Dark Matters - Michelle Diener Page 0,67

engage.

When it did, she hunched over, her shoulders and back weeping in agony, and shook her hands out.

She looked at the rope at her feet, and it didn't seem like she'd pulled up very much.

The wind had changed, and she couldn't hear the hover anymore. Night had also closed in, and although both moons glowed with light, the moors behind her seemed absolutely black and impenetrable.

She knelt slowly, like an old woman, then dropped to her stomach again and crawled to the cliff top to peer over the edge to see how far up she'd pulled Dray.

To her dismay, he looked like he was as far down as he'd been when she'd started.

That obviously wasn't true, she reassured herself. She had been pulling him up. Just not fast enough.

Her arms, already trembling from her climb, felt numb now, but she couldn't stop. Wouldn't stop.

She reversed back, and then used the side of the rock to help pull herself up.

She had just straightened and turned back, steeling herself to pull again, when she was slammed against the rock, her shoulder taking most of the impact.

With a cry, with the thought of kol flashing through her head, she spun around, wishing she'd somehow found a way to bring up the shockgun.

Rua stood an arms-length away, his face so alien, so pitiless, she did what she had refused to do since the first day they'd taken her, she shrank back.

“What is wrong with you?” Her voice was too high as she rubbed her shoulder.

“You don't give up, do you?” His hiss was sinister. “You should be down in the cave.”

His words helped her snap out of her fear. Telling her where she should be was always a red flag to her. Always had been. Even before . . .

She stepped forward, both hands raised, and shoved him. “No, I don't give up. You think you'd give up if someone stole you?” She shoved him again. “You want to know where I should be? I should be at home on Earth. But I'm here. Dealing with idiots like you.”

For a moment, he said nothing, so close to her she could see the flare of his nostrils as he breathed, saw the golden shards in his eyes as he stared at her. Then he suddenly jumped back, and the move was designed to give him the room he needed to raise his shockgun.

For a moment, her brain froze.

She couldn't get shot again. Thoughts of Dray hanging from the pulley, at Rua's mercy, chilled her more than any Tecran wind.

“You don't want to shoot me.” She lifted her hands to gesture around her. “Why do you even think I'm up here on my own? What did you think I was doing?”

Rua blinked. “Whatever it is, it's linked to that Grih. Otherwise you'd be gone.”

Well, he had her there.

“There was a nynt in the cave.”

She watched him blink again, and she guessed that was the last thing he expected her to say.

“Nynts aren't cave dwellers.”

“This one had a broken wing.”

“They travel in pairs.”

“I found that out. Look down at the bottom of the cliff.” As she said it, she realized that as it was now fully dark, he probably wouldn't see anything.

He edged to the cliff top, standing so close to the edge that she winced.

He looked down, and despite her fear, he obviously could see well enough, because when he turned back, he looked less trigger-happy for the first time.

“Nynts.” He sounded thoughtful. “What happened to Bly and Virn?”

“Bly was first in the cave. I think it got him. I didn't see what happened to him. Virn fought the nynt, and it threw him out, so he's down there with them.”

Rua seemed to absorb the information with little reaction.

“Bly's definitely dead?”

She shrugged. “I don't know. He disappeared at the back of the cave and never came back.”

“Hmm.” He looked down at the nynt again. “What happened to the Grih?”

“He was climbing back down to get me when the nynt's mate attacked him.”

“He's not dead?”

She shook her head. But there was a deep feeling of unease gnawing at her stomach now.

The questions were leading to something, and she didn't think she was going to like where they ended up.

He lifted the shockgun, so it was aimed at her head. “I'm guessing you won't bounce back from a kill shot to your head the same way you bounced back from one to your torso.”

Bounced back was a bit of an overstatement, anyway. She had been leveled.

“And your point?”

“My