Page 20 of Taken to Kor
“Deena, what is it?”
“I thought I just saw him twitch.”
My heart rapidly powers down. My mind hallucinates Deena’s death. I can see it clearly now — now that I’m mere moments from being able to touch her for the very first time, even though it’s been two hundred rotations of imagining just what that would feel like.The first time I touch her will not be to recover her corpse!
“Deena, get out of there!”
“I can’t! Don’t you think I would if I could? I don’t have anywhere to go.”
“Get your sword and stab him again, this time in the eye socket and then again in the throat.”
Gerannu comes to me and hands me a lunar shield. I press the token to my temple and the shield stretches to cover the top half of my face. I lower the protective skein that covers my eyes beneath it, but I don’t turn the lunar shield on just yet. To do so now in this brightly lit chamber would be painful. I move out of the command center first and onto the ramps that will take me to the closest docking port. I can hear dozens of boots pounding just at my back.
“I…my dagger…the tip is broken.”
I stagger. Ice slides down my spine. I struggle to catch my breath. Two arms reach out and grab me to keep me upright, but I don’t know who they belong to. I can’t see their faces. I can’t see any faces except for one that I’ve only seen once but that I imagine I’ve carried with me for a lifetime.
“Deena, listen to me,” I bark, using my austere tone to command her attention. “Did the dagger you used have glass on one side, metal on the other?”
“And a metal handle, yeah.”
“Shrov! Deena get the shrov out of there!”
“Wh…what?”
“That wasn’t a shroving dagger!” I start forward again at a run, shouting over my shoulder as I move, “Get us to that shroving satellite!” The yeeyar responds and I’m nearly knocked off my feet when the ship hurtles forward. “Deena, are you moving away from the thing?”
“Ontte, but I can’t move that fast. It’s too small in here.”
“Where are you?”
“A vent or an air duct or something.”
“Deena, hear me now.” I lick my lips, debating the merits of telling her lies.Centare, lies will not serve her now.And she is stronger than she looks. “That was not a dagger. That was a needle.”
“A needle! A needle? It’s huge!”
“Huge foryou. For us, it’s a perfectly acceptable size and that doesn’t matter. What matters is what’s in it.” I press my palms to one outer wall of the ship and the yeeyar does what I need it to. It shifts so I can see through the exterior of the ship and watch the smooth curve of the satellite, stained by the misery of time, as it draws closer, closer…close enough to touch.
A blinking beacon sits on its lowest curve.Deena. Her escape pod. That must be where she docked.
“Can we get any closer to where she breached?” I ask Erobu, still at the controls.
“I’m looking for a closer port but I…centare. Got nothing. We’ll have to breach here.”
“Shrov!” I curse and the sound echoes throughout the vastness of my ship. I feel the temperature drop, but it is nothing compared to the chill rampaging through me.
“What?” Deena shouts through my token. “What…what’s in it?” Her voice is jerking again with panic and I can hear the awkward way she drags her body through whatever tunnel she’s in.
“It’s a stimulant.” I don’t know if I should tell her more. I don’t know if I should have even told her that.
“But…but he was…but he was bleeding. I stabbed him.”
“Centare. Youinjectedhim.”
“But he lookeddead!”Her voice cracks and in those cracks, I can hear her sobs fighting for voice just under the surface. More metal pops and bends. I crack all twenty of my knuckles.
I press one hand to my chest while two others remove the cannon mounted to my back. Herannathon appears on my left. “We’re almost there, Rhorkanterannu. We’re almost to her.”
