Page 12 of The Sunlit Man

It was the ember woman who had hunted Nomad during the arena melee earlier. She was unmistakable with the silver mixed into her hair, the single glowing mark on her cheek. She looked dazed and disoriented as the two hauled her back toward their vehicle. They walked right past Nomad.

“Storm you!” Nomad said, struggling against his bond. “At leastlookat me!”

They didn’t, instead loading their captive onto their hovercycle, locking her with manacles to one of the back two seats. They didn’t trust this ember woman. Perhaps they were taking a captive for some kind of ransom or prisoner exchange?

All right. Nomad would need to break his other hand to get free. At least the one he’d broken earlier was mostly healed. He triedyanking his captive hand out and heard—through his agony—the bone snap. But the hand didn’t pull free. Damnation! This manacle was tighter than the other, and even with a broken thumb, he couldn’t get it out.

Nomad, you’re dangerously low on Investiture,Auxiliary said.You’re going to start dipping beneath five percent if you need much more healing. It will weaken you, and remove many of your endurance and strength enhancements.

Damnation. He waved toward the two people again, but the man of the pair suddenly screamed as a blast of energy hit him on the shoulder. He stumbled back, and the next shot vaporized his entire head.

The body dropped to the weeds as the woman cried out in anguish, barely thinking to take cover behind her hovercycle. Overhead, a ship lowered—the one with a large podium on the back and four pillars at the sides.

Glowing Eyes himself—face lit by the fire within him—stood on the edge, a rifle in hand, and sighted. He fired again at the woman, blasting off a small part of her long, four-seater hovercycle.

She huddled in its shadow, facing Nomad. She managed to grab her fallen companion’s rifle, but when she popped up to fire, Glowing Eyes almost took her head off with an expert shot. She, in turn, only got a few wild blasts off that came nowherenearto hitting. She fired again and was evenfartheroff.

“You need my help,” Nomad said, gesturing to the crowbar. “Come on.”

She glanced back at him.

“Come on,” he said, tears in his eyes at the pain of his wounded hand. “Come on!”

She said something unintelligible. Then, noticing he didn’t understand, she held up the rifle.

“Yeah, I know how to fire one,” he said, nodding. “I’m better at aiming than you seem to be.”

Liar,Auxiliary said.

“It’s not a lie,” he said. “I am a good shot.”

You’ll lock up the moment you touch a gun.

“She doesn’t understand anyway,” he said, nodding eagerly to the woman.

Meanwhile, beyond the uncomprehending woman, Glowing Eyes was forced to turn and deal with other ships threatening him—dropping bombs aimed at his ship. During that distraction, the woman rescuer finally scrambled over to Nomad and took the crowbar. She struggled, throwing her weight onto it, trying to break the chain where the manacle was tied to the wall. The motion jostled his broken thumb, and he cried out.

Unfortunately the manacle was made of strong stuff. Before she could get him free, Glowing Eyes turned his attention back toward them.

“Go!” Nomad said, pointing at the man.

The woman caught on and ran away. Nomad twisted, dismissing Auxiliary, then immediately summoning him again as a shield on his arm. That intercepted the shots Glowing Eyes fired. Nomad crouched on his knees, sheltering behind his shield, one hand still trapped beneath him and attached to the wall.

The woman huddled beside her hovercycle as—atop it—the ember woman groaned. She was waking up.

“The gun,” Nomad said, pointing and waving.

Hesitant, eyes distrustful, the woman tossed it to him as anotherbarrage of fire rained down. He didn’t dare dismiss the shield, but hecouldalter its shape—giving it long spikes at the bottom that he could ram into the earth so he no longer needed to hold it. He huddled there and—with a single hand—awkwardly moved the rifle around toward the lock.

You’re going to blow your hand off,Auxiliary warned.

“Eh,” Nomad said. “I’ve got two.”

He fired. As he’d hoped, it blew the lock and let him pull his wounded hand free. He grabbed the shield and moved up close to the woman’s ship, huddling beside her.

Healing your other broken thumb now. This is about it, unless you want to drop below five percent.

“Fine, great,” he said, examining the hovercycle. “How hard would it be for me to steal this thing? Have you seen how they start the engines?”

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