Everwinter: The Forerunner Archives (43 page)

Right on time
, Altair thinks.

A massive explosion suddenly sounds from across the desert, becoming a momentary flash of blinding light. Altair keeps his head buried, but Halix receives the full brunt of it. He screams in agony.
 

Altair presses the advantage.

He flips his body, pushing Halix's leg off his back. At the same time he pulls the metal object secreted in his pocket and lets it fly. He's only got one, but it's all he needs. The throwing star flies true. It strikes Halix just below the jugular, nicking the massive vein as it enters his skin.

Blood pours immediately.

It's not a fatal wound–if Halix goes for treatment now–but he won't be able to continue the fight.

It's over.
 Altair has won.

Holding his neck, Halix grins down at his former pupil, stunned but impressed. "I underestimated you," he admits. "It won't happen again...Assassin."

"Thank you, Halix," Altair replies, getting to his feet, speaking the old man's true name for the first time ever.

Behind Halix, a massive rocket streaks into the atmosphere, propelling it to the furthest depths of
dark space.

BAROOOOO!

"Hey! Altair! Wake up!"

BAROOOOO!

He opens his eyes.

I jump back as the Assassin snaps his body forward, reaching for my neck with one hand, his throwing stars with the other. 

"Altair!" I scream.

He stops mid-motion, blinking his eyes, shaking his head. He relaxes, to my relief.

"Sorry," he says, clearly shocked by his loss of control.

I shake my own head. "Um, yeah," I reply.

BAROOOOO!

"How many whistles is that?" Altair asks, getting to his feet from the mattress in our container.
 

I turn to Ursa, who's been awake longer than me.

"Five," she replies. "Do you know where we are?" she asks.

Altair nods. "I think so." He stretches his back out. "But I should probably double check. Stay here. I'll be right back." He disappears out the door.

I turn an astonished gaze on Ursa. "What was that about?" I ask.

"He was tossing and turning in his sleep," she replies. "And mumbling something I couldn't quite make out."

"I heard it too," I nod. It was Altair's groaning that had woken me, not the blast of the ship's whistle above us. "Something about a helix and an old man," I say.

Ursa nods. "I heard something else too. Ma'adeem Vallis. Does that mean anything to you?"

I shrug my shoulders. "No clue," I say. "Maybe that's where he's from? The Land of Assassins or something?"

"Maybe," Ursa agrees, but she's clearly unsure. An awkward silence descends between us and I fidget.

"What's wrong?" Ursa asks.

A loaded question.

Altair's nightmare has brought back memories of my own.

I get up from my mattress and plunk down next to Ursa on hers. "I have something to tell you," I say.

"What is it, honey?" Ursa asks, her tone Motherly. It makes me cringe.

I sigh and let it out. "I know who betrayed you all those years ago," I explain. "I
know
who let it slip that you were missing a toenail on one foot."

Ursa raises her eyebrows, surprised but not shocked. She hesitates, then laughs to herself.
"I'm not sure I want to know," she says. "I mean, I've had my suspicions, but it's a mystery I've actually been content to lay dormant. My secret was bound to get out sooner or later. I accepted that fact long before it ever happened."

I smile back at her, reaching up to touch my
Mother on her scarred, tumored face. Maybe she doesn't want to know, but I have to tell her.

For my own benefit. And guilt.
 

Call it selfish if you want to.

"It was me," I say, letting the hammer drop.

Ursa's face seems to melt, drooping into the deepest of frowns. Then she laughs
again, for a wonder. "That's not possible, Juno," she finally replies. "How could you–"

"It was an accident," I explain, cutting her off. "I was just a kid. Five, I think. I was in school and we were learning about the True Body Plan. Mrs. Cromarty was asking us about fingers and toes. I... I..." I sigh, having trouble admitting the truth. "I let it slip that you only have nine toenails, Ursa. I guess
I counted them on your foot one time and so I assumed that that was normal. I thought that some people had nine while others had ten." I meet Ursa's gaze fully. "I'm so sorry," I finish. Tears begin to fall.

"Oh, Juno," Ursa says, pulling me into a tight embrace. "How can you possibly blame yourself for that? Like you said, you were just a child! If anything, I should have been more careful. I should have kept my toes hidden, even at home." I start to sob into her shoulder, soaking her tunic. "Oh, Juno," she repeats. "It would have happened whether you said anything or not. One way or another. I don't blame you. You are my daughter. I love you."

I finally pull away from her, meeting her eyes again. "I... I love you too, Mother," I reply. We pull each other in tight again and remain that way for a time.

Altair returns ten minutes later.

"Stockton is the next stop," he reveals. "We should get ready. We'll be there within the hour. I–" He pauses, seeing our emotionally fragile states. "What's going on?" he asks.

Ursa waves him away. "It's a family thing," she replies, offering nothing further.

"Fair enough," he agrees. "I'll, um... I'll meet you both up top in ten, okay?"

"Sure," Ursa replies. Altair leaves us again. "Ready to go?" my
Mother asks me.

"Yeah," I say, pulling away from her with a smile. "Let's find Traylor and get this family back together."

As Altair ordered, we join him on the upper deck of the ship ten minutes later.

It's still blustery as ever up here, but the Xon is slowing down, the crew having slackened the sails and ruddered the massive ship into port. Ropes thicker than my body are tossed overboard by Everwinter mutants to the dockhands below. With a spine tingling creak of protest, the X
on finally comes to rest at the docks.

The snow has lessened somewhat, and I can now make out this
new section of Everwinter City–the Stockton District. It looks just like the rest of the city; a series of varying, hive-like mounds, dug out in the snow and glowing from within. There's a massive mound at the center of the District, higher than any I've yet seen. It towers over us, even on the deck of the Xon, like a topless mountain.

"That's the Evernight
Skytower," Ursa tells me, noticing my scrutiny. It's not far from where we are now.

My heart palpitates. "Tray
lor!" I whisper. I turn to Ursa. "Are you sure about having to go to your lab? We're so close! I think maybe we should just go straight for–"

"Trust me, Juno," Ursa cuts me off. "I need to see if s
omething is missing from it. Then we can go. It may be of vital importance. Once we get there, I'll explain everything."

I huff, still staring up and the
Skytower. "Okay," I say. "I trust you."

"Thank you," Ursa says with a smile, taking my hand.

"It's time to go," Altair urges from behind us. I look down and see that, indeed, the loading platform has been extended and passengers are already disembarking.

We leave the Xon behind.

Down on the dock, the snow drifts are thicker than I've ever seen. Movement is a tough slog.

"How far is it to your lab?" I ask Ursa, already huffing and puffing.

"About ten clicks," Ursa replies matter of factly. I groan in protest. Ursa turns and smiles at me. "Don't worry, we'll be there in about twenty minutes or so."

"Huh?" I say, looking around despondently. "In case you haven't noticed, it's not exactly all paved roads around here."

TAAAWEEEEET!

Ursa
puts two fingers in her mouth, letting out a shrill, high pitched whistle, shockingly loud. I hear a sound, something akin to a roar and a bark, and feel a rumble as something bounds toward us from an open fronted building about fifty feet away.

My jaw nearly drops to the snow.

A massive, four legged white beast slams to a stop in the snow in front of Ursa, harnessed to a contraption that could only be described as a couch on skis.

I'd only just learned what skis are a few days ago.

"Is that...a
bear
?" I ask, astonished. There are bears all over the woods around Krakelyn, of course, but they're usually black, and about a third of the size of this behemoth.

Ursa grins. "A snow bear, yes," she explains. "And he's pulling what's known as a snowshaw."
 

An Everwinter mutant ambles over to us from the open storefront and greets us with a needle toothed smile, holding his palm out.
 "Fifty credits," he grumbles in his guttural tongue.

Ursa turns to Altair. "Pay the man," she says.

Altair grumbles as well. "That's all the money I have left," he says.

"We won't need any more," Ursa assures him. Altair sighs and pulls open his parka, searching the pockets for the last of the money he'd earned selling one of
his throwing stars. He pays the mutant the fifty credits.

"You have three hours," the mutant informs us. "Bear will return here whether you on snowshaw or not."

"That will be more time than we need," Ursa says. The mutant grunts and returns to his business. Ursa climbs aboard the snowshaw. The 'couch' is large enough to accommodate four people comfortably, enclosed entirely by a fabric roofed structure.

"Let's go," Ursa urges us.

I look at Altair who simply shrugs and we climb aboard.

"How do you even control this thing?" I ask. "How does it know where to take us?"

Ursa grins again and reaches forward, grasping a set of reins attached to the snow bear's harness. With a loud "
HIYA
!" Ursa cracks the reins, kicking the snow bear into gear. The beast roars and rears up on its hind paws, causing the snowshaw to heave backward.

"Ursa!" I scream in fear, but my
Mother just laughs.

She cracks the reins again and the snow bear charges, bearing us through the streets of Stockton at breakneck speed.

61.

"My gods, Ursa," I say, shaking my head in disbelief. "What happened here?"

"I don't know," Ursa replies, never tearing her gaze from the massive crater that sits before us.

We're still sitting in the snowshaw, the bear having settled at Ursa's command. The shaw itself sits at the edge of a massive crater, a giant scoop taken out of the side of a hill on the shore of the sea. The wind has finally died down, and now only a light snow sprinkles down around us. There's snow in the crater, but not as much as there should be. It's mostly dirt, and most of it has been blown outward, still smoking in some places, creating violent piles on the surrounding landscape. Beams, girders, and other support structures stick up out of the ground, twisted and bent. What happened here happened
very
recently.

The remains of Ursa's lab.

Ursa shakes her head in denial, climbing out of the snowshaw and clambering for the edge of the crater.

"Be careful!" Altair calls after her. We quickly follow.

Ursa goes down on her butt and slides down the side of the crater, heedless of any obstacles that might be hidden below the snow's surface. She's getting hysterical, trudging through the snow like a mad woman.

"Take it easy!" I call after her.

"It's all gone!" she replies, shaking her head. "I just... I had no idea! How did this happen?"

I turn my scrutiny on Altair. He'd mentioned earlier that we wouldn't like what we'd find here.

"What do you know?" I ask him. Ursa has finally stopped at the center of the crater and we join her momentarily.

Altair sighs. "I know everything," he admits. "This is where it all began, Juno."

Ursa finally snaps out of her stupor and spins on Altair. "Start talking!" she demands.

Altair nods. "Well, first," he says, "I want you to know that I had nothing to do with this." He gestures to the crater. "I didn't know that
this
is what we would find here."

I sneer. "But you said we wouldn't like what we find here! You
must
have known! You
just
said you know everything!"

"Sorry, that's not what I meant." Altair shakes his head. "
This
happened
maybe
a week ago, Juno. I've been with you the entire time. Someone else set off this detonation."