Lost Change

Chapter 82

The scent led me back the way we had come, then down a passage we had ignored. Deeper into the ship.

Minna and the guards ran along after me. They were keeping up easily - the Kymari were fast when they wanted to be - but I tried to check back every so often to make sure they didn't stop. Being jerked back by the leash was not a fun experience.

I followed the scent through the corridors and stopped at a room. The door was closed, but the scent had definitely gone into it. I hissed and circled through the air in frustration. Minna came to a stop behind me and looked at me in confusion, then looked back up and down the passage. "Did you lose it?"

I growled again and dropped to the floor. I stood up against the door and scratched at it, then hissed, then looked back at Minna pointedly. Then I scratched at the door again just because - the sicora had gone in there. I was impatient to find it.

"Can you open this?" Minna turned to the guards. He nodded and moved to the side of the door to begin tapping on the panel there.

"Nate, come back." I looked over my shoulder at Minna and hissed at the call. There was a sicora in there. My instincts were telling me to find it, to kill it. Even the calmer, rational part of me wanted to go after it; I did not want to give it a chance to kill somebody else. And she wanted me to back up?

"Nate." Minna spoke slower and covered her fist with her free hand, doing the simple demonstration she had done when she was first teaching me this trick. "Come back."

Her words got through the instincts screaming at me that time. I shifted from side to side, still very much wanting to go through the door, but then I managed to turn away. I flew the short distance back to Minna and balanced carefully on her hand.

She wound up some of the slack from the leash and took several steps back from the door.

The guard messed with the controls for a few more seconds... then the door split open.

The scent of the sicora grew stronger immediately.

So did the scent of blood.

Two of the guards moved in with their spears at the ready while the third stayed with us. I did my best not to jump off Minna's arm and go tearing after them, and I more or less managed to stay put. Seconds passed while my blood continued to boil.

One of the guards came back out. Through his helmet I could see that his expression was grim. "It's clear. Come look."

Minna pulled her arm in closer and followed the guard through the door. I leaned forward to try and get through the doorway as soon as I could.

I immediately wished I hadn't.

This room was covered in blood and body parts, just like the other one had been. If anything this room was more of a nightmare - the sicora had more space to play in this time, and blood and various body parts covered a wider area. I stared at the gruesome sight and felt the urge to kill the sicora get even stronger.

"Is this the last of the crew?" Minna looked away from the body and back towards the guards.

One of the guards knelt down and looked at some of the shredded clothing mixed into the bloody mess. "I don't think so. This doesn't look like the ship uniform. And he took us out of the section that was sealed; we're back in the public area." He carefully rose back to his feet and stepped away. "I think this was one of the passengers."

Another guard spoke up. "Are you going backwards? They sealed the front off when it got the pilot; it couldn't have gone this way. It would have had to kill this person first, then the body we just came from, then go to the bridge."