Page 96 of Cage of Starlight
“We have five days until they disable our Cores.”
That’s—
Tory frowns. The way Sena talked about it before, he thought their reprieve would be longer.Indefinite. Far more than five days, anyway. “Riese is being cagey about letting me in on his timeline. I don’t know if that’ll be enough.” He pauses. “You didn’t tell them about Riese, did you?”
Sena drops the communicator, stomps it into the ground, and kicks fallen leaves over it. “Of course not. I said we were isolated andinjured near the border, trying to make our way back. They started out promising three days . . . said we should be able to rendezvous with teams scouting the area in that time. I managed to talk them into more, so—well. It could be worse.”
“I mean, that’s not so bad, right?” But there’s something wrong with three days, with five. With a reprieve so short. It settles too late. “We can just . . . I mean, I can—” Tory goes cold. “Shit.”
This whole time, he’s had his own Core and the battle and Riese’s plans and a million other things on his mind. He’s been on fire with Riese’s promise, Riese’s purpose, Iri’s strange and lovely truths. He didn’t think—
He didn’tthink. Sena has no promise of salvation waiting at the end of this.
Five days of life isn’t much at all. What they’ve done to Sena, they’ve given him no choice. Return or die.
“You have to go back.”
Jaw set, Sena says nothing, half-moon bruises under his eyes the only hint at his exhaustion. When they met, Tory thought him a coward, an obedient doll—Kirlov’s perfect soldier. This bravery in the face of death is so much worse. A coward wouldsurvive. If Sena were Tory, he’d go back to the Compound. He’d smile and play nice and crush himself down as small as they asked him to, because nothing’s been more important than surviving until now.
“They may change their minds, of course,” Sena says, dry. “I wouldn’t put it past them to disable one or both of us to prove a point, so it’s best to get your Core out as soon as possible. We’re only special when we’re in their hands. As soon as our risk outweighs our potential contribution . . .” He waves a hand. “You looked like you had something to say?”
Desperation is an ache in Tory’s throat. “It’s nothing.”
“It’s clearly something, for you to run all the way here.”
Tory swallows. “Riese sent me. Says we’ve got five minutes before he leaves without us.”
“He won’t.”
“He will. He said so.” He doesn’t mean to snip, but the words come out rough.
“No,” Sena says, matter-of-fact. “He’s smart. He wouldn’t leave us. He’d kill us first. As I said, we’re too big a risk.”
A risk.
Something swells in Tory, incendiary like the explosion that threw him over the cliff into the cold ocean—something too big for his hands to take the shape of, too frightening to name. Something that could kill him.
He tries futilely to produce words as they walk back in silence.
*
Tory swings into the back of the covered wagon to absolute silence. No one moves as he helps Sena up.
“Just in time to go down with us,” Riese whispers.
Tory takes in everyone’s drawn faces.
“What?”
Iri answers, trying out a wan smile. “Military patrol.” His eyes dart to Sena. “They’ve got Null. Saw them with tranq rifles and syringes.”
“Null?” Iri used that word the first time they met.
Riese speaks again, eyes cold and flat as they travel over Sena. “Not long ago, we discovered the Westrian military was testing weaponry that disabled Seeds. Iri here theorized that the military had aVoidseed and had adapted a weapon to neutralize our energy. The results are excruciating. The effects of a single dose can last a whole day. If they have Null, it doesn’t matter what our skills are. They’ll slaughter us.”
Sena goes ramrod straight. “I didn’t know.”
Riese sighs. “It doesn’t matter. If they saw Iri, they’ll be monitoring the roads out.”
