Jeanne G'Fellers - No Sister of Mine by Jeanne G'Fellers (reading tree TXT) 📗

Cance was nowhere to be seen. Her console was smashed beyond repair and the clear aluminum window in front of her seat was missing. Talmshone was unconscious and bleeding profusely from his side. A metal support rod had broken loose during the crash and run him almost through. LaRenna hung limp in her restraints, her hands brushing the ceiling. The pressure of the straps had restricted her airflow to the point her skin was tinged blue. Trazar carefully unlatched her harness and pulled her into his arms.

Her right foot was pinned beneath Cance’s seat. Trazar turned her so her calf and knee were aligned with the break, then lowered her slowly until her shoulders rested on the ceiling.

“My leg,” she mumbled.

“It’s the same one as before.” He pushed against the seat. “Let me look.” Trazar gently touched the splint. The ankle had popped back out of joint, this time penetrating her flesh. The bones of her calf were knocked from alignment and pushed black against her skin. Her heel hung from the bone in fleshy strips. Blood streaked the entirety of her leg.

“Bad, isn’t it?” she asked. The foot was numb, making the extremity seem curiously detached.

“No worse than before,” declared Trazar. “We just need to get it loose.” He began scrounging for something to use as a pry bar.

“How about that hatch brace?” inquired LaRenna. “It’s cracked at both ends.”

“Excellent idea.” Trazar crawled to the door. The piece fit perfectly under the chair frame, allowing him to free her tattered limb. He eased it out and examined the wounds, his dour expression not lost to his sister’s sore but observant eyes. “I’m going to remove the splint.”

“I believe it’s beyond the splint.” LaRenna winced at the sight of her mangled leg. “No worse than before, eh? Liar. It’s all but gone. But you said that for my benefit, didn’t you? Thanks, Trazar. A little fantasy is what I need at this moment.” Then her face took an odd, highly anxious twist, her concern now more for him than herself. “Mother’s mercy, look at you!” She pressed his forehead. “No tales this time, Commander. Your head hurt? You’ve quite a knot coming up.”

“My skull is shattering with every throb of my heart,” he moaned, grinning then withdrawing when her expression turned longer. “Don’t worry about me. It’s just one of many bumps to the head I’ve endured in my life. It’ll add nicely to what the lizard gave me.” He pulled away when she touched the tender nodule again. “Now that hurts, LaRenna. Hands off. So, as long as we’re comparing injuries, how are the ribs?”

“Don’t ask.” She returned his theatrical moan, but something in the sound told Trazar little acting was involved. “Whatever our ills, I think we both fared better than Talmshone.” They glanced at the inversed Iralian, whose breathing had slowed to a wheeze.

“We couldn’t help him now if we tried.” Trazar was, at most, distantly sympathetic.

“I’ve never seen his kind before.” LaRenna was intrigued by the Iralian’s resemblance to many common Sarian reptiles.

“Pray you never do again. They’re ruthless. They teach sentries to kill themselves if they become captive.”

“Taelachs, too.” She broke her curious gaze. “Better than becoming a meal one limb at a time.” Then LaRenna abruptly tensed and scanned the cockpit, her joy over survival doused by promised lessons. “Where is she?”

“Cance? Thrown from the launch would be my guess. Serves her right for not strapping in.” His assuring words did nothing to ease her mind. “Would you feel better if I took a look?”

“Please.” LaRenna’s hands felt her marked face. The mental wounds would be much slower in healing. “I’m not sure I can fight her off again. How Chandrey survived being oathed to such a beast I’ll never know.”

“You’re stronger than you think.” Trazar clenched his fist. “And this time she’ll have to go through me to get to you.”

“Be careful.”

He took the hatch brace and scooted to the open front window. The wind was picking up. “Stay away from the opening. I’ll be back soon.”

“Hurry, Trazar.” LaRenna shivered. “A storm’s coming.”

“Call if you need me.” The ground surrounding the crash was layered with charred wreckage and twisted metal. Cursing the deluge that began to fall, he flipped over the lighter pieces with the brace, looking for any sign of Cance. Nothing crossed his path in the immediate area of the launch, so he expanded his search pattern, scattering wreckage further in his quest. During one of the lightning bursts, the unmistakable glint of Taelach weaponry caught his eye. Trazar approached it warily, the brace raised club-like above his head.

Cance lay facedown in the mud. Her plasma bow had entangled in a shrub’s upper limbs, grotesquely stretching her arm when she fell. Trazar was now glad he had been unable to land safely. He used the brace to free Cance’s arm and flip her over. Her eyes fluttered then opened. “LaRenna.” Her face contorted in agony. “Did she survive?”

“No thanks to you.” Trazar raised the brace.

“Bring her to me.”

“Never.”

“Make it my last request.”

“I wouldn’t put her through that.” Trazar lifted Cance’s arm and let it drop. There was no muscle reaction, no response. She was paralyzed from high neck down, her body functions failing one after another. “You deserve to die like this, like some dumb beast with its head up and mouth open in wonder of the rain. Drowning suits you.”

“Bring me LaRenna.” Cance spat out the rain that ran into her mouth. “I want to die in my beauty’s arms, in the warmth of her phase.”

“You don’t deserve such pleasure. Mine will be the last face you see, last voice you hear.”

Trazar brushed the mud from her cragged face. “Where’s your inhaler? I’ll grant you that small salvation.”

“My cloak pocket,” she mumbled between gurgling breaths. “Mother praise you for this.”

“Your blessed Mother has nothing to do with it. You damned yourself long ago.” Trazar jerked her muddy cloak free of her body and rifled through the pocket. “I don’t