“Rhiana,” she said, “we can't just let this—” The thing squeezed her leg again, fingers sliding into the gash it had already made. Nomi screamed. “Piss on you, shit on you, fuck fuck fuck! Rhiana, we can't just be still and quit!” The thing moved its hand up her leg to the knee and started squeezing there, but one of its companions clicked quietly and it stopped.

The other creatures arrived and formed a rough half-circle about the captives. There were fifty of them, maybe more. They seemed excited, fidgeting and shouldering one another out of the way, but then they fell silent, eyes darting from one prisoner to the next.

Beko groaned. The thing picked him up again, holding him before it like a babe in arms. It muttered that strange language, and coughs of laughter rumbled through the crowd.

Then it started walking toward the cliff.

“No,” Nomi said. The thing holding her turned to let her see. This time it seemed unconcerned at her talking. “Beko!” she called. “Beko, fight!” But all the fight had bled from him.

The creature reached the edge of the cliff and threw him. Hanging upside down, the grass above Nomi and the sky below, it looked as though he rose into the ground.

She did not scream or shout, rage or cry. It was useless. She closed her eyes, and thought of Beko falling, and with every heartbeat she hoped that he was dead already. Three miles, they had said. We climbed three miles.

By the time they did the same to Rhiana, Nomi found it in herself to cry.

Chapter 18

Chapter 18

WITH A WHOLE new world before him, Ramus could only rest. His muscles would allow little else. His body betrayed him, and when he closed his eyes he felt a moment of vertigo, so profound that he thought he'd walked through his exhaustion and tumbled back over the cliff. When he opened his eyes again he was spread-eagled on his front, hands grabbing on to the world.

Something eased the pain. It was inside his head, separate from the illness, and bleeding its agony. Perhaps it was simply elation.

Lulah sat beside him. She was looking away, and he saw several small flies crawling in her beaded hair. He waved at them and she turned, glaring. The stud in her eye patch caught the sun.

“We made it,” he said.

Lulah nodded, her expression softening. “You look ready to drop dead.”

“You don't look much better.”

She began massaging the muscles in his calves and thighs as she scanned their surroundings. “We should find somewhere more sheltered to rest,” she said. “We're high, the air's thin.

Hopefully we'll adjust.”

“Rest? No rest. Get me on my feet.”

“Ramus—”

“I need to see,” he said. “Just a little, maybe. But I need to walk. This is a new place, Lulah. Somewhere unknown. Do you know what that means to a Voyager?”