Silverrock by Kathryn Hoff

Author:Kathryn Hoff [Hoff, Kathryn]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2022-10-25T23:00:00+00:00

The curving of the streets meant there was no direct route back to the access tunnel in the northwest end of the chamber. I led the way southwest, to a street that would curve back toward the north.

Emma gasped. “Not this way.” As she spoke, four scorps dropped from the high walls in front of us, waving their claws.

“Perhaps they’re only curious,” Havens said.

A scorp stepped forward and rose up, brandishing its claw.

“I don’t think so.” I held out a stun rod like a sword. The scorp surged forward.

“Antenna,” Emma whispered.

Zap. I fired at its antenna. It jumped back.

“Here, this way!” Emma turned west and pelted down the street.

“Wait!” I called. But she’d already stopped, facing more scorps blocking a narrow passage.

“Here, there’s an opening!” She turned into a passage to the right.

I grabbed her arm. “Stop! They’re herding us into a dead end. Follow my orders, remember? Now stay close.”

Small scorps lined the walls. Antennae waved as we walked, as if the scorps were tasting the air.

As we marched back to the center of the ruins, a few scorps stood in the pathway. Emma and I clumped together, stamping our feet and tapping our rods on the stone floor, and the scorps retreated.

I found the lane I was looking for and turned south, leading Emma to another dead end. I set the ladder up against a wall. “Climb.”

The top of the wall was the beginning of another street that sloped upward, curving north. More scorps waved antennae at us, but they retreated into crevices as we approached. Finally, we reached the wider streets at the ruins’ edge and made our way to the path to the overlook.

“Camera Two shows activity around the access tunnel,” Havens said.

Emma was breathing hard. At the overlook, I stopped her. “Catch your breath before we enter the tunnel.” A couple of scorps that had followed us up the path inched closer. “Give me your lure.”

Emma unslung from her shoulder a tightly wrapped sack. With my folding knife, I ripped open the side and looped the drawstrings over a stone outcrop at the side of the path, then pushed the sack over the edge so that it dangled beside the cavern wall below us. Scraps of vegetable peelings, rockskipper shells, and leftover gumbo dribbled out.

It worked. As soon as the scorps caught the scent of garbage, they turned and clambered over one another to try to reach the sack.

“Go!”

Emma entered the tunnel first, keeping her wristlamp focused ahead. With rustling and clicking, rockskippers and sandbugs withdrew into their holes.

We climbed the steep trail, twisting higher. Emma had begun to pant, reminding me of Ambrose’s labored breathing as I’d helped him limp out that last day. If I’d known he had a weak heart, I’d have put him on my back and carried him. But then, if I’d known he had a weak heart, I would have sent him packing back to Prime as soon as he set foot on Silverrock.

Clack, clack.

Two leopard-sized scorps stood in our way, antennae waving.

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