Chapter Twenty-Eight
Rhazek
Elara sits in the nesting chamber with the blanket pulled around her shoulders. Her eyes stay on the wall map.
“How far?” she asks.
“The Vharos is within strike range,” I say. “Jorren will move when Cassia has an exit path and the medical team can receive her.”
Jorren’s live channel opens.
His image appears above the floor, small enough that Elara does not have to look up. He stands on the Vharos command deck in full armor, pale eyes cold.
Behind him, alarms flash.
“Report,” I say.
“Cassia Reed is inside the Glass Market outer salvage ring. Two Veyl handlers pursuing. Possibly more hidden. She is injured but mobile. We have not made physical contact.”
Elara’s fingers tighten over the blanket. “Can she hear you?”
“Not now. Too much interference and crowd density. We are trying to clear an exit without driving her into the handlers.”
“Is she wearing silver cuffs?”
“Yes.”
“Those cuffs are probably not just restraints,” Elara says. “Sarkan likes backup leashes.”
“Don’t cut them off until Seryn’s people say it’s safe. There may be drug triggers, shocks, tracking.”
Seryn joins the channel from medical. “The Vharos medics have received implant and restraint protocols.”
“What does Cassia look like right now?” Elara asks.
“She is frightened,” Jorren says. “Armed with a piece of broken market piping.”
“Good,” Elara says. “She can defend herself.”
Jorren goes very still.
The map’s gold point pulses, and Jorren turns as though he has heard something beyond our voices.
“Go get her,” she says.
Jorren turns toward his crew.
The channel cuts.
Elara watches the moving point. Through the bond, I feel her urge to rise and go after it.
“I want to help,” she says.
“This doesn’t feel like enough.”
“I want to say something you may dislike.”
“Promising.”
“You do not have to earn surviving by saving everyone personally.”
Pain crosses the bond. She turns toward the map.
“Rude.”
“Correct, though.” Her voice breaks.
“You showed Jorren where harm hides,” I say.
An audio channel opens.
Market noise. Shouting. Running feet. Jorren’s voice low and calm.
“Cassia Reed. Commander Jorren Skai. I won’t touch you. There’s an exit to your left and a medical team beyond it.”
A woman’s voice, raw and furious, snaps back.
“Why the hell should I trust you?”
“You should not trust me yet,” Jorren answers.
“Run through the opening behind me. I’ll block them.”
A crash.
A shout.
Then Jorren growls.
The audio catches movement, a body hitting metal, a handler screaming.
Cassia says, “You said no touching.”
Jorren answers, strained, “I touched him.”
Then Cassia: “Good.”
Elara catches my forearm.
On the map, the gold point jerks toward the extraction route.
Another red marker appears.
Then another.
Handlers closing.
Jorren’s voice cuts through the noise. “Vharos team, shield her path. Human targets: stun only. Lethal force authorized against nonhuman Veyl handlers if they reach her cuffs.”
Cassia snaps, “My cuffs?”
Jorren says, “They may be weaponized. Do not let them touch the control points.”
The audio cracks.
Jorren: “Cassia, down.”
A blast hits.
Static.
The map flickers.
The baby’s rhythm stutters. Elara presses both hands to her stomach. “We’re here. They’re there. We’re okay.”
The rhythm steadies.
The audio returns.
Cassia is breathing hard.
Jorren says, “You are through the shield.”
“Don’t sound relieved,” she snaps.
“I failed.”
The map’s gold point crosses into Vharos extraction zone.
The red markers fall back.
Jorren’s voice returns, formal but rougher. “Cassia Reed is aboard Vharos. She came willingly. We’re giving her room.”
Elara presses her hands over her mouth. Through the bond, I feel her laughter breaking into tears.
Elara turns into me, and I catch her against my chest, careful of her ribs.
Elara goes still against me as our child’s rhythm strengthens.
“Rhazek.”
“I feel it.”
Elara draws my hand over hers on her stomach.
A small ripple passes through the bond beneath our joined hands.
She looks up at me. “Was that…?”
“I do not know.”
Elara calls Seryn.
“The baby did something,” she tells her when the doctor comes in.
Nima enters while Seryn scans Elara.
“What kind of something?” Seryn asks.
“Flutter,” Elara says.
Seryn studies the scanner. “Life-pattern surge. Not movement in a fetal-muscular sense. More like resonance response.”
“Tiny star wiggle?” Elara suggests.
Seryn studies the reading again. “Stable. Very stable.”
Elara leans back against me, exhausted by relief. Seryn lowers the scanner.
Nima leaves.
Seryn follows. Elara closes the door.
Cassia’s gold point remains on the dim wall map.
“I want to see the nursery,” Elara says.
“When Seryn approves travel, we can go.”
I adjust the blanket over her shoulder.
She settles against me and draws my arm around her.
Her eyes drift shut. This time, fear does not pull her awake.
I remain with her in the nest. The Black Star keeps the room warm while the universe beyond our glass waits.
Through the viewing glass, the stars shift as The Black Star leaves the combat lanes. Jorren will keep searching the Glass Market.