"We won't make it," I said, panic rising in my throat.
"We will," Cypher insisted, his eyes fixed on the approaching ship. "Trust me, scavenger."
I didn't have time to respond. The crawlers surged forward just as the Night-Piercer pulled alongside the tower. Cypher grabbed my hand and pulled me to the very edge.
"NOW!" he shouted, and we leapt into the void.
Time feltwrong as we fell. It was both too fast and agonizingly slow. The wind rushed past my ears, carrying away my scream as Cypher and I plummeted. We hit the ropes hard. My shoulder wrenched as I caught one, the coarse fiber burning my palms. Cypher grunted in pain as his injured shoulder took the impact of his catch, but somehow he held on. We dangled precariously, swinging in the void currents as the Night-Piercer pulled away from the tower.
"Climb!" Cypher shouted over the wind. "Now!"
Hand over hand, I hauled myself upward, my muscles screaming in protest. Above me, Cypher climbed despite his injury. When we finally reached the deck, Omri was there to help pull us aboard. I collapsed onto the wooden planks, gasping for breath.
"That," I panted, "was the stupidest thing I've ever done."
Cypher lay beside me, his chest heaving. "But we're alive."
"Barely."
The skiff docked moments later, the rest of our crew spilling onto the deck with expressions ranging from relief to horror.
"What were you thinking?" Kora demanded, kneeling beside me. "You could have died!"
"Didn't have much choice," I replied, wincing as I sat up. Every muscle in my body protested the movement. "It was either jump or become Crawler food."
Cypher was already on his feet in moments, though he winced with every step. "Get us out of here, Omri. Full power to the engines. Zoya, plot a course back to the portal."
"Aye, Captain," they chorused, rushing to their stations.
The Night-Piercer's engines thrummed to life, and we began our retreat through the shattered realm of Nytheris, leaving the Reliquarium behind. I watched it recede into the distance, its blue stone and golden crystal growing smaller until it was just another fragment in the ruined landscape.
Two hours later, we gathered in the galley, all of us worse for wear but alive. Vic was tending to Cypher's bite wound, which looked even angrier than before, the skin around it red and swollen. The captain sat stoically as Vic applied a fresh layer of salve, though I could see the pain in the tightness around his eyes.
Across the table, Zoya and Knives were cataloging the artifacts we'd managed to retrieve from the archives. Besides the codex, which sat wrapped in protective cloth at the center of the table, we'd salvaged several smaller items: the crown, a collection of large, odd looking anchor crystals that Zoya had called 'Last Lights'. They were some sort of powerful naturally forming crystal, different from anchors and more wild. There were also several contraptions made of brass and iron, and a few scrolls written in the ancient Nytherian language.
"So," Kora said, as she looked directly at Cypher, "a prince, huh? Should we be bowing or something?"
I'd just finished explaining Cypher's confession, with his permission. Kora was less than impressed.
Cypher's copper eyes narrowed. "I haven't been a prince for thirty years."
"Once royalty, always royalty," Kora replied with a smirk. "Though I have to say, Your Highness, being of noble blood doesn't make you any less of an ass."
Jask choked on his drink while Knives didn't bother hiding her snort of laughter. I tensed, waiting for Cypher's anger, but to my surprise, a ghost of a smile touched his lips.
"Fair enough," he conceded.
"We're circling the area near where the portal should be," Zoya reported, changing the subject. "But its position has shifted since we came through. We'll need Juno's abilities to locate it precisely."
All eyes turned to me. "I need a little time," I said. "I'm drained."
"Take what time you need," Cypher said. "The portal isn't going anywhere."
"I can't stop hearing those damn crawlers," Tor said suddenly with a full-body shudder. "I've seen a lot of nasty things in collapsed realms, but those were something else."
"Nytheris had some of the most diverse wildlife of any realm," Cypher explained, wincing as Vic tightened his bandage. "When the collapse happened, the corrupted energy warped everything it touched. What survived adapted in ways no one could have predicted."
"And no one knows what caused the collapse?" Vic asked, securing the bandage with a small metal clasp.
