They must not have taken earthquake swarms into account, though, because several times, we had to stop and kick through piles of dirt where the pipe had cracked open. The air grew musty and hard to breathe, and my hair stuck to my head uncomfortably. Sweat pooled in my collarbone, snaking down my chest, down my spine. The sylph at the rear didn’t help the heat, but at least they were quiet. The echo of their songs probably would have driven me to catch them all in sylph eggs.
“Is there water in the city?” I kept my voice low to keep it from carrying. Even so, the sound made me wince. “Since the lake is dry?”
“Yes.” Stef’s voice rasped against the walls of the pipe. “There are cisterns for rainwater and snow. The city is built for siege. Even with the lake drained, the population can live comfortably for five months. Much longer if we ration carefully.”
That was good to know. I might get a shower after all.
Light grew ahead, off to one side. “This is it. Looks like Sarit already opened the hatch for us.” After we climbed a small incline, Stef turned off her lantern and fastened it to her backpack. “Let’s get out of here.”
Cool air rushed in as she pushed the grate the rest of the way open, and at last we stepped into a small, dim room with powered-down labor drones sitting on shelves along the far side, and a handful of pipes crisscrossing the room with hatches leading in. The sylph hung back in the pipe, deep in the darkness. They’d come out when we reminded Sarit they were our army.
“Finally!” Sarit exploded from around the corner and stopped just short of hugging me. “You smell terrible.”
“I feel disgusting, too.”
She looked good, though, except for the dark smudges beneath her eyes, and the way her smile didn’t quite fit right. After losing Armande, she’d been alone. For a few weeks, she hadn’t even had me, since the SED signal didn’t reach as far north as we’d gone.
“I’m so glad you’re back.” Tears glimmered in Sarit’s eyes as she smiled at everyone. “I can’t say how much I missed you. But I’m not going to hug you until after you’ve all washed up. I have standards, you know.”
“We missed you, too.” I peeled hair off my forehead and gazed around the small room. It was good to be back inside solid walls, though the circumstances of our return could have been so much better. “Where have you been staying? How soon until I can shower?”
“Twenty minutes, if you run and get to the shower first. I’ve been rotating darksoul houses and industrial buildings. We’re in the middle of the industrial quarter right now, in one of the few buildings still standing after they razed a bunch of warehouses and things. This one is still necessary.” She shrugged. “I’m taking you to the textile mill. I had to pretend like I was Stef in order to rig some of the pipes into a shower, but it’ll do if you’re desperate.”
“And we are.” Whit laughed and headed for the door, but as soon as he pulled it open, a blue light shot in. Whit dropped over.
He was dead.
24
LOSS
I SCREAMED.
Sam and Stef drew their pistols and pushed their way to the door, keeping to the sides.
Another blue light shot in, but before Sam or Stef could duck outside, blackness surged from the pipe where we’d just come from, keening so loud my ears ached.
The sylph passed over Whit’s body in the doorway, hotter as they moved outside. Though he’d been killed by a laser, leaving only a small hole in his forehead, the heat of sylph scorched his skin darker and darker, burning his clothes and hair and eyelashes.
Sarit screamed, her voice raw. Sam and Stef moved back as the sylph streamed outside, and within heartbeats, men and women cried out in pain. The stench of burning flesh flooded the room, mixing with the reek we’d carried in from the aqueduct and days of travel. Acid pushed up my throat; I doubled over and threw up.
Before I could spit and wipe my mouth, Sam grabbed my wrist and hauled me after him. Stef had Sarit.
“Let’s go.” Stef guided us over Whit’s body.
His body.
He’d been alive a minute ago.
Now he was a charred husk.
“Come on!” Sam jerked me outside. It was dark, but there were enough lights in this quarter that I couldn’t ignore the smoking bodies on the ground. Four of them, all burned to death by sylph.
I stumbled after Sam, my feet tripping over each other, over the hard ground.
Stef passed Sarit to Sam. “Get them to the mill. I’ll take care of this.”
Take care of this? There were bodies. Whit.
“Is that safe?” Sam asked.
“I’ll make it safe.” Stef’s eyes were hard, angry.
Tears blinded me as I staggered after Sam, bumping against Sarit, who seemed just as disoriented and confused. Sylph flew around us, only half their usual number. The others must have stayed with Stef.
“This way.” Sam’s voice was rough as he dragged us behind buildings to wait, listen, though I couldn’t hear anything over the thud of my heartbeat, the hitch in my breath, and the gasp of Sarit’s weeping.
For what seemed like hours, we started and stopped, hiding behind buildings, though the ragged sound of my breathing would surely give us away. Sylph pushed ahead and around, though only one knew the way to the textile mill, and I couldn’t tell if Cris had stayed with us or Stef.
Or Whit.