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Back Stringers Save as PDF
Chapters (64)
  1. FRONT COVER
  2. TITLE PAGE
  3. DEDICATION
  4. CHAPTER ONE
  5. CHAPTER TWO
  6. CHAPTER THREE
  7. CHAPTER FOUR
  8. CHAPTER FIVE
  9. CHAPTER SIX
  10. CHAPTER SEVEN
  11. CHAPTER EIGHT
  12. CHAPTER NINE
  13. CHAPTER TEN
  14. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  15. CHAPTER TWELVE
  16. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  17. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  18. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  19. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  20. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  21. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  22. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  23. CHAPTER TWENTY
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  33. CHAPTER THIRTY
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  43. CHAPTER FORTY
  44. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  45. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  53. CHAPTER FIFTY
  54. CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
  55. CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
  56. CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
  57. CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
  58. CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
  59. CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
  60. CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
  61. CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
  62. CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
  63. CHAPTER SIXTY
  64. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A churning circle of boids emerged from the mist, its diameter steadily narrowing. Colors flashed across them in sync to an unheard beat. It continued inward toward the center of the great rotunda, swirling faster and faster like the footprint of a tornado with a constricting aperture. I tightened my hold on Patton as the vortex passed by our enclosure with a sound like living thunder. Out in the center of the floor, they seethed, moving so quickly that what I saw in one second had changed by the next. It was as if they were orbiting an object of such immense gravity, that they would inevitably be swallowed by it.

But then, as if released from the bindings of whatever had drawn them to such a fevered gyration, they spilled apart and tumbled away. And I saw then what had been at the middle of it all – or became the middle. It was something I hadn’t seen before.

Here and there, the spilled boids coagulated back into individual Scythin, with the twenty-six Queens rebuilding themselves closer to the center, where a new Scythin stood. Through moving gaps in the gathered many, I could see this individual was no different from the others, but for an empty chasm running down the center of their chest. A new Queen. The twenty-seventh.

Shit was fixing to go down. I didn’t know what, exactly, but it had the same feel as in Kung Fu films when the one guy gets a bloody lip and he wipes it, then looks at it, and you just know he’s about to whip everyone’s ass.

Not that I knew what was coming or had any way to stop it.

I checked Patton, who snored peacefully, and then watched the churn begin anew. Back into the mist they went, boiling, forming, cycling through whatever it was they cycled through. And when nothing else came of it, I did what one does in such situations – shot drugs into my tummy tube.

101 Chipmunks, tree kangaroos, and the great tit (Parus major) definitely eat brains.

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

“So. They’ve got a dilation cloak,” said Aptat as the Timelance coalesced fully into view. “A second bit of theoretical tech come to life today. Wonder what other sorcery we’ll be treated to.”

Aptat had always made the point that the Scythin were different, unlike anything found in the known universe. At this moment, that assessment seemed rather like an understatement. Naecia was captured by the scale of the Timelance. Gargantuan, it was more a thing than a ship, carrying with it the physical manifestation of presence.