Page 206 of The Space Between Stars

Dex hopped down from the stones and slipped away with the flood.

There was only one clear path forward, now. The one Calver had known would await him at the edge of this desert all along.

Cul’Mon had started this trouble. Calver was going to end it.

FORTY-SIX

NIKLAUS

Year: 748 Post Cataclysm: Present Day

Location: Steila

Niklaus waited on the warehouse roof. Looking out over Steila from the edge of the sea was a sight to inspire song. But the battle at hand set such fear into his bones, he failed to enjoy it.

A snake of black smoke still rose into the tangerine sky from the site where the plate shields had detonated. An act of the Fates had saved them: they should have died. Gooseflesh prickled Niklaus’s skin as he helplessly watched the Nelfinden front line collide with the Tera’thians. Each side seemed as scrambled as the next, and the confusion compounded as the lights rimming the edges of the city blinked out.

A full Aetech shutdown. Dex hadn’t been lying. Niklaus could scarcely believe it. Nothing would ever be the same after this. Everything that he’d built his life on was about to crumble… and he’d never felt more exhilarated. When he returned, his mother would be—

An ear-splitting crack shook the world around him. Niklaus flattened himself against the roof with a yelp. Move. Move. Move. He clambered on knees and elbows toward the building’s northern edge. Just weeks ago, he’d never witnessed an explosion. Now, it seemed every inch of his flesh held taut in preparation for the next.

Niklaus found his feet, even as he was sure the building would crumble beneath him. He might not be a fighter, but he’d proven he was no coward. The adobe held firm. Smoke ascended in dark sheets on the building’s east side. The frantic murmurs, shouts, and footsteps of a jostling crowd rose from below. Niklaus rushed to the rim and peered into the street. Civilians poured through the gaping mouth that had opened in the wall, some carrying children or even elderly people toward uncertain safety.

On the rise beyond the city, the combat spilled over the dunes. Blades flashed red in the sunset. Bodies swarmed and thrashed. Screams echoed over the grasses and down towards the dock. Niklaus watched over it all, hoping and praying, and feeling—beyond anything—entirely useless.

A scraping and thunking sounded from the ladder on the building’s eastern side, opposite the one they’d ascended. Footsteps. He counted, waiting for a second set, but none came. One assailant, perhaps, he could handle without calling down into the stairwell to warn Calver. He peered over the eastern ledge, only to come face to face with the mute.

Niklaus released a breath and held out a hand to help him up, but Calver flung himself over the wall, hands and dowaga blackened with blood. Niklaus let his hand fall lamely to the side.

“Success?”

Calver nodded, but there was something in his eyes that led Niklaus to believe the success would be short-lived.

“And you came back up here because?”

“Someday, we’re going to turn your cryptic messaging into coherent communication.” Niklaus thumped him on the back. This time, he didn’t slide away when Niklaus let his hand linger.

“That’s not a command I’d usually argue with, were you not blatantly trying to separate yourself from us.”

“Would you argue that the rest of this engagement has been circumspect?”

Emptiness clouded his brown eyes. His brow was furrowed with focus. His breaths were tight and measured.

“Well then. Good luck,” Niklaus whispered.

Calver turned away to face the smoke rising from the ridgeline.

Because the ladder on the building’s southern side had been destroyed, Niklaus descended the one along the east, where the warehouse butted against the rocks overlooking the Casowhatan. The ocean gurgled and roared as it lapped the rocks below. Niklaus held tight to the spray-slicked rungs as he progressed toward the thin walkway separating the building from the ocean at ground level.

He hesitated midway down. Calver was hiding something.

It was absolutely none of Niklaus’s business. Especially considering the way Niklaus had acted the night after the last rally. But Niklaus had never been good at keeping his nose where it belonged. Calver had asked him to follow Dex towards safety… and, technically, he already had. Calver had not specified how far.