Page 85 of Heart of Iron
She didn’t think.She’d never reach him in time.Instead, watching his finger caress the trigger, she stepped in front of the rifle.
With a muttered curse he jerked the weapon up, an explosion of sound shooting into the darkened gloom of the cavern’s roof.As soon as the bullet hit, it exploded, sparks cascading above like fireworks.A dozen screeching bats flew out of the shadows and a heavy silence fell, marred only by the sinuous stir of water far below.
Lena stared at the man with the rifle, her breath freezing in her chest.What the hell had she just done?If that had hit her, she’d be little more than pieces of flesh and viscera, scattered across the ledge.
“Are you insane?”Mendici roared, ripping her out of the way and shaking her.
Icy dread slithered through her veins.“No,” she heard herself say, the words clear and distinct.Her knees gave out and Mendici let her drop to the ground.
“Reload!”he snapped at the rifleman, glancing sharply at Will as if to gauge his distance.“Bloody hell.”
Lowerston fumbled for bullets, his fingers shaking.Mendici’s nostrils flared.“Looks like I’ll have to do this meself.”
Dragging something out of his pocket, he held up a small metal cylinder.As his thumb pressed the button on top, she waited for the explosion.
Nothing came.
But Will lost his grip on the cable with one hand, his body jerking almost in pain.He clapped his arm over his ears and face, his body tucking up on itself.The other fist curled around the cable in an iron grip, his knuckles whitening.
“Come on, you bastard.”Mendici muttered, staring at him with a glittering eye.
“He can’t hold out for long,” the young lad piped up.“Nobody’s held up against a screamer before.”
Will slowly straightened, the muscles in his body rigid.Teeth ground together, his eyes flaring wild, he reached for the cable with the other hand, each movement slow and precise, as if he had to force his body to work properly.
Comeon, she whispered silently, her hands clenched at his side.Barely twenty feet away now.
“Bloody ’ell,” Lowerston said, sounding slightly awed.“’E’s doin’ it.”
“Not for long,” Mendici snarled, snatching an ax off one of his men.He strode toward the edge of the ledge, fist curled around the wooden haft.Not that it would do much good against a verwulfen in the full grip of the battle-fury.“Time to meet the Gatekeeper.”
He swung it—not at the heavy iron cable, as she’d expected—but at the timber pulley that held it rigged to the wall.
The timber sheared away, hitting the floor then jerking out into the gaping darkness of the chasm.
“No!”Lena screamed.
Will flew away into the darkness, his white shirt like a wraith.He hit the far side of the cliff, sliding several feet down the cable.Then he shuddered and plunged into the darkness below.
Seconds later—what felt like hours—she heard the splash as he hit the water and the hungry thrashing sound of whatever lurked below.
Nineteen
Will crawled out of the water with a snarl, his hands coated with grease and blood and a steel tentacle in his fist.His ears still rang, and the pain in his cheek told him he might have broken something.Fury boiled in his blood, along with the creeping lassitude of the aftermath of a rousing fight.He ignored it.
Forcing himself to his feet, he stared down at the limp steel tentacle.Whatever the hell that had been, it was vicious.He’d barely found himself in the water before it was on him, steel limbs thrashing and reaching for him.
He couldn’t remember much of the fight—he never could, really, beyond flashing images of sight and sound—but he could vaguely recall the gaping maw that sucked in water to fuel its steam-driven core, and the razor-sharp threshing blades of its teeth.Smashing his fist straight through the thin steel sheeting of its body.The burning exhale of steam in his face as he tore a tentacle off it, using the weakness of the rivets to his own advantage.
That was where inventors made their fatal flaw with the metal monsters and automatons they created.For a metaljacket, it was the hinge of their knees and arms; for the steel-squid, it was the segmented join of the tentacles to its body.Tear that apart and all you had was a wounded shell that flopped around like a turtle on its back.
Destroying it hadn’t been without cost, however.
Will staggered against a stalactite and pressed a hand to his side.His fingers came away sticky, a result of those iron teeth.Every muscle in his body throbbed with the ache of the fall and the way the smooth surface of the water had felt like he plunged onto heavy cobbles.
He wanted to stumble to the ground and sleep away the hurt.A fatal weakness for his species.Almost unstoppable once they were in a full fury, barely cognizant of injury or pain, verwulfen dropped like stones after the excitement wore off.
Will wiped the blood out of his eyes and staggered forward.Couldn’t sleep.Not yet.Lena was out there.He’d heard her scream as he plunged toward the water, heard the soul-shattering loss in her voice as she cried out.
