Siege’s hair glowed as brilliant as a supernova, and she smiled.

Ana

Goddess damn it all, she’d survived too many things to be blown up by a weird ancient space contraption.

“I can try to delete myself from the allahlav’s mainframe,” said Koren Vey. She was crouched down beside Elara, who was breathing but unconscious. There was a terrible wound on the back of her head where she had struck the floor. “My light powers the core.”

“You would kill yourself?” Ana asked, surprised. “No—there has to be another way.”

Koren Vey gave her a sad look. “Daughter of the Moon, I have been dead for centuries.”

“If you’re here, you’re not dead” was Ana’s reply.

The crystal was only a few feet away, but as soon as she stepped toward it, her head swarmed dizzily. Around them, the vines seemed to shiver and grow with the strange energy pouring out of the crystal, buds flowering into wide pink and purple and blue flowers. Her chest felt tight, her skin buzzing like it did when she got too close to a live wire; she stepped again and stumbled.

Robb grabbed her underneath the arms and pulled her back to a safe distance.

He helped her back to her feet. “Are you okay?”

“I—I think?” she replied as the floor slowly stopped spinning. “I can get near it.”

Robb set his jaw. “Maybe I can.”

“No, don’t—”

Of course he didn’t listen to her. He stood and marched toward the console, but as he reached his metal arm out toward it, the wires in his arm sparked. He gave a cry and backpedaled. His metal fingers jerked and swiveled every which way. He cursed between his gritted teeth. “This is not good.”

“I told you!”

“I had to try!”

She snapped back, “If I told you, ‘Hey, that’s a live wire,’ would you still touch it just to make sure?”

His jaw worked angrily. Finally, he settled on “Maybe.”

She gave him a pointed look. “Jax was right—you are insufferable.”

“You cannot get close to it,” Koren Vey said, standing. She watched them apprehensively. “Your body cannot withstand the energy. Only certain Solani can. Now do you understand?”

Ana was shaking her head. “I told you, we’ll find a way—stop!” she added as Koren Vey disappeared, then reappeared next to the console and reached up her hand to the crystal. “Please, stop! Listen!”

To her surprise, Koren Vey did. Her eyebrows furrowed at the sound. Above the whine of the astrolable, the hum of a skysailer drew near, until it crested over the treetops beyond the bony ruins. It flew into the cavern of the ark, and a silvery-white-haired young man stepped out of the ship.

The ancient C’zar stared in wonder.

“Nan c’zar,” she whispered in disbelief.

Robb

Violet eyes, sharp cheekbones, a star-shaped burn scar on his neck from where he had pried off a voxcollar half a year ago. The life support on his chest pulsed in quick, staccato waves, and it looked as though it took him all the energy he had to walk.