Page 45 of Spectral Seas (Spectral Worlds #2)

A FTER TEN MINUTES of silently gliding through the forever clouded skyscape, most of the data point readings in Abby’s ocular overlay were still spitting out nonsense. He rolled his head to the left, right, then back again, scanning the mist in an attempt to correct them.

“What is it?” Leta asked from behind. “Are you all right?”

“Just checking perspective,” he said. “The targeting augment is still directly ahead, but without it I’d be lost. My altitude and proximity readings are still all over the place.”

“I’m glad they know where they’re going.”

“Me too.”

“How do you suppose the Indici find their way?” she asked. “They certainly don’t have any implants in those glowing orbs of theirs.”

Abby focused on the dark silhouette of the reptoid leading Soren as it faded in and out of the swirling Indici mist. Sss’kyrone was in the far lead ahead of him but hidden altogether by the fog .

“I’m sure it has something to do with their psionic ability. We really don’t know much about their capacity or how strong they really are.”

VERRUP.

Abby swung his head up to the right and scanned the cottony blue abyss. “Did you hear that?” he asked.

“Hear what?” asked Leta.

“My chin-chip picked up a muffled VERRUP sound.”

“I heard something,” she said. “I don’t think I want to know what it was.”

“Maybe nothing.”

Abby held his gaze.

Calm. Too calm.

The fog appeared to slowly billow, but maybe it wasn’t rolling at all. Even with implants, the fog played tricks on the eyes.

He heightened his focus.

The depth of hue deepened at the center of his vision…or did it?

Leta had warned him, ‘ Stare too long into the abyss and you know what happens’.

Abby swiped the back of his wet wrist across his brow, rubbed his eyelids dry as he could with his finger and thumb, blinked heavy a few times then returned his view upward.

There was no question a shadow was forming. It wasn’t a DMT echo or dehydration, it was the faint silhouette of something flying high up in the mist above them. Flying in the same direction, at the same pace.

“ I found it ,” chipped Abby.

“ Where? ” Leta asked, probing the surrounding fog.

“ Just above us and ahead. Around two o’clock . ”

Leta found the dull shadow. It had darkened and morphed to the shape of a large darting missile. “ What is it ?” asked Leta.

“ I don’t know ,” said Abby. “ I don’t think it’s a ship. ”

“ It’s hunting us ,” she said.

“ I think the hunt is over. It’s getting darker. Darker means closer. ”

As the shadow drew closer it did darken, grow, and continue to morph. It first widened in the center then sprouted outward on either side to the shape of a cross. Soon Abby’s assumptions were confirmed as the full silhouette of a large and menacing winged beast took form mere meters above them.

For a full moment the shadow hung above them, blackening the sky. Then abruptly, without a sound, the winged shadow dove. A cascade of augmented alerts erupted over the darting beast as it silently swooped in from the right. Abby’s eyes raced ahead to its target and landed on the silhouette of the second disc rider, then darted back to the beast plunging toward him. There was no time to signal or scream. In an instant the beast ripped the Indici from his transport and in the same single motion flung the flailing reptoid into the abyss.

As rapidly as it struck, the winged shadow veered upward and disappeared into the depths of the mist. A few scarlet augments hung over the last faint shadow of the beast, but they quickly turned yellow then blinked away.

Abby kept his gaze fixed the beast’s path in search of the shadow.

The flying beast let out a high-pitched SCREEEEECH!

Abby swung his head toward the scream.

“Was that...?” asked Leta aloud .

“A dragon?” said Abby. “Yeah. I think it was.” Frantically, he searched of the surrounding void for sign or tell of the mist cloaked beast. Another SCREEEEECH came from far behind. “ It’s circling ,” he said looking back. There was a soft muddled whisper and a tickle to his frontal lobe. Far ahead Sss’kyrone’s faint silhouette appeared. Abby shut his eyes then subtly flexed the muscles behind them to allow Sss’kyrone to enter his mind.

“ They’ve found usss ,” came the lizard’s voice. “ We mussst begin evasssive maneuversss. Don’t let go .”

With that, Sss’kyrone immediately veered radically right, Soren split left, and to Abby’s surprise, his disc dropped into a free fall.

Abby white knuckled the control handle and yelled, “Hold on!”

Leta squeezed his waist tight. His stomach flipped, but he held firm to the hoop. Cool wet sheets of fog wafted past and without the others before him to form a slipstream shield, droplets needled into his face and knuckles, each a tiny biting dagger.

Then, as fast as they’d began their descent, the disc leveled out.

Abby’s stomach eased. There was silence.

Abby switched back to communicating through the chin-chip. “ Um ,” he said. “ At some point in the descent, we turned .”

“ Is the targeting augment still there ?” asked Leta.

“ Um. Yeah. To our far left. The disc is taking us back out and around .”

“ You’re not driving it ?”

“ No. Not really. When we boarded it just went, then on Sss’kyrone’s signal, it went into evasive maneuvers .”

Sss’kyrone responded, “ Jussst think to adjussst the direction .”

“ Huh ,” Abby chipped to Leta. “ He says to just think the direction we want to go. ”

“ Give it a shot .”

Abby clenched harder onto the loop, then thought to turn right. There was no noticeable difference in the performance of the disc, but the targeting augment drifted farther to the left. He thought left, and the targeting augment began to drift to the right. When the augment was once again front and center, he thought to stay the course.

“ What do you know ,” he chipped. “ It worked.”

“Great,” chipped Leta. “I’ll keep a look out for our flying friend.”

~*~