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FRANKIE
A stranger’s voice is whispering in my ear.
No…not a stranger. It’s the damn sex wall again.
My eyes snap open and I sit up from where I’m resting on Malix’s chest, finding his eyes open and flashing with iridescent light. The vines behind us glow brighter than they did before we went to sleep, casting the cell in an eerie glow.
“Something is happening,” I murmur.
“I know,” he says. “The temple woke you?”
“It did. What’s up?”
He frowns. “I’m not sure. No one has come to check up on us in a while. And it feels like…the gravity feels strange, doesn’t it?”
My heart sinks. I know exactly what that reminds me of.
“Are they going to use the weapon again?” I ask.
“No one has come to check on us in hours,” Malix says. “At least…not that I’m aware of. Before you got here, I could hear them come in and out, but now there’s nothing.”
“They’re mobilizing—for an attack or to defend against an aggressor,” I say. My voice lowers to a harsh whisper as I sort through the possibilities. “Or maybe the weapon backfired and they’re all dead.”
“We need to get out of here,” Malix says.
“How?” I ask.
I rake my hand over my curls, remembering the last time we tried—which resulted in a whole lot of nothing. There’s a solid wooden door between us and the exit, and no other way out in sight.
Malix stands and extends his hand, pulling me to my feet. I dust myself off as he looks around, reaching out to touch the glowing vines on the wall.
He rolls his neck, his brow furrowing as his eyes close.
He must see something.
Or maybe he’s about to grab me and have his way with me at the sex wall’s command, which would be less than productive.
“When I first boarded Jaya, I found that she could change her internal structure at will—open up passages where there were none before, then seal them and pressurize them again,” he says. “You suggested this might be a kind ofzephtan; do you think it could do the same?”
“I don’t know,” I say. “It doesn’t seem quite as malleable; these walls are hard stone.”
“But it helped you find me and the vines are clearly growing in strength,” he says. “When we entered the atrium before we were captured, most of the foliage was dead and dried to crisps. But this…” He trails his fingers over the vines. “It’s lush,thriving. Jaya has a deep intelligence that we do not understand, and I think this does too.”
“It doesn’t seem as smart as Jaya,” I say, stopping short when I realize the wall might have heard me. I glance up at the ceiling and walls. “Uh…sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you if youaresentient. My only thing is that it doesn’t seem quite as invested in us as Jaya does. And its messages have been…well, weird, to put it lightly. Almost like they’re automatic.”
“I know,” he says. “Like a recording, right?”
“You think the intelligence is gone and it’s just, I don’t know—some kind of voicemail?”
Malix groans and scrubs his hand through his white hair. “Now would be a good time to have Taraven here to explain what’s going on.”
The light of the vines flares near the door after he says it, both of our heads snapping to the bioluminescent activity. I take a step toward it and reach my hand out, and one of the vines curls out like it’s trying to touch me.
I yank my hand back.
“I’m sure a Skoropi would be totally fine with this, but I frankly find it disturbing,” I mutter. “I think…I think it’s trying to interface with us.”
“Isn’t that what Qiloka is doing in the atrium?” he asks.
