Somehow, the dhakim sensed it coming. She spun and raised her sword, the unmetal catching the beam and splintering it in a dozen directions. Sparks sprayed across the woman, scorching holes in her clothes, but she gritted her teeth and kept her Elder weapon between them. Even unmetal would melt, eventually, but Maya didn’t have the strength. She felt herself faltering, the beam flickering out, and darkness clawed at the edges of her vision.

Beq, though, didn’t wait that long. She brought her blaster up and fired, and the dhakim’s head came apart like rotten fruit.

*

When Maya opened her eyes, the cavern was full of people.

Beq knelt by her side. Maya’s right arm was stretched out on a cloth, and Beq was applying something green and vaguely astringent from a tin. The wound in her calf was already wrapped up, and Maya recognized the numbing sting of quickheal. Beyond her, there were quite a few voices speaking at once, mixed with children crying.

“Maya?” Beq leaned over. “Are you awake?”

Maya gave a cautious nod.

“Thank the Chosen,” Beq said. “I’d hoped it was just power exhaustion that had knocked you out, but I couldn’t be sure. How do you feel?”

“Not … bad.” Maya swallowed. In truth, she felt oddly better than she had in some past scrapes; letting the panoply draw power until the last minute left her connection to deiat scraped raw, and she’d avoided that, at least. “Arm hurts, obviously.”

“Right. Let me finish up.” Beq went back to applying the ointment, twisting a dial on her spectacles. Lenses clicked. “You got cut up pretty good, but not too deep. With some quickheal it’ll be all right in a few days.”

“Right.” Maya lifted her head for a moment to look around, but the effort was too much, and she quickly lay back down. “What happened?”

“After, you mean? Of course you mean after. You remember what happened before.” Beq looked over, eyes made huge by the lenses’ magnification. “You do remember, don’t you?”

“I think so. You shot the dhakim.”

For a moment Beq went still, and then she gave a quick nod and looked away. “Tanax and Varo turned up not long after. That girl—”

“Streza?”

“Right. She came to Kaiura’s house, screaming her head off, but Tanax was in the middle of an interview and wanted her to wait. I argued with him and—” Her face flushed slightly. “When he wouldn’t listen, I just walked out and followed Streza. Varo convinced him to come along eventually.”

“You …” Maya swallowed again. Her chest ached, the flesh around the Thing tender. “You saved my ass.”

“I did? I mean, I guess I did. You probably had things under control. I just thought—”

“Nope.” Maya turned her head to look at Beq, who was blushing further. “I was definitely going to die.”

“Oh.” Beq went quiet for a moment. “Then I’m glad I rushed.”

“Me too.”