Page 25 of The Surviving Sky
“Are you fuckingjoking—”
“We need to leave,” he snapped. “Both of you. Come to menow.”
“What?We aren’t leaving yet; we came here on a mission!”
“Bloody rages, Ahilya,” Iravan said, turning toward her, still surrounded by the tall weeds. “You have to come back to menow. I’m doing all I can to contain this already.” He jerked his head at the weeds. Each blade was rapidly growing several other needles, almost like arrowheads. “Look. This is magnaroot. The same species in the temple that tells us when we can’t land. When there’s danger, it’s not limp. It’s thorny.Lookat it.”
She stared back. What did he mean? Nakshar had landed, and she had set all precautions before going into the jungle.
Then the ground trembled through the moss. It reverberated like a thrum in her heart. Her eyes widened, her mouth still half-open.
Earthrage.
Oam moaned, a pitiful sound. He tried to get to his feet, the wet sounds of slipping and sliding.
“Impossible,” Ahilya said, even as she started to crawl off the moss. “The alarm from Nakshar, it shouldhave—”
Another tremor, this time louder and deeper, rumbled through the forest floor. The elephant-yaksha roared, the sound deafening this close. Her ears rang, the yaksha reared its head, thundered toward Ahilya, she screamed and scrambled back, slipping, the creature barely missing the moss she was on. She felt the wind of its passage as it disappeared into the trees. Stumbling, she stood up, brushed her clothes instinctively. Her hand came up empty against her thigh. She blinked, not understanding, looking down at her hand.
Her satchel was missing.
Ahilya stared at her empty hand, as the tremor subsided.
“Ahilya, rage it, back to me,now.”
“I’ve lost my bag,” she yelled back. She rolled off the moss, her eyes searching, spinning on her feet, kicking at brush and creepers; where was it, wherewasit?
“We don’t have time. The earthrage is coming; those were the first tremors.”
“It has all of Dhruv’s sungineering equipment!” she screamed. “All the data I just collected. I can’t leave it.”
“I see it, I see it,” Oam yelled. He changed direction and sprinted to where the yaksha had been. He swept the satchel into his hands and over his shoulders, and dashed back toward Iravan.
The jungle roiled.
Ahilya lost her footing. Her vision blurred.
“Ahilya, BACK HERE,NOW.”
Ahilya glanced down, to where bark had trapped her legs. She struggled but it didn’t give.
Her eyes went to her husband. Iravan was a vision of blue-green. He had trajected an orb of branches around him and Oam, but they were nearly fifty feet away. Tears blurred her vision. The jungle snapped and heaved.
She could see then that she would never make it. They would die there because of her. She had promised Oam she’d protect him, but she’d failed as an expedition leader. Their voices came to her from far away, but all she could hear was Tariya disdaining her choices. Her sister had been right. This was what she’d wrought. Her fault.
“Go,” she whispered.
“Get up,” Iravan snarled. “Get up.”
“Iravan, go. Please, just take him and go.”
“Ahilya, come on,” Oam shrilled. “Use your machete. Come on!”
Her hands trembling, Ahilya groped for the machete she had hung on her harness. She began hacking at the bark. It had slowed its growth; from the corner of her eye she saw Iravan extend a fist toward her. He was controlling the bark’s growth, but the distraction cost him. A gigantic branch slammed like a spear into the nest. Oam shrieked, cowering, but the nest held.
“I won’t make it,” she rasped as the earth bucked underneath her. “Go, please; you have to go. Protect him. Justgo.”
“NO!” Iravan bellowed. “Get up, rage you.”
