Darren momentarily froze in his tracks at the voice that shouted behind them.
His mind quickly ran through his options. Should he make a break for the waiting skiff? Or should he obey the voice and allow himself, Claire, and Hida to be captured.
He felt the weight on his back and thought about Claire and the mess they had left behind in the storehouse. No, letting themselves get captured would be too dangerous now. Justified as self-defense or not, somebody would want their pound of flesh for the murder of the guard.
He started pumping his legs and headed directly for the little boat that they had marked for their escape. His legs burned and screamed now - stopping to discuss their plan had caused the weariness of the past few hours to take their toll. He was much slower now compared to when they first made their break from the ship that had carried them to this island. Hida, not being burdened by the weight of carrying an additional person, quickly burst past him.
"Untie the boat! Get it ready!" he wanted to shout after her. Once again, his inability to speak was proving to be detrimental to this whole situation. He was angry at the entire situation. His parents, himself, Claire, Hida, and even Mand - he could see all of them judging him in his mind's eye - mocking him for lacking the ability to utter even a single word in this, the most dire of situations.
He wanted to drop Claire. After all, she was the one who killed the guard back at the storehouse. He knew relieved of her burden that he could sprint to the skiff no problem.
No, there was something inside of him that wouldn't let him do that. Angry as he was, he knew he was judging her. He had been judged by so many others in the past and had been without the ability to defend himself - he would not do the same to her.
"I still don't know what she actually did," he reminded himself. "All I saw was that she touched him, and then he..."
The shouting by their pursuers brought he back to the present. He swallowed whatever anger he felt and concentrated on making his burning legs continue onward. Not daring to look back, he heard the sound of heavily booted feet scrambling towards him. They were drawing very close, very quickly.
Hida was at the bollard now, attempting to untie the rope that held the skiff to the concrete barrier.
Something whizzed past Darren's head and skipped along the concrete ahead of him. A... stone?
Another stone skipped past them and Darren suddenly heard Claire yelp in pain. He looked back and saw that it was a group of guards armed with slings that had pursued them. They were very close.
"They won't use metal around us," Darren thought grimly. "It's too dangerous for them to do that."
He looked back and saw that Hida had gotten the rope away from the bollard and was waving and shouting at him to keep moving. A rock bounced off her waving arm, causing her to yelp in pain.
Darren felt a wave of fire as something struck his right leg, causing him to stumble. In a second of panic, he thought he would tumble face first onto the hard concrete below, but he managed to catch himself at the last second.
He then found himself at the bollard next to Hida, looking down at the skiff and trying to duck out of the way of the incoming stones.
He had a problem now... he needed both arms to keep Claire from sliding off his back. If she was with it, she could hold on tightly while he made the descent on the little wooden ladder that had been built onto the side of the breakwater, but right now her arms hung limply, draped around his neck. This entire time he had been carrying her slightly bent forward so she wouldn't slide off.
He couldn't jump down, so what was he to do.
Hida looked at him expectantly, and then seemed to click into his predicament.
She motioned with her head to the engine that sat in the middle of the boat, the "Make and break" that she had called earlier. Darren noticed that she had made the motion with her head and not her hands she was holding on tightly to the one that had been struck.
"Concentrate on the engine!" she shouted. "Bring the boat to us!'
At any other point, Darren might have attempted to express an argument as to why it was a bad idea, but right now he was so tired, so desperate, so angry that he directed all his focus onto the engine, imagining it to lift out of the water and rise up to their feet.
From the corner of his eye, he saw Hida doing the same.
The boat lifted an inch, maybe two, and then stopped, hovering only slightly above the water.
They were done. The guards behind them were so close now. Darren was just about to drop his concentration when he felt Claire grip one arm tightly around his chest and shoot out her other over his shoulder and towards the engine. The skiff rose the six feet and not wasting time, both Darren and Hida quickly stepped aboard.
The strain of the metalmancy was affecting them all, and they were all on the verge of collapse when they got the boat back down to the level of the water. Once the bottom of the boat touched the surface, Darren felt Claire's arm go slack again. He felt her chest heaving, exhausted from the act.
Darren stared at the engine for a moment, wondering if he had the strength to operate the thing. Hida did the same, however what she did next was completely unexpected to Darren. Reaching over, she pulled on a cord attached to the thing with all her strength. The engine came to life on its own! It had fuel! Actual fuel!
Hida moved to the rudder at the back and began to steer the little skiff away from the breakwater.
As they pulled away, stones began to rain down around them. The guards had taken up positions along the edge of the structure and continued to toss stones at them using the slings. Thankfully, aside from a few near misses, their weapons weren't that accurate.
After a few tense moments, they passed the arms of the "crab" and were now in open ocean.
They had made it... for now.