“I’m not transferring you here.”

Jhor stood, hands on hips, eyeing the lumps of decaying human body parts, Sanna behind him and focused on Dreamer. Neither showed disgust at the strengthening smell, fear, unease, just growing anger laced with loathing.

Lapis could not explain, but the thought of crossing Sanna terrified her. The atmosphere felt charged, ready to deliver something dark and lethal, and because she had no clue what that might be, her mind created its own punishment—and she dreaded her half-churned fantasies coming to fruition, of khentauree ripped apart like those unfortunate mercs. Would she send him to silence? Or would she leave him functioning but without the means to move?

Dreamer must have realized his danger, for his outraged ground-pounding with Chiddle did not materialize, and his movements remained slow, deliberate, so he did not provoke her.

“The big tunnel has enough room,” Chiddle said, flipping his hand at the closed door. “The humans there are bones.”

A ringing endorsement for the tera-khent’s behavior. She eyed the portal, and her emotions floated to the bottom of the raging helplessness and distrust. She should have stayed in the temple, as Patch suggested, instead of returning to the scene of terror, but her sense of obligation to her fellows overwhelmed her anxiety. She could handle the dead bodies despite the nausea gnawing her stomach—she handled the Pit, after all—but why did she think she could protect any of them if Dreamer became violent?

“While the blank looks in good shape, I need to make certain the interior matches the exterior,” Jhor continued. “So I’ll be running a diagnostic. If you want to watch, fine, but we’re going to move everything into that tunnel first.”

Dreamer rumbled in displeasure but did not protest as one of the local khentauree who had arrived with her companions trotted to the door and opened it. Lapis did not know if they were the ones who had helped Dov capture her and Fraze, but assumed they lived at the Cloister, and probably called the huts near the temple home. She wanted to ask about it, but the rush to get up the side of the cliff, combined with her weariness, made her set the questions aside.

At least she and Brander had dozed their way to relative spryness. The rest looked like they ran on the fumes drifting off wake juice, and even those were depleting.

Patch and Mairin thought they should leave Dreamer to his fate, especially after Lapis described the unlucky mercs. A part of her agreed, but Jhor refused to break the agreement. He wanted to prove to the Cloister and Shivers khentauree that he and the Ambercaast mechanical beings kept their word, a way to gain local trust despite leadership disapproval. In this, he and Sanna did not think they had to succeed in the transfer, as long as they attempted to stick Dreamer inside the smaller body. She had the impression that, if the khentauree had cared for the exterior but neglected innards, that the blank was not fit for an inhabitant, but they would try anyway.

The newly arrived khentauree took charge of the cart and hauled the empty chassis to the door, running over the human remains rather than avoiding them. Their fellows followed, pulling another heaped with equipment that looked more like random junk rather than important technological instruments. Lapis closed her eyes and turned away; she could have ended up one of the disregarded dead, only fit to decay in the once-hallowed halls of the Cloister. It seemed a worse fate than being thrown into the Pit, since someone would have to take the time and care to put her in there.

Jhor looked at their clustered group. Sovicci and his companions remained with them, so they numbered more than the Cloister khentauree in attendance, though Lapis did not think even that tipped a potential battle in their favor if the tera-khent fell to rage again. Of course, they could flee into the temple passage, and he had no way to follow them, a small boon.

“Linz, Caitria, I’ll need your help,” he said in a low, calm tone. Both nodded, their façades blank of overt emotion; even rebels, accustomed to the aftermath of Dentherion battles, found the death lying around them disturbing. The squeal of metal grinding against metal drowned the rest of what he said, and he moved closer while Dreamer gained his feet. “I don’t think it’s wise to use the large tunnel door as a barricade, in case we have problems from that side. With the tridents wandering around, we can’t predict exactly which way they might choose to go.” He leaned close and eyed her, Patch, and Brander, then rolled his eyes to the side and tipped his head to the tera-khent.

Lapis had no idea what he meant, but something important enough, he felt obliged to point it out.

Dreamer took a step, dragging his arms behind him, limping. She had not realized the extent of his damage, but now that fear did not cloud her, she noticed the dents, the cracks in the chassis, the holes. The Cloister must not have extraneous parts for the tera-khent, or they would have replaced the damaged sections. No wonder he wanted to transfer; he either entered the blank or failed within his current shell.

“We will guard the temple entrance,” Sovicci said as he watched the slow progression of humongous khentauree across the floor, crushing everything in his path beneath his hooves. Lapis rubbed her throat, but she doubted that would help soothe her rising gorge. “It is not only tridents but Dov that we must watch for.”

“Thank you for the help. Did Vision speak to you?” Jhor asked.

“Yes. She is pleased, rather than upset. She must think this is best for Dreamer.” Sovicci cocked his head. “We consider her a Cloister khentauree, not a mine khentauree, but she is neither. I think she wishes us all well, even if she shows it in strange ways.” A crackly sigh escaped from him. “Perhaps, if she had not withdrawn, Luveth would not have gained so prominent a voice.”

“Why did she?” Sanna asked.

“Some is part of her. Some is Luveth. She was an advanced prototype called a recon assist, and the Golden One bought her so he could brag about the important people he knew in the Taangis government. Recon assists were secretive scouts during military operations, but she had something more. Gedaavik coded her before she arrived, for she already acted like a special khentauree. She was very much not like us, and did not hide her difference. The Golden One hit her in great anger when she embarrassed him in front of guests. She disappeared, and the Stars hunted for her but never found her. She would speak to khentauree, but only khentauree, and only in remote locations. She broke her hermit existence during a secret Gedaavik visit, and he was happy to see her. Luveth decided he had meant for her to protect us from Ree-god, but she neglected us instead, and built her prestige on the resentment her words created.”

“I thought Luveth follows Ree-god,” Lapis said.

“Yes.” He did not elaborate, but the sense of ‘I know something you do not’ made her curious. She recalled Tuft talking about how the priestess had a chance to change her charge when Taangin troops invaded the mines, and questions abounded about the assumptions and interactions between the Cloisters and Shivers khentauree. She needed to wait to ask them; another, more pressing, question, zipped to the front.

“Will Luveth be upset about Dreamer using the blank?” She did not want to have a khentauree head beam blasting through her skull for something the tera-khent demanded they do.

“Yes. But Luveth is not awake. We would all know, if she were. She would tell Dov to attack. They are dangerous, and they will harm other khentauree if she asks it of them.”

“Maybe we should offer him time to dream,” Lapis said. “If Dreamer gets his dream, then so should Dov.”

“Well, he may not give us a choice in that,” Jhor said.

“Yeah.” Patch settled his tech weapon over his shoulder. “Mairin, they’ll need a guard.” She raised her tech weapon and nodded. “Heven, what do you want to do?”

“I don’t want to be with Dreamer.” Her buzz, so soft and defeated, tore at Lapis’s heart.

“Then stick with us. Chiddle?”

He glanced at Sanna. “I will stay with you,” he said. “We are concerned, if I join Sanna, that Dreamer will think it a threat.”

He probably would.

Jhor stretched and winced before eyeing the tunnel. “This will take time, and not just because I need to see if the blank’s in working order,” he said. “The amount of memory a khentauree persona takes is extraordinary, and we don’t have access to the fastest equipment. With all four of us, it should proceed quicker, but it’s past nightfall. We’re tired, and that’s going to lead to mistakes. We all need to catch some sleep if we can.”

They split after Dreamer slogged through the doorway, trailing blood, bits, and dirt behind him. Sanna placed her hand on Jhor’s shoulder, and he patted it before proceeding around, rather than through, the bodies. Lapis had no idea what to do with them. Should she ask Heven about where the khentauree might place them for burial? Or, as in other parts of the complex, would they leave the rotting flesh there, to turn to bones, a warning to future humans about encroachment?

She should be accustomed to the disregard of human life—the Jilvaynan puppet king and his Dentherion masters thrust that into the faces of the Grey and Stone Streets residents every day. But this seemed worse.

“How far down the tunnel will they go?” Brander asked, arms folded as he watched Caitria, Linz and Mairin give the deceased a wide berth.

“Far enough to keep the khentauree from noticing us,” Patch hazarded. Lapis frowned up at him, but his attention focused on the space Dreamer vacated. She looked.

Glowing blue, drippy paint created a rectangle that looked like a door.

“Heven, do you know what’s behind the door?” she asked.

“No. Dreamer only allowed Luveth and Dedi to enter. Tuft may know. He sneaks into places others do not want him.”

“He might,” Sovicci agreed. “But he is busy with other things.”

So it was up to them to break in and see what the tera-khent hid.

Lapis expected a difficult entry, where they needed to pry the door open with whatever tools they could scrounge up in the room and in the temple area. Instead, once they deemed Dreamer sufficiently far away, Heven pranced past the circle of stalagmites and pressed the side; the door slid into the rock wall with ease. That, more than the entrance itself, made her wary; it meant something important sat inside, since the Cloister khentauree cared for it.

A closet. Shelving filled the sides of the small, unlit room, and materials bulged over the edges. She had no idea what some of the items were, but Heven and Chiddle mad-buzzed at each other, so they must have some importance.

Brander planted his lower arm across the blue paint and leaned in. “There has to be more to this,” he said. “They had a giant tera-khent sit in front of it to barricade it.”

“There is,” Patch said, his eye whirling. “There’s a room beyond.” He touched the shimmering lights and they sped up. “I don’t think it has anyone inside, but I thought that before Dov grabbed Lanth.”

She frowned at him. “What do you mean?”

“I scanned that hallway, and I didn’t pick up anything. I was as surprised as you when they snagged you.”

That disturbed her. “Do you think the interference messed with your patch, like it did at Ambercaast?”

“Maybe.”

“Did you tell Jhor?”

“Yeah, but we haven’t had time for him to look.”

Heven ended the buzzing with an abrupt shake of her head and trotted inside. She shoved her arm past the stored items and felt along the wall; it took a few moments, but she triggered the door. It slid into the wall, leaving the shelving in place, revealing a white-tiled hallway.

Scooting the shelving with screeches, the two khentauree made enough of a gap to allow their chassis through, and slipped inside.

The short hallway was lit on either side by two, head-height white strips that had tiny, illuminated bulbs running the length. Beyond was a round room emitting the over-clean feel of a pristine doctor’s office. Consoles and blinking tech filled the right-hand wall, and a ceiling-tall slate board filled the left. Chiddle rushed to the board and stared at the symbols and diagrams, then touched a lone piece of chalk set in the holder.

“Gedaavik,” he hummed. “He wrote this.”

“It’s that old?” Lapis asked, stunned, as Brander joined Chiddle and peered at the ancient text.

“These are formulas for alternative power sources to aquatheerdaal and sponoil,” Chiddle told them, tapping at the surface. “I do not know the extent of his testing, but the compounds come from common local materials, and he lists places to find them.” He cocked his head and trotted to a boxed diagram. “This is information on how to modify the chassis to accept the new sources.”

“So that’s why they hid this room,” Patch said.

“Yes. Gedaavik cautioned all of us to keep his code secret from owners.” He paused, hand raised, then slid his fingertip through one of the symbols. Chalk did not brush off; flakes floated from it. “It is painted on,” he said. “That is why it lasts.” He took a step back and looked around the room. “He did the same for Ambercaast. He sourced local materials if possible, suggested alterations to our bodies so we could use it. Ghost has always done as Gedaavik bid, but the rest of us still used sponoil because we knew it worked—until the enemy harmed Sanna. There was reason to change, so Sanna changed. Jhor helps, for there are some oddities.”

While Lapis understood the need for secrecy after the attack on Ambercaast, she wished they had imparted that info earlier. What would have happened if Sanna had suffered another injury, and they attempted to help with sponoil?

“Heven, has anyone been modified to use these sources?” He regarded Heven, who stared at the consoles, hands clenched.

A large screen sat in the middle of everything, divided into twelve desaturated image boxes. Four distinct sets cycled through before returning to the original. Surveillance tech? Each one focused on a different place, and while a couple appeared to capture activity in the Shivers, most were from the Cloister.

“This is how they knew,” Heven hissed, as pissed as any khentauree Lapis had heard. “They spied, to make certain we behaved. Luveth would make more code, force us to pray as the Stars commanded if we deviated.” Her head swiveled around to them. “Your Jhor. His code disabled much of it. How did he know she did this?”

“He did not,” Chiddle said. “He and Sanna wished to exorcise foreign code because they knew the blue deer scientists would force it on you. All recent installs would be considered foreign.” He continued in the low buzzing, and Heven’s frantic replies tore at Lapis. Without words, she heard fear and pain. Whether khentauree mimicked those human emotions did not matter; she expressed them to enhance what she said.

Also interesting, that his code did more than she thought.

“This is what they’re looking for.” Brander stared at the neat lines on the slate board, awed.

“That makes sense,” Patch said. “We know the markweza was searching for khentauree to serve as examples for a mechanical army. With aquatheerdaal depleting, he couldn’t create death-dealing machines without an alternative power source, and if the scientists he hired discovered that Gedaavik already came up with something based on more common materials, why not use it?”

“Maybe that’s what Fraze recovered at Ambercaast, and why Caardinva decided that, after things deteriorated at the mines, he’d zip on to the Shivers.” Lapis folded her arms and sucked on her lower lip. “If Fraze found references to alternative power sources in Gedaaviks’s notes, you’d have greedy nobles, greedy mercs, greedy scientists, greedy shanks, all interested in keeping that info for themselves. Can you imagine, popping up with an aquatheerdaal replacement when desperate governments, corporations, and institutions can’t find one? You’d be the most sought-after person across three continents if you played it right.”

“You said that Caardinva’s working for Kez’s descendant, didn’t you?” Patch said.

“Yeah. So it makes sense that Caardinva reported to Mesaalle Kez that Fraze found info on a power source that could replace aquatheerdaal, and the places they needed to look. Even if she didn’t know about the Shivers mine to begin with, her family still owns a mining company. Looking at historical investments probably gave her info on the Shivers and its location. She might even have diaries or journals or other references that could give insights into what was going on here. Velensaans talked about reading Ree Helvasica’s research, and knowing she worked here could have convinced them they could find something worthwhile, and if they happened upon more special khentauree, all the better.”

“And this explains the focus on drilling and the breaking through walls to get at hidden rooms.” Patch rolled his head on his neck. “Khentauree are secondary, an alternative power source primary. Hey, Chiddle, Heven, do you think Gedaavik put this formula in more than one place?”

The khentauree quieted and focused on the board.

“I know of no other room that has this,” and Heven swished her hand at the board. “I asked Sovicci. They say that Tuft is more open with them about the hidden rooms with many papers. Those may have something humans consider important.”

“So that room the scientists broke into really could hold something of monumental contemporary importance.” Patch thrummed his fingers on his arms.

“The khentauree with Tearlach say they have encountered the enemy, but they will tell him after the fight,” Chiddle said. “They may meet more resistance than they expect.”

“Caardinva will be more vicious, with fame and fortune dangling in front of him,” Brander agreed. “And if Kez has threatened him to produce results, he’ll be taking chances.” He jerked his thumb to the outer room. “That explains Dreamer’s reaction to the red tridents. I wonder if they came here on purpose, looking for this room.”

Movement from the screen caught Lapis’s attention, and she peered closer before the images changed. “I think one of those is surveilling the fight.”

They crowded around her and waited for the cycle to return. Sure enough, one showed a tech-heavy conflict, mostly with beams flashing bright and smoke making visibility poor. Had someone decided explosions would solve their problem? Should she count them lucky, the blue deer mercs had not brought the mine down yet?

She glanced at others, wondering if she could see backup coming to help the enemy. The screen changed.

“No, no! Get it back!” She grabbed Heven’s arm. “Get it back!”

Chiddle slipped his arms around her on either side and typed into the keyboard as both Patch and Brander frowned at her; another window popped up, and the screen switched back to the previous display.

Patch swore. She set her fingers over the box, watching a group of six red tridents, menacing in their stiffness, tech at the ready, standing guard over five hand-tied blue deer mercs, four khentauree, and Rin. Reyanne spoke to a seventh, and she, her family, and the scientists stood apart from the rest. She handed something to the seventh, and three scientists protested, but she whirled, grabbed their arms, and pushed them away. They stumbled away and disappeared from the picture, their fellows scurrying after, leaving behind all others in the white-tiled, gold-decked Cloisters hall.

Her son pointed at Rin, but she snagged his hand, carted him around, and yanked him after her. He looked over his shoulder, and her brother shook his head at the kid, giving him that quirky, street urchin grin that pretended everything was fine while their world fell into pieces around them. The husband hesitated; the seventh faked slamming the butt of his tech into his face. He jerked back, Rin said something, and he turned to trail his wife, his arms wrapped tightly around the little girl draped over his shoulder, his face a still mask.

“Where are they?” Panic laced with death-dark rage infused her as the red tridents took custody of the group and poked tech into bodies to get them moving. The enemy was going to find out Rin came with another group, if Reyanne had not already told them, and they would not be kind to him. They were going to kill him.

Whatever she gave in return for freedom, Lapis would make certain it haunted her until the day she died.

“The Floral Way,” Heven said, her shoulders slumping. “It runs from the Stars Landing to the Golden Room, where the Stars’ Prophet delivered private sermons to important guests.”

“It leads outside?”

“Yes. It’s the way we take, when we need to find supplies. The khentauree, they now call for help.”

Chiddle set his hands on her shoulders and Patch gripped her lower arm. “Lanth, breathe,” he commanded. Breathe? She had to rescue him and help the khentauree!

“They are not fighters,” Heven said, worried. “The khentauree are not hunters or guards, and many do not have offensive capabilities. Kez preferred non-combat khentauree to work in the mine and the Cloister.” She looked at Chiddle. “I do not hear Tuft. They call for him.”

“How do we get to the Floral Way from here?” Lapis knew her voice shook.

“It’s near the cave we met your companions in,” she said. “It was once a landing pad, so has open space, with no trees or brush.” She crossed her hands over her breast.

“Show me how to reach them,” Chiddle said. “We will go.” He looked at her, Patch and Brander. “Heven is not a fighter, she must stay. We will go and rescue the captured.” He pivoted and slipped into the storage closet. Heven’s unhappy humming followed them.

They had to race past Dreamer. Lapis did not care. Sanna held out her hand and Chiddle took something from her, and Caitria stood.

“Tracking, Patch!” she shouted. He pressed his hand against his patch and waved the ‘all clear’ finger sign at her as rusting metal clumps hid them from view.

The crumpled vehicles, the bones, and the musty smell of long-ago death and destruction made no impact. The sight of the Dreamer-destroyed ramp did not make her pause. She would wade through the Pit to help Rin, who, after five years, had embraced being her little brother. She needed more time with him, to figure out how to be an older sister.

Her heart pounded hard, not from exertion, but fear. The same throat-tightening terror filled her, as had accompanied her to the shanks lair when those assholes took him.

“You shouldn’t let Rin out of the Eaves again,” Patch puffed.

Her crushing anxiety gave way to enraged annoyance. “What?”

“Rats get into trouble as easily as they breathe,” Brander said. “And Rin is rat times two.”

Lapis did not know whether to grumble or scream at their humor. “Reyanne did this.”

“Jhor said she wasn’t trustworthy.” Patch lifted his lip and his patch lights spun faster. “I didn’t take that as seriously as I should have.”

“Rin and I saved her family, and this is how she repays us?” She knew betrayal, she knew the poison dart of doubt and helplessness it inflicted, and she knew another had just joined Perben on her revenge list.

A squashed vehicle with two pointed pieces of metal sticking out the front blocked the exit. Bones and ratty cloth surrounded it, so either the blockage prevented the long-ago humans from fleeing, or Dreamer threw it at them and crushed them. Lapis hated the reminder of his nasty temper.

Chiddle triggered a light from his head, but they only ran a few steps before halting at the edge of a black crevice. A bridge once crossed it, but the grated metal had collapsed, and a large jumble of red and yellow bits stuck up from the gap. The mass of stuff confused her. She could not discern what was what in the dim illumination—but knew they had no way across.

“Heven’s memory does not recall this blockage,” Chiddle said. “There is a way around, but we must backtrack to the ramp Dreamer destroyed.”

That was too far back. Lapis grabbed a dented pole and leaned over, looking for a foothold among the clutter. “That will take too long.”

Patch’s patch lights raced as he studied the wreckage. “I don’t think there’s anything stable, Lanth.”

A soft blue light flared behind them, and ice zipped across, forming a wide path.

“They kidnapped my people, too,” Tuft hissed as he trotted to them. He held out his hand to Lapis. Cold haze coursed around him, penetrating her outerwear and freezing her inner. “Come with me. Chiddle and I can reach them faster if you ride.”

She grasped his hand. She would throw her personal fury at him aside if he helped her save Rin.