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The view of the rolling hills before us is spectacular They stretch out for klicks before they level off and reach a forest that’s only a dark line from this distance Between the base of the mountain and the start of the forest lies the Icarus

She’s strewn out over a huge distance, ripped apart by her descent Though sections of it have collapsed in the unfae part of her hull is intact, with her trail shohere she caround My heart thu the trail of debris--ruined escape pods that didn’t detach until the ship broke apart, chunks of s I can’t begin to identify

The Icarus held fifty thousand souls I wish I could believe that any of thele pod that I can see is intact, and the ship herself is beyond all redemption

But it’s what’s not there that nearly drivesaround the ship’s carcass There should be crews cli all over her like so many ants There should be people, life, salvation But what lies before us looks like nothingon to the hope that we could have soet as far as the crash site, rescue would be waiting for us there But there’s not even a hint of other survivors

After everything we’ve been through, I finally ad since we landed

I don’t think anyone’s co for us

And I don’t knohat to do, except try to stay alive The wreck and the broken pods below us must hold the soldiers I sparred with, the folks I met on the lower decks The man who conned his way into the first-class salon to petition Lilac Her gaggle of friends, her bodyguard, her cousin

I take a breath, and turn to beginmy way down the mountain

"Just--just stop" Lilac’s voice cracks behind ed with ee, stuck in place She’s flushed, or burned fro across her forehead, daaze on me, I flinch "I need you to look Look at me; look at that, Tarver"

"I see it" My own voice sounds nearly as bad, unused for so long "But we can’t stay here We need to keep walking There ht be supplies in the wreck, soe"

She sways, then sinks to the ground in utter exhaustion "When are you going to stop punishingcrazy after all? I saved your life We’d never have survived the cave-in"

Lilac, I know I knoe’d never have survived it I know you heard or saw so before you ran, I watched it happen I know you saw so real by the river I know

But I can’t letI’ve been trained for, anda crazy person across a wilderness than cope with the possibility that she’s receiving coht is more than absurd; it’s i I know goes out theAnd what I know has kept us alive this far

She’s still looking at me wearily, pain written clearly in her expression "I’ to punish you," I say finally "But I can only work fro, and in a place like this, I know even less than usual But what I do know is that we need to keep ainst her knees, and roans under the pressure I wish I knehat to do, or even what to say I wish I knew anything useful at all

"So you’re going to shrug it off again," shefor anything I could find to show you I’ic told ht And now that we both know I’, but the harsh edge to her voice is anger "Just once, Tarver, just once, I wish you could see what I see"

She speaks the words like a witch in an old story, laying a curse on e below us

"I’m sorry, Lilac I don’t knohat you see I only kno to keep us et out of this place, you won’t ever have to see ain But I can’tto her feet, slow and painful, and if looks could kill I’d be dead and buried "I hope that one day you’re forced to believe in soot a shred of proof" Her voice is taut like wire "And I hope sohs in your face for it"

She stalks off down the ht her this--the ability toher way down the snowy path with her back ranation I wonder where she finds the strength for it

"I’ at you," I whisper I adjust the pack and start to makeor two about trailblazing in the tiood tih eventually she starts to slow from exhaustion