“Layanna? Layanna? Are you all right?”
She blinked, and he slapped her lightly.
Her eyes popped open. “Francis?”
Janx and Hildra gathered around. “You alright, darlin’?” Janx said.
“I’m … fine.”
The major barked an order, and soldiers poured out in every direction, hunting the would-be assassin.
Gunfire sounded outside. Looking startled, Major Nezine said, “We’re being attacked. Recon!”
He ordered a small group to venture outside and report back. Instantly upon their leaving, a bullet storm erupted. Avery and the others hunkered against the walls, Avery dragging Layanna with him. She looked pale and sweaty, and her skin burned his fingers. He plucked the dart out, sniffed it and flung it away. More gunshots sounded down the halls. The group had been well and truly ambushed.
“Traitors,” a soldier said, returning from the fight to deliver his report, and Avery knew he meant local soldiers under the command of Octung. Collaborators. “Bloody bastards’ve taken down six men.”
“Damn it!” Nezine said, and slammed a fist against a wall. Cracks spread out from the impact on the wall, and the vines he’d struck writhed in agitation.
“Can you bring your other-self over?” Avery asked Layanna.
Trembling, she shook her head. “That … weapon …”
He swore. “Jellyfish venom, I’d bet.”
“Well, that sucks,” Hildra said. Then, angrily, to Avery: “This is your fault. Sheridan must have told them. Thanks, bones.”
“Enough,” said Janx. “We’ve got to get out of this. If the Octunggen are attacking us, or sending their puppets, they ain’t playin’ to lose.” To the major, he said, “Tell your people to get out of here.”
“I won’t run,” the major said. “Besides, there’s nowhere to go.”
“What if there was?” said Avery. “I don’t hear any gunfire above. We can flee to the roof. The trees—”
“Very well.” Nezine snapped some orders to his men, and they began to fall back to the stairway, then up it. Avery and the others stayed with the major, Avery helping Layanna as she went.
They emerged into the less-than-fresh air of the roof. The sun was just setting, throwing dark shadows across them, and the white, many-legged creatures, each about the height of a cat but long as a snake, scuttled into the protection of the dripping, glistening trees that tainted the air with ammonia and less easily-identified chemicals. The reek burned Avery’s eyes and nose.
Janx approached the edge of the roof. He reeled back as gunfire ripped the gutter and flung shrapnel up around him. He fired off a couple of rounds from his big revolver, brought along, just like Avery’s knife, in their suitcases, and made his way over to Hildra, who had gone to the other side of the building. She seemed relieved to see that he hadn’t been hit, and she gestured for them all to approach.
“No one’s here,” she said.
No wonder, Avery saw, as he neared the edge—the jungle had grown thick in the yard below—thick and dangerous. Still, having no choice, the soldiers began to climb out onto the trees. Janx and Avery helped Layanna out onto one branch while Hildra scouted the way ahead and called back suggestions.
Soldiers, still firing back at the enemy troops, slammed the roof door shut and dragged the bodies of two of their own before it to hold it closed, then ran for the trees. The enemy soldiers were already shoving at the bodies as the rebels reached the vegetation and climbed out onto it.
Gunfire sounded behind Avery. A bullet whizzed by his cheek. He forced himself not to look back. It was all he could do to navigate the carapace-covered branches and avoid the dripping tentacles while at the same time half-supporting Layanna. At last he and Janx were able to bring her to a lower branch, then a still lower one, a route which Hildra had found for them.
“Come on!” she said, leaping to the ground. She spun and fired at something. “It’s okay, keep going.”
They reached the ground, surrounded by soldiers doing the same, and made for the nearest stretch of the wall around the estate, just visible between the trees. The green fog devoured them, and Avery wished he had a gas mask. A soldier cried out as something jerked him into the shadows. Others swiveled to fire at whatever it had been, but, when they did, the enemy soldiers, having reached the lip of the roof behind them, let loose with their own guns. Two of the rebel soldiers flew backward, blood spurting.
The rest ran, including Avery’s party. He breathed heavily under Layanna’s weight. Janx had let her go and turned to fire at the shadows around them—and shadows did move around them. Avery saw glowing eyes in the mist.
Hildra ran back from somewhere. “Hurry! Hurry!”
They reached the wall. Hildra scrambled up it, amazingly nimble for someone with one hand. Janx grabbed Layanna and flung her up, and Hildra caught her and brought her over. Next Janx gave Avery a boost, and Avery awkwardly fumbled his way over the top and dropped to the other side in an ungainly display, biting his tongue as he did and nearly breaking his hip. Janx dropped beside him, heavy and not as young as he used to be, but up to the task for all that.
Soldiers spilled over around them. Blood dripping from an ear, Lisam approached, saying, rather needlessly, “We have to get out of here!”
They pelted down the fog-filled street. Bullets whizzed around them, at first sporadically, then steadily. A man grunted behind Avery, then fell. Hot blood spurted the doctor’s back. A bullet grazed his arm. The group turned down a street. Most of the rebels plastered themselves against the buildings or behind corners in order to ambush the enemy, but Avery and his group ran on, along with a few rebels, either fleeing or leading the fallback, Avery wasn’t sure.
Suddenly, the ground pitched beneath him. He was flying through the air, Layanna beside him, and small things were hitting him, fast, He smashed against the ground and slid. Something roared in his ears. When the sound faded, he climbed to his feet, then helped Layanna to hers, with one of her arms around his neck.
“W-what was that?” she said.
He coughed dust. “A bomb, I think.”
Guns rattled from in front of them. Soldiers gaped and fell, only silhouettes in the cloud of dust. Avery saw dark shapes sagging lifelessly against the walls and prayed that Janx and Hildra weren’t among them. Coughing, he dragged Layanna down an alley.
“Here!” he called behind him. “Janx! Hildra!”
He heard the roar of a pistol and knew it must be Janx. He hurried Layanna around a corner. In his hand he gripped a gun. When men wearing brown uniforms stormed down an alley at him, he fired. They shrank back.
Sweat beaded his entire body and he shook as he ran, tugging Layanna with him. At one point he fired behind him at the uniformed figures, half hidden in the fog, as they pursued him, then ran up a busy street, down another, and into still another set of alleys, more twisting and ancient than the ones before.
“I think we’re entering the Maze of Dark Delights,” he huffed.
“The Maze …”
