And every member of her crew’s, as well.
Valen was a prize worth thousands of Krevs, a lifetime of freedom from the law and all the mistakes she’d made as a Spectre.
Fuming, Andi stomped her way down the twisting, narrow halls in the carved-out mountain, heading downward to the ground-level exit.
She quickly patched in a message to the girls’ channels.
Going outside. Still haven’t found him. Might need your help looking.
Gilly’s response was instantaneous.
Havoc + Me. On it.
“She’s not bringing that damned fuzzball on my ship,” Andi muttered under her breath as she blinked the message away and slipped outside, walking past two Sentinels stationed by the massive wooden exit doors.
Adhira had taken on an entirely new shape in the darkness.
She walked down the hillside, her boots leaving rocky mountain terrain behind, suddenly landing on the lush edges of Aramaeia.
The terraformed quadrant was so odd. So beautiful. Massive tree trunks as large as buildings stood like sentries around her. The farther she walked, the more the undergrowth began to take over the ground—strange, fernlike plants with jagged leaves, green melding into purple ends that gently swept across her calves.
Andi looked up, craning her neck to see into the canopy. It was magnificent tonight, the sky like a painted ceiling, the wink of distant planets and moons glowing in otherworldly shades through the darkness. Every so often, a blazing ball of fire shot past overhead—a meteor, falling through the sky. The air was comfortably cool, enough to fill her chest with a spark of life, and when the wind blew, the leaves on the trees seemed to whisper overhead, then tumbled down like a colorful rain, twisting and dancing as they neared the ground.
Andi felt herself relaxing as another meteor shimmered past and faded behind the treetops.
It was the perfect view for a painter, were it not blocked by leaves the size of her head. At that thought, a hunch tugged at Andi’s mind.
Valen would be somewhere with a full, unobstructed view of this. Somewhere that made him feel closer to who he used to be. Somewhere that made him feel closer to Kalee.
At the thought of her old friend and charge, a little pang snipped at Andi’s gut.
Footsteps sounded behind her, and Andi whirled, reaching for her swords.
Lira’s twin brother stood there, bare chested and beautiful. His blue eyes locked on hers.
“Exploring?” Lon asked. “The rainforest is dangerous after the sun goes down.”
Andi lowered her arms and crossed them over her chest, her cuffs cool on her skin. “I’m not worried.”
Lon looked so much like Lira that Andi felt herself staring. “You may be a skilled fighter in the skies, but this is Adhira.”
Andi sighed. “So you’re here to escort me back to the mountain?”
Lon shifted on his bare feet. Another thing he shared with Lira—a hatred for the confinement of boots. “I’m actually here to help you. I saw where he went.”
“Yeah?” Andi ran her fingertips across a fern leaf. It shivered and curled inward, away from her touch, as if it were sentient. “Nobody else saw him pass by. It’s like no one pays attention around here. They go about their lives, gliding about, smiling like everything is always okay.”
“Maybe you should spend a little more time on Adhira,” Lon said. Then he chuckled when Andi scowled at him. “I see where Lira learned that expression.”
“She’s learned a lot of things on my ship.”
“Like how to lose control of her emotions and nearly die while crash-landing a glass starship?” Lon asked. His words weren’t acidic. They simply...were.
“It’s varillium,” Andi said. “Something you would know if you took any interest in Lira’s passions.” She sighed. “I don’t have time to argue about Lira. If you would excuse me, I have a general’s lost son to recover.”
She turned, heading into the sea of ferns without a word, happy to leave him behind.
But Lon was soon at her side again, silent on his feet as he said, “Not that way. Follow me.”
He headed off into the darkness, and Andi followed reluctantly, yet she was also grateful to have a guide—even if he did seem to have a grudge against Andi and the girls.
“There’s something strange about him,” Lon said as he held aside a massive, spiked plant so Andi could pass unscathed. Behind it, a trampled path led deeper into the trees. “Something I don’t quite like. Especially since he’s been on a ship with my sister.”
“Lira is capable of defending herself,” Andi said. “She loves what she does, you know. And we love her, too. We’re a family, all of us on the Marauder.”
“Family?” Lon asked, a bit of heat creeping into his voice. “Has she spoken to you about what her real family...what my aunt...has planned for her?”
“No one plans anything for Lira,” Andi said. “You and Alara shouldn’t, either.”
Lon sighed. “So she hasn’t told you, then.”
For an Adhiran, he sure was making a valiant effort at getting under her skin. “She’ll speak to me about it when she’s ready.”
“And if you don’t like what she has to tell you?” He pointed a long finger ahead. “Take a left here.”
They followed a fork in the path, heading deeper into the rainforest.
Andi mulled this over in her mind. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“I’m not here to anger you, Androma.” Lon said, stepping over a small stream that ran through the path. “I’m simply making sure that when my sister speaks to you about her conversation with my aunt, you’ll help Lira see what is best for her.”
Andi stiffened. Whatever Lira had debated sharing with the girls earlier, it was deep. Enough to make her pilot sad in a way Andi had never seen. Enough to make her hide her words, when Andi had offered her a chance to share them openly.
Was she going to leave the crew?
No.
Andi refused to think it. Lira would never leave the Marauders. Especially not now.
“Whatever it is that you’re getting at, Lon,” Andi said, stopping to face him, “I hope you know that I love Lira as if she were my sister. Whatever she has to tell me, I will listen with an open mind and heart.”
“And you will not try to sway her decision?”
Andi laughed at that. “No one sways Lirana Mette.”
He smiled at that, a look that again reminded Andi so much of her Second.
“She’s a great pilot,” Andi said. “She loves her life, up there in the stars.”
Lon nodded. “That’s what I’m afraid of.” He stared ahead at the path as it curved again. “Go a bit farther. Valen is up ahead, at the stream.”
“Thank you.”
“I will be here waiting, should you need assistance.” He lifted a shoulder in a half shrug. “Lira’s orders.”
“Of course.”
Andi walked down the path that soon opened wide, revealing a clearing with a stream running through it, moonflowers blooming in the darkness, some of them glowing as if made of strands of sunlight.