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I catch snippets of their conversation, and it makes my hair stand on end.The node, Qiloka’s body, the Lyran moon…I can even feel Malix tense when they start talking about the attack, and it becomes more and more clear that the weapon originated here in this facility.
And that the Skoropi didn’t invent it, but theydoknow how to use it.
The corridor keeps getting bigger, and soon it opens up into a large atrium not unlike the one we first entered on the other side of Liatra. I don’t know how far we’ve come, but this was clearly all part of one large complex at some point, used by God knows who. The willowy figure from the magic sex wall vision sets my heart pounding, and I gulp down the panic and apprehension I feel at the prospect of what we’ll find here.
What is General Qiloka up to? What happened to his body?
And who the hell is he?
The hallway shifts from a narrow corridor to a wide, vaulted passage. Two tiered, narrow ducts branch off from the hall and grade up toward the ceiling, and Malix and I split up to take one each as we continue to follow the Skoropi. It gives us a high point to look down from, the perfect hiding spot if we decide we need to turn back now.
I can tell by the look on Malix’s face that we’re not turning back, though.
Now that he’s heard his home moon mentioned, he’s out for blood.
“Don’t you wonder why the warlord doesn’t come here himself?” the first Skoropi asks, clearly unsatisfied with their previous conversation. “It must be dangerous—otherwise he would take charge himself.”
“We don’t fully understand the technology, and the general has taken on the sacrifice of putting himself in harm’s way for the sake of commanding the greatest weapon known to the galaxy,” the second scoffs. “He is brave.”
“He is a fool.”
“Don’t let him hear you talking like that or you might be next,” the second hisses.
That shuts him up. I exchange a look with Malix across the corridor and he nods at me, confirming that this is what he saw in his vision.
I don’t like the sound of this at all, which puts me in Skoropi #1’s camp.
Malix seems firmly in Skoropi #2’s camp, though, and nothing is going to stop him from reaching that central node.
As we walk, I feel along the wall and find vines growing out of the bark-like texture of the wall. I don’t think the first Skoropi is entirely wrong in thinking that the place is alive; it reminds me of azephtan, and I can imagine the corridors having thrived with life at some point in the distant past. We continue down the hall, and I even start to feel a pulse here, a thrum of energy like the sex wall gave off.
We’re approaching the central chamber; we have to be.
The vines grow thicker on the walls, old cords of foliage spreading out beneath my fingertips. The pulse gets more powerful as we move, and I get a message from Malix on my comms.This is what I saw—we’re almost there. I suck in a breath, then clamp my mouth shut and glue myself to the wall when one of the Skoropi glances up at me.
Breathe, Frankie. Just not too loud.
He looks away.
I exhale.
I keep moving.
The ridge gets narrower and takes us into a central atrium, old vegetation hanging from the ceiling and blanketing the floor. The two Skoropi we’ve been following take up a post at this edge, exchanging hushed words with some others. I gaze around and try to make sense of what I’m seeing, and I realize this is a lotus shape—petals winding around each other, Malix and I standing at the tips of some of the highest petals. I can see him on the other side of the room, circling like a predator, his blade drawn and his eyes trained at the center.
I didn’t even see him at first: the thing that must once have been General Qiloka.
He’s bound up in vines like azephtanpilot would be, but this is…it’s all wrong. The vines have punctured his flesh, weedled their way beneath his scales, wrapped around his throat. I cock my head as I look down at him, unsure of what’s right in front of me.
I was right; this is basically agiant zephtan.
And General Qiloka is its pilot.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
??
MALIX
