My father tilts his head, staring at the furious Waywalker.
“Name me shameless?” he says. “Name me cur? I, who walked the stars before you were born? I, who tore suns from the sky and won battles uncounted? You are not worthy to name yourself Syldrathi, whelp.”
“This is your fault!” she roars. “ALL OF IT!”
He glowers at the woman, a faint glow flickering in his irises. But I see his contempt and anger crack for a moment, a small shadow on his heart.
“Saedii … is …”
Tyler rises, lips peeling back from his teeth as he raises his disruptor. “Get the hells off my ship, motherfucker.”
“Father,” I say softly. “You should leave.”
His gaze shifts to me, then back to Lae, and at last returns to Tyler. The hint of grief I felt in him is swallowed whole, a contemptuous glance falling on the empty metal flask in my old friend’s hand.
“No wonder you fail. With a captain so worthless as this.”
“If I’m so worthless, Starslayer, how is it—”
But he is gone, vanished with a soundless ripple, withdrawing back to his throne aboard the Neridaa. Lae looks to Tyler, spittle on her lips as she hisses, “We should head over to that vessel and end him, Commander.”
“He would destroy you all,” I reply.
“So frightened of him, are you?” Lae scoffs.
“As frightened as I am hateful,” I reply sadly, meeting her narrowing eyes. “And if you had wisdom, you would be also.”
“It falls to those of Caersan’s bloodline to end his dishonor. He is your father. You should have killed him already to restore your family’s name.”
The ache of Saedii’s loss deepens then. My mother’s death ringing in the halls of my memory beside it, sharpening my tongue as I meet Lae’s eyes.
“Family is … complicated,” I growl. “Do not dare preach to me about mine. You have no idea what it is to be a part of it.”
“Why the hells are you working with that bastard, Aurora?” Tyler asks, his voice soft with wonder and loathing.
“We need him, Ty,” she replies. “I’m not used to wielding the Weapon yet. He’s had almost a decade to learn how to use it, and he knows the note to play on the Neridaa to return us to our own time.”
“How is that even possible?” Chief Toshh asks. Beside her, Dacca chatters and nods her head, whiskers twitching.
“I don’t know,” Aurora replies. “But I believe him. If we can get back there, we can undo all of this! We can destroy the Ra’haam before it hatches!”
“So why the hells are you still here?” Tyler demands. “If you can—”
“The Weapon is damaged, Brother. It needs repairs.”
Tyler’s second-in-command fixes me with black, gleaming eyes. “How you going to manage that?”
“I do not know.” I rub my chin. “Do you have a home base? Someplace—”
Dacca chatters, tail lashing as she watches me with gold, slitted eyes.
“Yeah, we got a home base, Pixieboy,” Toshh growls. “But Maker damn us all if we’re giving its location to the Starslayer.”
“Even if we did,” the Betraskan continues, “we have no tech capable of working on a device like that. Not many starports that specialize in Eshvaren crystal superweapons floating around anymore.”
“There is one, though … ,” Aurora murmurs, thoughtful.
I look to her in question, brow creased.
“The Eshvaren homeworld,” she says, meeting my eyes. “Remember? It was hidden inside that Fold anomaly. Maybe it’s still there.”
I nod slowly. “If there is one place we might repair the damage, it would be where the Ancients created the Weapon in the first place.”
“Where was this … anomaly?” Tyler asks.
“In the Theta sector,” I reply. “We visited there with Scarlett and Finian and Zila after you were captured by the GIA.”
“You’re dreaming, Pixieboy,” de Stoy says. “Theta sector is completely overrun with Weeds. They’re thicker than sketi on a martuush blossom there.”
“If we move quickly—”
“The Ra’haam’s power is augmented inside the Fold,” Toshh says. “It feels the psychic ripples of any living thing that enters, and sends fleets after it until it’s consumed.”
“There must be a way, Tyler,” Aurora says.
“Traversing the Theta sector is a bad plan,” he replies.