Free Grimspace by Ann Aguirre

the living. Keri hasn’t faltered; neither has Dina, and I spare a smile for both of them.
    â€œYes,” he whispers. “I owe you my life.” His fingers squeeze mine. “It’s all right,” he adds, louder. Stronger. “I’ve constructed the sound barrier myself now, using your voices, and I’m holding it inside my head.”
    â€œSo here’s the plan,” the Gunnar says. “We drive inside the first set of fences. When I park, I fire up the shock fields. Mair activates the compound defense grid. Some of them are going to avoid the shock fields, that’s a given. We’re just going to have to run like hell toward the nearest outbuilding and pray.”
    â€œNo.” Mair shakes her head. “You know they won’t return to the caves until they’ve fed.”
    â€œThen what do you suggest?” March sounds as if he’s at the end of his patience.
    Mair closes her eyes for a moment, and when she opens them, it’s like she’s another woman entirely. “A sacrifice.”
    And no matter who asks her, that’s all she’ll say.
    One of the back panels finally rips away and I have the sense of things swarming, although I can’t see them, and my flesh crawls. I hear the sound of something swiping, reaching, and No-Chin’s corpse seems to fly back as if animated, and then I can hear the grotesque sound of bones snapping, the wet sound of the Teras devouring their prize. The wind howls through the open Landcruiser, so cold, so dark now, and an endless night full of slavering fiends.
    I don’t realize I’m trembling until Loras cups his other hand over mine. “Don’t worry,” he whispers. “I am your shinai now. I will not let anything happen to you.”
    My what?
    Before I can ask, the side panel gives, and the Gunnar who told me I’m bad luck, well, he goes screaming, arms flailing, face contorted. I’ll never forget the way he looked as the Teras pulled him out. Perhaps I am dark luck after all.
    â€œComing into the compound,” the Gunnar says, toneless. Hell of a way to watch your brother die. “Cruiser’s too damaged for shock fields to fire. Whatever you have in mind, clan Dahlgren, do it now, or none of us are going to make it out of this alive.”
    â€œClan Dahlgren sacrifices to ensure its own perpetuity.” I’m not altogether sure what she means until she bounds out of the Landcruiser, no longer old in her deportment, and somehow, she’s sprinting with preternatural speed. I can smell the copper where she’s cut herself, and it’s an irresistible lure. Clan leader, warrior, whatever else she is, Mair isn’t merely an old woman. I’ve never known anyone who could move like that. I want to ask, but now isn’t the time.
    I sense the Teras wheeling away from the vehicle and giving chase to living, bleeding prey. Keri screams, “Grandmother!” and March has to carry her away, as the rest of us make use of the time she’s bought us so dearly. It’s the bravest and most terrible thing I’ve ever seen.
    We run, heads down, conscious that the Teras could return at any time. Loras still has me by the hand, and he yanks the door wide, pushing me inside before entering himself. I don’t understand his new care for my safety, then I’m awed, humbled, to hear the live hum of the compound defense grid activating. She’s out there with them, being torn to pieces, and dying, she saved us all.
    Tears stand in my eyes, and Keri’s still screaming, fighting March with fists and feet, but he just holds her, gentle but implacable, refusing to let her go back out. She’s lost everyone today—her father, her grandmother. And a lot of it is my fault. I’ll be lucky if she doesn’t try to kill me at some point. I no longer find Keri’s histrionics ridiculous. Whatever her eccentricities, Mair was a woman worth