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Or at least…I’m somewhere like home.
The rumbling voice of azephtansurrounds me, the scent of soil and vegetation invading my nostrils. I breathe in and out, my lungs beginning to move when I feared they would collapse on that planet…
What planet?
Not Zanpi. Not Azoth. Not Razakii…
Liatra.
My fingers curl on my left hand, remembering Malix gripping it tightly. There’s nothing there, though my flexing arm makes a needle pressed into my vein sting. I open my eyes with some effort, dragging my eyelids up like they’re hung with metal weights.
A human female sits across from me.
Thin—toothin, in fact—with skin as dark as rich soil, and a cloud of blue-black hair around her head. Her eyes are clouded over and she looks past me, though I get the impression that she is staring right at me.
“They’re safe,” she murmurs. “Don’t be afraid.”
I straighten up, looking around. That’s right—I had to be evacuated from the ancestral temple on Liatra, and now I must be in the med bay on Ikaray. And this is the oracle that I have to assume Ravik kidnapped from Jokahn’s party.
Faith, he said her name was.
“How do you know?” I ask.
She shrugs her bony shoulders. Her voice is almost a whisper, faint and melodic. “I can see them.”
Footsteps sound in the spine outside, signaling Taraven’s arrival before he steps across the threshold. Faith looks idly over her shoulder, though her eyes don’t meet his. She stares into the wall of foliage instead, her hands clasped in her lap.
Ravik looks relieved—if a little annoyed—but I don’t think I’ve seen him without at least a hint of annoyance in many cycles.
“Good—you’re awake,” he says.
“What are you doing here?” I ask. “I thought Jokahn was going to send a transport and that you would be long gone.”
“It was Faith,” Ravik says. “She told me you were in danger.”
“And it’s not quite time to leave yet,” Faith says. “We’re ahead of schedule.”
“Leave for where?”
Ravik scuffs his talons against the ground, kicking up a bit of moss as he crosses his arms. “We’re escaping,” he says. “Isn’t that what you expected? What you told me to do?”
Faith stays silent, though her eyes narrow slightly. It makes me wonder if she is as enthusiastic about leaving the system as he is.
“I can’t go with you,” I say.
“You won’t,” Ravik responds. “We’ll rendezvous with Jaya, then…”
“I don’t know if Zandro will allow you to leave,” I shoot back.
“He can’t stop me,” Ravik says. “I don’t know how, but I’ve already bonded to Ikaray. She and I are coordinated in our efforts. And it isn’t safe for Faith here anymore—not anywhere close to the Five Houses.”
“Why not?” I ask.
“I’m being pursued by the Second House,” Faith says. “Jokahn offered to shelter me, but I fear he will simply sell me to the highest bidder. And there is something else out there, too…something that wants me close.”
The idea of it sends a chill down my spine. My tail twitches as I shift in my seat, my strength rapidly returning.
“Can you send me back to Liatra instead?” I ask. “I can find Frankie and Malix.”
