Stolen - Nhys Glover Page 0,66

in her expression, as if she’d reached her limit of fear and was now numb to it.

Gritting my teeth, I blamed myself for our situation. I should have insisted we postpone our return until we knew for sure our ship was safe to fly. This was no childish game we were playing. This might mean our deaths. Her death. Clearly, we were too young to be given such a precious responsibility. We had failed her.

The hull was heating up, the life support struggling to maintain ambient interior temperatures. My mouth was as dry as dust. Sweat ran down my back in a stream. This was harder work than any we’d done as part of the search and rescue team.

The continent below was coming closer, way too fast.

“That’s the southern continent!” Meida exclaimed, finally catching on to what I already knew.

“What does that mean?” Jenna cried, her throat hoarse.

“Vargeez territory,” I said, keeping my voice as calm as possible.

“Aren’t they the enemy? Aren’t they the bat-like creatures everyone is afraid of?” she demanded, her voice going up an octave.

“Yes. That’s them,” I answered gruffly.

She seemed about to say more when a loud clunk and rattle sent the ship into freefall.

“We no longer have control over our descent. The angle is still shallow, though. Brace for impact!” Meida cried.

Lain threw himself into a nearby seat and buckled up. The ground was coming up fast. I doubt I’d ever flown across the land as fast as we were doing now. Mountains that had seemed only bumps on the horizon were now growing larger and larger as we drew closer. We needed to come down before we ploughed bow-first into them. I doubted our hull shields would handle much more.

The accelerated skid as we hit the ground jarred my neck and head. Only pressing back into the headrest saved me from permanent damage. The noise as we slid across the rocky ground was horrendous.

I looked over at Jenna. She was holding her hands over her ears, her eyes clamped tightly shut. I wanted to be there at her side, holding her hand, soothing away her worries, but all I could do was monitor the trajectory of our landing and work out how far from home we’d come down.

The mountains came closer and closer. Fortunately, we were slowing.

Finally, we came to a grinding halt no more than a few hundred meters from a cliff-face.

Letting out a relieved sigh, I slumped back against my seat. My hands were shaking, my breath coming in gasping pants. This was worse than any fear I’d ever experienced. And though we were down safely, it didn’t mean we were safe.

For a long time after we came to a standstill we all sat in numbed silence. Then, one by one, we began to move again. Me, to check our final location and compare it with the closest land bridge between here and home. Rian, to go to Jenna. Lain and Meida, to go for our emergency equipment.

We all knew the sooner we got away from our downed craft, the better the chance of survival we had. Vargeez would have seen us come down and would be flying toward us, even now. And they wouldn’t be a welcome party sent to greet us.

20

JENNA

My legs felt like cooked spaghetti as I scrambled toward the hatch, Rian at my side, keeping me upright. The landing had been horrifying. I’d expected to die. The dual urge to have it all over had warred with my need to remain with my pod no matter what. It was as if my body and mind were no longer in sync. And my heart, my heart craved one thing only: my pod.

Dramatic much?

Sighing, I leaned a little more heavily on Rian. It reminded me of those minutes when we’d reached the top of the cliff, only to find we still had to drag ourselves the rest of the way to the ship on our own legs. We’d been so weak it was ridiculous.

Once we were free of the spacecraft, I looked around me more closely. I’d expected to find a hellish landscape befitting bat-creatures. What I saw was beautifully lush foliage set against the Vargan violet sky. Huge flowers bloomed everywhere, filling the air with a wonderful floral scent. It was exactly how I’d seen the original Eden in my mind when I heard stories of Adam and Eve.

Lain came up from behind and swept me into his arms, bridal fashion.

He must have felt my wonder and awe at