The Lost Animas (The Ammonite Galaxy Series, Book 5)

Chapter 12

THEY LOOKED BACK up at the curving stone staircase which wound around the vertical wall of the chasm on Kintara with dismay. Coming down had been bad enough, but now the journey appeared unimaginable. They were carrying packages, and it was uphill, instead of down. Apart from that, the planet seemed to have decided to give up the fight, for occasional large pieces of magma and rock were tumbling down upon them from above.

Even the ghostly light provided by the crystals embedded in the instellite seemed dimmed, and the way up was sombre and forbidding.

Six bit his lip, and then scanned upwards. "Those machines are going to make our lives difficult," he said. "We will take turns at carrying them."

Bennel gave a slow shake of his head. "That, Valhai Six, is our job." He met Tallen's gaze, and the Namuri inclined his own head in agreement.

"We will share the burden." Diva had decided to enter the conversation, and the three men looked around at her in surprise.

"Either we are all together in this, or we aren't," she went on, taking hold of the largest machine with some difficulty, and proceeding up the first five steps. Once there, she put it gingerly on the slab and wound the rope around the inner flange of the flagstone. "Next!"

Six grinned, picked up the other machine and moved past her fifth step, and up another four. Since the two Coriolan men now had no choice, they simply grumbled a bit between their teeth, but picked up the map and the small boxes, and began to follow, roping themselves together.

After a hundred steps, by which time Diva's hair was plastered to her face and even Six was looking slightly the worse for wear, they changed over, Bennel and Tallen slipping past Six and Diva to take over the following stretch.

Six stared upwards. It was unending. He had no idea how many of the stone slabs had been cut into the chasm wall, but it was certainly over a thousand. His heart was pounding its dismay, and part of it seemed to be beating in his ears. He clutched at Diva's hand as she passed him carrying the precious map, and pulled her closer for a moment.

"Don't fall," he said.

Diva looked steadily into his eyes for what seemed like an eternity. Her sweat-stained face shone bright for a moment of intense light. "Watch your step, Kwaidian."

Six leaned forward and gently touched her brow with his.

For just a small moment she pushed back against his forehead with her own, and the movement seemed amplified in those surroundings, as if it were a kiss. Then she was gone, had moved past him in the dull sparkle of the igneous rock surrounding them, and was on the following stone slab.

Six felt a warmth spread through him, giving him more energy. He peered back down at the floor of the chasm which was now receding from them with each step. The waterfall was smaller, giving no sign of the remnants of the huge civilization it was sheltering behind its curtain of water. Already it had become hard to distinguish that particular clearing from the other waterfalls which tumbled down, one after another, in a cascade of spray and white foam into the innards of the dying planet.

"Are you coming or not?" Diva's ironic voice sparked him out of his reverie.

"Just taking in the sights," he shouted back.

"Well, stop, or it is going to take us all day and all night, and—" Her voice broke off with a short yell of alarm, and Six cringed into the wall as a huge boulder, with plumes of fire visible out of fissures along its surface crashed off the wall of instellite immediately above him, and plummeted past him towards the centre of the planet, missing him by only a couple of feet.