Page 55 of Only Cold Depths
Asterin hesitated. “Are you sure? The thieves obviously don’t care about collateral damage, including us.”
I nodded. “I’m sure.”
Asterin nodded back at me. We both lifted our weapons a little higher, stepped around the container, and ran toward the refinery.
Tomysurprise,noblaster bolts zinged in our direction, and Asterin and I made it to the refinery without encountering any resistance.
The enormous double doors were standing wide open, so Asterin and I slowed our pace, softened our steps, and cautiously crept inside.
In many ways, the refinery reminded me of the Techwave facility where I’d been held on Magma 3, and the first floor was basically a giant factory with humming machinery and conveyor belts running in all directions. Along the walls, a metal grate opened and closed like the jaws of some massive monster, swallowing one chunk of ore after the other and gulping them all down into red-hot furnaces and smelters. The acrid stench of melted metal filled the air, and the intense heat made sweat bead on my forehead and trickle down my spine.
Asterin and I moved quickly and quietly, but we didn’t spot Esmina and Pollux among the machinery and conveyor belts. A minute later, we reached another set of double doors at the opposite end of the refinery. They too were standing wide open.
“The thieves must already be outside,” Asterin said.
Together we stepped through the opening. This part of the shipping yard was filled with neat stacks of metal rods and other materials fresh from the furnaces, and they all gleamed like newly minted coins. Asterin and I crept from one stack of materials to another. In the distance, the emerald-green dome of the antiques emporium jutted up like an enormous hill a couple of streets over.
“They’re not here,” Asterin muttered. “They must have already slipped out of the shipping yard and headed into the emporium.”
She moved forward, rounding some cement blocks, and a silver light exploded around her. For an instant, time slowed down—or maybe it sped up. I wasn’t quite sure. But suddenly, I could see a blast of green cannon fire zinging through the air, slamming into Asterin’s chest and knocking her backward even though she was still moving forward right beside me. Even worse, I could smell the sizzle of her fried flesh and see the light leaking out of her eyes . . .
In the next heartbeat, time snapped back to its normal flow, and the images vanished, although not the dread they left behind.
“No!” I yelled. “Asterin, stop!”
I lunged forward, dug my hand into Asterin’s coveralls, and yanked her back behind the blocks—
Boom!
Green cannon fire zipped through the air where Asterin had been and slammed into a pile of pipes behind us, scorching the metal’s shiny finish.
Asterin’s eyes widened, and her face went white with shock. “How did you know they were going to fire at me?”
I shook my head. “I’m not sure. I just knew something bad was going to happen.”
I’d never had that kind of sudden, screaming warning from my magic before. Was my power growing? Or was this another sign of my unstable truebond with Kyrion?
Boom! Boom! Boom!
More cannon fire erupted, causing Asterin and me to hunker down.
Pew! Pew! Pew!
Blaster bolts joined the cannon fire, coming from different directions. In an instant, we were pinned down.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Pew! Pew! Pew!
The cannon and blaster fire continued, and each bolt obliterated a little bit more of our cover. Just when I thought the mercs were going to shoot right through the cement blocks, and us too, the shots abruptly stopped, although the electric aroma of the bolts lingered in the air like a smoky, suffocating cloud.
“Come out!” Pollux commanded. “Or we’ll blast those blocks to pieces, and you along with them!”
Asterin and I slowly stood up, weapons still in our hands, and stepped around the broken blocks.
More than a dozen mercenaries armed with blasters were standing in front of us. Esmina was in the center of the men, with Pollux by her side.
Esmina glanced at Asterin a moment, then focused on me. The gold flecks in her green eyes shimmered, and her magic curled through the air, slithered around me like a boa constrictor, and slowly tightened, as though each twist around my body was squeezing out more of my secrets.
