Page 115 of Cage of Starlight
“Why do you ask?”
“No reason.”
The silence that falls between them is palpable.
“I’m . . . sorry,” she says, “About Sena.”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” Prickling-cold waves of nausea roll through him, his skin itchy and too tight, tongue thick in his mouth.
He opens his eyes, seeking a distraction, but only finds Helner’s face. The right side is swollen, the skin along her cheekbone ragged and rust colored. She catches him looking, shifts the uninjured side to face him.
Travin and Yized were attacked, Riese said. There’s the evidence of it, but his brain refuses to parse it.
“Stop staring or I’ll pull out a lobe of your lung.”
Tory turns away.
She’s the one who ends up talking, voice quiet. “What happened to Sena was a mercy. I wasn’t his biggest fan, thought he was a coward for the longest time, but I wouldn’t wish that bastard Kirlov on anyone. Death was the kindest possible choice.”
“But it wasn’t! If Riese’s plan worked—”
Helner whacks the back of his head. “I don’t want to know. Plausible deniability, remember?”
“Fine. Are you finished?”
After a pause that feels eternal, she pokes his Core with a finger, and it rolls over with an unpleasantplop-squish.Tory doesn’t gag, but it’s a near thing.
“I’m not seeing any broken-off roots, but . . . you know. If you die, think of me fondly.” She shrugs. “I need to get back. If they notice me gone, your little gig will be up, too. Travin better hurry. He’s my ride.”
“Mine, too, I think.”
Without fanfare, she plucks a scalpel from a tray of instruments to his right and plunges it into the Core. Blackish fluid oozes out in rhythmic rushes, like the thing has apulse, and—
Yep, that’s Tory’s breakfast.
Helner sidesteps and pulls the Core away before he can defile it with scrambled eggs once removed.
“No appreciation for my fine arts.” She withdraws a sliver of pure stellite from the fleshy mass with a pair of tweezers. “I have to put this back in you.”
“Youwhat?”
“You can’t get in without it. This bit of stellite, charged with your energy, is what allows you to move around freely in the facility. Only place anyone can walk without it is Intake.”
She laughs. “But maybe you knew that, what with setting off the alarms as soon as you arrived by going down thewrong hall. But anyway. Right or left?”
It’s so different from the first time. No straps. No Sena waiting in the corner like he’d rather be anywhere else. “Neither. I’ll put it in my pocket.”
Helner makes a production of her sigh. “Fine. You lose it, don’t blame me.”
He’s situating it in his jacket pocket when Riese reappears out of nowhere, Travin at his elbow.
“Tory,” Riese says, regal and warm. “Glad to see you’re all right.”
“For the moment,” Helner says. “I see you brought my ride. Tory? I’ll see you later. Got some tests I’m going to propose to the generals, so be ready for that.”
She takes Travin’s arm and makes a shooing gesture, and they blink away, leaving Riese and Tory alone in the hollowed-out camp. Tory tries on a smile, lips tilted into just the right shape. It fits wrong, but he knows from years of experience what Riese will want to hear. He says, “I’m ready.”
“I know you are.”
