Dark Matters - Michelle Diener Page 0,92

ceiling far above before she was wrenched off her feet.

She hit the stair's handrails as she passed them, banging her shoulders and her shins as she rotated upward.

For one, horror-filled moment, she thought she'd be stuck, hanging from the ceiling to the right of the stairs with no way to get down, until she swung and managed to get her feet onto the platform at the top.

She released the magnet and threw herself forward in the same movement, and ended up on her hands and knees, in a cold sweat, until the sound of Silius and Havna racing up toward her spurred her to her feet.

There was a door, and she stared at it for a moment in fear, terrified it would be locked.

“Then find out and make another plan,” she muttered to herself, and turned the tiny airlock-like handle.

The door swung open, and she stumbled out into the night.

It seemed unusually bright, and she spent precious moments looking upward.

The ship that hovered in the sky high above Fa'allen was lit up in a way that made her blink, trying to work out where the light source was from.

She guessed it was Bane, but she'd never seen his ship from the outside. It was shaped like a spiky ball, like a floating mine she'd seen in WWII films, or one of the spiky chocolates he'd found for her, and it illuminated the city like a bright, third moon.

She realized she was staring, wasting time, and slammed the door closed behind her, and then got her bearings.

She was standing on Karn's outstretched arms. At the far end, his hands were cupped, palms up.

She turned, looked up and back, and saw she stood under his fierce beak.

This was bad, she acknowledged.

There was nowhere to run and the door didn't lock.

She had trapped herself, not that she'd had much choice.

She refused to give up, though.

She walked backward, out a little further along the outstretched brushed metal of Karn's arms, listening to the shouting in the square below, and when she could see past the beak to the head, she aimed and shot between the statue's eyes.

She flew up moments before the door slammed open.

Silius stepped out onto the arms, and Havna followed him.

Lucy scrambled to get her footing on the top of the beak, and watched as they stared up at Bane, just like she had.

She heard Silius swear.

That meant they hadn't known Bane was there. He must have arrived while they were chasing her up the stairs.

She wondered what he was doing, but she had a good idea he was looking for her. The thought calmed her. Warmed her, even though the wind off the ocean was making her cheeks numb.

Now she was even higher on the statue, she could see out to the ocean, with the square below, full of people.

Both moons lit up the sky, and Bane contributed to the general brightness, so she could see the light reflected on the water, and the straight line of fog heading toward the city.

It looked like the first line of an attacking army, a steady, unwavering line of cloud.

Silius gave a shout below her, forcing her attention to him and Havna.

They stared up at her for a beat, and then started looking for ways to climb up to her.

She was truly trapped up here. She lifted a hand to her throat and her fingers tangled in the necklace around her neck.

Maybe the time had come to use them.

There was no harm in it, anyway.

She worked one off and it crumbled a little as she pulled it free. She hoped the damage she did to it wouldn't make a difference, and then she threw it down to the arms below.

It bounced--she heard the ping as it hit the metal--and then . . . nothing.

“Throwing pebbles at us isn't going to do you any good.” Silius gave a laugh.

She ignored him, worked off another bead with a back and forth motion to get it free, trying to be more careful this time.

Bane had said it had to make forceful contact with a surface, before it would light up.

With luck, she could blind Silius and Havna, and have the added benefit of attracting Bane's attention with the light.

She walked out to the tip of the beak, looked down at where she wanted it to land, and threw again, putting everything behind the throw.

As she pitched it, Havna stepped into its path. It hit him, bounced off, and skittered along Karn's right arm and then was