“The Drengir? They’re gone for now.” Reath checked Dez’s eyes, saw that they were bloodshot and his pupils slightly dilated. His condition hadn’t improved, but at least it hadn’t gotten worse, either. “They might catch up to us at the station, but we’ll have the others there to help us. Master Cohmac will be there, remember? Orla Jareni, too. Plus the crew of the Vessel—remember them? Leox and Affie and the rock guy?”

With a shake of his head, Dez seemed to wake himself up a little more. “We’ll have help.”

“Right. Exactly.” Probably this wasn’t a good time to mention that Hague and Nan had turned out to be Nihil. It was definitely not the time to get deeper into Master Jora’s death. It was possible Dez didn’t even remember that she was gone; if so, Reath envied him. Anyway, they already had enough to deal with, especially given that the Drengir were absolutely, positively going to catch up to them at the station.

Homicidal warrior plants, he thought. Never read a single thing about those. Just one more thing I need to write up for the Archives.

With a subtle shimmy, the transport pod slipped out of hyperspace. Pressing his face to the hatch, Reath caught a glimpse of the station ahead, which they were approaching at high speed. Were the return mechanisms working as well as the launchers had been?

“Well,” he murmured to himself, “we’re about to find out.”

Once again, a tractor beam took hold of the pod. Reath exhaled in relief as they slowed; at least they had a chance of landing alive. Then, through the skinny windows of the hatch, he glimpsed something alongside the station’s equatorial ring—was it a ship? If so, it was a whole lot larger than the Vessel. But then the angle shifted, the station dropped out of view, and he wasn’t certain he’d seen anything at all.

Darkness swallowed them as the pod entered the launch tube. In only seconds, it came to a stop. Immediately Reath shoved the hatch open.

“C’mon,” he said, tugging Dez’s arm around his shoulders so he could tow him back to safety. “Let’s go. One foot in front of the other.” It wasn’t clear whether Dez understood any of that, but he stumbled along.

They made their way into the tunnels of the lower ring. In the darkness, their labyrinthine twisting had never been more confusing. Reath had just determined the way out when he heard what he recognized as a transport pod docking. The Drengir had arrived.

He did his best to hurry, but that was a mistake; Dez got tangled up in his own steps and tumbled to the floor. Reath leaned over him, grabbing Dez’s robes in his hands. “You’ve got to get up—you’ve got to—”