Forged (Star Breed #10) - Elin Wyn Page 0,34

at me, you have to admit those rocks came in handy.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” he said, then froze with an uncanny stillness, head turning slowly as he scanned the cavern, searching for something I couldn’t see, couldn’t hear.

“What is it?” I whispered, scrambling to grab all the supplies together into one bundle if we had to run, had to fight.

But unexpectedly, he relaxed, smiling broadly. “Nothing’s the matter. Grab as much moss as you can.” He started pulling up clumps, handing them to me to stuff into the net bag. “Either I found the way out, or there’s a forest of more than mushrooms growing down here.” He put out a hand to help me up. “Moon this weird, I wouldn’t be too surprised.”

We crossed the cavern, Hakon’s sure steps leading straight to another tunnel.

I was so excited by the idea of getting out from underground that I didn’t even bother to look at the new types of fungi, thin blue stalks curving from halfway up the walls, ending in large pale purple balls.

Alright. I didn’t look at them much, and didn’t do more than brush against one.

It didn’t take long before the new tunnel became noticeably brighter.

Almost painfully so.

“Well,” I said as we rapidly retreated. “Hadn’t really thought this part through.”

We’d been bathed in the constant dim light of the caverns, making it easy to forget how strong the desert light had been.

There was no way of knowing what we were emerging into.

“Just move slowly, get acclimated,” Hakon said. “I don’t want us rushing out and realizing we’re on a ledge halfway up a cliff.”

Hands over my eyes, I couldn’t help but laugh. “Feels like we’ve done something like that once today. Maybe we’ll save another cliff for tomorrow.”

Slowly, the blinding whiteness became bearable as our eyes adjusted.

We weren’t halfway up a cliff, but rather on a broad rocky ledge halfway up a mountainside covered with a profusion of low, scraggly red and orange bushes.

Wandering closer to the edge, I could see a valley stretching out below us before rising to another range of peaks. I scanned the peak above us. “Shall we go get a better view, see what we stumbled into this time?” I asked.

Hakon bowed deeply. “After you.”

As I panted my way up the steep slope, I was thankful for my mossy garland.

In the open air, it wasn’t as effective as down in the cavern, but still, breathing was much easier than it had been in the desert.

“Almost there,” I called back to Hakon. “And then, hopefully, we can get a signal out to my uncle.”

He grinned at me as he came up and slipped the bag of components from my shoulder, changing it to his own.

“I won’t say that there haven’t been some good points about our little adventure,” he said with a heated glance, “but I’d be happier knowing we can eventually get off this rock.”

Before long we made it to the summit, one of a jagged range of peaks making up one wall that enclosed the valley below.

While I dug in the bag for the jury-rigged communicator, Hakon surveyed the land below.

“I think the cliff edge is back there,” he finally said, pointing to a thin dark smudge of a line. “Glad we didn’t try to cross the desert.”

From this height, it was clear that the wastelands would have continued far past our resources.

“Or try to follow the cliff, see where it led,” I added. Because from here, it didn’t look like the cliff edge stopped, just kept going, as if a giant boot had smashed the desert down in one clean stomp.

“It’s nicer over here, at least,” I decided as I assembled the antenna and set the range. “But hopefully it won’t matter soon.”

I started with the family frequency, one that surely Uncle Ran and Luca would be monitoring.

“Denau Runner to Foil.” My voice sounded strange, tight, even to me. “Please respond.”

Static and more static. I adjusted the settings and tried again

Now instead of static, there was silence.

“Try it broad spectrum,” Hakon suggested. “Right now, we could use a pickup from anyone.”

As much as I hated to admit it, he was right. We could deal with corporate politics after we managed survival.

I opened it up to all channels. “Emergency assistance requested on Sat 9.” I waited, wished we had more components to build a repeater. “Emergency assistance requested, we have crashed and are short on supplies. Anyone in the area receiving my signal, please come in.”

A squeal, then in between bursts