High Flyer - Michelle Diener Page 0,85
just behind him, and moved down the slope toward what looked like a small stream that was more tumbling white water than anything else.
They were over it, and making their way toward the gap in the mountains up ahead, when the glint of sun off metal had him reaching out a hand to grip Hana's shoulder and push her down.
“I saw.” She swiveled toward it, crouching on her haunches.
They sat for long minutes, but there was no sound of running feet, no sound at all but the water and the wind and the birds overhead.
They carefully rose back up.
“We have to check it out.” He didn't want to. He wanted to head for the pass. But he didn't want them to have whatever this was at their backs without finding out what it was.
“Yes.” Hana let him go ahead again, both of them looking carefully all around them as they approached the top of a rise.
He stopped at the crest, waiting for Hana before he made his way down.
It was as if some giant hand had scooped out a second, shallower valley within the valley. A long, wide hollow.
A Dynastra lay buried on its side in the soft ground, with leaves and other debris piled up against its side. Years worth.
It wasn't alone, though.
There was something else--perhaps another ship--although nothing of it was visible but what looked like a window, buried in the side of a gentle hill.
“My Dynastra.” Hana expelled the words on an exhale.
That had been his first thought. “You don't remember being here?”
She pointed to a an opening at the far side of the hollow, two rocks that formed a kind of gateway out. “I went that way. I don't remember much about it.”
She ran down the slope and came to a stop in front of the strange window.
“They are trying to tell me something, but the magfield is too strong.”
They. Her upgrade.
He moved past her, crouching beside the opening and looking in. There was a chill that seemed to rise up out of the darkness. Whatever this was, it was deeper than it looked.
He glanced at her over his shoulder. “What do you want to do?”
“Go in.” She did a slow turn, carefully looking over the whole area. “I think I must.”
He grabbed the top of the window frame with both hands and lowered himself inside, trying to gauge the depth. When he couldn't find the floor, he twisted, looking for a foothold against the wall, and when he found one, he moved to the side to let Hana in.
She swung in carefully, moving a little way below him as she found hand and footholds, and he pulled out the small light from their pack.
He pointed it down, and there below was a floor that seemed to be made of thin interlaced metal rods.
It wasn't that far down and he pushed off and dropped onto it, then turned and held his arms up to Hana.
She jumped after him, and he caught her around the waist and lowered her beside him.
“They aren't happy.” She leaned back against him and took a deep breath.
“Do they think there's danger?” He wished she'd said this sooner.
She shook her head. “They don't like to be back here. They were here for so long before.” She looked up at him. “Maybe thousands of years.”
She ran a hand down her arm, almost like she was soothing herself.
“That way,” she said, pointing.
He felt a chill lift the hairs on the back on his neck. “Hana?”
She looked over at him, blinked, and then shook herself.
“I'm okay.” She tried to smile. “I've got all kinds of strange going on inside me, that's all.”
He said nothing, let her show the way as their boots rang out on the metal floor. It vibrated under his feet, and made him worry he wouldn't be able to hear anyone creeping up on them.
The wide passageway ended in a set of stairs, twisting upward into the darkness.
“Notice that it's built for people of our general height?” Iver shone the light over the steps and the railing that ran beside it.
“Yes.” She cleared her throat. “We have to go up.”
“All right.” He held the light steady and then followed behind her, lighting her way.
At the top was another wide corridor, and the faint smell of an animal, as if one of the largish rodents that lived in the Spikes had made this its home for a while.
There was a door up ahead. Iver half expected it to open for them, but it