“I s-suppose killing two of those b-bastards in one lifetime was a b-bit much to expect,” Tyler winces.
“Get up,” I tell him, slinging his arm about my shoulder. “Quickly.”
“Forg-get it,” he coughs, chest rattling. “G-go.”
“No,” Lae breathes, looking at me. “We must—”
“We will.” I ignore Tyler’s bloody protest, hauling him upright. “Father!”
He glances at me, eyes ablaze, swimming in the blood as if born to it.
“Father, we must fall back!”
“Go, then!”
Gasping, desperate, Lae and I drag Tyler down through the tunnel leading to the throne room. The walls pulse in tune around us, the screams of the dying and the thrum of power washing over me like rain. Again I feel that warmth, but again I feel the wrongness between us, the shadow.
Aurora floats in the room’s heart, head back, eye burning with the light of a million suns. I grimace, lower Tyler gently, my hands covered in his blood.
Lae’s face is twisted, eyes filled with tears. “No …”
“Aurora!” I roar. “HURRY!”
My father has followed us into the throne room, backing away reluctantly, step by bloody step. The Ra’haam follows, and in final, bitter desperation, he roars, arms outstretched.
The crystal walls splinter, and the Neridaa seems to cry out in pain as the tunnel collapses, sealing us inside.
But they are already battering on the barrier, and I know for all it cost him, he has only bought us a few minutes.
“It is not broken,” my father growls.
“… Father?”
“Weakling girl!”
The walls around us shiver, Aurora’s cheeks shining with tears.
Tyler takes Lae’s hand and squeezes, his breath now swift and shallow.
“She was p-proud of you.”
The light in him fading.
“I am t-too… .”
Tears spill from Lae’s shattered eyes. And I see it then. Focusing on her face—the pride, the ferocity, those features so odd and yet so familiar. Her hair that curious alloy of silver and gold.
Tyler’s words ring in my skull over the sound of the approaching enemy.
“I actually teamed up with her and her old crew to fight the Ra’haam.”
“She was a hell of a woman, your sister.”
“I always thought Saedii hated our mother,” I say, looking between them. “But her name …”
“… was Laeleth,” Tyler whispers, smiling sadly.
“Brother … ?” I whisper.
The last of him fades. The light in him extinguished.
Lae bows her head, silver-gold braids drenched bloodred hanging over her face as she opens her mouth. Her scream rings on the walls, echoed by Aurora, by the Neridaa herself, the power crashing against the growing cracks like waves upon a stony shore. I reach out to my friend, tears in my eyes.
“Brother …”
“Get up,” a voice spits.
I turn toward him, as ever looming above me like a shadow.
“Get on your feet!” my father roars, glowering at the pair of us. “We are Syldrathi! Our ancestors walked the stars when his were slime in the ocean! There is a war to be won, and still you weep for this Terran cur?”
Lae turns, teeth bared in a snarl.
“Do not dare,” she spits. “Do not dare to name my father cur.”
The walls thunder again, the things in the collapsed tunnel digging closer, the ceiling shaking, broken crystal falling like rain.
“Father?” The Starslayer’s eyes flash, and he spits blood on the floor as the Neridaa shakes. “A Terran? Disgusting. What kind of honorless wretch would lie with the likes of him and still name herself Syldrathi?”
I shake my head, almost laughing.
“You are such a fool.”
“And you are a child,” he snarls. “Ever your mother’s son.”
“And proud of it!” I roar, rising. “And if you had given me but one drop of the ocean of love she did, I might still say the same of you! But all you are is hate!” I spread my arms, taking in the shaking ship, the broken rainbow light. “And this is what comes of it! The end of a galaxy! And for what?”
“For the honor of our people, boy!”
“You killed our world! You killed our people! What honor lies in that?”
“They were traitors!” he roars. “They sought peace with the Terrans! No true child of Syldra would abase themselves by lying with our enemies!”
“Tell that to your daughter!”