Then he crossed in front of her and headed toward the sunken brown couch that looked like it hadn’t been moved or cleaned in decades and flopped down onto it, lifting both legs to sprawl across the cushions.
Cheyenne scowled. He doesn’t know the first thing about me because he doesn’t want to.
When she glanced at Corian, the nightstalker was studying the sprawled L’zar Verdys, who looked like he could have been sleeping if neither of them knew better. Then her mentor met her gaze, frowned, and gave her a curt nod.
“So.” Byrd clapped his hands together and rubbed them vigorously. “We getting back to the interrogation, or what?”
“Not when he’s passed out like that.” Lumil punched the goblin man in the shoulder.
“Oh, right. Like you don’t have anything up your sleeve to pound him back to consciousness.”
“You know what? Maybe my fists need a break. You ever think of that?”
“No, because you never give them a break.”
As the goblins bickered, Persh’al turned toward his computer monitor to type furiously while code Cheyenne couldn’t read scrolled across the screen.
Corian approached Cheyenne with his hands thrust into his pockets and spared a final glance at L’zar. “This is a big deal for all of us, kid. Especially him. He doesn’t show it, but he’s proud of you too.”
“I didn’t come here for anyone’s approval.”
“I know.”
Cheyenne pulled her gaze away from her motionless father and nodded at the Cuil Aní. “What is that coin, really?”
“Exactly what we said it is. The old laws still stand, Cheyenne. I know you’ve heard that so many times, it’s probably lost its meaning.”
She snorted. “It didn’t have any to begin with.”
The nightstalker nodded. “It will. But we’re not exaggerating when we say you taking your marandúr to the Rahalma on the other side will help us protect the humans over here and all the magicals who came Earthside fleeing what’s left of Ambar’ogúl. Who knows, you might just have a bigger part to play in liberating the O’gúleesh who chose to stay home. It’s hard to predict everything.”
“And I have to go put that thing on an altar?”
“You and no one else.”
The halfling ran a hand through her black hair. “Any plan for how we’re gonna pull off something like that?”
Corian smirked. “We’re working on it.”
“Fine!” Lumil spread her arms and thrust her head toward Byrd, who flinched away from her aggressive lunge. “I’ll go get the damn traitor and knock his lights back on. But if he starts talking gibberish, that’s on you.”
The goblin woman stalked across the warehouse, shaking her head.
“Stop.” L’zar’s one-word command was soft, his eyes still closed, but it held enough power to make Lumil freeze on the other side of the couch. “Let him be for a little longer. Tell me what we got out of him so far.”
“Right.” Lumil cleared her throat and tugged down the bottom of her jacket. “That asshole’s been smuggling O’gúl technology across the Border piece by piece. Best we can figure out, it’s been over the last hundred years at least.”
“And he’s figured out how to make the machine parts work with Earthside tech,” Byrd added. “Which is supposed to be, like, impossible.”
“Obviously not.” Persh’al stood from hunching over his keyboard and turned to face the group. “It’s all old-school tech from more than two cycles ago, from looking at what we snagged from that new portal. We already know the new O’gúl tech doesn’t make the crossing, so I’m trying to figure out what the exact components are that do make it across. I still don’t have a clue how that scaly fucker got it all to sync with the dying breed of Earthside relics these humans call cutting-edge.”
Cheyenne smirked. “Accurate description, honestly.”
The blue troll shot her a skeptical look. “You think so?”
“I haven’t found a system I can’t crack into yet. I might be able to help you if I could read any of that.” She pointed at the O’gúleesh code flashing across his screen in white, blue, and green.
Persh’al chuckled. “That’s one more thing we don’t have time for, kid. And I’ll tell you what, I sure as shit don’t have the qualifications or the patience to teach anyone how to read O’gúleesh.”
“Yeah, I didn’t think so.”
“We’ll figure it out. Just takes a little reverse-engineering and some thinking outside the box.” Persh’al thumped his chest with his fist. “But I’ve been here a hell of a lot longer than that scaly bastard’s been smuggling over tiny tech parts in his lizardy boxer shorts. I’m willing to bet my right hand that I know more about Earthside tech than he does.”
Lumil snorted. “Aren’t you right-handed?”
“Yeah. So?”
“I mean, don’t you need that one?”
Byrd sniggered until he stepped back against the table being used as a desk.
Persh’al pointed at him. “Watch it, man.”
“Yeah, yeah. My bad.”
Cheyenne shook her head and looked at Corian. “So, what do we do now?”
The nightstalker scratched behind his tufted ear. “Well, the first step is to make sure the Crown doesn’t find out about L’zar being out. For as long as possible, anyway. We can’t keep it a secret forever, and when she does find out, she’ll double her efforts to take you down however she can.”
“Because he found a way around the prophecy, right?”
Corian squinted at her over a slow, knowing smile. “You put those pieces together fast, don’t you?”
“When I have the pieces? Damn straight, I do.”
His nose wrinkled for a split second when she said it, and Cheyenne looked away to give him a minute. At least he didn’t have to break his promise not to give me those pieces. She glanced at Lumil and Byrd, who’d started bickering again over which one of them had eaten the most Crunchwrap Supremes from their last Taco Bell run. We’ve got Thing One and Thing Two to thank for that.
“And now that she’s passed the trials,” L’zar said from the couch as if he’d been part of their conversation the whole time, “the Heart of Midnight isn’t going
