Into the Still Blue (Under the Never Sky, #3)(16)

It didn’t matter. It couldn’t matter.

They needed to rescue Cinder. They needed a heading, and they needed Hovers to reach the Still Blue.

Her eyes fluttered open, finding Roar.

They needed revenge.





[page]UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins Publishers

..................................................................





8


PEREGRINE


Soren set the Belswan down in a clearing with a distance of about thirty miles between them and the Komodo. They decided to hike to a vantage point and observe from a safe distance.

Perry asked Roar to watch over the Belswan. Someone needed to guard it, and Perry needed Brooke for her eyes.

Roar agreed with a shrug, and Jupiter offered to stay as well. Perry waited outside, hoping Soren would stay too, but he emerged from the Belswan, jogging down the ramp behind Aria and Brooke.

Soren still wore his pale gray Dweller clothes, which would make him stand out like a whale in the woods, and he had a forty-pound pack taken from the supply room slung over his back.

Perry shook his head. “We’ll be back by tonight. You know that, right?”

Soren shot him a seething look and marched on.

They climbed to a cluster of stone outcroppings at the top of a hill. The spot would give them plenty of cover. Most importantly, it offered a clear view of the valley. The Komodo itself lay hidden behind a small slope in the distance. Hess and Sable would surely have sentinels posted along that ridge, and possibly also a patrol.

Perry sat beside Aria on the same rock, settling in to watch. They planned to assess their options from afar before moving closer.


They’d left the Aether storm behind at the coast, and the Aether flowed more calmly here, rolling in waves instead of turning in eddies. He didn’t see the red sparks, but he had a feeling he would soon. Thick clouds drifted across the sky, casting wide shadowed patches across the plateau, and he smelled rain coming.

“What was it your father used to say about patience?” Aria said after a little while.

Perry smiled. “It’s a hunter’s best weapon,” he said, happy she remembered something he’d told her months ago. Her temper was low and cool, at odds with her lighthearted comment.

“You all right?” he asked.

She hesitated, the shadowed look in her eyes reminding him of their argument. “I’m fine,” she said, a little too brightly. She tipped her head. “But Soren might need some help.”

Perry saw him and laughed. Soren had gutted his bag, emptying all its contents. Supplies spilled everywhere around him, and he was looking through a pair of binoculars, searching the distance.

“Perry, due east,” Brooke called from behind them.

He searched the low hills there. A Hover like the one that had taken Talon skimmed over the plateau.

Soren shot to his feet in excitement. “That’s a Dragonwing. Fastest Hover in existence.”

“It’s circling,” Brooke said. “It’s following a specific route around the Komodo.”

“A patrol,” Perry agreed.

They kept up their surveillance into the afternoon as massive thunderheads moved in, clotting the sky. The patrol followed the same route every two hours. Armed with that information, they returned to the Belswan and gathered in the cargo hold to discuss their options.

“We can’t outrun a Dragonwing,” Soren said. He rapped his knuckles twice on the metal floor of the Belswan. “Not with this slug.”

At the center of their circle was a light stick from the Belswan’s supplies. Perry turned the dial down to limit its brightness. In less than five minutes, the glaring light had given him a headache.

“A Dragonwing is built to do two things,” Soren continued. “One, catch anything it wants, and two, destroy it. If they’re running patrols, then they’re ready for us. At the very least it means they haven’t forgotten we’re out here. There’s no way we can get close without drawing them into a fight. If that happens, we’re done for. We’d be annihilated. Wouldn’t we, Jup?”

Jupiter startled, surprised to hear his name. Then he nodded. “Definitely. Very annihilated.”

“Twig and I got close,” Roar said. He stood away from the group, alone by the open bay door, his dark clothes blending into the darkness. “It’s not hard to do on foot.”

A gust of cool air blew into the Hover. It smelled more like rain by the hour.

“You want to go on foot?” Soren said. “All right, we could try that. We could run up and throw spears at the Komodo’s steel walls. Wait. Do you guys have any of those catapult things? Those are champ.”

Roar shrugged—he couldn’t care less about Soren’s comment—but Aria winced.

Perry remembered her making similar biting comments when they’d first met. That felt like a long while ago, though it’d only been half a year.

“What do you recommend, Soren?” he said tightly. He had far less tolerance for Soren than Aria did.

“I recommend we get a Hover. There’s no way we’re breaking into the Komodo without one. And I mean a Dragonwing, not this flying heap. But I hate to break the news to all of you: there’s no way we’re getting one.”

“There are a bunch of Dragonwings outside the Komodo, aren’t there?” Brooke said. “We could divide up. Some of us could distract the patrol and give the rest of you a chance to get close to the fleet on foot.”