Deathstalker 04 - Deathstalker Honor

way. And the engines—“ “Could blow any time. Yeah. I remember. Damn. You’re just full of good news, aren’t you?
    All right, there should be manual controls for the door, top and bottom. Toss you for which of us has to bend over.” In the end, Jack nearly passed out from the pain when he tried to bend down, so Ruby had to do it, cursing and complaining all the way down. They cracked the inner airlock door open inch by inch, stumbled into the lock, and hit the explosive bolts that blew the outer door open. Random put his head out cautiously, and winced as the bitter night wind hit his exposed face. It felt like razors. He pulled his head quickly back in. “Nasty.”
    “Told you,” said Ruby. “The locals wear protective armor when they have to go out, which is as rarely as they can get away with.” “We don’t have the time to improvise any armor. We need to put some distance and protection between us and this ship in case she blows. I’m pretty sure I saw a cliff face within walking distance, and what might have been caves.” “You’d better be right about this, Random.
    Okay, you lead, I’ll follow.” They lurched out into the freezing dark, and the wind sent them staggering sideways for a moment before they could get their footing. The cold cut into them like a knife, and there was something abrasive in the wind that seared their exposed skin raw. They huddled together and staggered away from their crashed ship toward the great dark cliff face in the distance. Their progress was maddeningly slow. Strength and determination could do only so much in the face of broken bones and crippling pain. They stumbled on, supporting each other. It wasn’t full dark yet, but there was only a small moon, dropping a sickly blue light over the nightmare landscape. They were in a valley, surrounded on all sides by huge, eerie shapes that rose up unexpectedly out of the gloom. There was no sign of anything living. The wind howled like something dying. The cliff face didn’t seem to be getting any closer.
    “What are our chances of rescue?” said Ruby after a while. “Bad,” said Random. “The storm and the attack threw us way off course. The last location I had put us about two miles from the main city, Vidar.
    No other settlements in walking distance. And after a crash like ours, they might not bother with any rescue. They wouldn’t come this far just to identify a few bodies. Even if two of them were rather famous bodies.” “So,” said Ruby, “first we get to the cliff face. Then we climb the cliff face till we find a cave.
    Then we sit and heal. And then we get to walk two miles through this shit to the nearest civilization.
    Wonderful. Assuming we get through all this alive, I am going to find whoever’s idea it was to send us here, rip out his spleen, and make him eat it, one bite at a time.” “You must be feeling better if you can talk that much. Let’s speed up the pace.”
    “You’re a bastard, Jack. Have I told you that recently?”
    “Shut up and keep walking.”
    “Why the hell did I agree to come here?” said Ruby.
    “You volunteered. Said you were bored. Wanted a little excitement.”
    “This is very definitely not what I had in mind.”
    “Ah, you never want to go anywhere fun.”
    They clung to each other as the wind whipped sharply about them, pushing them this way and that like some playground bully. They screwed up their eyes against it till they could barely see, and it filled their noses and mouths with dust that irritated their throats. The ground beneath their feet rose and fell sharply for no obvious reason, hard and unyielding, so that each step sent painful vibrations shuddering through their exhausted bodies. Random tried to get some impression of his surroundings. The shapes they passed were some kind of black basaltic rock, but their strange, enigmatic shapes had a subtly troubling quality. There was something almost organic about them, something strangely familiar, like shapes seen in dreams, full of significance. Random shook his head, trying to drive out the unsettling thoughts. It was just his imagination that the rocks looked like creatures who might awaken at any moment, and turn and pursue him with the slow malevolent patience of all creatures in nightmares. He looked back at the pinnace. It was almost lost in the darkening twilight, but he could see well enough to be astonished he and Ruby had survived at all. The ship had cracked open in several