Chapter 13

A gasp woke Raleigh from her slumber. She jumped awake and looked around to see Dax propped on his elbow across the hut. He held his breath and searched the hut with wild eyes. “What’s wrong, Dax? What happened?”

Dax’s nostrils flared. His hair hung in his eyes, and his lips curled back from his teeth. “Ybak. He was here.”

“Ybak!” Raleigh exclaimed. “Are you sure?”

Dax nodded. “I just saw him.”

“What did he look like?”

Dax’s eyes swept around the hut seeing nothing, but his whole being stretched to the breaking point. “He….he….I don’t know. I can’t describe it.”

“What did he say to you?”

“He said….he said….”

Raleigh sat the rest of the way up. She pulled herself together with an effort and took his hand. “Did he tell you he’s your father?”

Dax collapsed back on the floor. He pressed his lips together to stop them trembling, and he shut his eyes. “He showed me things….I can’t describe it. I was there, and I don’t even understand half of what he showed me.”

Raleigh relaxed, too. “Maybe you’ll understand later.”

She couldn’t sit around staring at him in pieces. She left the hut and washed her face and hands in the stream. She rinsed her mouth out with water and tied back her hair. Today was another day.

If Ybak was Dax’s father, he could show Dax everything he needed to know about being Auhlulhu. Yback would give Dax whatever training he needed to grow into ….whatever he was growing into.

Raleigh turned back to the camp. Angela appeared between the trees beyond, just as serene and immaculately clean as ever. No one would guess she slept on the ground in rough places for almost a week.

Dax stepped out of the hut and squinted into the sun. What a fine specimen of a man he was turning into. Across the camp, Cassandra appeared in her doorway. She went about her business without meeting anyone’s gaze. She retreated into the solitary reserve where she spent the last seventeen years. One encounter with her lost son couldn’t snap her out of that.

Raleigh started forward. Whatever this day held, she had to face it head on. She would discuss the possibilities with Dax and Angela. Maybe Ybak showed Dax a way to transport them to Solaris.

At that moment, a searing jet of blue light shot out of the high cloud overhead. It struck Cassandra’s hut and vaporized it to smoke and steam before Raleigh’s eyes. No trace remained of her or a single rush straw of the walls.

Another fizzling crackle of blue fire jetted out of the sky. It danced through the camp, leaving mayhem and death in its wake. Women and children scattered screaming for the woods. Men shouted and gathered what crude weapons they could lay their hands on.

Raleigh darted forward. Dax ran to Angela’s side, yelled something into her ear, and pointed back to where Raleigh went down to the stream. When he saw her, he bolted back the other way.

He raced to Raleigh’s side. “Are you okay? Come on. We have to seek shelter.”

The blue fire jetted all around them. One hut after another detonated in a shower of soil and smoke. It burned a smoldering path over the ground and shot people into the air right and left.

Dax and Raleigh ran together through the camp to rejoin Angela. They passed Petunia going the other way. “What is it? What’s going on?”

“It’s the Guild!” she shrieked. “The Guild is after us.”

Petunia raced on and vanished somewhere out of sight. Raleigh shaded her eyes to look up at the clouds. At that moment, the sky opened up, and ten black shapes appeared against the steel backdrop.

Raleigh got used to the white oblong zeppelins in which she and her friends traveled around Hinterland. These contraptions sailed through the air like the zeppelins but looked nothing like them. Spiky fins protruded from their black sides. Long spiked noses stuck out of their front ends, and long wings tilted and swiveled to steer the things closer.

In front of Raleigh’s eyes, ten airships banked and dove toward the camp. Long guns lined up along their wings shot these blue forked rockets down to the ground. Where they struck, bodies sailed in every direction.

Dax laid hold of Raleigh’s shirt sleeve. “Come on! Run for it.”

Raleigh hesitated. “What are they doing here?”

“They’re attacking!” Angela shouted back. “Don’t you see? They’re gunning down the hybrids.”

“What are they doing that for?”

“They always do it,” Angela replied. “The Guild of Husbandry always makes these raids whenever they find a bunch of these escaped hybrids. That’s why they live a nomadic life. I guess they stayed in one place too long. They got found.”

Dax hauled Raleigh forward, but a blistering barrage of rocket fire cut off their escape. Angela dodged. “This way! Quick!”

“Where are you going?” Raleigh shrieked.

“There’s an elevator tree over here,” Angela called. “I saw it before when I was out walking.”

The black ships swooped low over the camp. They followed each other one after another, and every gun went off at the same time. The thunderous noise blocked all further conversation, and the three friends ran into the trees.

Dozens of hybrids fled all around them. They ran in every direction with no rhyme or reason. Unattended children cowered next to trees and covered their ears. Women ran around in circles screaming their children’s names. Men fired arrows and threw spears at the ships, even though they must have known they couldn’t defend themselves.

Angela’s arm shot out. “There! There’s the tree.”

Raleigh caught sight of the distinctive fork in a tree trunk up ahead. Bishop showed her these trees that could whisk a person to a different part of Hinterland in no time.

Just then, the lead ship turned to come back the other way. Its guns rattled around to take aim, and in one withering blast, it shot the tree to smithereens. Splintering wood and twisted branches struck Angela in the face and chest. She hurtled back and hit the ground.

Dax planted his legs over her head and pulled out his cube. He peppered the ship with his fire, but the lightning didn’t make a dent on its skin. Raleigh rushed to his side and grabbed his arm. “Stop, Dax.”

He didn’t look at her. “Have to. Got to drive them back.”

Raleigh took hold of his shoulders and spun him around to face her. She lowered her voice so no one but he could hear her. “Fight them, Dax. Fight them with your power. Thump them the way you thumped those wolves in the forest. You can blow them out of the sky just by thinking about it.”

His eyes shot to her face. “What….I can’t.”

She nodded. “You can do it. Think about what you did in the forest and do it here. Concentrate, and fight them. You’re the only one who can defeat them. You’re the only one who can save these people.”

Dax cast a sidelong glance at the ships looming closer, and the hand holding the cube dropped to his side. He looked one more time at Raleigh. She smiled and nodded encouragement, and he narrowed his eyes at the ships.

He stood still in focused concentration so long Raleigh thought for sure he would pull something out of his hat any second. The ships circled the camp. They finished off the survivors with calculated shots here and there.

Raleigh cringed at every explosion. They would hit her and her friends any second, but she didn’t want to disturb Dax by hurrying him. The deafening ruckus shattered her nerves. Dax stiffened and went slack. He hung his head. “I can’t do it. I don’t seem to be able to do anything if I try. It only happens by itself. I’m…I’m sorry.”

Raleigh grabbed him. “Come on. We can’t stand out here in the open anymore.”

He hesitated one more second to scoop up Angela in his arms before he bolted for the trees. They dodged rocket fire every which way and took refuge under the canopy. Raleigh cast a glance over her shoulder. The black ships formed up in a long line and soared over the treetops after them.

She almost tripped over her feet that kept running while she paused to look back. “This can’t be.”

Dax turned around. “What’s wrong?”

She ran after him. “They’re following us. They’re not chasing the other hybrids. They’re chasing us.”

He didn’t turn around. “That’s impossible. How could they know we’re here? They don’t know anything about us.”

Raleigh didn’t answer. She dared not voice aloud the thought running through her mind. Those ships belonged to the Guild of Husbandry, and they weren’t after the hybrids in that camp. They were after Dax. They must have some way to detect him, and they would follow him wherever he went.

She kept running, but the ships got closer every second. They blasted trees out of the way to clear a path. They did such a good job opening the forest for their fire Dax and Raleigh didn’t have to duck around trees or through brambles anymore.

Dax lagged under Angela’s weight. Raleigh did her best to help him, but the farther they ran, the more obvious it became they couldn’t keep this up.

The ships hovered directly overhead now. They circled the fleeing party and chose their moment to strike. One ship descended over Raleigh’s head, and a round hole opened in its side. An invisible force tensed in the air, and a whirling cylinder of grass, leaves, twigs, and small animals sucked up into the hole.

Raleigh shoved Dax aside. “They’re after you. They’re not trying to kill you. They’re here to capture you. They want to get you back.”

At that moment, another scorching fork of white rocket fire shot out of another ship. It struck right in front of Dax. The concussion thumped him in the chest. He kept his balance, but Angela tumbled out of his arms. Another shot touched the ground behind him. The heat burned Raleigh’s skin. She threw her hands in front of her face and screamed in pain and terror.

Dax stumbled this way and that, but he couldn’t escape all these forces arrayed against him. When he ran right, the ship’s fire drove him left. When he dodged left, another bolt of lightning pushed him toward the sucking tube trying to draw him up into the ship.

He darted every which way so fast he collided with Raleigh. He tried to check his flight, but he only wound up pushing her over and stepping on her. She cried out one more time and bowled over and over on the ground.

One final blast hit next to the prostrate Angela. She bounced once, and she grunted when she hit the ground. Her limbs flopped, and her head lolled.

That was the last straw for Dax. He stopped in his tracks and hauled back his arms to bellow to the skies. He balled his hands into fists and roared at those ships threatening him. He threw back his head, and a noise out of the depths of hell issued from his throat.

Raleigh hid under her arms, but she couldn’t help staring at him in shocked horror. The louder he roared, the bigger he got. He didn’t even notice what he was doing. His mouth stretched wider and wider. His thunderous bellow grew and grew until it lifted him off the ground.

He ascended into the sky still roaring like a freight train coming faster and faster until no one could stand against that noise. His chest arched outward. His arms flew back, and his whole skin peeled back. A monstrous black-green apparition exploded out of his ribs. His arms kept flying backward. His hands raked the sky to become talons. His head whipped back on his stretching neck, and Dax McDermott ceased to be.

The ships turned their attention on him and left the ground around Raleigh still and peaceful, but she couldn’t stop staring at Dax. His body twisted in a grotesque curving green river of color, and an enormous dragon spread its wings across the sky where Dax used to be.

The dragon bent forward, and four clawed feet flexed to snatch those ships out of the air. The sun glistened off his scales, and his long tail cracked among the clouds when he lashed it right and left.

The ships raced toward him with every gun blazing, but he showed no sign of concern. He stooped and plummeted out of the skies burning toward them as fast as he could fly. He opened his fanged mouth, and a splatter of lightning more powerful than any weapon cracked from his throat. He hit the lead ship in the nose. The front end caved off, and one wing dangled by a thread.

The other ships moved in to pepper him with their fire, but he only roared to quake Hinterland to its roots. He glanced his lightning over another three ships, and they burst into flame before they tumbled out of the heavens. They disappeared in the forest canopy in a smoking inferno.

The dragon didn’t hesitate to check the effect of his attack. He rounded on the other ships closing in on him from all sides. He stroked his wings against the air and streaked between them to leave them in the dust. He pocked their sides with shots here and there until he raced out of range in the upper clouds.

Raleigh stared at the scene from the ground. What was he capable of? She could live her whole life and never comprehend him, but the Guild of Husbandry made their own bed when they created a fighting machine like him. He wasn’t even using his Auhlulhu powers right now. He was Xaehm. He could transform himself into anything he wished. He could become any creature his imagination could concoct, and they couldn’t do a thing to stop him.

When he turned around to set his sights on them, narrowed his eyes in calculated hatred. Some part of him knew the Guild of Husbandry was responsible for this, and he would pay them back in spades for everything they’d done. He became an avenging angel for every pathetic creature the Guild ever harmed.

So many disabled ships finally got the message through to the survivors they couldn’t race back for more of the same. They hesitated in mid-air and regrouped before they launched another assault on him, but he didn’t wait around.

He tilted his head low and tucked his wings close to his body. His tail extended behind him, and the wind whistled over his scales screaming out of the sky. He blasted through the group of ships and threw his wings out on both sides. His wings cut through the ships and tore their hulls open.

Whatever force kept those ships aloft, he destroyed them in one blow. He burned past them and left them reeling and out of control. He swooped back up to the clouds, but when he turned to check, not one ship followed to gun him down.

The ships teetered. One of them exploded and knocked another sideways. Another tried to sail away, but its wing ripped off, and the ship spiraled into the treetops, where it vanished in a puff of steam.

Three ships remained. One of them turned its guns on Dax—or what Dax became. It fired once and missed before the gun jammed. The ship tried to fly forward, but a greenish cloud billowed from its tail end. It stalled in the air and settled down somewhere out of sight.

The other two ships didn’t move. They just sat there. Maybe the Guildsmen inside were thinking or discussing what to do next. They certainly couldn’t attack. After a long pause, they turned around and flew away toward Hallbreck.

The dragon hovered high in the clouds and watched them out of sight. His breath rumbled through his nostrils. His wings rose and fell against the wind.

The ships dwindled to two specks on the horizon and disappeared. The dragon hung still. When the last trace of the battle vanished from sight, he looked around. In the blink of an eye, he changed. His body collapsed in on itself. His skin lightened and turned pink. His neck and tail withdrew into his body. In seconds, he became a young man dangling hundreds of yards above the ground.

Before he could think what was happening, gravity caught him. He gave a startled scream and fell, out of the clouds, through the canopy, and crashed into the forest floor far below.