THE SECOND CRADLE - BOOK TWO OF THE IRON CRADLE SAGA Chapter 19: CHAPTER NINETEEN - Into the Open

Read chapter 19 of THE SECOND CRADLE - BOOK TWO OF THE IRON CRADLE SAGA by JE PAYNE on NovelPedia.

CHAPTER NINETEEN Into the Open Maddy cleared the tree line and cut back into the grass, her feet finding wet ground, the jungle closing behind her and opening again as she wove between the outer trunks. Erika and Tony were right with her, their dark cloaks pulling behind them, the sound of their breathing sharp and controlled through their masks. The impacts came up through the soles of their feet in a deep, rhythmic hammering that traveled through their knees and into their hips with every stride the creature took behind them. Steady. Growing. Each impact heavier than the one before. They cut back left into the trees and the canopy thickened overhead, the light going green and dim, the air smelling of wet bark and old rot. The wraths phased right through a cluster of roots without breaking stride, the phase cold and instant, and Tony shivered as the sensation crawled across her skin. The creature hit the same roots and went through them the hard way. The sound of cracking wood and splitting branches echoed in the air behind them, the predator roared and sent shivers right up Maddy's spine, and she looked at her sisters running on either side of her only to find Erika grinning back at her. They broke back into the open, the grass slapped wet against their shins. The creature came through the tree line behind them stumbling and tripping up as it collapsed, hitting the ground hard. It didn't stay down for long though. It managed to pull itself up, again finding itself on open ground. Shaking it off, it burst into speed and was right back on their heels. Its hind legs drove it forward in long, lunging strides, each one swallowing more distance than any of them could cover in three. The head was enormous, and as it chased them its jaws were open, bearing sharp teeth and a toothy grin. The Predator had a ridge of deep orange plumage that ran down the back of its neck, and across the length of its spine. The hide beneath was a dark brown and red that shifted toward amber where the light caught it. This thing was beautiful, Tony thought. And it was gaining on them. The head dropped toward Maddy's back and she phased without breaking her stride, the jaws closing through her and finding nothing, the displaced heat of the creature's breath washing across the back of her neck, smelling of rotten meat. She came back into phase and kept running. Erika cut wide to the right and the creature swept its head in a low arc after her, a full-body motion that came in hard and fast. Erika phased through it, her cloak ripping on one of its teeth. The skull passed through her and drove into the earth a foot beyond where she had been, gouging a long dark scar through the wet grass. The tree line thinned ahead and Maddy could see the shape of the clearing opening up through the trunks. She pushed everything she had into the last stretch. Her legs burned and her lungs pulled hard, her feet hit the wet ground with an impact that jarred up through her hips with every stride. Behind them the creature accelerated into the open and the hammering of it through the earth grew until she could feel it in her back teeth. The three of them hit the outer trees and went through the last cluster at a dead run, phasing without slowing. The clearing beyond was wide and flat and Maddy cut hard to the right, pulling Erika and Tony with her, all three of them peeling away fast from the center line. The creature came through with momentum behind it before skidding to a clumsy stop. It stood there with its chest heaving and looked at what was waiting for it in the center of the clearing, and for a moment the only sound in the open air was the ragged rhythm of its own breathing. Four squads of Legionary spearmen held tight interlocked lines across the clearing's center, their composite shields overlapping edge to edge, the bronze fittings catching the pale morning light. Their spears were braced forward, angled toward the creature's chest and throat. To the right, Velitas