Tracked on Predator Planet by Vicky L. Holt

Author:Vicky L. Holt [Holt, Vicky L.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2022-08-10T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty

Hivelt

The kathe black waters of snowmelt-turned-flood thrust me into madness. Up was down. Light was dark. Pleasure was pain. My heart throbbed relentlessly, its attempts to break free close to succeeding.

I spun beneath the churning waters, buffeted on all sides by limbs and rocks. I imagined the raging waters purging the tunnels under the mountains, drowning the agothe-faxl, scraping the tunnel walls with shards of mountain-heart, and flooding the cave pools with fresh water. The little water suns would perish, and the glisten-fish cycle must begin again.

Likewise, the snowmelt purged Hivelt from the stream and I felt my body go into free fall over the side of the gulch. I twisted and blinked furiously as daylight streamed through my visor. What once was blackness was now sunlight. I fell to the night-river, praying to the Goddesses that I would miss the powerful rocks jutting up from below me. My armor could protect me somewhat, but not from gravity.

By the grace of Shegoshel, I split the turbulent waters with my feet and plunged into the depths, jostled by hundreds of split logs. Bashed repeatedly, I strove to swim through the milieu to shore, only to be beaten back by endless flotsam.

Alarms blared in my visor indicating damage inflicted to my armor, but I fought my way through the flood, trying to resurface. The landquake caused a rain of gravel from the steep cliff to my north.

Bobbing up between floating wood, I spied Joaxma’s ship. It poised at the edge, angled downward. Its engines were encased by the boulders, trapping it, preventing it from toppling over. Its nosecone was gone.

A rushing wave closed over my head and I went down again. I swum below the jetsam and chose a diagonal route, headed to the opposite shore. If another landquake issued, Pattee’s ship could tumble over the edge. I needed to pull her out.

A last kick, a great heave, and I pulled myself ashore. A thick branch swiped my leg in a final bid for dominance but at last I grasped the sweet tufts of grass. Mud and filth dripped from my armor. I stood, gasping from exertion, and scrutinized the precarious ship.

Zooming in with my sight-capture, I saw one hatch at the edge of the cliff. If I could open it, I might be able to retrieve Pattee without plunging us both off the edge.

My gaze returned to the tumble of debris rushing headlong toward the rokhura nesting grounds some several days’ walk from here.

Ikthe was in turmoil. As was my heart. Every time I thought of Joaxma, it beat faster and more earnestly. Perhaps the myth was not a myth at all. I would speak to Naraxthel of this. First, to rescue Pattee, then warn my brethren. And maybe someday, when events were not so dire, I could ask him of the myth of the heart mate.

A few tiks of rest and I was pacing the south shore of the teeming river, searching for a narrow pass I might jump. I had misjudged before, at great peril.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.