Page 2 of Condemned

Three. Holding the florses. Ugly. Brown hair springing out like a crazy mop. He was the one she needed to lure away the most.

Four. Where was four? Ah. He was at the back of the temple. Limping mauleon. Gray hair in a mane. A red-and-gray–coated scythefox lithely scampered at his heels.

The flare was already sputtering out, though smoke was rising from where it lay somewhere beneath roof level. A supporting beam may have caught alight.

What if she too made a distraction?

A flame licked upward from where the flare lay, died away, then more flames flickered up and began to eat at the roof, gobbling the edges of the hole in the tiles.

“Just what I don’t need.” She had to move, get off here.

The back of the temple yard held the least mauleons, but if any caught sight of her, she’d not outrun them. Those florses...

With the florses loaded with equipment, their tiny wings were never going to create enough lift to let her do that odd fly-hop some of them achieved, but they’d move faster than the soldiers.

There was one thing that would make those soldiers move—the Claw of Frickin’ Truth. Their symbol of dominance over the universe. Hah.

It meant something to them.

Enough to make them run.

Before her and to the left the flames consumed more of the roof. Crackling, the heat was scalding her face, and the gaps between the darkened tiles were lighting up in a pretty and dangerous pattern of outlined rectangles.

She’d burn if she stayed. Or fall through the weakened roof and be crushed and burned.

Avalon put both hands to one of the old tiles, heaved upward with all her might, then heaved again. The tile broke loose. She threw it, spinning, into the rear yard onto a pile of rubble left by whatever had half destroyed the building in the past.

The crash drew the four prowling mauleons.

She unwrapped then tossed the Claw after the tile, hoped they’d see the glint as it rolled through the air.

Someone whistled. A mauleon, the one with the numerous braids, did a stupendous high leap to catch the relic before it hit the ground. His braids fanned out as he dropped, then he landed in a crouch with the Claw in his hand.

Taken aback, she sat unmoving for a far-too-long, stupid moment.

They could jump after all. She should’ve listened more in biology class.

The holder of the florses dropped their reins, pulled out a handgun, and sprinted around to the side of the temple, heading toward the back.

“Dumbasses,” she muttered.

A click of her fingers drew Nibbles to her. He scampered up her arm and tucked himself into the hood at her neck. On the journey to the capital, when the team had camped near the wreckage of a satellite, the mouse critter had adopted her. He’d stuck with her even when they lurked in the mauleon capital, figuring out how to steal the Claw and she’d decided he was cute and probably safe, even if the patches of underfur metal-skin said he was not a real mouse.

Since she was not a true human, they were even.

Stealthily she crept over the roof, avoiding the fire, slipping, sliding, leaping onto the remains of guttering and a drainpipe, and sliding down. It held. Most of the way.

With the last ten feet or thereabouts to go, the pipe under her gloved hands cracked and gave way and she had to do some massive impromptu scrabbling at the façade to get to the ground safely.

Landing with a curse and a clatter of guttering, Avalon folded into a crouch then sprang upright, bolting for the nearest florse. Her boots were soft and she was light. The soles made little noise. She prayed the soldiers would think the guttering had fallen due to the fire.

Please, please let it be so.

The florses were all dark of coat. White coloring was bad news in the armies of both human and mauleon.

The small one would be easiest to handle. Except when she drew closer, she realized she was wrong. Small, only if compared to the others here. Big compared to mounts she was used to. What did the mauleons feed their florses? Nuclear material? It was a mare, she guessed.

With one hand on the saddle and a toe in the stirrup, she fumbled to launch herself. Nibbles scampered up her arm and chittered at her from his superior height.