Ventus by Karl Schroeder

Karl Schroeder / Ventus / Page 239
the finest tissue, even as it continued to move east. Over the
next few minutes it spent itself across the fields, in a trail of
girders and torn skin many miles long. There were no fires, no
explosions, and only faint distant rumblings as it fell.
It came down closer to Jordan, and he saw the bottom
ring with its mouth full of hooks touch the earth and shatter,
spilling stone blocks, trees and human figures. Many of those
figures lived, and struggled free of the wreckage; the moon had
not fallen straight down, but glided slowly into the earth at an
angle. Most of those alive when it hit were still alive
afterward.
Jordan saw this, but he could not stop, because he could
not be sure some new horror would not follow. He continued
walking, nursing a stitch in his side. If he could not go home
because of the voices in his head; and if Calandria May was
wrong about Armiger, as he had begun to suspect; and if even
she could not prevent the Heaven hooks from coming after
him; then he would have to find help elsewhere.
He was no longer walking east. His goal now lay to the
southwest.
When the aerostat had finished falling, Calandria May
knelt down, closed her eyes, and signaled her ship. Axel
watched as her brows knit, and she frowned. She remained
kneeling for longer than he thought should be necessary.
When she opened her eyes, she looked at him with an
expression of tired acceptance.
"The Desert Voice doesn’t answer," she said. "I’m
afraid, Axel, that we may be stranded."