Valdir nods. “Yes. That is worse than shit.”
“The Blood Eagle,” the same one growls.
“That too.”
“Long battles in armor where you have to shit but can’t because of the crust that—”
Valdir turns on the man. “Aimless babble.”
The growling one growls. “Eggplant.”
Valdir looks over at me. “He was hit very hard.”
The growling one has a pug face and is quite stout. He jumps and grabs an orange. He doesn’t even peel it before taking a bite with chrome teeth. “Oranges.” He throws it over his shoulder.
“That’s a tangerine, you idiot,” Holiday says.
“Do they not mourn their brothers?” I ask Valdir.
“Do not yours?” He nods at Glaucus who shares a joke with another Lion. My Lions are exhausted and somber about their dead, but they share smiles and private words as they help each other walk. “Sefi once told me fruit is never sweeter than after you’ve eaten shit.” He peels a tangerine and eats it before spitting it out. “Not ripe yet.” He considers his braves. “They will mourn later. For now it is enough they know their brothers would smile to see them living. So they smile for their brothers, for they had a good death. Later they will miss them. Later they will mourn.”
I feel strangely comforted by his words.
An armored man with a wolfcloak lands in front of me as we exit the tangerine grove. It’s Screwface. Fresh Lionguards set down behind him. Medici unload from a skiff. I laugh seeing Screw. I put him in the Hollows fallback command center to keep him from the front. It takes time to get used to bionic limbs. He limps toward me with a huge smile that inverts when he sees the state of us all. “My Sovereign, we thought you were trapped. When the Nucleus didn’t arrive…”
“Rath and Votum had us. Why did they—”
“Victra. She dropped Pegasus behind their lines.”
I stare at him. “How…she couldn’t have known where I was.”
“She was already on the way. She knew she needed to stop their momentum. To save the moon,” he says. “I relayed your message to her personally. Told her you needed help.”
“If they doubled back, the counterattack won’t reach her in time,” I say.
“No. She’s on her own and advise we recall the counterattack as soon as possible. She told me to tell you something.” He smiles. “Do not worry for her. Pity them.”
It is impossible not to grin at Victra’s bravado. “The fleet?” I ask.
“It’s not good, but Niobe and Char are putting up one hell of a fight. I’ll take you to the command center.” He looks warily at Valdir.
“Hello, Sky Bastard. Long time. Valdir the Shorn these days, eh?”
“Who are you?”
“Screwface.” He points at his face. “Deep op.”
“Ah.”
Screw looks questioningly at me. I look at Valdir. “There’s no way off the moon. You can either fight or—” Valdir stares hard at me.
“I’ll take him and the rest, please,” Screw says like he’s at an auction. “Howler Den is empty these days.”
“I will not be ashamed to fight under that standard,” Valdir says to me.
Screw sniffs him. “Probably go to the medici first. If anything kills you, it’ll be an infection.”
I look back at my Lions before I go. They are swarmed with medici.
