In Heaven and Earth by Amy Rae Durreson

realised the
scale of the disaster.
    Further along the road, a
shining figure was running forwards. The sunlight broke through it,
wreathing it in rainbows and making it too bright to focus on.
Behind it, swelling out like the wake of ship, the road was
changing, first the ground and next the surrounding walls fading
and then becoming transparent and glittering.
    Reuben’s vision dimmed
suddenly as his suit adjusted his screen to protect his eyes, and
for a few seconds all he could see was shadows.
    When his vision cleared,
the creature had covered half the distance between them.
    “ How fast do
they move?” Meili gasped.
    “ Too fast,”
Reuben said and steadied his weapon, reminding himself that this
was the enemy, no matter that it held no weapons of its
own.
    He fired, and the recoil
pushed him back into the alley. Meili pulled him down smoothly, and
they crouched as the air around them flashed brightly and then
shook around them in a soundless wave of destruction that belled
outwards from the place where the runner had been.
    When it stopped, Reuben
peered out of the alley again.
    The shining runner was
gone, though shards of crystal were still sinking slowly towards
the ground. As they touched the road, each one glimmered and then
melted. From each, a gleaming puddle spread, and then began to roll
back to rejoin the main sweep of diamond, transforming everything
in its path.
    “ Time to go,”
Meili said.
    Reuben agreed. Bounding
after her, he rasped, “Vairya, we have a kill. Those things are
fast.”
    “ We need more
distance if you transport us in again,” Meili said and brought her
knees up on the next step, turning in the air to swing her weapon
round. “Incoming. Cooper, get down!”
    He threw himself
backwards instead, out of the path of her shot, and watched it go
arching along the side street ahead of them, where another runner
was approaching.
    They had no shelter this
time, and the flash and shockwave blacked out their helmets and
sent them rising from the airless street.
    Reuben twisted as he
rose, until he managed to push his feet against what felt like a
piece of wall, and he went arching away, his gloved hands brushing
what could have been the ridge of a roof. He could only see
glimmers: the bright sky, Meili’s suit moving beside him, the dim
outline of walls.
    They came back to the
ground in a different road, the whole world still as vague as a
pencil sketch but growing steadily more distinct as their helmets
adapted.
    “ Vairya, we’re
blind,” Meili said. “Can you see us?”
    “ You’re off
camera,” Vairya said, sounding frightened. “Reuben!”
    “ Still here,”
Reuben said, turning to look around. “Air and gravity would be
good. Our suits are working against us.”
    “ Let me see
what I can do. Okay, there’s private security cameras on the
buildings around you. Searching, searching. Got you. You’re in a
courtyard behind warehouses, no sign of trolls. Sit
tight.”
    “ Trolls?”
Reuben asked, amused.
    “ They’re evil,
made of stone, and killed by big flashing lights. Got a better
idea?”
    “ Trolls it
is.”
    Meili sighed. “Am I going
to have to put up with this all mission?”
    “ Almost
certainly,” Reuben said, smiling behind his helmet. “Keep talking,
Vairya.”
    “ Concentrating
here. What do you want me to say?”
    “ I want you to
keep talking so I know immediately if we lose coms.”
    “ Oh.”
    He could see Meili
swinging round to face him, but all she said was, “I’m glad one of
us has some idea what we’re doing.”
    “ Did you hit
your head?” Reuben demanded. “What was that? Respect? From
you?”
    “ Fuck off,
Cooper.”
    “ Yeah, she’s
fine,” Vairya said. “Reuben, I do need to concentrate on this. The
city systems have been chewed apart by this stuff. You get
something I have memorised, I’m afraid.”
    “ Should keep us
going for a while if we go through every poem in your head,” Meili
muttered.
    “ And by a
while, you