“Please don’t turn on me and kill me now,” I whispered. “Please help me move the ice. Please, follow me,” I urged. Except I couldn’t bring myself to leave Levant a third time, here, injured and pinned. It was physically impossible to make my feet move, not in the direction I needed to go. I found myself going to his side, dropping to my knees and curling against him, my arms clutching at his neck, my face buried against his cheek. “Leaving you again—I don’t have it in me, Levant. It’s impossible. I can’t move that ice only to kill us with the ship’s self-destruct.”
“Self-destruct?” he hissed, and I saw the rage recede from his eyes, replaced by a sadness as deep as the one I felt. “That’s the only way?” he asked, and I nodded slowly, clutching at him as if holding on tight could make it not true, make it better. He didn’t tell me to let go, but I knew he would, because as much as he wanted to make me happy, he wanted to protect his people too. He was right.
The sound of ice creaking came again. It was probably the savage I’d freed, moving around, trying to find a way out of the hole. I couldn’t bring myself to care; the things I was already feeling were too big. The ice creaked louder, and then Levant groaned in pain. I lifted my head and discovered the slab had been shoved clean off Levant like it was nothing. The savage hovered at our side like it was nothing, though I saw his flanks heave, and blood dripped from his temple.
“He did it,” Auby said. “I didn’t think a single Naga was strong enough, but whatever he’s on, it’s giving him strength as well as rage…” The Naga snarled at Auby as if he were offended, but hedid not attack. No, he shifted back a little and just stared. With Levant free, he had to know he’d leveled the playing field, at least a little. Maybe his thinking process didn’t go that far, and it was just a matter of repaying me for freeing him.
Now I didn’t need to leave Levant’s side, and we had another shot at moving the ice out of the way in the tunnel. “Can you rise?” I asked my mate, still holding onto his neck like I feared he’d vanish if I let go. Pretty soon, the whole world might vanish on us. We had to hurry, but it took Levant a minute to rise to a sitting position.
“Broken ribs,” he growled, but his tail worked, so he got himself upright. The savage watched us, unmoving, head cocked, a bit like a cat staring at a fly on the wall—as if he were contemplating whether we were worth the effort of pouncing. I tucked myself under my mate’s arm and helped him move into the tunnel, our pace increasing as he got used to moving. The savage remained behind, watching, but still not pouncing.
Auby trotted ahead, light beaming from his eyes, and then the sound of his hooves striking the ice as he tried to burrow through came from ahead. The good boy was already back at it, trying to free a passage to the ship with nothing more than six sharp hooves, his damaged hide, and sheer determination.
When the blocked area came into view, my breath shuddered on a sob. How were we ever going to get through that? Just to die shortly after, when the ship’s explosion would take this tunnel down entirely? A bigger part of me was determined to fix this. It wasmyfault the planet was in the state it was in in the first place, my fault it was tearing apart now. That couldn’t be my legacy. I had to repair this.
Levant and I both pushed and shoved, cutting more with the laser-knife he’d modulated to put out a stronger beam. It burned my hands even through my gloves, but I didn’t care. The pieces were too big and stacked too deep. Once I’d cut and melted a path through one, another would just lie beyond it. Beneath my feet, the ground trembled and shook. The drive was doing something again, and I didn’t dare to believe this was over; it was only going to get worse. I should have destroyed the damn machine when we were here last time, but it hadn’t seemed nearly so dire then.
With a groan, Levant sank to the icy floor of the tunnel, clutching his ribs with both hands. Blood flecked his lips, which meant he had a punctured lung. That was bad—really, really bad—but we were about to die anyway. I kissed him, heedless of the blood on his skin, my mittens wet and cold against his overheated body. “You rest. I’ll keep digging.” His eyes said he loved me; his mouth said he knew we’d lost, but he nodded anyway.
The ground rumbled even more, shaking beneath my feet and bringing loose snow and ice down from the ceiling on top of us. Part of the passage I had managed to dig collapsed, and I wailed in despair. “We just need a small hole. We can do it,” Auby assured me. “I can engage Felicia’s self-destruct. All you need to do is dig a hole small enough for me to fit through.”
The little Revenant was nearly white; he was covered in snow that had crusted on his fur and filled the holes the Dushka had made in his flanks. His lavender eyes glowed at me with certainty, like he believed we could make it. His entire being focused on completing the task I needed completed. “You can interface with the ship’s computer?” Auby rolled his eyes like a pro, which pretty much indicated he thought theFuture’scomputer was primitive and he’d have no issue. I hoped he was right, because creating a passage to the ship big enough for just him was a lot more doable than one I had to squeeze through.
“Auby checked out your flight recorder. I’m sure he’s familiar,” Levant groaned. I glanced at him and worried, because I couldn’t help it. Had his face gone pale or not? I couldn’t tell, but it seemed to me the corners of his eyes were pinched and pale. Then the hair on the back of my neck prickled, and I knew I was being watched. It was the savage Naga, watching from nearby with a curious, but still hostile, expression on his face.
He was hunkered down low, eyes nearly a glare aimed at my back. Maybe he blamed us for getting stuck in a hole he couldn’t climb out of, maybe he just had a case of resting bitch face. Whatever. I glared right back, then pointed at him, although my mitten made that more like a vague hand-waving thing than actual pointing. “If you’re going to hang around, you’d better help dig. It’s in your best interest too, buddy.”
Turning back to the hole I was creating, I carved with the laser, then kicked at the ice to make it crumble. It was the best method I’d figured out, but it was not nearly fast enough. The ground kept shaking, and I could see light beginning to flare again, illuminating the tunnel and the ice around it. Not bright like daylight yet, but I was certain it soon would be, and I was equally certain that when it was, it would be all over.
The sound of snow crunching came from right behind me. I spun on reflex, raising the laser-knife. At the last moment, I held back. It was the ice Naga, but his eyes were not on me; they were on the hole. He glanced once my way, almost as if to check if this was what I wanted. I nodded eagerly, and then his tail hurledforward. He punched through the ice and snow with a massive cracking noise, and then he threw himself into the hole he’d created and started digging like a fiend. It was a bit like a terrier digging a hole in your favorite flowerbed, but much bigger and much scarier-looking. This animal would bite, and you’d need more than stitches and a tetanus shot to recover. Much more.
I knew he was through to the other side moments later because I saw light come through the hole, bright and dangerous. Auby dove into the hole a moment later, not needing any words to understand the urgency. He disappeared with a squeak, and I wondered if that was the last I’d ever see him before the ship’s self-destruct killed us.
Sinking to the ground next to Levant, I curled into him and drank in his presence. “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I should have deactivated the ship sooner, should have told you I loved you sooner, should have… should have never come here and put your world at risk.”
Levant’s breathing sounded like a rattle, terrible and painful, but he squeezed his arm around me and held on tight, his sigils glowing at the edge of his throat. With a wheeze, he said, “Then I’d have never met you. This is not your fault, my love. You did disable the ship; it’s just very broken… We both did the best we could.” He sounded at peace, which was the opposite of what I was feeling. I hoped that wasn’t the injuries talking, sapping him of his strength, his vitality.
Lifting my head, I nuzzled his cheek and wondered if I shouldn’t forgive myself at least a little for my role in this. Coming to Serant was an accident, and he was right. I had been absolutely certain I’d shut down all the systems on the ship and made it gocompletely dormant when we left. It shouldn’t have started back up again; something had happened. Wehaddone the best we could, but I was always an overachiever, and I hated it when my best wasn’t good enough.
My body ached and burned from bruises and from digging so hard for the past half hour. The world rocked and swayed, but curled against Levant, I felt a little bit of that peace after all. I’d found my place, my home, with him; it wasn’t so bad to have things end at his side.
Just as I thought that, I became aware of digging and scrabbling noises coming from the hole toward the ship. A moment later, a head popped out, covered in snow and pale as ice. It was the savage Naga again; he’d made a return trip, widening the hole. His eyes locked onto Levant and me—our intimate huddle—and probably the very sorry state my mate was in. He probably knew right away that Levant was no longer a threat, that he was dying.
“I turned it on, Felicia!” Auby’s cheerful voice announced. Much to my surprise, he popped out from under the arm of the ice Naga like they were already best friends. “You better hurry or you’ll get caught in the blast! This way, this way!” Auby’s lavender eyes blinked innocently at me, and then he turned around, his furry rump waggling as he burrowed back into the hole with the ice Naga, his tail flinging snow back as it swung back and forth like a dog wagging its tail.
Auby talked as if he fully believed we’d make it out of here. Poor guy. I wish I could feel his hope, but even if there was an exit, there was no way Levant could make it now. So I stayed where I was. “No, go,” Levant tried to say, and he weakly pushed at my shoulder. “If there is a chance you’ll make it…” His eyes told me amillion things in that moment, but I’m sure he saw just as much in mine. I wasn’t going. I’d never leave him.
Then his golden gaze grew wide with surprise. I turned and discovered that the ice Naga had crawled out of the passage he’d dug and was approaching. Then he surprised us even more by dipping down and hauling Levant up, slinging one arm over his shoulder and supporting much of Levant’s weight. The pale, icy eyes met mine, and then he jerked his chin toward the hole. I got the message; he wanted me to go through first. I hesitated only a moment, and then I did as he wanted, crawling through.
When my head popped out into brightness like a sunlit afternoon, I drew in a shocked breath. Holly Hannah, was that… was that really what I thought it was? I couldn’t believe it, but now that I saw it with my own eyes, I instantly wondered if the last rounds of rumbling in the ground had been from this. “Auby, is that really the Digmaster? How did it get here so fast?”
“What do you mean?” Auby said, confused. He stood right next to the massive machine, the hatch on the side already open, and by a stroke of luck, it had ended up low to the ground this time. “You increased its speed parameters, did you not?” he added in a tone that said: Duh, you did this yourself. Don’t you remember? “Come on, hurry, we don’t have long! The Digmaster is strong enough to withstand the blast.” I hoped he was right and tried to ignore his softly muttered, “I think.”
The ice Naga must have known about the Digmaster when he came to get us, but he definitely appeared uneasy as he dragged Levant to the hatch. He helped him in, with Auby preceding him, and Levant mustered enough strength to drag himself through the passage to the control room. The savage didn’t follow, so Istuck my head back out of the hatch and beckoned him. “Come on! Hurry! You’re going to die if you don’t get in now.”
He hissed, growled with fury, and paced back and forth beside the Digmaster, eyes frantic as they scanned the massive, worm-like shape of the machine. Then the light inside the tunnel brightened, and ice groaned and creaked above his head. The ship was ready to blow. That decided it for him, even if he probably had no idea of the true threat. He followed me into the hatch, growling like a cornered animal as it shut behind him.
I flung myself into the control room, but he did not follow, remaining in the dark, tight passage. Auby was on top of the controls, hooves striking buttons. Levant lay on the floor, passed out cold but still breathing. The Digmaster hummed as its engines powered up, the sensors blacked out as hatches slid down protectively over them. I had just enough time to see that Auby had managed to make the machine turn just enough to start burrowing away.
