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This is exactly why I build e in situations like these If they knew aamble on pride of two sorts The first pride is that the Sovereign will not let randson, whom she trained from childhood to take her place when the time comes The second sort of pride is that deep down, she will believe it no great loss if Augustus and his family escape today She has the will and the means to hunt us to the ends of the Systerandson die? I know this because of how she killed her father--not outright, but only when she had the support of all his forainst the tall tyrant and rule in his stead
A won told me to do my worst, if she shouted to kill the boy and suffer the consequences, that would be foolhardy A blunt, brutish de ‘Take n weakness, leteternal ruin on ame another day
A ship roars overhead A stork--built to deploy men in starShells to drop points, but slower thanuphill The bay doors open two hundredas we have the boy, the ship’s speed doesn’tto fetch our people now, Aja Let yourto i like a taunted panther in a zoo, eyes silent, horrible, as if willing the bars between us to disappear
"Sevro, Thistle, check the villa See if anyone uard the boy The rest of you, get the ArchGovernor and his retinue out of the pool
"You’ll want to call off the ripWings," I say to Aja They blink in the darkness kilo will turn into a night a house … but the house escapes! What a dastardly testaht cause" I sht rally around the offended house Some ht What would happen to the poor Pax Solaris then?"
Quinn stays withtoward her weapons as Aja obeys my commands I keep my hand on the boy as the other Howlers splash into the water and e to the for air--some in formal wear, soen, it seeustus holds on to Harpy’s back The Jackal holds on to Clown’s ars on to his feet Where are my friends?
The Howlers deposit the survivors into the bay of the hovering stork high above and return to fetch the rest Victra is the next they bring out She’s hels to her razor as though it were the thing carrying her aloft Her eyes strafe the gathered Praetorians wrathfully, and when they find er falls away for a one and she shouts
"I will re with you, Aja au Grimmus I will make a coat of your hide"
She disappears into the belly of the craft overhead Roque is the next one borne aloft Theodora is with him I say a quiet prayer of thanks Quinn touches ives hiht of her He doesn’t even noticein the back of the ship Thistle soon joins us fro the Teleold arht
"Darrow?" he cries "You leefully "Oh, that’s ripe That’s ripe I owe you a drink, her in the sky, though he ers into the crux and wave them in Aja’s direction
"Tactus," Lysander whispers "He’s taller than in holos"
"That’s the last of them," Sevro says to me
"Tell your master we of Mars do not bow so easily," I say to Aja
The rain beats down between us Dripping over her dark face, so her eerie eyes blaze in the night She breaks the silence I imposed on her
"That is what the Governor of Rhea said when my Ash Lord came to put down his rebellion" Her voice does not sound like her own It’s as though soh her "He looked at the thin hed and asked why he should bow to n is speaking in Aja’s ear, through her co the words My blood runs cold
"The Governor of Rhea sat upon his Ice Throne in his famed Glass Palace and asked one of my servants, ‘Who are you to breathe fear into a man such as I? I who have descended from the family that carved heaven fro but a hell of ice and stone Who are you to make me bow?’ Then he struck the Ash Lord here under the eye with his scepter ‘Go home to Luna Go home to the Core The Outer Reach is for creatures of sterner spines’ The Governor of Rhea did not bo his moon is ash His family is ash He is ash So run, Darrow au Androions will follow you to the ends of this universe"
"I hope so," I say
"You have one bargaining chip," the Sovereign, through Aja, ree If he dies, I wipe your ship fro o, Darrow" Quinn leans into my shoulder She sets a hand on my low back, as if to remind me I am not alone I nod to her She coversaround his neck
Quinn eyes the Praetorians warily and rises to follow I have one bargaining chip
What did the Sovereignme that I could only spend it once? Only kill Lysander if my back was to the wall? Then I see why as Aja looks at Quinn rising froround as a cat looks at a mouse