The Islands of Sand and Steel

Chapter Twenty Nine: Into the Bowels of the Kambani

Lily clung to the ladder that sprouted from the side of the rotorcraft, wishing fervently that she had thought to check Chris' handiwork. But now, hundreds of feet above the city floor and flying towards the Kambani, it was too late. If Chris hadn't nailed the planks right, she was dead meat, and that was that.

The Kambani drew closer, and Lily began to have her doubts. If the airplanes that zoomed around it didn't hit her with their rifles, the Kambani itself could easily swat her out of the sky with its one, incredibly thick claw. It was too slow to catch one of the planes, but this rotorcraft was a much easier target.

Another craft, even bigger and slower than the one she rode on, hung dangerously close to the Kambani. The colossal arm swung, missing it, then the beast lumbered after it with its arm outstretched like a kid grabbing for a toy.

The Kambani was fast. Lily had always figured that something with long legs would be fast, but she still wasn't ready for the kind of speed she saw. The Kambani caught up easily with the big rotorcraft, swung and missed it by just a few dozen yards. The weight of the swing caused the Kambani to luch, and Lily hoped for a moment that it would topple over again. Just when the Kambani pulled itself back up to full height, something shifted beneath it. A cloud of dust rose from around its left foot, and it sank, metal screaming as the floor ripped open underneath it.

With her hands latched onto the ladder rungs, Lily could not protect her ears. She could only close her eyes and grit her teeth as the noise slammed into her, making her feel like a knife had been jammed into the bottom of her brain.

When the noise finally stopped, the Kambani strained uselessly against the torn floor of the city, half-buried in twisted metal. Reeves must have done his job, because the windshield had shattered on its own, leaving a hole in the front of the head easily big enough for her.

And now that the Kambani was stuck, they had their chance. Chris knew it too. Fearlessly, he brought the rotorcraft down in front of the Kambani and edged up to its mangled head. He rotated, keeping slow so he didn't fling her off, and got her outrigger facing the break in the windshield. Inch by painful inch, they approached the jagged hole, their prop wash cutting into the cloud of dust thrown up by the impact. Lily drew her pistol, peering into the interior, but she couldn't make anything out.

Finally, she was close enough. Crouching on the outermost rung, Lily turned, blew a kiss to Christopher, then leapt off. After a second in the air, her feet found solid floor, and she staggered, then righted herself.

She raised her pistol, but when the dust cleared away, there was no one here. She stood in a room in shambles, with walls wrinkled like an old lady's face, levers mangled and bent, delicate instruments lying in shambles on the floor. There were two women in a far corner, but neither of them looked like fighting material.

Chris' rotorcraft buzzed away, leaving one last gust of sand as a parting gift. When the air cleared again, Lily aimed her pistol straight down at the two women. They had uniforms like what she had seen on Yawa, except somehow dirtier. One of them was white.

"We surrender," said the native, in a far-eastern accent. "Please, don't hurt us. We didn't sign up for this."

"Yeah?" said Lily. "Well you did it anyway. Guns-- hand 'em over."

The native drew her pistol and pressed it into Lily's hand. The white gave a little whimper, then did the same.

"There," she said. "Now stay here. If I see you running, I'll cap you, got it?"

Lily stepped up to the twisted hallway in the back that looked like an elevator shaft, leading down to the body of the Kambani. Like a throat. She gave each of her new pistols a cursory inspection, then tucked them safely under her belt. Running to the shaft, she hurried down its tilted, twisted surface, sliding where it was smooth, skipping where it wasn't and climbing whenever the angle got too dicey. Once, she came within a hair's breadth up cutting her foot open on an edge of jagged metal. Her lungs quivered as she breathed in rank, salty air.