“Ready to go?” Phox appeared in the doorway, letting in a fresh wave of intense heat before he closed the door again.
I bobbed my head. “Looks like we might make some more new friends soon, though.” I gestured to the blips.
He frowned, waving a hand over the image to zoom in. “I dunno. That many runners in one spot? Something’s up.” Sinking into his seat, he still had that contemplative furrow in his brow as he prepped us for departure.
We left with a roar of engines and swirl of dust, zooming low over the ground as the landscape around us swiftly began to change. The canyon grew shallower and the basin sloped gradually up until, at last, we were humming along a wide-open flatland that wavered and flickered in the rising heat. It reminded me of Death Valley on my homeworld—a place so flat, barren, and unbearably hot, it might as well have been hell. The reddish-white ground was cracked in jagged, squarish patterns, and the faint silhouettes of mountains rippled so far in the distance it was hard to tell if they were real or just a trick of the heat and glaring sunlight.
But there was something else, too.
The second checkpoint rose up in the barren landscape like an ancient Egyptian ruin. The two massive obelisks thrust straight up, the only feature marking the horizon for miles in any direction. The glowing ribbon of light projected between them glinted promisingly.
Not much farther now. We could make it. We could do this.
It wasn’t until we’d almost reached the checkpoint that I saw them. And in the instant my brain clicked, realizing what those dark lumps scattered around the base of the checkpoint were. A coldness settled over my body like a winter freeze.
Phox slowed our pace as we cruised past them. All around the checkpoint, runner crafts lay in mounds of twisted, smoking metal. Nearby, bodies were scattered in bloodied chunks and pieces, so scorched they were barely recognizable. My insides wrenched, my heart kicking hard against my ribs as I stared across the wreckage scattered over the salty ground.
I strained to see if there were any signs of life.
There weren’t.
Every ship we passed was a total loss. The few, still-intact portions of them were mottled with black streaks—probably from gunfire. But some of the ships had odd markings, slices and punctures that smoked and smoldered.
“Looks like Sienne cleaned them out good,” Phox muttered as he took it all in. “You were right. She’s still in the race and apparently somewhere ahead of us. Looks like she stuck around here to rack up some easy kill-points and then moved on. Probably already finished the race.”
“You’re sure Sienne did all this?” I shivered inside my suit, frowning as I leaned in closer until my nose was nearly pressed against the glass.
“Oh yeah. Without a doubt.”
As we passed, I spotted one of the ships that looked like it had been cut clean in two with an odd burn pattern, as though something had melted straight through the metal hull. I pointed to the wreckage. “What kind of weapon did that?”
Phox glanced over and his expression instantly went cold. He looked away sharply and cranked up the throttles again. “An Archilex Scythe, Sienne’s weapon of choice. I told you before, she likes her kills clean, precise, and personal.”
My throat went stiff and I had to look away. The longer I stared, the more that icy feeling in my chest seemed to numb me all the way down to the marrow. “That’s the purple glowing thing, right?” I guessed. “I think I saw her fighting with it before.” I’d only seen it from afar, so I couldn’t make out what it was or how she was using it.
His tone was tight and reluctant as he muttered, “Yeah. She uses it in every race. Archilex is hard to come by and the Renegade Run Moderation Committee threatens to ban it every year. They never do, though. People like to watch it in action.”
I studied his profile, trying to understand. “Why would they want to ban it?”
“Well, as a substance, Archilex is only marginally legal to own in the first place. It’s a mineraloid found at the heart of the dwarf stars at the center of the cradle system.” He tipped his chin toward the swollen red orb sinking low on the horizon before us. “They say it only exists in a semi-liquid form at the very center because of the extreme heat. As soon as it’s removed, it solidifies and becomes completely indestructible. Naturally, that makes it extremely difficult to harvest, let alone make into something usable.” He hesitated, his brows knitting together as his lips pressed together uncomfortably. “But that’s not what makes it so valuable … or deadly.”
I held my breath and waited for him to continue.
“Archilex is said to be semi-sentient. It’s less of a crystal or mineral and more of a … living organism. Sort of. To be honest, not even the Alzumarians fully understand it. But that hasn’t stopped them from experimenting with and obsessing over it. Most of them think it’s the remains of the ‘source’—the original super organism responsible for the creation of the entire universe.”
Um. What? A sentient mineral? “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“I wish I were.” He scratched behind one of his long, pointed ears. “But the Alzumarians have studied it for thousands of years. It has an intelligence, a will of its own, or so they claim. When superheated to mimic the conditions at the center of the star, they say it’s like it comes alive. Speaks to you. Drives you crazy. And if it’s threatened, they say it defends itself. Those defenses are how its survived in the superheated hearts of those stars and many others throughout the universe.”
Tingling chills crept up my spine at the thought. Insane—that was totally and completely insane. “And Sienne has a weapon made out of it? One that can cut whole ships in half?”
Phox gave a
