Something was wrong.
“The borog is dead,” Tilly said. “One of the men flying patrol discovered its body during the night.”
Relief, then a terrible dread, slammed me, one after the other. Warm. Then very, very cold.
“What happened?”
Tilly hesitated. Never a good sign with her, as she usually had no problem saying what needed to be said.
“What, Tilly?!”
“Someone killed it,” she said. “And probably died in the process. They haven’t found a body yet. But Gahn Thaleo’s braxilk was nearby, refusing to leave. And they found Gahn Thaleo’s weapons.”
This was too much for my battered brain to process.
“So…So where is he, then? Where’s Thaleo?” I stared at her. “If his braxilk was there, and…”
Jesus. No. Please, no.
“I’m so sorry, Nasrin,” Tilly said. Her eyes were shiny with fresh tears. I’d never told her how I felt for Thaleo. But I supposed by now it must have been obvious.
“They believe he’s dead. A group of men has gone to investigate and to try to move the borog’s body, to see if…” She grabbed my hands and squeezed, as if trying to prop me up against the horror of her words. “They’re going to see if anyone’s underneath it.”
Underneath it. Under the great and terrible mass of that thing.
No one would survive it.
Not even Thaleo.
Someone was weeping, the cave echoing with her ragged sobs. When Tilly dragged me into her arms, I realized it was me.
“I want to go!” I choked out. “I want to go with them!”
I needed to see. I needed to know.
I needed to know what had happened.
I never even told him that I loved him.
“I don’t think-” Tilly began gently.
“I have to, Tilly!” I smacked tears violently away from my face. “I have to…Have to know.”
“The warriors will tell us as soon as they’re back,” she assured me. “As soon as they find anything.”
Oh, God, what if mortally injured, he’d managed to drag himself away? What if he was trapped in some dark place alone?Alive. Dead. Somewhere in between. With no one there to find him.
“I’m going,” I hissed, scrambling out of the bed and shoving my slow limbs mercilessly into the casings of their clothes. “Tell Valeria I’m going. Fire up the fucking shuttle.”
With the borog dead, there was no reason we couldn’t fly it.
Even though I’d asked Tilly to talk to Valeria, I was the one on the move, running dizzily out of the cave and through Thaleo’s mountain.
“Nasrin, wait!” Tilly called, following. “Valeria’s already taken the shuttle out there with Grim!”
Made stubborn by grief, I ignored her completely, racing down, then out of the mountain, as if I could run all the way to him.
Even though it would take me days to hike through these mountains.
