surface? Sometimes she wished that her ancestors had stayed to fight it out with the Mud People,
but there were too many of them. Unlike fairies, who could produce only a single child every twenty
years, Mud People bred like rodents. Numbers would subdue even magic.
Although she was enjoying the night air, Holly could taste traces of pollutants. The Mud People
destroyed everything they came into contact with. Of course they didn't live in the mud any more.
Not in this country, at least. Oh no. Big fancy dwellings with rooms for everything - rooms for
sleeping, rooms for eating, even a room to go to the toilet! Indoors! Holly shuddered. Imagine going
to the toilet inside your own house. Disgusting! The only good thing about going to the toilet was
the minerals being returned to the earth, but the Mud People had even managed to botch that up by
treating the…stuff…with bottles of blue chemicals. If anyone had told her a hundred years ago that
humans would be taking the fertile out of fertilizer, she would have told them to get some air holes
drilled in their skull.
Holly unhooked a set of wings from their bracket. They were double ovals, with a clunky motor.
She moaned. Dragonflies. She hated that model. Petrol engine, if you don't mind. And heavier than
a pig dipped in mud. Now the Hummingbird Z7, that was transport. Whisper silent, with a
satellite-bounced solar battery that would fly you twice around the world. But there were budget
cuts again.
On her wrist, the locator began to beep. She was in range. Holly stepped out of the pod and on to
the landing bay. She was inside a camouflaged mound of earth, commonly known as a fairy fort.
Indeed, the People used to live in these until they were driven deeper underground. There wasn't
much technology. Just a few external monitors, and a self-destruct device should the bay be
discovered.
There was nothing on the screens. All clear. The pneumatic doors were slightly askew where the
troll had barged through, but otherwise everything seemed operational. Holly strapped on the wings,
stepping into the outside world.
The Italian night sky was crisp and brisk, infused with olives and vine. Crickets clicked in the
rough grass and moths fluttered in the starlight. Holly couldn't stop herself smiling. It was worth the
risk, every bit of it.
Speaking of risk…She checked the locator. The bip was much stronger now. The troll was almost
at the town walls! She could appreciate nature after the mission was over. Now it was time for
action.
Holly primed the wings' motor, pulling the starter cord over her shoulder. Nothing. She fumed
silently. Every spoilt kid in Haven had a Hummingbird for their wilderness holidays, and here were
the LEP with wings that were junk when they were new. She yanked the cord again and then again.
On the third wrench it caught, spewing a stream of smoke and fumes into the night. 'About time,'
she grunted, flicking the throttle wide open. The wings flapped their way up to a steady beat and,
with not a little effort, lifted Captain Holly Short into the night sky.
Even without the locator, the troll would have been easy to follow. It had left a trail of
destruction wider than a tunnel excavator. Holly flew low, skipping between mist hazes and trees,
matching the troll's course. The crazed creature had cut a swathe through the middle of a vineyard,
turned a stone wall to rubble and left a guard dog gibbering under a hedge. Then she flew over the
cows. It was not a pretty sight. Without going into details, let's just say that there wasn't much left
besides horns and hooves.
The red bip was louder now. Louder meant closer. She could see the town below her, nestled on
top of a low hill, surrounded by a crenellated wall from the Middle Ages. Lights still burned in most
windows. Time for a little magic.
A lot of the magic attributed to the People is just superstition. But they do have certain powers.
Healing, the mesmer and shielding being among them. Shielding is really a misnomer. What fairies
actually do is to vibrate at such a high frequency that they are never in one place long enough to be
seen. Humans may notice a slight shimmer in the air if they are paying close attention - which they
rarely are. And even then the shimmer is generally attributed to evaporation. Typical of Mud People
to invent a complicated explanation for a simple phenomenon.
Holly switched on her shield. It took a bit more out of her than usual. She could feel the strain in
the beads of sweat on her forehead. I really should complete the Ritual, she thought. The sooner the
better.
Some commotion below broke into her thoughts. Something that didn't gel with the night-time
noises. Holly adjusted the trim on her backpack and flew in for a closer look. Look only, she
reminded herself, that was her job. A Recon officer was sent up the chutes to pinpoint the target,
while the Retrieval boys took a nice cushy shuttle.
The troll was directly below her, pounding against the town's outer wall, which was coming away
in chunks beneath his powerful fingers. Holly sucked in a startled gasp. This guy was a monster! Big
as an elephant and ten times as mean. But this particular beast was worse than mean, he was scared.
'Control,' said Holly into her mike. 'Runner located. Situation critical topside.'
Root himself was on the other end of the comlink.
'Clarify, Captain.'
Holly pointed her video link at the troll.
'Runner is going through the town wall. Contact imminent. How far away are Retrieval?'
'ETA five minutes minimum. We're still in the shuttle.'
Holly bit her lip. Root was in the shuttle?
'That's too long, Commander. This whole town is going to explode in ten seconds…I'm going in.'
'Negative, Holly…Captain Short. You don't have an invite. You know the law. Hold your
position.'
'But, Commander -'
Root cut her off. 'No! No buts, Captain. Hang back. That's an order!'
Holly's entire body felt like a heartbeat. Petrol fumes were addling her brain. What could she do?
What was the right decision to make? Lives or orders?
Then the troll broke through the wall and a child's voice split the night.
'Aiuto!' it screamed.
Help. An invitation. At a stretch.
'Sorry, Commander. The troll is light-crazy and there are children in there.'
She could imagine Root's face, purple with rage as he spat into the mike.
'I'll have your stripes, Short! You'll spend the next hundred years on drain duty!'
But it was no use. Holly had disconnected her mike and swooped in after the troll.
Streamlining her body, Captain Short ducked into the hole. She appeared to be in a restaurant. A
packed restaurant. The troll had been temporarily blinded by the electric light and was thrashing
about in the centre of the floor.
0 Comments