Driving Lesson

  The most terrible thing was the ringing in his ears. It wasn’t like the defined chimes of his bell, but a constant, unrelenting trrrrrr. Through hazy vision, Skye saw elongated black smudges bouncing around, hurling balls of hot red and cool blue.

  As the resonance diminished, distant detonations drummed from every direction, laced with howls of pain and incoherent shouts.

  Someone rushed to check on him, yelling incomprehensibly. For a moment, he saw Gideom in the dark, smiling that checkerboard smile, telling him he should live.

  “You coalbrain,” Redeyes chided. “Gideom can’t speak.”

  Skye blinked, and Gideom’s face morphed into Ficar’s.

  “Get to the front of the vehicle!” Ficar shouted. “Move, move, move!”

  Skye stumbled forward, nearly colliding with a warden who elbowed him aside. Amid the rolling canteens and tumbling first-aid boxes, he spotted the bag containing his gear sliding toward him. He snatched it, shoved it under his clothes, and hurried to crouch at the corner by the map.

  With the rear of the carriage blown apart, the vehicle rattled violently, tilting with every turn. A trail of black smoke billowed behind them, concealing the battlefield in choking shadow. Outside, aeroxii and wardens dashed in every direction, screeching or screaming, while gusts of wind and firebolts tore through the air.

  The carriage just behind them was hit by a windbolt so massive it crushed the driver’s cabin, turning those inside into red pulp. The wreckage lifted, spinning through the air before slamming into the ground, erupting in a storm of fire and shrapnel that decimated trees in every direction.

  Skye’s spine turned to ice as a dozen aeroxii shifted their attention to his wagon. The remaining wardens fired on the oncoming swarm, all except Tybur, who cowered in the corner across Skye’s, hugging himself and sobbing.

  “I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die…”

  Skye looked around, helpless and hopeless. Just days ago, he’d been chained underground, dreaming of the forest and vowing to kill every last warden. Now, all he wanted was to return to Troqua, and the monstrous image he’d once held of the wardens had vanished, replaced with pity. It was all just so… outrageous, so unexpected, so funny!

  A smile cracked across his face. Then a chuckle broke through. Then he burst out laughing.

  “This is the first sane thing I’ve seen you do!” Redeyes said.

  Sether shot him a disgusted glance, then lunged at Tybur and yanked him up by the collar. The scene was hilarious, it was exactly what he’d done to Skye not twenty minutes ago.

  “Pull yourself together and get out there with your comrades, you Void-cursed coward!” Sether roared.

  “I can’t…” Tybur sniffled. “We’re all going to die. They’ll kill everyone…”

  “Void damn you,” Sether growled, slamming Tybur against the wall with a thud. He barked orders to the drivers, but Skye heard nothing over his own laughter and the thunder of explosions outside.

  There were far fewer wardens in the carriage now. Skye didn’t know whether they’d flown out, or if the red smears on the floor and ceiling were all that remained of them.

  “There are still eight cargo carriages flying behind us,” Sether announced. “We have a duty to return them to the city. Anyone who wants to give up can stay here. The rest of you, with me.”

  Aside from Tybur and the two drivers, the four remaining wardens prepared to leave. Skye wanted to beg them to stay behind and protect him. But that only exacerbated his fit.

  After months spent running from wardens, now he wanted as many of them around him as possible.

  “You’re staying,” Sether said, grabbing Ficar by the shoulder. “No objections. We’ve lost too many carriages already; we can’t afford to lose this one as well. Get Tybur back on his feet and deliver the carriage and that crazy rat to the city. Those are your orders, warden.”

  Then he vanished out the smoking hatch.

  Skye’s laughter finally died as Ficar turned to glare at him. His jaw ached; lungs burned. A wave of despair and disgrace crashed over him.

  He was a burden. He had always been a burden.

  Why had he ever believed he’d reach Kastrala?

  “Any fool may dream,” Redeyes said. “Dreams are free and painless. They’re the crutches of weaklings, marching towards disappointment.”

  “This isn’t how it was supposed to be,” Tybur whimpered. “I didn’t prepare for this. I want to go home.”

  “Hey, look at me. Look at me!” Ficar said as he crouched before him. One sleeve was shredded, blood seeped down his bare arm. “When’s Felicia’s birthday?”

  “Felicia?” Tybur echoed, dazed.

  “The girl you’ve been meeting in the park,” Ficar said. “Everyone at the barracks knows you sneak out at night to see her. When’s her birthday?”

  “I-It’s still months away. What does—?”

  “What did you get her?”

  “N-nothing, I—“

  “So you’ll make her spend her birthday alone? You’ll abandon her?”

  “No! Never!”

  “Then get up and help me get you back to her.”

  Ficar left Tybur in the corner, turning to hurl tornados and windbolts at the encroaching elexii. A wave of emotions rushed over Tybur’s face, from rage to sadness, then shame. Moments later, he scrambled to his feet and joined Ficar, flinging taut twisters from his astrum.

  “Sether doesn’t care if we live,” Tybur said as he cast a cyclone. “He’s scared that if this mission fails, his reputation will take a hit, and he won’t become chief after Akunai. He thinks bringing back the carriages will save face.”

  Ficar clapped his hands, sending out a shockwave that splintered a hurled tree, crashing it safely behind. “If he doesn’t care about us, why’s he out there fighting to keep us alive?” Ficar asked, huffing with effort.

  “I can’t see them anymore,” Tybur said, scanning the skies. “They probably abandoned us and flew back to the city.”

  “They’re luring the elexii away,” Ficar shouted, deflecting a slicing gust of wind with one of his own. “They’ll be back!”

  An explosion rocked the front of the carriage. The vehicle pitched forward, shattering the crystal windshield in a storm of shards. The force tore open the door beside Skye. He screamed as a violent current dragged the corpses of the drivers from their seats, and then pulled him in after them. He tumbled into the ruined cabin just as the wind died, leaving him sprawled beside smears of gore, shattered crystal, and the steering wheel.

  The carriage veered this way and that, threatening to slam into trees.

  “Don’t look at me.” Redeyes shrugged. “I don’t know how to drive.”

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  “Move!” Ficar shoved Skye aside and grabbed the helm, yanking it sideways before they crashed into a giant boulder. The aerober crystal in the middle of the steering wheel shone bright white light as he gripped it tight. Winds surged from underneath the carriage and behind, propelling them forward. But not strong enough, not fast enough.

  “Tybur!” Ficar shouted. “Get in here. I can’t handle it alone!”

  Tybur froze in place, staring blankly at Ficar and Skye as the aeroxii belted the carriage’s ceiling away. Ahead, other carriages flashed past, each surrounded by wardens locked in desperate battle. A cyclone swept a carriage, flipping it violently down a hill. Three wardens were caught in a storm of razor-sharp aerial blades, shredding them into little gory pieces in an instant.

  Rocks, fireballs, lightning bolts, and entire trees flew all over the scene, but all the wardens managed was to momentarily push back the enemy.

  “I’m so sorry,” Tybur mouthed, tears streaking down his cheeks. Then flew off.

  “Tybur!” Ficar shouted.

  A tornado formed in their path, churning rocks, flinging debris, and uprooting shrubs. Ficar’s face reddened, veins bulging in his arms as he fought for speed. They accelerated just enough to dodge the storm, but their momentum didn’t last. Panting, Ficar lost velocity, and their pursuers gained.

  “Take the wheel,” Ficar said, switching places with Skye.

  “I don’t know how to drive!” Skye protested, clutching the heavy helm.

  Ficar grabbed the larger aerober crystal mounted near the co-driver’s seat. The same visage of agony twisted his face as he channeled into it. The crystal flared, and the carriage surged ahead.

  “Just keep us straight!” he yelled.

  Skye nearly slammed into a tree before realizing how little he needed to steer. He’d always dreamed of driving such a vehicle. He should’ve learned back then, without a flock of murderous aeroxii hunting him.

  “Why are they so determined to kill us?” he shouted over the wind, striving to follow the carriages ahead. The dashboard was gone, along with the gauges, the map, and everything. “Aren’t aeroxii supposed to be the mildest elexii?”

  “How do you know that?” Ficar shouted back.

  “I read a lot,” Skye replied. “The books said they’re easily distracted. They should’ve flown off by now.”

  Ficar glanced sideways at him. “I don’t know,” he admitted, pressing harder into the crystal. “These elexii must have read different books.”

  “Well, I did say you’ll jinx them,” Redeyes reminded. He reclined between Skye and Ficar, his fires alive in the breeze. “If you’d gone with the wardens from the start, they’d all be dead by now. Maybe next time, side with the elexii to bring about their doom.”

  “Shut up,” Skye said. “I’d never go with them.”

  “What?” Ficar asked.

  A blood-curdling roar rippled through the trees, answered by a dozen guttural growls, as if an army of lions were rearing for war. A burning boulder the size of a house hurtled toward them, striking the nearest carriage, engulfing it in a cloud of fire.

  From the forest charged not one, not two, but three pyroxii, splintering the trunks of great oaks, and ramming another carriage, obliterating it along with everyone inside.

  Mad with bloodlust, the burning monsters thundered forward as foliage caught flame around them. They looked like the one Skye had seen in the cave, like Redeyes. Towering humanoids made of black, charred stone, flames leaking through the cracks.

  The nearest had large, curved horns like a ram, orange fire dancing in its hollow skull. Behind it, one stomped a crawling warden, its flames green, and its skull that of a rhinoceros with three horns. The third pyroxos burned yellow, massive mammoth tusks dragging across the ground as it charged straight toward Skye and Ficar.

  In a panic, Skye yanked the wheel, steering into the forest.

  “What are you doing?” Ficar shouted.

  “It’s an ambush!” Skye replied. “They were waiting for us, there has to be more of them!”

  “Elexii don’t ambush,” Ficar said. “Get back on the road.”

  “You saw them. You saw them! Pyroxii never work together. Never, ever, ever. They don’t cooperate with other elexii, and definitely not with each other. Something’s not right!”

  He’d read hundreds of stories describing how tenaciously pyroxii hunted. They were the most aggressive, violent, and bloodthirsty fiends to roam Inma. With a roar, they’d charge at any unfortunate creature they came across, even going after birds in the sky and fish in ponds, chasing endlessly until their prey was skewered, smashed, or smoldered. This included attacking their own kind as well until one or both were incapacitated.

  “Yes, we’re terrible like that,” Redeyes said as branches whipped past. “But perhaps the books you read are wrong. Perhaps no one knows the first thing about us.”

  The trees vanished, revealing a steep ditch. Skye jerked the wheel at the last second, continuing beside it, rushing water gurgling below.

  “We’re near the river!” he shouted, looking down at the sweeping stream of the Cerulean.

  “We can’t stay here,” Ficar said grimly. “This is the most dangerous location in the forest.”

  Aquaxii ruled every water surface in the Smaragdine Forest with a merciless claim. If any were nearby, they’d be sliced into bits small enough for sardines to swallow.

  The horrid roar sounded again, and this time, Skye saw its source.

  A single-legged, single-armed pyroxos burned atop a far hill overlooking the forest, aided by a couple of small geoxii to stand.

  The pursuing pyroxii howled in answer, more frenzied than ever, crashing through the woods and setting the world alight. From afar, the fire atop the crippled pyroxos’s skull looked like a crown.

  “Do elexii strategize? Do they follow a king?” Skye asked, breathless. If such information existed, it’d have been in the redacted parts of the books.

  Ficar looked as shaken and much more exhausted. “It doesn’t matter. Focus on the road.”

  A shriek cut through the sky.

  Skye counted four aeroxii racing behind them, more joining from afar. The one at the lead had wings wider than their carriage and a long, spear-like beak painted in a dozen colors. If it weren’t trying to kill them, Skye would’ve stared in awe.

  It twisted in the air, launching a blade of wind that Skye barely dodged.

  “Void take them,” Ficar cursed. “We’ll have to abandon the carriage.”

  Skye turned to him, wide-eyed. “I can’t fly!”

  “I know,” Ficar said, retrieving his astrum. “I’ll carry you. Get ready.”

  Skye swallowed hard. He’d seen dozens of wardens dispatched with ease; it didn’t matter whether they were flying solo, or fighting in groups. One windrider carrying extra weight would never make it far.

  Ficar’s promise from the doctor’s house replayed in his mind—his convection, his willingness to bring justice even if it meant going against his comrades. If he hadn’t snuck onto the carriage, Ficar would’ve had much better chances of regrouping with the other wardens and returning safely to Troqua.

  “You’ve managed to find the only decent warden in the city. And now, you’ll be the reason he dies,” Redeyes said. “How typical.”

  Summoning his bell, Skye confirmed he can ring it, then considering his chances for survival without Ficar. He’d have to jump from the carriage and hope the impact wouldn’t kill or maim him. Even then, his curse could buy him only so much time, and once the headaches returned, he’d be left with no protection.

  No, venturing alone into the forest was suicide. That was what had kept him in Troqua for so long.

  Fireballs burst around the carriage like misfired fireworks. Breaking through the trees, the pyroxii caught up, and more aeroxii circled overhead. A burning pine, hurled like a javelin, slammed into the rear of the carriage and stuck there, weighing them down. A wildfire consumed the forest on their right, while the river surged higher, as if a dam had burst upstream.

  “Over there!” Ficar shouted, pointing toward a curve in the river. “Don’t stop! Keep moving forward!”

  “Are you crazy?”

  “Forward!”

  Gritting his teeth, Skye tightened his grip on the wheel as Ficar pushed the careening carriage, making it rush like a mad bull. The trench ahead yawned wide and deep. Even if it weren’t, amegravos couldn’t push off water.

  Leaving the crystal for a second, Ficar slashed with his astrum, slicing off the charred pine and tearing away the ruined walls with an aerial blade.

  Lighter than ever, they surged toward the cliff at terrifying speed.

  Skye shrieked as they became airborne, his heart stuck at the shore receding behind. Below, the waters churned and exploded upward, a geyser rising into the sky. It smashed into the amegravo base of the carriage, shattering it in a seething blast.

  Flying high, Skye clung to Ficar as debris scattered, and droplets rained around them. They rode a spiraling cyclone toward the opposite bank, when another geyser surged up. The blast hit them like a rushing caveboar, separating them midair.

  Screaming, Skye flailed through open air like in so many of his nightmares, watching the aeroxii descend upon Ficar.

  “Ficar!” he cried as the forest rushed to meet him. First, thin branches clawed at him, then bulkier ones battered his sides. He tumbled from one to the next until he landed hard in a dense bush.

  For a long moment, he could only moan in pain. Every inch of his body hurt, every spot covered in a colored bruise or spotted in blood. Somehow, he crawled out of the bush, but that was as far as he could go.

  “You sure know how to stick a landing,” Redeyes said, standing over him.

  “Hurts…”

  Redeyes pointed back. “Think it’ll hurt more when that thing reaches you?”

  Running full tilt toward the cliff, the pyroxos with the great horns leaped with a savage roar, its orange flames bright as the sun. No geysers rose to intercept it. It crash-landed against the cliff’s face and began to climb, clawing a path into the rock.

  From his bag, Skye pulled out a small vial he’d stolen from Dr. Stenser. Each movement was agony, but he pressed it to his lips. The liquid was cold, glowing green, and tasted bitter and sweet and sour and salty and spicy all at once, setting his tongue and throat afire.

  The effects were almost instantaneous. First, the pain ebbed to the farthest reaches of his mind. Then, before his eyes, wounds knit themselves closed, skin regained its color. He even heard a bone snap back into place in his chest.

  Another roar, closer now, pushed him to his feet. He stumbled away before the monster crested the cliff.

  Ficar was still flying, fighting the frenzied flock of aeroxii all by himself. Repeatedly, he turned to the forest, probably searching for Skye, but there was no way he’d reach him, much less carry him back to the city.

  Behind, the pyroxos stomped closer, its heat licking at Skye’s back, and so, he did the only thing available to him.

  DONG!

  Dropping behind a shrub, Skye hid as the pyroxos released a savage roar and turned around. Likewise, Ficar veered off, chasing after his comrades, disappearing into the trees.

  Skye sighed in relief. His chase was over, but he was out in the open, unarmed, and unprotected. His heart thudded in his chest as he looked about for any other dangers. Distant explosions and screams reached from across the river. And on this side, hisses, ruffles, coos, and hoots sounded everywhere. The forest was vast, and it hid many dangerous things besides elexii.

  Under the canopy of trees, beneath the sizzling eye of Erillea in the endless blue sky, he felt very small and alone.

  ?????Days until Green Eve: 22?????