Lexi tried to find something for a weapon, but the floor of the little canyon held nothing but loose dirt. Why did I let that lizard scare me from picking up that cutting stone? The wind that whistled through the narrow space paused for a moment and she heard a sound: a soft, slow padding.

  She gave up her hunt for a weapon and ran deeper into the slender passage. A growl from behind told her the hunter knew that stalking had given way to a chase. She hurried around a curve in the canyon to find the passage ahead too narrow for even her slim body.

  “Spirits of the sky, please have mercy on your daughter and make it quick.” The prayer came to her lips though she held little hope they listened. How many times had she prayed that her father wouldn’t find her when she hid from his anger?

  Crack! The sound echoed off the rocks, whipping hard against her ears. She saw the snout and cruel fangs of the razor-cat poking around the last bend in the winding passage. Crack! The sound came again followed by a wailing howl. The fangs disappeared and she heard fast paws whisking the beast away.

  Her ears reverberated with the sharp noises as she scanned for the source. She lifted her head up and saw a man staring back down from the lip of the tiny canyon. He appeared normal enough at first glance, but she caught sight of his face and her skin crawled. Where she expected to see eyes, she only saw two large, dark circles. In his hands, he held what looked like a long straight piece of metal.

  “It won’t be back. Now, get out of there and let me get you inside before you cost me any more bullets.”

  The man talked funny, and she had trouble making out the words. What are bullets? She shouldn’t disobey him, especially if he’d scared off the razor-cat. With as much calm as she could muster, Lexi walked out of the narrow space in the rocks.

  When the strange man approached her, she saw that the dark circles were something he wore, not his eyes. White cloth covered the rest of his face, hiding every feature.

  “Now”, he said, “where in this blasted desert did you come from?” The voice sounded almost like a growl, and he said all his words funny.

  “Clan-hold 47,” Lexi said. The name made a lump rise in her throat, the home she could never return to.

  “You alone?”

  Lexi nodded.

  “What in the name of—” He peered over her shoulder. “Blast! We need to get to the habitat.”

  She followed his gaze and saw the black leaves of a nearby scrub-tree retracting into their pockets in the gnarled wood. The bad spirits are coming.

  “Get moving, Girl!” His voice boomed, and Lexi jumped.

  He led her up what could almost be called a path among the rocks. Everything around them had turned dormant, no leaves exposed on the scrub-trees or the spike-bushes, no animals skittering through the sand and rock–nothing but her and the strange man. The plants and animals knew when the bad spirits would come. She didn’t know what this habitat was but she prayed it would keep her soul safe from harvesting.

  They climbed to a level place in the rocks, and she saw the monster. It squatted there on four stubby legs like some sort of giant metal animal, with a pair of huge folded-up wings. Four big hoops with thick blades inside were also tucked against its flanks. In the front of the–she couldn’t find any word better than thing–windows let her see what looked like seats inside it.

  The strange man yelled at her. “Get over here!”

  Lexi tore her gaze from the squatting metal monster and hurried to obey. She needed to keep her discipline no matter what strange things might be about.

  “The transport could shelter us, but this is a lot more comfortable.” The man stood next to a door in the rocks. He pulled on a big lever to release it, exactly how a door on the clan-hold worked. Once they hurried inside, he pulled the door shut and slammed another lever to seal it.

  Lexi gasped–a clan-hold! They stood five levels up on a walkway that circled the open space in the gigantic round shaft. Many doors lined the curving walls, each one a dwelling just like the one her family lived in back in clan-hold 47. She let out a sigh of relief; they would be safe from the bad spirits here.

  Orange light poured down from the transparent roof six more levels up. A complex of mirrors and strange structures at the top made the inside brighter than the outdoors. At the bottom, the light illuminated only bare dirt and the shriveled husks of plants long dead. Her home had a garden there where her people grew most of their food. How do the people here eat? Where are they? She wanted to ask the man, but that wasn’t her place.

  “Looks familiar doesn’t it,” the strange man said.

  It wasn’t a question from the way he said it, so Lexi didn’t answer. She braved a glance, and saw he had taken off the dark circles and unveiled his broad face. He had wild, pale hair, large blue eyes, and an unkempt beard of gray.

  He still frightened her, especially with the pale, almost white skin. Lexi’s skin was light in color, like the sand, but even hers looked dark compared to his. She took a step back and lowered her eyes.

  “Quiet thing, aren’t you?” He chuckled, a low rumble that Lexi could feel in her bones. “Don’t worry; Old Tom Gault isn’t going to hurt you.”

  She stayed still and didn’t speak, her gaze fixed toward his feet.

  “What’s the matter? Don’t you have a tongue?” His voice turned harsh and irritated.

  “What do you want me to say?” she asked.

  He pointed to something near the tunnel, a big number 39. Lexi knew her numbers even if she didn’t know letters.

  “Your home has a 47 there doesn’t it?”

  Lexi nodded.

  “It’s called a habitat, not a clan-hold.” He sighed. “C’mon let Tom get you some water.”

  Questions swirled in her mind like sand in a storm. Where are the people? What is that metal monster outside the door? How did he scare off the razor-cat? But he hadn’t given her leave to voice them, so she kept her mouth shut–discipline.

  They took a stairway to the lowest level, and he opened one of the many doors to enter a dwelling. It reminded Lexi of her own home, only larger–something a clan leader would live in. She put a hand to a white wall and felt the same slick smoothness she was used to.

  An opening led to a kitchen, and she saw several doors that must lead to bedrooms. Inside the big central room, she only saw furniture made up of metal and the same material as the walls. She preferred scrub-wood chairs with cushions made by clan craftsmen; they felt more comfortable than the hard furnishings Old Tom had. Illumination came from light-shafts in the ceiling, the light from the sun somehow carried from the top of the habitat.

  Unsure what to do, Lexi sat in one of the hard chairs and folded her hands in her lap. Old Tom busied himself in the kitchen and brought out two cups of water. He gave one to her, and also sat.

  He took a long sip, and Lexi did the same. The water felt cool in her mouth and stung her dried lips.

  “Old Tom spotted your sail while working on the transport outside. Now tell him where you came from?”

  She had to concentrate to understand him, he spoke her language but he pronounced things oddly and sometimes used words she didn’t know. Transport?

  “My clan- habitat, number 47.”

  “Is it close by, can you get back?”

  “No, it’s not close and they won’t take me back.”

  Tom frowned. “So, they tossed you out, huh? Why did they do that?”

  An order, she had to answer though she didn’t want to. What if he tosses me out too? “I’m a third-born daughter and my father didn’t pay my keep-price.” She didn’t mention being a product of adultery–the answer was still true.

  “Old Tom comes from far away and doesn’t know about your people’s customs. You’re going to have to explain better than that.”

  Now Lexi burned with curiosity–where did this strange man come from—but she didn’t dare ask him. She tried her best to explain. “I’m the third daughter born to my mother, and only two are allowed by clan law. If the keep price isn’t paid, then the unlawful girl must be turned out when she comes of age unless an older sister is barren or died before having daughters. Daughters make more babies and there is only so much food.”

  Tom laughed a great rumbling laugh that echoed off the smooth walls like thunder. When he stopped, he had to wipe away tears. Lexi didn’t understand what could be so funny about her fate.

  Finally, he regained his composure. “I’ve read about your people. A very long time ago a bunch of folks thought they would go live in the desert. Back then, the machines that built these habitats were still working, you see; so when the population got too big they would just have the machines build a new one. Each habitat would be a collective where they shared everything.” He rolled his eyes. “No money they thought, only kindness and sharing. Worked great when they could mooch off the labor of the machines, but the machines stopped working like they did everywhere else. Now they’re turning out children to the desert to die.”

  I’m a woman now, not a child. At home, her father would be picking out a husband for her among the men willing to pay him a marriage gift.

  “Look at this place, they must’ve run out of power-cores and had to leave. Old Tom can see they tried to dig new wells, but the water’s too deep and without power they couldn’t get to it. Probably all left and died from a solar storm like the one hitting us now.”

  Lexi barely understood anything he said, her mind felt lost in the open desert.

  “I used the transport’s power-core to fire up the old pumps, so Old Tom has water to spare, but my provisions won’t last forever. You can stay if you can manage to get something to eat out of those plants out there.”

  He paused and regarded her. “You got a name?”

  “Lexi. And I can make food from the scrub-tree leaves and spike-bush stems, Old Tom… Sir.”

  A smile formed under the bristles of his beard. “Welcome to your new home, Lexi.”

  She kept his dwelling clean, and made what meals she could from the sparse desert plants. Despite his words, Old Tom did share some of his provisions, the food bland but quite edible. Eventually, Tom had her scouring the habitat along with him to find old wires and little boxes filled with strange innards. Almost all he discarded, but a few he kept for working on the metal monster he called a transport. He wasn’t nice exactly–he’d get cross with her, growl, and tell her to go away sometimes–but he didn’t get angry like her father did, just grumpy. All in all, she decided she liked Old Tom.

  One time they spotted the freshly eaten carcass of a sand-lizard, and Tom taught Lexi how to use the metal stick he called a rifle. From that time after, she carried it with her when she went outside to harvest food. She found herself having to stray further and further to find good plants. They may have water enough, but food would eventually be a problem. Lexi didn’t have seeds to start a new garden in the habitat.

  On one of her forays, she spotted a wall of muddy red far away on the horizon. Another sandstorm, a big one. That’s when the sound hit her, like someone smashing the sky with a hammer: thump, thump, thump.

  She spied the source in the sky–the metal monster had taken flight. The thing that Old Tom called the transport hovered over their home. Huge wings had extended from its sides, but they didn’t flap at all. She saw the four hoops making little motions like some creature adjusting its limbs, the blades inside the rings spun so fast they had become blurs.

  The transport climbed up high, swooping around the orange spires of the rock formations. Lexi could do nothing but watch, entranced by the monster, the brutal sound at odds with the graceful movements. Eventually, it lowered itself back to its original resting place.

  When she returned, Lexi found Old Tom chuckling to himself and loading provisions along with bottles of water into the thing’s belly.

  “About time you got back. Old Tom got the transport working again. Nobody thought he could get it working the first time. Now he’s repaired it twice.”

  She went about helping him carry his supplies from the habitat to the transport. To her eyes, the inside of the thing–she never had permission to enter it before–appeared as nothing more than a cramped dwelling.

  “Old Tom wants to leave before the storm gets here,” he said after the last load. “Blasted things can last a long time and he’s an old man with little patience.”

  Lexi stood at the door of the monster’s belly and faced him, eyes lowered. She shouldn’t ask him, she really shouldn’t, but she didn’t want to be left alone. She raised her head to peer at the dark circles he always wore over his eyes when going outside.

  “My father turned me out, so I figure there’s no need for a marriage gift for me,” she tried to make it sound like an offhand remark, but she knew Old Tom would be too clever. Girls were married off to men even older than him sometimes, and he was a good man.

  He laughed one of his big, deep laughs, though the wind whipped away its power. “Old Tom’s already had two wives and isn’t looking for another. He’s never had a daughter though; he’d be willing to have one of those.”

  She smiled back at him, feeling warmer and happier than she had… ever.

  “Now let’s get out of here before that blasted storm hits.” Old Tom shut the door behind her. He hurried to the forward cabin and Lexi followed.

  “Don’t touch anything,” he said in a stern voice. She folded her hands in her lap.

  The whole monster vibrated as Tom pressed some numbers that appeared as lights on a panel. More lights appeared on the windows in front of them, numbers, symbols, and lines that meant nothing to her. The sound of hammering air encompassed them like a noisy blanket. It made her feel foolish, but she couldn’t stop grinning as she watched the ground fall away.

  “We have to fly low, the wind currents are too strong up high,” Old Tom told her. They skimmed above the desert much swifter than any skiff, kicking sand off the top of the dunes.

  Every so often, they would land so Old Tom could rest. With every stop, the sun sank closer to the horizon. She’d never in her whole life seen the sun move from its spot in the sky, so she risked asking why. Her newly adopted father didn’t seem to mind questions so much.

  He pulled out a square of paper and made a drawing of two circles far away from each other: one big, one little. “This isn’t to scale, but it’ll give you the idea. Now, pretend this circle,” he pointed to the little one, “is the sun. The big one is the planet where we live. One side of the planet is always facing the sun and one isn’t. As you move away from the side facing the sun,” he drew lines from points on the big circle to the little circle, “it changes the angle you see it at. We’re moving toward the dark side, so it looks like the sun is getting even lower.”

  Lexi thought she understood. However, the idea that they would go someplace the sun never appeared sounded in equal measures thrilling and terrifying.

  More than the sun changed, they made a long trip over open water where they couldn’t rest. Here, the wind tossed the metal monster about and the water below moved in huge choppy waves.

  “The smooth ride is over,” Tom said, “your home is in a calm zone, like a lazy stretch in a fast moving river. This is normal.”

  She’d never seen a river, but Lexi got the idea.

  When they reached land again, the world under them changed. Black-leafed plants stretched out as far as Lexi could see. These were nothing like scrub-trees and spike-bushes; they stood tall and very thick, bent to face the sun hanging low on the horizon.

  “Don’t go outside,” Old Tom said when they landed for a rest. “There are creatures out there far more dangerous than anything from the desert.”

  “Is this where your people live?” Lexi asked.

  He chuckled. “No. Maybe if we had this kind of technology,” he patted the wall of the machine’s belly, “but rifles aren’t enough to conquer the Twilight Lands. The creatures that live here don’t take to squatters, and that’s what we all are. We came from the sky a very long time ago. But that wasn’t your question, was it? Old Tom and his people live on the night side.”

  As the metal monster rocked in the wind, Lexi peered outside. She saw only fleeting glances of small creatures darting among the black vines that covered the ground. What could be worse than razor-cats?

  When they took off again, Lexi saw the sky turn dark and flashes of light ripped through roiling masses of clouds. Water streaked on the windows.

  “That’s one hell of a storm, isn’t it, Lexi?”

  She nodded, transfixed by the sight.

  “We’ll have to ride it. The winds up high are too strong to fly over it, and a man will grow old and die waiting for clear skies out here. Old Tom made it through chasing the sun; he reckons he can do the same running from it.”

  Rain lashed against the outside, and sheets of water whipped over the windows blotting out the world. The metal monster bucked and vibrated, making Lexi want to find a clan-hold tunnel to hide from the chaos. Maybe I should have stayed behind.

  The machine dropped and Lexi felt her stomach try to push into her chest. A bright flash of light lit the windows and the boom that followed sounded like the sky being torn apart.

  “Close one,” Old Tom said, barely audible through her ringing ears. “Hold on, Lexi.”

  The wind tossed them about the sky worse than ever. Her shoulders beat painfully against the straps that held her to her chair and she lost her stomach, leaving her mouth and throat stinging. Lexi closed her eyes and prayed to the sky spirits.

  A sound hit her with so much power that her whole body reverberated. They bucked and tilted as if the metal monster had been dealt a physical blow. She risked opening her eyes and saw the lights in the window had changed, a picture of their monster rotated in front of Old Tom, parts of it colored in red like bleeding wounds.

  “Got hit by lightning,” he shouted. “I’m picking up a beacon, maybe we can set down for repairs.” She could see the fear on his face, something she’d never seen before.

  Lexi closed her eyes again and hugged herself tight as the bucking and vibrations worsened. The chaos seemed to go on forever.