"FREEZE!" Cody bellows, and the word cracks across the silence like a thunderclap. He advances two steps, weapon locked on the approaching figures.
The figures stop. One of them extends trembling hands toward us, palms out and pleading, and I see a flash of familiar lavender-gray skin. The other sways, as if it is about to fall.
They speak. Their voices carry across the sand, thin and ragged, forming words in a language Cody cannot understand.
But I can.
The sound of Ostium hits me like a fist to the chest. I have heard this language spoken in laboratories and the cold gray rooms of my captivity. I have heard it in the voices of scientists who treated me like a specimen and guards who treated me like an animal. I have heard it in Premier Sator's gentle tones and Queen Diamalla's cruel sneer.
I never expected to hear it here.
As they draw closer, details sharpen. They are Ostium males. Their skin has the characteristic gray-lavender hue, but it is dull and ashen, lacking the subtle luminescence of a healthy Ostium complexion. Their multi-faceted silver eyes are sunken, the light in them dimmed. Their luxen groves are barely visible, as if their bodies have conserved energy by shutting down even the capacity for expression.
They are rail thin. Bones visible through papery skin. Clothes that were once uniforms now hang in tatters, bleached and shredded by the desert. One of them stumbles, and the other grabs his arm to steady him, nearly going down himself.
They look like how I looked when Cody first carried me from that cell.
The recognition is a knife between my ribs.
I step forward to Cody's side and call out in Ostium. The language feels strange on my tongue. A bitter, familiar medicine. "Who are you? Identify yourselves."
The effect is immediate. Both males crumple to their knees. Desperate, broken sobs shake their skeletal frames. One of them begins to speak through it, words pouring out in a torrent of Ostium that I struggle to parse.
"Please… please, we are not soldiers… we were brought here, forced… the pheromone, the Regina pheromone, it controlled us… we had no choice…"
"The ampoules ran out… no one came back to resupply them… the queen's hold, it just… it broke…"
"We don't want to be here… please, we want to go home… we never wanted…"
The other Ostium doesn't speak; he simply folds onto the sand and weeps silently, his whole frame shaking.
"What are they saying?" Cody demands. His weapon hasn't wavered, but I can hear the tension warring with compassion in his voice. He sees what I see. Two wretched, broken creatures on their knees in the sand.
"They were workers in the mine," I translate, and my own voice sounds hollow. "Forced labor. They say they were controlled by the queen's Regina pheromone. When Queen Diamalla fell, these males were abandoned here."
One of the males is still speaking between sobs, and I force myself to listen through the tightness in my throat.
"He says they were mining something called velith," I continue. The word is Ostium, but I do not recognize it.
"Tell them to stay where they are," Cody says. "Nobody moves."
I relay the command in Ostium, keeping my voice as steady as I can manage. The males nod frantically, pressing themselves lower into the sand as if trying to make themselves as small and unthreatening as possible.
I ask their names. The taller one looks up at me with hollow eyes. He says his name is Drev. He gestures to his companion and says that his name is Joln.
"Please," Drev says, his silver eyes fixed on me, filled with anguish. "Please. Water."
I relay the request.
"L'Stourn." Cody doesn't take his eyes off the Ostium males, but he unhooks his canteen from his belt with his free hand. "Your canteen."
L'Stourn unclips his own without hesitation. Cody tosses his canteen toward the males first, a clean underhand throw that lands in the sand a few feet from the nearest one. L'Stourn follows suit.
The males fall on the water with a desperation that makes my stomach clench. The sounds they make are the raw, animal relief of thirst finally being quenched.
Cody reaches for his comm while they drink. "D'Rett. L'Zaen. Come in."
The response crackles through immediately. "Go ahead, Cody."
