A shooting pain went through his brain, making Zelup writhe and shout. Through it all, the blond man held him in place.
“He hasn’t seen her,” the dark one said after a moment. “He’s been around her but hasn’t found her. Interesting.”
The blond shrugged, pulling tight against Zelup’s windpipe for a moment and then dropping him to the floor. “Useless.”
“Not exactly. I’ve got a location from him. We could go there now, pull her from the clutches of the human doctor he’s been shacking up with. I bet she’ll point us right to the Guardian.”
“Leave her alone,” Zelup roared, struggling back to his feet.
The blond man planted a kick in his chest, throwing him backward.
“Calm down, Vartik. Crying about it won’t change anything.”
The black man took a seat at the center console, running a hand over his smooth head. “There’s really no point in going after her,” he said after a moment. “She’s not awake yet. That means she’s still got her nightmare to contend with.”
The blond nodded. “Fair enough. It will be easier to wait and see if he and his friends can bring her out of it. If not, then she’s no threat. If so, we’ll take her from them after.”
The other man nodded. “I suppose.” He let out a long breath. “I’m so tired of this eternal dance. We push them. They push us back. We hunt them across the stars. They hide and bury themselves in others until we root them out, only to let them slip away and hide again. When will it ever be finished?”
“Cheer up,” the blond man said with a feral grin. “The Battle of the End is at hand, and this time, it really will be the grand finale you crave.”
“Good. I would hasten it however I could.” The bald man looked tired then, as if he’d seen ages pass before his eyes. “Are we done here?”
“Yep,” the blond one said. “Do your thing, and then I’ll do mine.”
The dark man drew close to him, placing a hand to Zelup’s forehead. Before he could struggle away, a darkness covered his mind. As his eyes closed, he saw the bald man nod to the blond one. Then the cloud returned to his ship. When it dissipated, they were gone.
And so was his consciousness.
Sometime later, Zelup woke to the insistent buzz of his communications system. Sitting up with a groan, he pulled himself up and into the seat at the console.
“Yeah,” he said as the image of his brother showed up on the screen. Calabez’s customary grin was gone.
“I’ve been trying to reach you for hours,” he said. “What the fuck were you doing?”
“I—I don’t remember.” Why had he woken up on the floor? And why did his head hurt?
“The women are coming down on us like a thunderstorm. Mayra says you’ve been attacked by Dark Ones, and Kara says you need to get back to Pallas immediately. Something’s gone wrong in the lab.”
Zelup’s heart felt like it had been stabbed through by an icicle. “What the hell did you just say?”
“Our little sister’s established some kind of passive link with the doctor. She says she’s been sucked into some kind of—what did she call it—a ‘fucked-up funhouse.’ Whatever that means.”
His brother’s words hit him like a ton of bricks. “Fuck. I can’t go back yet, though. I have to get something for her before I leave the badlands.”
“What in the goddess’s name are you doing there?” That was Nojan. He’d cut in on the feed, splitting the screen in two.
“Dawn needed something for her experiments. Some element.”
“Which one?” Nojan questioned him impatiently.
“Uh, hold on,” Zelup said, pulling out the card. “Chromium-137.”
Nojan’s dark brows furrowed. “There is no Chromium-137. It’s not an element at all.”
“What?!”
Zelup’s heart beat so hard against his chest that he thought it might burst through. His mind, however, was struggling to catch up. He pulled out the card Ladee had given him and read it out loud. “Thirteen quadrotons of Chromium-137 from Illegal Elwind’s Illicit Emporium. Store in specialized packaging not to exceed two degrees celestial Celsius.”
