Free Ammonite Stars (Omnibus): Ammonite Galaxy #4-5 by Gillian Andrews

to swing like a pendulum from one side to the other.
    “Oh Sacras!” Ledin scrabbled to grab a tighter hold of the rope, and managed to drop the knife in the process. He felt totally impotent as he heard the delayed click as it hit the rocks below him. He scrambled hastily upwards, but the avian easily kept pace with him. It did not seem aggressive, but clearly did not want any other animal interrupting its breakfast.
    Suddenly a voice came echoing down from above.
    “Ledin! Swing to your left! As far as you can!”
    Ledin grabbed at the rock, pulled himself hand over hand to the right, and then pushed off away from the wall of stone, and over to his left. As he passed the avian, still staring at him from the centre, he heard the whizz of something falling past him, narrowly missing his position.
    There was a bellow of pain from the animal near him, and it screeched as a fair sized pebble hit it squarely on the torso. For a moment it seemed as if the creature would fall, then it regained its clawhold on the rock, and clung on grimly as several other large pebbles rained down on it. The avian flattened itself to the rock, and then looked up, correctly realizing that the missiles were coming from the surface.
    As Ledin swung back to his previous position, he saw that one or two of the stones had hit their mark; the animal was bleeding from several superficial wounds. It snapped its head round as he went past, but was now more preoccupied with its pain. Ledin grabbed a fresh handhold on the rock and tried to disappear into the shadows.
    “Meuhhh! Cawwhh!” the avian grumbled. Ledin felt for it. He was thankful that the stones had missed him.
    The avian suspiciously examined the area above it, muttered a few more raucous imprecations and then began to scale the rock face, clearly discouraged by its injuries. Ledin breathed a sigh of relief, and began to let himself quickly down the rest of the way. Thank goodness it had decided to go up. He just hoped that his stone-tossing girlfriend would have the sense to get out of the way as it emerged.
    DIVA WAS WAITING crossly for him as he finally reached the floor of the entrance shaft.
    “What took you so long?” she demanded. “I was just about to start up on my own.”
    “Thank you for coming to the rescue, Ledin?” he suggested with amusement.
    “Yes, yes. Thank you very much. Very kind of you. But what about Six? Has he managed to break out? We can’t sit around here all day. The wind will be up soon, and we will have to take refuge in the shuttle.”
    Ledin smiled again. Diva, as usual, was single-mindedly fixated on one particular thing. He wondered how long it would take her to realize that the object of her thoughts was First Six?
    “I am sure Six is able to take care of himself,” he soothed.
    “What a stupid thing to say! How can you know that?”
    Ledin nodded. One had, he felt, to make allowances for people when in the throes of strong feeling. “Don’t worry; the trimorphs will be helping him.”
    “Huh! I suppose so. You are all taking your time, though, aren’t you?”
    Ledin bowed. “You don’t have to worry about Six. He can look after himself very well. Now, shall we go back up together, or would you prefer me to shin up here first, and pull you up from the top?”
    “I think we should go up together, don’t you? Six might need our help, and the longer it takes me to scale this, the less time we will have to spend on him before the winds get up.”
    Ledin gave a slight nod. “Then I suggest we make a move.” He handed her the end of one of the two ropes which were hanging against the rock wall. “Here, take this. I will tell you where to place your hands and feet.” He unraveled a length of thinner rope, passed a safety loop three times inside itself around the hanging rope, and then rigged her up carefully with a makeshift harness with the rest. “I’ll be moving this up as you climb.”
    Diva glared. “I don’t need to be treated like a