as a creature claws its way up out of the lair. It’s twenty meters long, sinuous, reptilian, black as midnight—a much bigger, much angrier version of the beastie on Saedii’s shoulder. It throws back its head and bellows, fangs gleaming in the scarlet light, and I feel that roar in my chest. Its claws are as long as my arm. The sting on its tail is as long as the rest of me.
Tyler looks at me, his jaw clenched, his eyes wide as he searches for some way out of this. He’s a tactical genius, my little brother. As much as I rib him about it, as much stick as I give him, his plans have always seen us through. And even though I’m not religious, I find myself dangerously close to praying to the Maker that Ty’s got something up his sleeve.
Saedii’s lips part in slow motion and my heart stills as she begins to speak.
“Wait!” Tyler roars.
The thunder of the stamping feet fades a little. Saedii looks down at Tyler and tilts her head, like he’s a dog that suddenly learned to speak.
“Scar, translate for me,” Ty murmurs. “Everything I say. That’s an order.”
His voice is iron, his eyes are ice, and for a second I can see so much of Dad in him it makes me want to cry.
“Okay,” I say softly.
Tyler turns to Saedii, arms wide. I translate as he speaks.
“My name is Tyler Jones. I am the son of Jericho Jones!”
A stillness falls over the arena at that, Dad’s name rippling among the warriors like flame. Just like I said, they remember the Great Man here, too.
“My father fought your people for years in the war!” Tyler shouts. “He spilled the blood of your warriors by the thousands. And his blood flows in my veins.”
The silence is total now, a subtle and burning anger reflected in that sea of violet eyes. They remember the defeat our father led at Kireina. The shame their entire cabal was subjected to after that loss.
Ty looks up at Saedii, his jaw squared, stare narrowed.
“I’m the commander of this squad. I lead, and they follow. Your brother among them. My sister isn’t a warrior. My crew aren’t warriors. So if anyone’s getting thrown down into that pit, it’s me, and me alone. The son of Jericho Jones doesn’t need help making a handbag out of some lizard.”
I falter at that, my eyes on my brother’s. “Ty …”
“You said these people respect fearlessness,” he says softly, still looking up at Saedii. “This is as fearless as I get. Tell them, Scar.”
I translate, watch Saedii’s eyes narrow at Ty’s words.
“Not them,” he tells her, pointing at his chest. “Just me.”
The Unbroken Templar leans back in her throne, one black fingernail tracing the line of her eyebrow. Her baby drakkan wraps its tail around her arm and trills in her ear. Mama Drakkan bellows in response.
“If you wish to die alone, Terran,” she says, “so be it.”
Saedii nods to the guards around us, and before I can really protest, they’re shuffling us back off the gangplank. I call out as the stamping begins again, a rising thunder building with the pulse in my temples. Ty is my baby brother, the only family I have left. I’m his big sister—I’m supposed to be looking after him.
“Tyler!”
The Unbroken warrior who’s remained with Tyler hands him a small, ornate blade from his belt. The knife is barely big enough to cut a protein loaf, so what use it’s supposed to be against a twenty-meter-long killing machine is beyond me. The Syldrathi warrior in the pit below presses the controls again, and the doors to the drakkan’s lair slam closed. She scampers out of the pit as the beast prowls around underneath us, its roar shaking the deck beneath my feet. My stomach flips and rolls inside me. Fin reaches down to squeeze my hand. Ty looks at me and winks.
“Throw him in,” Saedii calls.
The Unbroken lifts his hand, but Ty’s already moving, jumping down into the pit rather than be tossed in off balance and snapped up before he can react. His boots crunch into the stones, and the drakkan roars.
Its wings must have been clipped, because it doesn’t actually fly, instead leaping into the air and gliding down toward Ty with its fanged mouth open wide.
Ty’s already moving, rolling behind one of those strange metallic outcroppings. The creature crashes to the ground where he stood a moment before, whipping