[Chrono Trigger Novel - Episode 61] Footsteps on the Wing
Something metal rolled across the floor beneath the air duct.
Marle stopped with one hand outstretched. Light rose through a narrow grating. If she put her knee over it, someone below might see the shadow. She drew back, and Lucca stopped behind her. There was scarcely room to turn a shoulder. For a while, all they could hear of each other was breathing.
“Tighter! Is that how you intend to build your king a throne?”
Dalton. Marle lowered her chin to the grating. The Epoch stood in the middle of a large chamber. Two soldiers held something beneath its hull while Dalton pointed from a considerable distance. Removed panels lay beside newly cut metal on a workbench.
The ship was wider than she remembered. Long frames extended from either side, and the soldiers were fitting plates to them. Marle reached back until she touched Lucca's fingers. There was no room to exchange places, so she pressed against the wall and let her friend look over her shoulder.
“What is he doing to—”
Lucca fell silent. Below them, someone lifted a frame into position. With it against the hull, the shape was unmistakable.
A wing.
Marle wanted to ask whether the Epoch could fly. But Lucca looked as surprised as she was.
No ladder led down into the chamber. Only a few fingers would fit through the grating. Dalton left, his soldiers following. The last man turned a key in the door. At the sound, Lucca tugged Marle's sleeve.
“Our bags first.”
Marle turned back along the duct. For now, knowing where the Epoch was would have to be enough.
The passages divided and joined again above other rooms. A soldier sat in the first room they passed; the next was empty. Marle drew a short line in the dust to mark the direction they had come. They could not afford to keep finding their way back to the same place. Engines throbbed louder than the voices below. Whenever the noise rose, she shifted her knees.
She found her bow in a corner of the empty room.
Its familiar grip protruded from a chest with a crooked lid. She lifted the grating too quickly and caught a fingernail on a screw. Lucca passed her the bent hairpin. Together they eased one side free and lowered themselves into the room. Marle's knees prickled when she stood, but bending them a few times helped.
Three arrows lay beneath the bow. The feathers on one had been crushed. She smoothed them with a fingertip and checked the bowstring. She felt all the way to the bottom of the chest.
No pendant.
Lucca listened at the door. Two sets of footsteps were receding along the corridor.
“We can move now.”
Marle took her place beside her, bow in hand.
Part of the corridor floor was moving: a broad belt turning slowly beneath a load of supplies. Before stepping onto it, Marle noticed the fixed strip along its edge. Lucca was already making her way there. They followed the wall toward the next corner, then tried to turn back as a soldier came out ahead of them.
Too late. His eyes stopped on the bow.
Marle released an arrow as he opened his mouth. She had aimed at the shaft of his weapon, not his shoulder. Metal struck the floor. He bent to retrieve it, and Lucca sent a short burst of fire from her open hand. He covered his face, stumbling backward into the wall.
Marle kicked the fallen weapon away. Keeping her bow trained on him, she watched Lucca unhook the keys at his belt. He started to move again.
“Don't shout,” Marle said.
They forced him into the empty room and locked the door. Marle retrieved her arrow. Its point had dulled, but the shaft was whole. She wiped it on her clothes and slipped it beside the other two. Lucca closed a fist around the keys, then loosened her grip. A curse came from behind the door. They would not have quiet for long.
Two bags lay in the next storeroom. Lucca opened hers and checked the tools. A small screwdriver had been moved to another pocket; the cloth around her papers had been unfolded. She wrapped them again. Her gun and the Gate Key were there too.
Marle found her pendant in a separate chest. The chain brought a few coins up with it before they slipped free.
“And this.” Lucca lifted their purse, checking her knot rather than counting the contents, and put it away.
Marle fastened the chain and tucked the pendant beneath her clothes. Footsteps sounded outside. Still holding the keys, Lucca pushed her toward the air vent.
Getting back up was harder. The bow and bags caught at their shoulders. Marle climbed first, took the belongings, and shoved them farther into the duct. Then she caught Lucca's wrist.
The door handle turned.
Lucca's feet left the floor just as the door began to open. Marle lay back and pulled. Below, someone remarked that the chests were open.
Marle dragged the grating into place. A last sliver of light remained along its edge. She crawled on without looking back. Lucca's bag scraped the wall, but the shouting below swallowed the sound.
*
There was sky at the top of the ladder.
Lucca looked out first. Her hair whipped backward. Without both hands on the rim, she might have been driven straight down the shaft. Squinting into the wind, she surveyed the Blackbird's left wing. It stretched a long way. It was broad, but there was no railing.
“Stay low as soon as you're out.”
Marle pushed a shoulder through the opening. Wind burst against her ears. White clouds flowed beneath the wing, with glimpses of sea between them. The vibration she had felt through the cell floor now came straight through her soles.
Lucca shortened the strap of her bag and pointed ahead. By following the hull, they might reach the outside of the chamber where the Epoch had been. They had been unable to open it from within. Perhaps there was another entrance.
Marle moved along the seams between the wing's metal plates.
Small metallic shapes lifted into the air farther out. She raised her bow, but the wind shook the string. Lucca pressed her arm down. They flattened themselves behind an engine housing. The shapes veered away. Marle left her arrows where they were.
The wing rang beneath them as they stepped out again.
A dark opening had appeared ahead. One enormous foot came through and pressed against the metal. Another followed. Marle turned away from Lucca to give them space, remembering how they had scattered under the Golem Sisters' answering attacks.
Only one stood before them now. Its shoulders were broader than either of the creatures that had blocked the palace corridor.
“Their overlord!” it boomed, spreading its arms to indicate itself.
Marle brought up her bow. Fire kindled between Lucca's fingers.
“Once you see my ultimate magic—”
The golem stopped. Clouds were streaming past behind one of its feet. Its head turned slightly toward them. It tried to look back at the two women, but its eyes kept slipping downward.
Marle waited without shooting. Her heart beat faster. Perhaps it was gathering strength for an attack.
The golem began counting.
Lucca moved farther to the opposite side. If they stayed together, there would be nowhere to dodge. Marle judged the distance between the huge feet and the edge of the wing. Retreat was taking her onto narrower ground. She turned her heel and shifted nearer the hull.
The counting stopped.
The golem's mouth moved, but the wind stole its words. Its great body sank. Marle braced herself, expecting it to hurl its weight forward. Instead it planted both hands on the metal and lay flat. Its fingers scraped at a seam.
“It's too high!”
The fire in Lucca's hand dwindled. She looked from Marle to the creature. Its teeth were bared, its eyes squeezed shut. Rather than approaching, it moved one foot a little, then pressed even its belly against the wing.
Slowly, Marle lowered her bow. Not long ago, creatures with bodies like this had thrown the party's own magic back at them. This one swallowed a cry every time the wing shuddered.
Would it attack if she approached? Catch her if she tried to pass?
Wind dragged hard at her clothes while she considered it.
“Around the side,” Lucca said.
Marle nodded. One step at a time, they moved, keeping their eyes on it and well clear of its huge hands. When it opened its eyes, they both stopped.
“Don't come any closer!”
“We won't.”
Marle answered before she could help herself. Lucca's mouth twitched as if she might laugh, but she put a hand to her glasses instead. Marle stayed where she was.
Darkness opened behind the golem. It retreated without managing to stand. An enormous arm vanished into the opening. As the last fingers let go, the metal beneath them sprang upward.
Both women bent their knees. Wind filled the space where the creature had been.
Marle loosened her grip on the bow. Her fingertips were stiff, though she had not released a single shot at it. Lucca came over and touched her shoulder.
“Let's not look down either.”
A different vibration traveled through the hull.
Lucca turned. The hangar doors were opening. Through the light between them came a long, rounded ship, its new metal wings fully spread.
Nothing supported the Epoch.
Marle began to lift a hand in relief, then saw the face behind the canopy. Dalton sat in the middle seat. He spotted them and leaned forward.
Light gathered at the nose of the ship.
Lucca seized Marle and pulled her down. A long strip of the wing tore open just behind them.
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