The Forsaken

at one another with panicked, desperate eyes.
    “We have to fight it here!” Gadya yells.
    “It’s going to take one of us!” Rika replies. The noise of the feeler is becoming even louder, a whining sound far above the clouds. Based on the other feeler attacks, I’m guessing it’s only sixty seconds away from us now. And I know that more feelers will probably follow in its wake. We’re going to be forced to take a stand on the ice.
    Sinxen turns to the Monk. “Any bright ideas?”
    The Monk shakes his masked head.
    “Let’s fight it!” Gadya yells again. “I’d rather die in battle than get picked off helplessly, like a bug!”
    I wish Liam were here, because he’d know what to do. And I wish Veidman were here too. But they’re not—it’s just us.
    I look at David.
    “What if we each grab one of the feeler’s tentacles?” I yell, trying to think of a strategy. “Maybe we could outweigh it and bring it down.”
    “I don’t know if the ice will hold!” David yells back.
    Gadya’s eyes burn with the expectation of battle. “No, it’s a good idea!”
    “I’ve never seen a feeler take more than one person at a time,” Sinxen calls out. “Maybe we’d be heavy enough to crash it. Then we could run, before the other feelers come. At least we’d have a chance.”
    The rotor sounds get even louder, as though the feeler is directly above us now, hidden in the clouds. Heads snap up, and we stare at the gray sky. Why can’t we see it yet?
    We draw even closer, and for the first time I hear the ice creak loudly under our feet, making ominous sounds like it’s about to give way. For a second, I’m afraid it will start cracking. But it holds.
    I feel a hand on my shoulder. It’s David.
    “You found the rocks, didn’t you?” he whispers beneath the noise of the rotors. “I could tell from your face earlier.”
    “Maybe.”
    “Then you know I’m telling the truth. You gotta help me deal with Markus, and you have to trust me, Alenna. It’s been you and me from the start, and we—”
    “Look sharp!” Markus barks, knocking David’s hand off my shoulder. “Here it comes!”
    Rika starts crying. She’s shaking uncontrollably, from fear and from the cold. I hear the Monk’s labored breathing behind his mask.
    “Hand-to-hand combat,” Gadya is saying to Sinxen. “It’s the only way.”
    I tilt my head back again, eyes glued to the sky. I’m terrified. I wonder if all warriors feel this fear, if Liam ever felt it. Maybe real warriors don’t get scared like this. It’s a stomach-clenching, breath-stealing fear. The kind that comes from facing down your worst nightmares.
    “Almost here,” I whisper, clenching my frozen hands into fists inside my gloves. I’ve never fought with my bare hands before, but now I’m going to be fighting those metal tentacles with everything I have.
    The noise of the rotors becomes a screaming roar, and a stiff wind kicks up on the ice. “Let’s grab this thing and kill it!” Gadya screams, as the first three metal tentacles shoot down toward us from the feeler with frightening velocity.
    I don’t know which one of us the feeler is going after. Tentacles crack down on the ice all around me like gunshots.
    I explode into action, racing forward, trying to grab the nearest tentacle. The others do the same.
    I see the Monk’s drone step forward, with the Monk still hanging on to his back. A long metal blade suddenly extends from the drone’s wrist, a hidden sword under his robes. So this is what the Monk had in store for us. But now he’ll never have a chance to use it. As all of us clutch at the tentacles, even Rika, the drone attacks the feeler with the sword, sparks flying as metal hits metal.
    Then a tentacle curls down right in front of my face. Instead of fleeing from it, I go straight for it, getting both of my gloved hands around its circumference. My right hand catches on some sort of hydraulic nozzle, and the tentacle starts curling around my wrist.
    Then I hear a wailing scream from the drone. A tentacle has whipped the blade right out of his hand and sent him crashing down, headfirst. The Monk has toppled off him and is lying unprotected on the ice.
    More tentacles zoom down at us from the feeler hovering in the clouds.
    “Keep fighting!” Gadya yells. The ice is creaking so loudly, I can tell it’s going to splinter soon. Then it’ll all be over. We’ll die, just like everyone else.
    I tear at the tentacle, ripping my gloves and