Page 66 of Blightfall

“Do you think we can use this portal to get off the planet?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Alanik said. “It may be locked. Jorgen managed to open the one on Evershore, but even if I figure out how to go through, I can’t guarantee we could get back. And we don’t know what’s on the other side. We could find ourselves surrounded by varvax. It might not be any safer than trying to fly out through the debris field.”

That was true, and I didn’t want to strand the rest of our team on Blightfall, even more outnumbered than we currently were. “We can’t risk it,” I said. “Not yet. Our team can’t afford to lose a flightleader and a cytonic right now.”

We had more information, and hopefully Nedd and Sadie had found something as well. We could come back here, try the portal with our entire team—but if we got lost in the nowhere, unable to return home, Jorgen would still send a rescue team after us to be shot down by Ivy’s drones.

Stars, it killed me to be this close to answers and unable to find them. But we were trapped on Blightfall, and very much alone. Even if we could get through the portal, the risk was too great until we’d exhausted all our other options.

Varvax voices drifted up the stairs, arguing again, though the pin didn’t pick up enough to discern the topic. Alanik turned off her light-line, plunging us into darkness.

Scud. We needed to get out of here before they caught us and dragged us through the portal, ready to do to us whatever they did to the gladiators. We’d have answers then, but no guarantees that we could escape and bring the knowledge back to the rest of our team.

We couldn’t go back down the stairs, and if we hyperjumped, we risked revealing our location to Ivy and any cytonics among the varvax.

I felt Alanik’s hand in mine again, her sharp nails gently grazing my fingers. I became aware of my own heartbeat, of our breath in the dark. I held on, and she pulled me gently toward the gate. We couldn’t turn on the mechanism—that would make too much noise and alert them immediately.

Alanik led me to the motorized winch that held the door in place. I knelt beside it, and she sheltered her light-line with her body, turning it on and keeping the orange glow localized over the motor. The varvax continued to argue, their voices growing louder—either they were getting closer or angrier.

I wasn’t an expert engineer, but I managed to find where the crank disengaged from the motor. I turned it by hand, and the gate rose a centimeter with a soft popping sound. I held my breath as I rolled the door slowly, one centimeter at a time, until it was maybe thirty centimeters off the ground. I looked up at Alanik. Was that enough?

She nodded and switched off her light-line. Together we squeezed through the gap, sliding our bodies along the ground.

Suki levitated on the other side of the bulwark wall between the ramp and the stadium seats, her nose peeking out. “Finally,” she said. “One of those robed persons was up here searching for you, but they’ve gone below again.”

“Let’s go,” I said. Alanik and I hopped the wall, and all of us moved up the stairs to return to Gilaf and our light-rope.

The varvax would discover the gap under the gate eventually, but by then we would be long gone.

Twenty

Sadie

“Nedd,” I said, “Dayan is following us.”

“Really?” Nedd said. “I’d have thought they would hope never to see us again.”

“Right?” I had no idea what Dayan would want from us, and when the road cleared, they were no longer standing in the shadows. But I was sure they’d been there.

Nedd believed me, scanning the street. “I don’t see them.”

“They were standing by that building over there, but they’re gone now,” I said.

We were obviously staring, so if Dayan was still watching, they’d know they’d been spotted. I’d begun to wonder if they had fled—or if I’d imagined it—when a voice spoke from the side street to my left.

“Hey,” the voice said. “Over here.”

I turned to see Dayan pressed against the wall between two buildings.

Nedd and I looked at each other. We’d come to get information from gladiators, and if Dayan wanted to talk to us privately, we needed to see what they had to say. But I also didn’t love the idea of being ambushed in a dark alley.

I put my hand in my bag, finding my pistol. I kept my grip on it as I approached. In the dim light between the buildings, I could just make out a recessed veranda behind them, though all the windows in the dwelling were dark.

“Hey, Dayan!” I called. “Did you…want to talk some more? We could find a quiet spot at the bar.”

“I need to talk to you in private,” Dayan said. “Come here.”

I glanced back at Nedd, who was right behind me. We’d closed half the distance between us and Dayan, now thoroughly in the shadow of the alley, out of plain view of the street.