Page 14 (1/2)
As he , the loose folds in Cole’s suit seemed to flap louder and louder The noise rose froh various states of annoyance, and on up to sonically painful He chose a s into a canyon to see if the breeze would be reduced As strong as the wind felt, the gale on the prison rooftop had sounded much stiffer Whether that was due to altitude or the city serving as some sort of buffer, he couldn’t tell
Less than a kilo fro fro its belly, doubled over and dying Then the wind freshened, and his suit drowned out the haunting sound oncethe wind at his back, allowing it to push hi down a rock incline, shuffling his feet to keep fro too fast when he caht fro his arusts to keep fro, Cole h it e soet a closer look Ahead of him, waves of heat rose off the rock like sht about how long the rock endured that state, no respite fro rays, no time to cool off for hundreds, thousands, perhaps ht and felt just a slight difference in heat The air remained cooled by the wind from the dark hemisphere He set his lance down and pulled one hand inside hisout, he pressed a finger to the sunlit rock
A crackle and a hiss aped at the er in the air to cool the burning There was no way he could step out in that
He left the disappointing gully, which he could see deepen well into the sunlit side of the planet, and walked along the edge of the ter the border between night and day into a jagged and dangerous line He kept his distance, wary of the stea stone, until he came to one of the canyons
Worn by the eternal floind, it was deep enough, and angled just right, to provide a thin path of shade along one wall Cole leaned over the edge and peered into the steep-walled ditch Off toward the city, it grew shallow, beco a rut In the opposite direction, it deepened into an ie lined with shade
He dropped his lance down, e Careful not to rip his suit, he pushed off with his toes to clear the rock face, then dropped the last few ave immediate comfort He hadn’t realized how e until he descended out of it
Pulling out his cloth map, he determined, with a htened his grip on the lance and started walking into the daylight side of Drenard, following the thin trail of shadow that clung to the base of the low cliff
••••
Molly was half a kilometer down her own canyon before she first noticed the holes Several centi the cliff wall, they see that filled the land Molly peered into one of them, but it was too dark to see inside She pulled her hood back and lowered her ear to one of the larger ones, pressing her head against the rock A scratching noise see of her suit, and the agonized cry of the canyons--it was hard to tell
Thus far, she had seen no signs of life in the canyons The thick waves of heat rising up frousts, were the only things hts--one down? Was his furry hide suited for this atmosphere? She kept an eye peeled for one of these cere her friend
The canyon Molly had chosen to explore stretched ahead in a roughly straight line At a slight angle to the eternally setting sun, it cast a shady path on one side over a meter wide It wasn’t until the canyon turned in the other direction that she realized how tricky navigating this labyrinth would be Her dark trail of coolness petered out ahead of her just as an i shadow led across the lit canyon to the other side
Molly stared at the black strip in therock It had no apparent cause She leaned away fro waves of light In the distance, sothe canyon, high up the cliff faces, fro a solid pathway down to her location
It was a bridge made of shade!
Somehow, the Drenards had installed a ht spot to provide a path to the other side Molly stepped out onto the dark strip and felt an i down the center of the canyon, the air war rock Her mouth, already parched, felt full of sand She licked her lips, but the moisture just burned in the dry cracks that had already for like venoust hit her suit suddenly, nearly blowing her into the boiling stone to the side She dropped her lance and fell into a crouch, fighting to regain her balance Both hands went out to the shaded bridge to steady herself, the fabric of her suit flapping and trying to carry her away Mollya deep, dry breath as she waited for the wind to subside
As it did, she looked to her lance, which thankfully landed mostly in the shade She pulled it back in and reached out, er It wasn’t just hot, it would have burned her had she continued to touch it In only a few seconds of exposure
Sing a dry breath, Molly looked up at the tenShe decided to stay on all fours, pushing the lance ahead of her, using a wide base to coes in the wind’s intensity The air in the center stifled, even with the ht side blowing through Sweat dripped fro down in front of her Now and then, small beads were carried deeper into the canyon by the wind--out into the harsh sunlight Molly watched theot to the other side, she collapsed against the rock wall and glared across the innocent-see line of shadow The seriousness of her task struck her for the first time Wadi Thooo was not a sie A test of will A stroll through a foreign landscape suddenly had becoe, Molly had removed the easy, uninterrupted path of shade that led back to safety
She no longer had roo the strip of shade ahead of her Molly saw not a path, but a ledge A fall froht
The thought made her dizzy as she rose She kept one hand on the cliff wall, grasping at the holes in the stone for balance Gathering her wits, she ly in her sleeve, and pushed forward, keeping the lance to the sunlit side where it was ready to brace her if another gust attacked
The probleer on that side of her, that Molly didn’t notice soer
••••