LITMIR.BIZ

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girl,’ Stauffer yells. ‘After I’m done with your boyfriend here, how about you and me have some fun, huh?’

      He makes it clear what kind of fun with hip thrusts.

      Sky flicks him her middle finger.

      ‘Quit messing,’ she tells me. ‘Finish him.’

      My turn to scowl. ‘Don’t you think I’m trying?’

      The look of scorn on Sky’s face – bottle it and you could sell it as battery acid. ‘You’re being dumb, fighting like they trained you to. Arse-face is catching you because he sees you coming.’

      ‘So how should I fight?’

      ‘Like a Reaper,’ she says. ‘Dirty.’

      I’m grabbed and thrown back at Stauffer. His mates want blood, not chat. He comes at me, gob hanging open, maybe wanting to finish me quick and show Sky what a big, tough man he is. Nearly does too, with me still thinking about Sky. Only he slips and misses, and I come to my senses. I duck and weave and throw jabs to get him to back up. I don’t let him get close enough to hurt me.

      ‘Come here, you little shite!’ he snarls, starting to blow now.

      Just as I begin to hope, I step back too far, straying across the rope on the ground that marks out our ring. Hands thrust me back at Stauffer, straight into his punch. He rattles my bones.

      Down I go again, on to my knees.

      And he’s laughing at me again. They all are.

      That’s not what lights me up. These gommers can laugh all they like – what do I care? No. It’s seeing Sky standing there, watching with her thin arms folded, contempt twisting her lips. Something rips inside me that isn’t my cracked ribs. Before, I was fighting for Colm, and to wipe sneers off faces. Now I’m possessed.

      I stagger back to my feet, spitting curses.

      Stauffer stops his strutting and closes on me. I fake a half-hearted spin kick. He leans back, leaving his front foot planted. Careless. I pull out of the kick and stamp down hard, crunching the bones along the top of his foot. He screams and goes down, clutching at it. The fight’s over there and then, but I treat him to a few kicks anyway as he rolls around in the dirt. Afters, we call this in the Barrenlands where I grew up. It sends a message. Mess with me again, Stauffer, and this is what you’ll get.

      ‘Cut that out!’ Andersson, another combat instructor, shouts.

      I glare at him, my chest heaving. ‘Or what?’

      Colm jumps between us. ‘Take it easy, Kyle. You don’t have to fight them all. Leave some for tomorrow, why don’t you?’

      He hangs his fist out. We bump stumps.

      Even now I still cringe seeing my brother’s finger gone. Took it off himself using a wood-chisel after Sky told him that’s what was used on me. Says he did it to show he’s Gemini now. Sky says it shows that Colm’s even more of a gom than I am.

      ‘C’mon, let’s go!’ Sky chucks my boots and shirt at me.

      Andersson moans at us for clearing off before the training day is over, but Sky’s a windjammer captain now and outranks him. She tells him to shut his face.

      I give him a wink. I’ll regret that later, but it feels good now.

      Triumph wrestles with guilt. ‘Dirty enough for you?’

      It’s a few minutes later. The pounding in my head has stopped and I feel less like tearing the throat out of anybody who so much as glances at me. A cold drizzle has started. It helps in a weird kind of way, cooling me down inside and out.

      Sky shrugs and keeps walking. ‘That loser had it coming.’

      ‘I should’ve stayed down, like Colm said.’

      My brother nods, bites his lip and looks away.

      Sky blows air out of her mouth. ‘What good would that do?’

      I sigh, my ribs killing me, not needing another row about how I always take his side against hers. Which is crap anyway.

      ‘Stauffer will heal, then he’ll kill me.’

      ‘He wouldn’t dare.’

      ‘Maybe we should tell Ballard what happened,’ Colm says.

      ‘I can’t go running to Ballard the whole time.’

      ‘Seriously,’ Sky mutters.

      We all shut up for a while as we trudge down the trail from the training grounds to the canyon floor. Scraps of golden evenshine strobe over us, sneaking through the camouflage netting that’s hung overhead to hide us from any eyes in the sky. I clutch my hurting ribs, glare at Sky’s back and think dark thoughts.

      She glances back at me. ‘What?’

      I’m so startled, I blurt it out. ‘When you hooked me up with Gemini, you swore we’d be among friends, all fighting together for the nublood cause. Hasn’t worked out like that, has it?’

      Sky snorts, her wet face glistening.

      ‘Get real, Kyle. Nublood makes you faster and stronger, but it doesn’t stop you being an arse like Stauffer.’

      ‘Never said it did. It’s just – oof ! ’

      I trip. My ribs have another go at me, shutting me up.

      Sky stomps off again, limping as fast as she can on her bad leg. Behind her back, Colm rolls his eyes at me. Not helpful. Ever since we were flown out here to the Deeps after the raid, this is how it’s been. It’s like they can’t stand each other and I’m stuck in the middle, dodging glares and making excuses. I’m not saying it’s his fault that things have cooled between me and Sky – that’s more down to the way things have worked out – but he doesn’t help.

      ‘What’s the rush?’ I call out, not thinking.

      She turns, her face one big snarl. ‘WHAT DID YOU SAY?’

      ‘Okay, okay,’ I say, not wanting to get hit again. ‘You’ve got news about Tarn. Can’t you just tell us?’

      ‘I figured you’d like to see!’

      She takes a deep breath and looks away real quick.

      Not quickly enough. I glimpse the bitter disappointment in her eyes and my guts twist themselves into knots. A winter ago, I swore I’d help her find her sister, Tarn. We bumped stumps on it. One way or another though it hasn’t happened. There’s always another mission for Sky to fly. I’m not allowed out of the Deeps. As excuses go it’s a good one, but I feel I’ve let her down.

      ‘Sky, I’m sorry. I –’

      ‘What’s that doing here?’ Colm says, pointing.

      I look. And my next heartbeat is a long time coming. On the landing field squats a matt-black Slayer windjammer.

      ‘Relax,’ Sky says. ‘We forced it down a week or so ago. Took a while to get it launched again. I flew it in here today.’

      ‘It’s massive,’ I say, taking in the bulk of it.

      Sky’s not listening. ‘Hurry up. We’ll hitch a ride out.’

      Just then I hear the whoosh of a steam boiler. Seconds later I smell coal smoke. Gears grind and tracks clatter. Sky sets off at a stiff-legged run. Colm and I go after her, me clutching my side. As we emerge from the trail gloom I see a battered tractor chugging away from us. We chase after it, hang off the back.

      Sky cheers up enough to nearly smile.

      ‘Like hopping a windjammer!’ she yells over the noise.

      As we lumber across the field I check out the transport. Apart from some impact damage from a hard landing, and blast scars from the firefight that followed, this is one hell of a machine.

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