used to dealing with front and back, left and right. But Aluna learned to fight in the sea. She also knew how to use up and down.
She landed hard behind the woman and yelped. Her wounded thigh burned.
Sound erupted in her ear: Hoku screaming.
“No!” she yelled. The Upgraders must have found him!
“I did it! I did it!” his voice echoed in her ear.
And that’s when she saw them. A stream of people with bodies shaped like crabs and lobsters, with wrenches and pipes and bits of metal gripped in their human hands. They swarmed into Middle Green and threw themselves at the Upgraders, weapons and claws swinging.
Aluna yelled again, this time in triumph.
Cones of flame shot across the sky. Metal clanked against metal. Men and women screamed. A snake-man — the one she had seen earlier in the cage — slithered past her and struck at the Upgrader named Giraffe with fists so fast that they blurred together in the air.
The Upgraders she had been fighting were now struggling against dozens of the newcomers. Aluna limped through the chaos, dodging blades and poison needles. She found a long metal spike and hefted it like a spear. The air smelled of smoke and oil, of sweat and ocean salt.
An Upgrader with spinning blades instead of hands charged her. She stepped quickly to the side and batted him from the air with her spear, shark-style. Fast and quick. He landed on the ground with a thud and a howl as one of his circular blades cut into the flesh of his other arm.
Where was Fathom? She hadn’t been so far from him when the fight started, but now she couldn’t find him. If only she were taller! In the ocean, height never mattered. In the Above World, she felt like she was always standing on her toes in order to see. Maybe she understood Giraffe a little bit after all.
“Aluna! Help!”
Daphine’s words screeched inside her ears.
“I’m coming!” she yelled, her heart stuttering in her chest. She ran for Daphine’s cage, ignoring the pain in her leg, ignoring the splashes of blood and screams surrounding her from every side.
When she found Daphine, Fathom was standing over her with a long jagged blade in his hand. Her sister’s cage had been shattered. Daphine struggled in a pool of water two meters from Fathom’s feet, trying to pull herself away from him on shaking arms.
“Leave her alone!” Aluna said, spinning her makeshift spear.
Fathom looked over his shoulder at her, a small twisted smile on his lips. “You will not play fair while this one lives,” he said. “Without hope, you will truly be my slave.”
He raised his sword.
Aluna was too far away. She’d never make it in time. Daphine, sweet Daphine!
And that’s when a brown-haired girl with wings dropped out of the sky, landed right between Daphine and Fathom, and pointed her spear at the Sea Master’s heart.
CALLI!
Aluna was relieved to see the girl was holding her spear properly for a change. But it wouldn’t matter, not if Fathom attacked her. Calli was no match for him.
Aluna kept running. She was still too far away, but Calli was giving her time. Brave, foolish, wonderful girl!
“Stand back,” Calli said grimly.
“Aviar!” Fathom hissed, but surprisingly, he did as she said and took a step away from her. Away from Daphine. “I’ve long wanted to catch one of you alive. There’s so much I could do with a pair of wings. As homage to my brother, of course.”
“My mother killed him, you know,” Calli said. She sounded strong, but Aluna could hear the waver in her voice, could see the tip of her spear beginning to quiver. “She ran her spear right through Tempest’s throat.”
One of Fathom’s hands went to his neck.
“All the more reason for me to kill you, Aviar,” he said, and lifted his sword arm to strike.
But Calli had done her job. She’d distracted Fathom long enough. Aluna yelled and swung her metal spike like a spear. It smashed into Fathom’s sword and bent it nearly in two. She stopped running and dug her toes into the mud that the water from Daphine’s cage had created.
“Fight me,” she said, panting.
Fathom dropped his mangled sword and turned on her. Behind him, Calli pulled Daphine out of danger. More winged women fell from the skies and entered the fray. Aluna thought she recognized High Senator Electra’s distinctive hawk wings only a dozen meters away.
While she was distracted, Fathom struck. Two of his arms punched out. One sparked