crushed many of them beneath their massive wheels. It occurred to me that Yissil Froon, wherever he was, possessed only small control over his forces—sufficient, perhaps, to drive them forward, but not enough to keep them properly organised.
I picked my next target, plummeted, slowed, touched the ground with my toes, aimed my pistol, fired an invisible beam of focused sound at a Mi’aata, and saw it slump and drop its weapon. Springing upward, I narrowly avoided an energy discharge, which sputtered past so close that it scorched the calf of my right leg.
A war machine rattled and died just beneath me, hit by a sound cannon, its crystal power source disabled. The hatch in its side swung downward. Tentacles emerged and gripped the sides of the opening. I dropped, landed, crouched, aimed, and sent the three crew toppling backward into the cabin.
The smouldering carcass of a Zull thudded into the sand a few feet from me, twitched, and lay still. I paced away from it and was swallowed by the swirling and ever-thickening cloud. Nebulous forms shadowed through it. Light flared and guttered. Booms reverberated, shook the ground, rattled my teeth.
Dimly, I became aware that someone was bellowing my name.
“Mr. Fleischer! Mr. Fleischer! I say, old thing! Harrumph!”
Colonel Spearjab and Artellokas descended.
“What is it, Colonel?”
“The pistols are having the desired effect, what! The Divergent hit by ’em are dropping their weapons and becoming thoroughly addled. Addled, I say! Old Yissil Froon can’t control the blighters at all.”
“They are filled with need,” Artellokas shouted over the din of battle. “They want only to enter the forest to pupate.”
“That’s the last place they should go!” I exclaimed. “They’ll be shot to pieces by their own forces!”
“Quite so!” Spearjab agreed. “But they are of my own kind—What! What!—and I retain a little of the old mental attachment to ’em. Mr. Artellokas here thinks he can—can—humph!—what did you call it, old chap?”
The Zull scientist raised a hand and tapped his own head with his forefinger. His accompanying words were lost in a cacophonous sequence of blasts.
I shouted, “What?”
“I said I can amplify Colonel Spearjab’s thoughts, Mr. Fleischer. Together, we might attract the Discontinued away from the conflict and toward the southern edge of the forest. It is safer there.”
I ducked as a thick branch bounced past and splinters rained onto us. Pressing my inner wrist, I called, “Clarissa Stark!”
“Aiden! What’s happening? It’s pandemonium!”
“No time to explain. Where’s the mouth of the rupture?”
“It’s drifting in a northeastwardly direction about a mile and a half inland—moving quite slowly at the moment.”
“And the forest nearest your position—is it quiet?”
“Yes. The chaos is farther north along the beach.”
I turned back to my two friends. “Do it. Artellokas, issue an order to the flock. Tell the pistoleers not to shoot at any unarmed Mi’aata.”
Whatever acknowledgement I received was lost in a terrific explosion and another shower of fragmented wood. By the time my eyes had recovered from the flash, my friends had departed.
Clarissa’s voice pierced the ringing in my ears.
“Aiden! Aiden!”
“Yes, Clarissa?”
“Listen! Yissil Froon is still expecting Iriputiz to return through the rupture. That’s not going to happen, which means our enemy will have difficulty pinpointing its position. When he realises his plan has gone awry, what will he do?”
I cursed under my breath. “He’ll probably spread his army out among the trees until one of them is sucked into the thing, then the rest will make a rush to that position.”
“Yes, that’s what I thought, too. And the wider the war machines spread, the more Zull pupae will be destroyed.”
“All right. Thank you.”
I peered through the eddying murk. I wanted to speak with Gallokomas. Where had he got to?
As if by magic, having sensed my need, he dropped to my side. “You have orders, Fleischer Thing?”
“Yes! Follow me!”
We flew straight up until we were above the dirty and expanding cloud, then hovered and surveyed the battlefield.
I pointed at the indistinct war machines. “All the Divergent vehicles are on the beach now. It means we can get behind them. Their weapons are at the front, and unless the whole machine turns around, they can’t shoot backward. Order the cannoneers to the waterline. From there, they must work hard to disable every vehicle. We have to prevent further destruction of the forest and protect the pupae. The armed Mi’aata will try to escape among the trees. Have our pistoleers follow and stop every one of them!”
Gallokomas gave a satisfied nod. “Yes! Good! But what of that—?” He pointed inland to