Tabitha Chirrick - Overshadowed

“Fehn!” Shy yelled. “Do you know how to install an FTL drive?”

“Are you kidding? No!” he yelled back.

She whipped her head to Jace, then her gaze zeroed on Tayel. “Xite!” She disappeared back into the ship.

“Hey,” Fehn shouted. “What about a shield for Feathers?”

“He can’t fight,” Tayel said.

The sound of hunting horns, closer than before, pulled Fehn’s eyes away from her. He sprinted the short distance to the barricade and crouched behind it.

Tayel activated her shield, prompting a soft buzz and an acrid stench. She rubbed one hand over the other — slick and smooth from the reduced friction.

“Tayel!” Shy appeared in the door again and tossed the mag baton.

Tayel caught it. The glowing white etchings snapped to life, illuminating her clothes and casting her shadow darker against the grass.

“I need time to install the FTL drive,” Shy said, eyes intense — hardened, cold, but wide with fear. “You’ll have to hold them off. Don’t” — she grit her teeth — “Just, hold them off.”

A sick feeling slid up Tayel’s throat. Shy wouldn’t be there to help. It was just Fehn. Just her. She swallowed with effort, realizing how long she’d gone without water.

Jace stood. He stepped toward the ship, but his glossy eyes focused on the noise from beyond the treeline.

“Jace, come here,” Tayel croaked.

She let him step on her good arm as a lift, and hoisted his weight until he could roll in himself.

“There has to be something I can do,” he said.

“They’re coming!” Fehn yelled.

Jace’s chest rose and fell rapidly, his feathers lifting as they puffed. Tayel had to protect him. She didn’t get him out of the Rokkir’s clutch only to let him be caught again.

“Stay on the ship,” she said. “Get away from the door; just get in and stay put, okay?”

She tore her eyes from him, and sprinted to Fehn. Two guards had appeared at the edge of the clearing. One brandished a bow. The other held a torch in one hand and either an aether-tech lance or a halberd in the other; Tayel couldn’t tell from the distance, but she didn’t want him up close anyway. The brush around the clearing rumbled with the arrival of more guards. She couldn’t give them more time to organize.

She stood from the protection of the barricade, relying on the shield to defend her. She focused on the man with the bow. A rapid burst of suppressing fire snapped against the shielding, mild heat peppering her arm where the lasers had hit.

“Red!” Fehn shouted.

She flung her baton’s steel ball. It zipped past the bowman, rustling through the trees. He pulled back an arrow as another flurry of laser fire ripped through the barricade, and she ducked, squeezing the leather grip on her weapon. The sphere flew back. It crashed into the bowman and knocked him on his face before soaring back into the baton’s crevice.

Three more guards ran into the clearing. Fehn leaned out of cover. Booming gunshots rose above the guard’s shouts. A second bowman fired an arrow. The steel-tipped projectile speared Fehn’s left shoulder, unleashing a whip of electricity from the arrowhead. His body tremored, his eyes closed, and Tayel tugged him back into cover.

“Go now!” someone shouted, and footsteps charged the barricade.

“Fehn.” Tayel shook him, heart hammering.

He had to get up, and fast, but he only grunted.

“Fehn! Please!”

The rumble of pounding feet touched her knees through the grass.

She couldn’t sit there — cowering — she had to move. If she didn’t, Fehn would die, and none of them were going to die. They all had to leave together.

She stepped out of cover and into the path of the man with the aether-tech lance. Her heart stopped. He stabbed at her, but she dodged, using her practice against Shy’s polearm to inform her movement. He thrust again, and Tayel sidestepped, bringing her baton down hard on his exposed hand. He shrieked, and with the grip on his weapon loosened, Tayel snatched it away. He turned and ran.

A booming gunshot fired from nearby and she started, dropping the lance. A guard behind her — much too close — slumped forward, and Fehn’s shotgun smoked with the shot. She jumped into cover with him as laser fire torched the grass around their barricade.

“Fine?” She couldn’t spare the breath to ask a complete question.

He nodded hurriedly, but the growing stain of blood on his jacket made her stand. She had to get him to the ship. A snap and a hiss echoed in her ears and she fell forward. Her arms tingled with the sensation of her shield fizzling out. Fear churned in her gut and bubbled up her throat.

“How long do these things take to recharge?” she blurted, voice shaking.

The barrels vibrated with gun shots.

“Dunno,” Fehn grunted. He pinched his eyes shut and before she could stop him, he tugged the arrow out of his shoulder. He groaned and tossed the thing aside.

“Councilwoman!” a guard shouted.

All of Tayel’s muscles went impossibly stiff. Her heart stopped. Her palms sweat. She inched her face around the edge of a barrel. The Delta councilwoman stepped out of the trees, her eyes trained on the barricade.

“Who?” Fehn asked.

“Rokkir,” Tayel breathed.

“So,” the Argel cooed. “You’ve all learned our little secret.”

“Councilwoman, please retreat yourself to safety!” a man yelled. “There are more of us on the way and it’s dangerous to—”

“Vile human!”

Her talon erupted with dark aether she fired at the guard. It punched into him, and he soared, lost in the trees around the clearing. The other men stopped their firing, some stunned, some terrified. The Rokkir downed them all in seconds . One by one, she rid the clearing of guards until it was just her, standing alone, Argelian features calm.

“She’s — she’s sick,” Fehn groaned. “Why would—? Red, we need to…” He trailed off, eyes on Shy’s ship. It sat motionless, engines off, not at all ready to fly.

A wave of dark aether broke through the barricade, picking Tayel up and heaving her through the air. She crashed into the ground, skidding along the grass for yards until stopping. Cold mud caked her arms and pants, and her body ached. Her muscles twitched groggily at her directive to move, but her mind raced.

The Rokkir laughed. Tayel craned her throbbing neck. A wall of aether cascaded forward. Her body seized with terror, and the darkness crunched into her, picking her off the ground and tossing her to the edge of the trees. She landed with a thud , and the mag baton slipped from her grip.

She opened her mouth, struggled to breathe, but the air wouldn’t come. She rolled onto her hands and knees, and a little breath sucked in. Her vision blurred. Her hand moved to her throat, a pointless attempt to open her airway from the outside. The grass spun, a twirl of pale green strings.

A sharp, squawking cry cut through the haze. “Tayel!”

Jace screamed from the ship. Its engines revved, a booming roar over his cries.

Tayel grit her teeth. She tried to move her arms, but they had become jelly. Something hard kicked her over, face toward the sky. The Rokkir planted her foot on Tayel’s gut, pressing. The cartilage around the woman’s beak lifted into a smile.

“Oh, you’re Tayel.” She whistled a short, eerie tune. “Ruxbane wants you alive?” She cocked her head like she was contemplating the idea. Her eye ridges narrowed, her smile widened, and she gathered the aether to her.

No. Tayel clawed at the grass. She thought of her mom, and Jace, and Fehn, and Shy and all the things she hadn’t done, the Rokkir she hadn’t stopped. Her eyes darted, searching for her weapon.