real prey.

  “Two prisoners. Girl, one of ours,” the bald man said with grit, choking on a wheeze as he forced his knees to lock into pce. “And the elderly guy you went back to the mainnd for.”

  “You lost that man’s prisoner!” the giant roared. “Get up, we have to move or we are all dead. Nadiné!” Zagan stopped to take a deep breath and settle the quivering in his hands. “Find me the best Syche stationed here. Actually, make sure it’s a Blood Syche; the ocean is the only escape. Pray to those worthless gods of yours that we can find what he’s lost.”   She didn’t bother to salute or acknowledge the command in anyway, she just got to work.

  ###

  Kael twittered to life in the back of the truck, his body letting him know it was time to leave. Out in the wilderness, his body would wake up when required. It never seemed odd to Kael, not when he thought of himself as just another animal.

  He made the rounds and jostled the rest: Joshua, Gianna, Bartholomew, and Emilie. No one, not even Joshua, had much trouble picking their head off of the crates and looking alert.

  His brother fished into one of his pockets and pulled out a small fsh light. Putting his hand over the top, giving them just enough haze to see each other. “Time already?” Joshua signed. “Could have used more sleep.” The light dancing with the signs.   Kael replied, “I heard you fussing about st night. You chose how to spend your time, so don’t compin.” Just by looking around, Kael could see that Joshua had been through at least half of the crates and containers.

  Not quite a sign, Joshua just pointed to one of his jacket pockets with a bulge and patted it tenderly.

  Wasn’t like him to mess with weapons, or anything that might kill a man. Kael looked around, skeptically wondering what else could be in the matériel. He could pry the secrets from Joshua ter.

  “Okay everyone,” Kael signed rgely, making sure to get everyone’s attention. He gave a quick grin to Emilie who was furiously blinking in her father’s p. “We’re just shy of four in the morning. That’s when Taerose military doctrine mandates a change of the guard in a forced vehicur march. Including changing out the convoy batteries whether they need it or not.”

  Gianna looked around. “Are we carrying batteries back here?”   Joshua shook his head no with a sly grin.

  “The point is,” Kael resumed, annoyedly, “that we need to get ahead of the convoy. We can’t just ride in full way, so now’s our chance.”

  The Doctor whispered, “Hold on now. How do you know Taerose military doctrine.”

  The question was ignored by Kael: “We either need to steal the forward plow or disable it.”   “No,” Joshua signed. “Only the tter if we want to avoid an airstrike taking us out. They can’t know what we’re up to, and we certainly can’t steal a vehicle.”

  “Okay, disable the plow it is,” Kael signed.    “You’re not close enough from here, are you?” Joshua asked.

  Kael closed his eyes and felt forward through the static of bodies and energetic flows of the vehicur metal on the otherwise barren ndscape. “Not unless we’re further up in the convoy than I remember. I’ll find my way up and Joshua can lead the group. Any questions?”

  Hands shot up through the truck bed, including from Joshua.

  Joshua went first. “It’s going to be deathly cold. We should bring some crate pnks along and use them for heat.”

  Bartholomew second. “I don’t know how much I have left in my legs. You won’t get another full day’s march out of my body.”

  Gianna st. “This is a good pn.”

  Kael resisted the urge to drag his hand over his face. “None of these are questions. You just need to suck it up.”

  Joshua rose his hand and continued at Kael’s exasperated nod. “I will rephrase: Could we do your pn but only once we have a visual on the city? Ensure we can sprint out the st leg?” He punctuated the end by drawing a question mark in the air.

  “I don’t know. If it’s light out me and Gianna will have to—”

  “Gianna and I,” Emilie corrected with a pat on the head from her father.

  “Yes. Thank you. “Gianna and I would be forced to buy time.”

  Kael looked to Gianna for her input at that notion, but she wasn’t paying attention. Instead tracing the lines of her palm with a finger. “Gianna?”    “Guys with guns? Not a problem,” Gianna said, not willing to stop whatever she was doing to sign. “It’s the inferior weapon.”

  “Gianna can do her light trick again,” Joshau said, “or at least I assume.” He looked to her for confirmation but got nothing in return so continued. “And you can use this battery swap to position yourself on the plow. Curl up on the side, tuck yourself underneath. You will be warm because you’re you, and you’ll be able to see the city as we get close. You pop a gasket or whatever stops a plow like that, and the convoy stopping will be our signal. We book it.”

  “All in favor?” Joshua asked.

  The convoy slowed and Kael slipped from the back of the truck with the lightest crunch of snow manageable. He slid down and pushed himself along the undercarriage of the truck, stopping just under the bumper. The soldiers were terse in their duties. Kael heard them grunt and shiver wordlessly; all while he tracked them with his powers, by the voids they created.

  Kael kipped from one truck to the next with this method. He took to his feet and sidled along the left side of an APC as two soldiers toted a battery along the right.

  Joshua was right about the plow: there were plenty of pces to hide. Kael nestled himself into the pce where the plow connected to the machine, just besides the left wheel. If he fell asleep or merely slipped off while they moved it’d be a sure death, but that was one thing Kael didn’t worry about. He was steelen.

  ###

  As much as he was looking forward to trusting her, Joshua wasn’t ready prepared to sleep with both eyes closed. He stayed awake and watched the other three sleep. Actually two. Barthlomew seemed to have simir ideas; Joshua just didn’t know if that ck of trust extended to himself.

  Joshua signed to him, “First thing you’re going to do when we’re warm?”

  Bartholomew signed back, “I’m still betting on us all dying out here.”

  “If we’re lucky and only one person has to die, it can be me. I did introduce myself as the hero after all.”

  Even in the low light, it seemed Bartholomew’s eyes rolled. “Kids’ humor stays the same every generation. You don’t value your lives until you find something you need to live for.”   Joshua bit his lip, deflected. “Doesn’t apply to Kael though, huh?”

  “That’s my point,” Bartholomew signed. “He doesn’t see it, but you truly do not care about this whole,” Bartholomew waved his hands around in the air, “treasure hunt, situation. You don’t even believe the Book is real.”

  “I believe Kael needs to find that out for himself. And if we’re lucky in the meantime, he will discover--” Joshua stopped himself, realizing that if Bartholomew could pull all that out of what amounted to a simple joke about offing himself (albeit in a heroic and dashing way) then the st thing he should do is keep talking.

  Gianna popped up from her resting pce on the floor. “Do you hear that?” she said far, far too loud.

  Joshua and Barthlomew paused, and Joshua couldn’t hear anything. Nothing, not even the grind of the truck’s parts or the sway of the carriage. Realizing that they had stopped and knowing it was too early for the pn to be in motion, Joshua jumped to his feet just as shouts carried down from the head of the column. He had already jumped over Gianna and was halfway to hurdling himself from the truck when the ground shook. Cracks split the air like great trees with hundred-year-old-roots crashing to the ground, there were screams.

  He truly had no clue what was happening, only that he had jumped outside only to find himself suspended in darkness.

  His breathing sped up and he tried to move all his muscles simultaneously.

  His sister Almae used to do this to him if he crawled under the covers: jump on him and trap him under. She ughed like it was the funniest thing ever. Joshua abhorred it. Stopped being in the same room with her and a bed.

  The initial panic faded naturally from overexposure as Joshua still attempted to fil in utter darkness. Only now with the adrenaline spent and his body winding down, he realized how cold he was.

  It was snow. He was still too panicked to work on the how or the why, but he at least understood he was buried. He moved his face side to side and carved out a pocket to breath in.

  Better.