and harsh white devouring flame. Exactly as it had looked following Old Merlin’s magical blow that tossed her into Nin’s lake.
“Gwen! Val?”
“Ari!” Gwen’s shout cut across the wind. Ari tried to yell back, to peer into the darkness of the desert around her. Instead, her eyes watered beyond sight and when she rubbed them, she irritated the burn across her cheek—the one that wouldn’t even be healed by the day she died.
Fuck.
“Ari!” This time it was Val. She willed her feet to move, starting out at a jog toward the sound of their voices. How would she tell Gwen that their plan to get home had come with a new Nin clause? A particularly merciless one?
Ari ran faster, and the flames of destruction in the near distance illuminated a large, swiftly moving shadow. A taneen. A really big one from the size of its legs. The great desert lizard was sniffing her out, had probably caught her scent a mile away. It paused when it saw her, crouching low. Ari eyed the creature and recognized the broken plating.
“Big Mama?” her voice scratched. “That you?”
The taneen pounced, knocking Ari down, and she waited for the moment when its enormous needle teeth pierced her in a hundred places at once. Instead she got a great wet tongue across her arm and shoulder. Two people slid down from Big Mama’s back. Val and Gwen threw their arms around her.
“How long was I gone?” Ari said, ready to hear some Nin nonsense—that they had been separated by months or miles.
“A very miserable hour,” Val said, finally letting her out of the hug. “Long enough for us to assume the worst. We didn’t know if we should stay where we came out in the dunes or make our way toward the city. Then the freakin’ dragon found us.”
“We told her to find you,” Gwen said.
“Oh, no.” Val held his hands up. “I didn’t approach the terrifying Ketchan dragon. That was all Gwen.”
Gwen held on to Ari, radiating nerves. “What is it?”
“Remember before we left, she had those eggs? She’s alone now. Her…” Gwen’s voice choked, her own loss vibrating through Big Mama’s. “Her babies are gone.”
“We’ll find them,” Ari said, speaking of the hatchlings, but also of their little one.
“What if Mercer—”
“Mercer doesn’t kill things they can sell.” It wasn’t exactly comforting, Ari knew, but it was true.
Gwen took the sides of Ari’s neck, directing Ari’s face toward her. “What about Arthur?”
“At rest.” Ari closed her eyes. “Finally.”
She breathed out, looking for that place inside that had never been lonely, that had always been a listening ear or a guiding voice. She could feel the change deeply, as if the eternal candle that was Arthur had truly been extinguished and only the waxy-scented smoke remained.
One king gone from the universe, a new one rising to take his place.
One nightmarish lady in the past.
One monstrous corporation destroying this future.
Not to mention one unforgiving time lock.
Gwen could sense Ari’s fear. “What is it?”
“Later,” Ari said, squeezing Gwen’s hand. “We have to search for survivors.” Her words were eclipsed by a blast of sound and ferocious spin of air. A shuttle pressed down on them out of nowhere, landing hard in the sand so close to Big Mama that the taneen went wild, biting at the air, clawing toward the vessel.
The very familiar vessel.
“That’s not Mercer!” Val shouted.
The headlights on the ship blinded them at first, and then lowered to a humming glow that illuminated the craft. Ari’s gaze traveled to the spot beneath the cockpit’s viewscreen. To the hand lettering Kay used to risk his life to touch up once a year. He’d shimmy into his old space suit, heading into the void with a fraying tether and a worn-out marker.
ERROR
The ship had dropped from the dark skies as if it had been looking for them. Ari thought of her moms and went wild with hope. “Whoa!” she yelled at Big Mama, who was beginning to butt the tiny starship. “Whoa!” She’d been gone too long; this taneen was no medieval horse.
When the cargo door opened, two silhouettes waited on the loading dock. Ari knew instantly that neither of these people were Mom or Captain Mom; still she ran with Gwen and Val toward the open door, caution thrown aside.
She recognized Jordan first.
No longer mortally injured or forced into a handmaiden’s dress, Jordan seemed taller, broader, and stronger than ever. She wore half of her armor from Lionel, as if she’d kept the pieces she truly needed