Noble Houses.” She paused. The rain gradually began to increase again. “The raiders took me as a slave, and worse. I was sold to a merchant floatship, then to a pirate den in the Belt of Har’nu. The Star Marines eventually hit the place, and freed me along with the other women there. As soon as I saw the Marines in action I knew where I belonged. I begged them to take me with them back to Llathe. To freedom. A place where a woman could be a warrior in her own right. I wanted desperately to be one of them, a Star Marine of Llathe, the pride of the Aether Fleet.” Leela glanced up at Nali with a bitter smile. “My skin was the wrong color, of course. I could never be a true daughter of Llathe, never become a Tal for one of the Noble Houses. So as soon as I could learn to swing a sword, I joined the Azure Hawks and became a Gar’Noomren.”
The rain poured down in huge drops, hammering off the nearby leaves and ferns. Nali hunched her shoulders and looked off into the dark rainforest.
Leela blew a circle of blue smoke out into the falling rain. “You know what I miss the most about Nevaga? Not the sun or the stars.” She gestured towards the sky with her pipe. “I know those are still up there, past the clouds, even though we never see them. No, I miss the moons. Slow Bel’oris, always pursuing the swifter Veluuna across the expanse of the heavens but never catching her. Just managing a brief kiss before watching her flit off again. I used to feel sorry for poor Bel’oris when I was a girl. Silly.” Leela sighed, staring up at the darkened, cloudy sky. “But Llathe has no moons, even if we could see them.”
There was a long silence.
“I’m amazed you held on to that pipe for so long,” Nali said at long last.
Leela snorted. “It’s the only piece of Nevaga I have left. I guarded it like it was my very soul. A slaver tried to take it off me once on one of the Eruthan moons. I blinded him in one eye.” She smiled bitterly. “It cost me a lashing that almost killed me, but no one ever tried to take the pipe off me again.” She blew a long, slow circle of smoke into the air. “There’s something you’re not telling me, isn’t there?”
Nali looked down at Leela in surprise. “What?”
“This Fallen, or whatever you call it. There’s something you’re keeping back.” Leela fixed the Wayfinder with a penetrating stare. “You might as well tell me before we reach the ruins.”
Nali looked away. “The Fallen that was killed before, outside of Bala’nor. The surviving reports we have speak of…something that was found in its lair. A ‘dark heart.’”
“What’s that?”
Nali shrugged. “I don’t know. That’s why I haven’t brought it up.”
Leela tapped the pipe thoughtfully with the edge of her thumb. “But you think it’s important, don’t you?”
“Whatever it was, the Fallen was apparently desperate to protect it. That’s how the Wayfinders managed to bring it out of hiding and kill it.”
Leela nodded. “And you think this Fallen has a ‘dark heart’ in its lair, too?”
“If there is, we might be able to draw it out, force it into the open.” Nali shuddered, even though the rain pelting her shoulders was quite warm. “It’s the best chance we have. Maybe the only one.”
Leela glanced up at the falling rain. “No more secrets, Nali. We’re in this together. Either we kill this thing, or none of us are coming back. You know that, right?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” Leela shook out the pipe, then stood and straightened her lizardskin cloak. “We’ve wasted enough time. Let’s get moving.”
Kili came to an abrupt stop, and Nali jolted awake.
She swayed in the saddle a moment and barely caught her shard rifle before it slipped off her shoulder. The same black, rain-soaked jungle she had seen for the last two standard rotations greeted her eyes. She rubbed her hand over her face, trying to get her bearings. Nali had no idea how long she had been asleep.
Sayla came down what passed for the trail, signaling with her hand to a point just ahead over a low rise.
Leela nodded, then gave the signal with her hand for the others to dismount.
Nali slipped out of the saddle and patted her exhausted greelak, then tied him to a nearby tree. In the darkness around her she could hear the rustle of packs, the snapping of twigs, and the whine of rifles charging as the hunters and the Gars prepared for battle.
Leela stepped up, her helmet folded into the crook of her arm. She motioned the group to gather around her.
“Sayla, Nali, Zolne, Ereta,” she said in a low whisper, pointing at each woman in turn, “you’re with me. Illa, Holna, and Merra, take up positions outside and watch the entrance.” She glanced over at the two slaves who were huddled near one of the greelaks. “The slaves will stay here with the mounts. My group will enter the ruin, locate the Fallen, if it’s in there, and force it outside.” She lifted a horn. “One blast means it’s coming out. Two blasts means it’s not, and you three come in.” She pointed over at one of the Gar’Noomren. “Merra is in charge outside.”
Illa gave the Gar an uncertain glance. “We don’t need—”
“Don’t even start,” Leela warned. “This is a Gar operation. Merra is in charge.”
“What if the Fallen’s not inside?” asked Holna.
Leela slipped her helmet over her head. “We’ll clear the ruin. If it’s not there, we’ll wait for it. If it appears out here while we’re inside, give us a long blast. You have a horn, Merra?”
The Gar lifted one similar to Leela’s, made out of a bristlespine horn.
“Good.” Leela paused for a moment. “Blow twice if the Fallen enters the temple.”
“Or better yet, just shoot the eel-choked thing,” said Zolne.
There were nervous chuckles from the assembled women.
“This is it,” said Leela. “I don’t need to tell you that the whole village is depending on us. This Fallen dies right here, right now. Bright Star guide us.”
“Bright Star guide us,” the women repeated in a chorus of low murmurs.
Nali touched the small image at her neck.
“Wayfinder,” Leela said as the women broke up. She held out a shard pistol, grip first. “It’s going to get tight in there. Your rifle might not be much good.”
Nali hesitated. “I’m no good with a pistol,” she admitted. “I can’t hit a fleshtearer at ten paces with one.”
“Trust me,” said Leela, “when you need this you won’t have to aim.”
Nali took the firearm and tucked it into her crossbelt. “Thanks.”
Leela reached for a small pack by her feet. “Thank me by making sure this thing doesn’t come out of there alive.”
The entrance to the ruin was almost invisible. Even with her sharp night vision, Nali had to strain to make it out through the web of ferns and creepers ahead of her.
Sayla crept forward just in front of her, a shard rifle held at the ready. The hunter moved slowly and methodically, picking her way silently through the wet jungle.
Nali’s eyes kept drifting up to the trees and branches above their heads. Behind her came the three Gars, making much more noise in their heavy armor. Nali winced at each loud snap or crackle made by their careless sandaled footfalls.
Sayla turned, and silently pointed out the dark cleft ahead of them.
Nali wasn’t sure if Leela could see the hunter in the darkness, so she nodded in reply herself and motioned Sayla forward.
They entered the lair.
It was cold inside, a palpable drop in temperature from the warm Llathese night. Nali felt goosebumps prickle on her skin, and instinctively pulled her cloak around her for warmth.
A corridor stretched ahead of them, dark and menacing. The walls were sleek and straight, carved from solid obsidian. Moss and weeds sprouted from cracks in the ancient blocks. Massive cobwebs hung from the ceiling, waving lightly in the breeze which drifted in from outside.
Pillars, also carved from obsidian, lined the hallway on either side. Some had crumbled into pieces. About fifty feet down the corridor part of th
e wall had collapsed, leaving a jumbled pile of blocks, dirt, and tangled plants that had sprouted over time.
Strange runes covered the walls and pillars, even the floor. Nali glanced at them for a moment. Her mind reeled and her stomach lurched violently. She quickly looked away, but the forms of the incomprehensible glyphs still twisted in her brain.
“Don’t look at the walls,” Sayla warned.
Leela gestured upwards at the webs with her rifle. “Karani?”
Nali shook her head. “Long gone,” she whispered. She was still a little nauseous, and cursed herself for being so foolish. She had forgotten about the runes. It had been many cycles since she had been near Kai’Li or any other Highborne ruins.
Sayla continued on again, moving cautiously down the darkened corridor.
The rain dripped in at places, splashing into puddles that had eaten away at the obsidian floor over the millennia. A pair of screechwings flitted out of hiding, startling all of them for a moment.
They continued to move deeper into the structure.
Tangible dread grew inside Nali with each step. There was something evil here. She could feel it, even though she couldn’t explain how. It was like a shadow that continuously crawled across the back of her brain, a threat that always stayed just out of reach.
They stepped into an open chamber, Sayla first, then Nali and the others.
The room was large, perhaps a hundred feet across or more. Pillars lined the circumference, many covered with vines and creepers. Broad, circular steps led down to a lowered area of the