Author: Rachel Bach

It had to be Maat, I decided. So far as I’d seen, the lelgis weren’t afraid of anything except my virus and the one they called the mad queen. That thought brought back the image the lelgis had shown me of Caldswell standing with Maat before the enormous creatures I was now sure were lelgis queens. He’d talked with them before they’d burned Stoneclaw’s ghost ship, too, right after I’d gotten bitten. That had impressed me at the time. Knowing what I knew now, though, the idea that the lelgis hadn’t killed us all just for being there baffled me. What kind of deal did Caldswell have with the squids, anyway?

“Devi?”

I blinked and looked up to see Rupert staring at me over his shoulder. “I said we’ll be at a planet in a few hours,” he repeated softly. “Do you want to get some sleep?”

“Sure,” I said, leaning back on my armor case again. The idea of sleeping under these circumstances was absurd, but I did mean to make good use of the silence. I had a lot to process, after all. But the business on the tribe ship must have busted me up more than I’d realized, because the second I relaxed, sleep took me. And when I dreamed, I dreamed of that infinite oneness the lelgis had showed me being slowly devoured by darkness that came from my hands.

Suffice it to say, I didn’t sleep well.