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We ee on an icy mountainside in the middle of a blizzard The shock of the cold stealsspiky with ice As quickly as possible, we don sonal for Dina and Hit It would have been smart to put it on before we cah to permit extra centimeters In fact, the bounty hunter had to shove his pack before hiear, my teeth start to chatter I’ve been pushed to my physical lione soe and distant

As ait, March wraps his ar to be fine," he whispers "You did it We uess whether we did For all I knoe ht be abandoned, marooned on this icy ers Countless ether for waro back inside If we do that, we ad

At last, just as I’hts appear in the snowstorm, just down the slope from us I start to run

We did it They’re here March is safe

Dina and Hit hug us tight as they pull us into the shuttle, but they don’t waste tih the mechanic levels a look on March that promises she’ll kick his ass for hi, affectionate ass-kickings, and joyful reunions It’s not while we remain on Ithiss-Tor

Hit immediately starts the systems check that will take us out of the atonna be sos" Dina taps away at the panel "Okay, we’re good Strap in, you three"

We comply, Vel and March on either side ofsnow The shuttle slides hard starboard as Hit takes it up, the wind buffeting us all the way I’ve never been more conscious of how thin a skiff can be Then the sky opens up to us, a white tornado bleeding gray at the edges We pierce the heart of it, the drea beneath us

"You know they may never let you come back," I tell Vel quietly

He lifts his shoulders Yes, I know, he says without a word I accept exile if it comes to that

But maybe it won’t come After today, I believe inin the fact that I can My euphoria lasts only until we’ve reached the ship out in orbit There’s talk of a party, but I don’t have the energy Instead, I stagger to e froh, I play it

"You did well, Sirantha, better than anyone could have asked, but I ah"

I sink into a chair, shaking with dread March curls his hands overwith me in silence I re our forces, not ing in diploht another war

Tarn continues, "Our worst fear has coence, the Morgut know the Ithtorians no longer have a powerful fleet To prove their strength, they have attacked an installation shockingly close to New Terra We need all hands--" The satellites give up at this point, leaving h

The war has begun