Torn from your home
With never a breath
From deep you will soar
To life after death
Chapter 3 Broken
Kia opened her eyes. She tried to move, but was glued in place by the sticky fallout from the explosion. Her body laid twisted. She took a breath and choked when dust filled her lungs. Pain wracked her body.
"I have gone to Perg with all who have died." Tears washed the burning clay from her eyes. The ground rolled below her, grinding into her head and increasing her agony. "I never knew the pain followed someone into death. And why am I speaking if I'm dead?"
The ground quivered as if Terah was being shaken like a boar skin rug in the wind. Rocks and trees flew into the air. Kia remembered the blast of the Harvester. She'd never seen one so close, but she knew the damage they caused. And she knew the beings who controlled the giant machines. The Zid, rulers of Terah. The thought of them so close sent waves of terror through her.
"I'm not dead!" She struggled to free herself from the rubble. One arm finally loose, she scratched and dug the wet, rocky clay from around her and finally freed her other hand. She closed her eyes and held her breath as the air filled with flying dirt. Another layer of ash and tephra settled over her and hardened like the adobe bricks which made up the village lodges and huts. Stones fell and she flinched as one struck her leg. She kicked her way to freedom, but her long, dark hair was trapped, permanently imbedded in the new rock.
"My knife!" Slashing her hair loose, she shrank back against the cliff.
Sheltered under the precipice from falling debris, she cleared mud from her eyes and realized Moonlight still ruled the dark sky. The gray haze of light covering the area came from the rock harvester.
"Stix! Rok! Where are you!" She screamed at the top of her voice then cringed, wondering if the Zid heard her. No, they're inside that Harvester digging up the world. She screamed again and dashed for the tree line. Another explosion sent rubble into the sky and the stench of smelters filled the air. Within minutes, poisonous gasses would end all life.
"Stix! Rok! Vee! Song! Somebody answer me!" She untied her woolen cloak, the only other item besides a long-knife allowed a fem on her bonding quest, and shook it clean. Then she wrapped it around her head and face so she could breathe.
She had to find her sisters.
"Veenah, ruler of the day and night, help me!"
A gurgling croak sounded in the darkness. She shrank into the tangled remains of a tree. Zid rarely ventured out in the darkness. Their eyes didn't work in low light, but great birds of the night with yellow eyes the size of a fem's head did see well. Nightbird could appear on silent wings and pick up any creature, including Terians, stupid enough to move around in the open after Warmsun went behind the mountain.
What made that noise? "Rok? Are you there?"
"You better be quiet!" Rok growled, but reached through the darkness for Kia.
"You're alive!" Kia fell into Rok's arms, sobbing, and Rok's embrace lifted her off the ground.
"I'm here," Rok whispered, "but keep your voice low. I thought for sure you'd been killed. Oh, your beautiful hair. Are you hurt?"
"I was nearly buried under the rocks and dirt. My hair was stuck and I cut it loose. Rok, you're covered in blood. What is that horrible smell?"
"I just killed one of those filthy Zid!"
"But they don't come out at night."
"I guess that story's a lie. It's over here. Hold its leg so I can gut it. If Nightbird can eat it, we can too."
"Hurry, we have to find the others. The gas is coming." Kia held her breath as Rok's knife did its work. "Ungh, that's nasty! Striped cat smells better than that! I might not eat for a moon phase."
"If you think you'll be able to find something else to eat before this is over, go for it. And don't forget, this tough hide of theirs will make us shields and even boots. I'm almost done. Watch your back. There might be more of these things running around."
Kia unsheathed her knife, holding it in front of her. Studying the shadows for movement, she was ready for any attack. Rok hefted the cleaned carcass of the Zid across her shoulder.
"Let's go," Rok whispered. "We need to get under cover."
Kia shook her head. "We need to find the others."
"They're all dead," Rok hissed, glancing around. "And we will be too if we don't get out of here."
"No! We have to find our sisters. We pledged."
Rok took a step backward. "You're right, we pledged, but I never followed you. You've been following me for the past season trying to convince me to pledge. Maybe that makes me the leader and I say we find shelter. Come on, Twisted Tree cave is not far from here."
"Fine. I'm going to look for our sisters alone then. I'm not leaving here without at least trying." The look on the warrior's face frightened and confused Kia.
"Wait." Rok shifted her load and took a step. "You can't go alone. You wouldn't have a chance. Perg's Fires, I wanted this hide."
"Then skin the thing right here. You can see me in Moonlight and be close enough to help if I need you." Kia tried to hide the fear in her voice.
"I don't like it. We should both get away from this place," Rok said, glaring.
Kia felt the sting of tears push at her eyes.
"But, I'll follow you. Don't worry, we'll find them."
"Throw that thing over a low tree-branch," Kia whispered. "We'll get it later. Ugh, you stink like dead Zid!" Kia tightened the blanket around her face as another cloud of ash filled the air then led the way back toward the precipice where she last saw her bond sisters.
"Stix! Where are you? Vee! Song! Please answer me!" The only response was the huffing and puffing of the harvester working just past the ridge – where her village used to be. She shoved the terrible thought from her mind and ducked as stones fell from another billowing cloud like an evil rain.
Rok held her close and they ran to the cliff for protection.
Rustling and a whimper from somewhere in the boulders turned her head. Rok stepped away, holding her finger to her lips and Kia froze in place.
The Zid were clever and knew how to mimic the voice of Terians, so Kia moved with caution. Using her reflective blade, she peered around the brush and inched closer. A whistle, the sound of a night warbler tickled the night. Kia lay flat against the ground. It could be a warning call of a bird, or a Zid trap. Or it could be Stix, who could repeat the sound of every bird and animal known.
Another whistle, this time two day birds, the bleeding jay, and the spike headed water bird. Zid hunters would never use those two calls together because the birds lived in different places. Kia crept forward on her belly. Stix would have answered her by name if it had been safe. And why hadn't she come out of the shadows? She must be injured, or buried, but she was alive.
A sinister rumble whispered through the night and Kia cast her blade to the rear just in time to see the forked tongue of a Zid flick over a boulder. She sprang to her feet, swinging her blade, and split the thing's skull as it leaped into the air. In the blink of an eye, she could have been going down the throat of the long-nosed being. Instead it twitched silently as its musky purple blood spewed over the rocks. Kia stifled a scream when a giant night bird swooped down and carried the carcass away.
"Kia! Over here!" A shining blade, the twin of her own knife, gleamed in the moonlight, signaling her bond-sister's location. Kia dove into the low cave.
"I thought I'd never see you again!" Kia cried, hugging Stix. "Are you hurt?"
Stix held her close and sobbed, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I couldn't save her. And then those slimy lizards were looking for us and we couldn't breathe in the dust."
Kia pushed away, "Who, Stix, who couldn't you save?" She searched the dark cliff and finally saw Song huddled in the shadows, crying.
Following Stix's pointing finger, Kia scrambled over the broken ground and found Vee, crushed and cold beneath a mound of dirt and rocks. Going limp, Kia screamed and writhed in new pain. Vee was so young. She'd only had her second moon flow, but she'd passed all her tests and begged to be bonded with her hearth sister. Few fems her age had survived the fever, and the elders understood that this might be her only chance to join a femtog, so they'd allowed it. Now she was gone.
Kia wrapped her arms around Song and wept with her.
Stix embraced both of them. "I tried to get her out. I saved Song. I dug her out of the dirt in time, but then I saw the Zid come over the ridge."
"I know." Kia wiped Stix's face with her blanket. "We gotta get away from here, fast."
"No," sobbed Song, "we can't leave her like this. We have to give her a death ceremony so she can go to Veenah."
"My little love," Kia said. "I know she's already there. But we're not safe here and I don't think my sister wants us to join her right now."
Stix moved to the edge of the overhanging rock. "There's another Zid out there somewhere. You know they always hunt in pairs, and I saw them."
"Rok got it a while ago, but the poison gas is coming." Kia stood. "Let's go while the night bird is busy with that one I killed."
"Rok's alive? Where is she?" Song whimpered.
Kia glanced around. "I don't know. She was behind me when we heard the Zid in the bushes."
Stix climbed to her feet, but sank back to the ground. Blood flowed from a gash in her leg.