“Of course I understand. How long do you think you’ll need?”
She turned her head back to the open hatch, studied it for a few seconds, and looked back. “Not sure. At least a short cycle. Could be a couple of long cycles.”
“That’s fine,” I said. “I need to return to the village. What can you tell me about Thaz’red?”
Deep lines of concern creased her brow. “Thaz’red is a pretty complicated city. It’s been destroyed and rebuilt so many times, nobody knows what to do anymore. Instead of fixing things, they usually just weld whatever broke and use it for the foundation of the thing they want to put on top of it, you know?
“They don’t believe in recycling—not really. They just keep piling more crap on top of old crap until all they’ve got is a big, confusing pile of… well, crap. All the streets are crooked. All the buildings are connected to all the other buildings. There are no signs on the street. And either people run around bullying others, or they’re being bullied. It’s a bad place.” She set her jaw. “I should go with you.”
I laughed and pointed at the hatch on the floor. “You think you can tear yourself away from this?”
“It’ll keep,” she said. “What happens if you break something, or you run into a door you can’t get through, and you need it fixed? Or if the vrak’s mech breaks down, are you going to give him your new gun and let him shoot it around your head?”
“Okay,” I said as I held my hands up in surrender. “You’re coming along. We’ll probably need a hacker anyway. Just do me a favor.”
She raised her eyebrows questioningly.
“Keep your pretty head down, okay?” I said. “I don’t want to lose you.”
She smiled again. “I feel pretty around you already. But you can say it as often as you want. I won’t complain.”
Nyna gathered her tools back in her backpack, closed the hidden trap door, and led us back to the elevator. We didn’t talk on the way up, but she did take the opportunity to reach her hand up the back of my shirt to rub my back. Her hand was soft, warm, and comforting.
“You got a plan?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said. “I’d like to go into Thaz’red and smash everything until I find my troops, but I know that isn’t wise. Instead, I’m going to split everyone into two teams. We’ll spread out, but not too far, and make our way to Tortengar’s palace.
“From what you told me about him, I don’t think he’s tough enough to fight me himself. Instead, I think he’ll have a lot of guards, most of who will be untrained thugs who like to smash things. They won’t be a big problem.
“But it’s also likely that he’ll have a few well-trained and well-paid elite troops. You saw what he did at the powerplant. I expect the next batch to be meaner than them.”
The elevator stopped, the door opened, and we stepped out into the dusk.
“Are you worried?” Nyna asked. She’d removed the Spirit-Watcher and was looking up at me with concern.
I shrugged. “I don’t think I am. Not with a mech, a hacker, a dragon-woman, three Void-touched, and a bunch of bloodthirsty villagers as a team. I’ve done this kind of thing before. In fact, I’m looking forward to it. I hope I get to meet Tortengar face-to-face.”
Nyna hopped onto the hoverbike and snorted. “We should make him eat some dirt before you pull his head off. Or a kakul. Something like that.”
We both laughed hard as she took off back toward the village, this time taking the longer route along the beach instead of the twisting turns through the mountains.
We returned well after sunset, but the entire village was waiting for us. Reaver was the first to approach us.
“Discover anything helpful or interesting?” she said.
“Yes,” I said as I glanced at those gathered around, “but I can’t tell you here. Let’s just say I’ve discovered that our old friend Revenge has a cousin. I met her today. Mysterious, dark lady, if you know what I mean.”
At first, it didn’t seem that she did. She mouthed what I’d told her and, suddenly, things seemed to click into place as her eyes opened wide. Beatrix joined us at that exact moment, studied Reaver’s face for a second, then turned to me.
“What is happening?” she asked.
“I’ll fill you in later,” Reaver said out of the side of her mouth, then turned back to me. “So, do you think the cousin wants to be our friend?”
“Yes, I think so, but she’s feeling a bit under the weather at the moment,” I said. “It’s probably going to be a little while. Maybe a year.”
Reaver frowned and crossed her arms. Beatrix looked even more confused than before.
“I need to make our plan for tomorrow,” I called out to the villagers. “But first, has anyone—”
The sound of thundering footsteps approaching silenced everyone and turned their heads toward the gate.
“What is it?” Timo-Ran called to the guard in the nearby tower.
The guard, a woman, stammered for a moment, then turned to me. “I think it’s the vrak,” she said.
“Open the gate,” I ordered. “I’ll go check for myself.”
Two villagers removed the heavy log barring the gate while a third opened one side, then the other. Two lights bounced in the distance. Once in a while, they flashed brightly as their beams crossed the gate, but there could be no doubt. Unless there was another mech out there, and unless it was sent alone to the Ish-Nul, it had to be Skrew. He’d taken a long time to get here. The mech slowed as it reached the gate and stopped in front of me.
“Skrew is here!” a thunderous voice announced from the mech. “It was long run, many jumping. Skrew got… why for are hands on ears?”
“Skrew!” I bellowed. “Turn the damn volume down on that
