Chapter Seventeen

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The shuttle landed before towering gates, their wooden spikes touching the sky. Xae and I rode alone, the shuttle empty of Legionites and Almat citizens. The Landing was miles away from the First House, and our journey there gave the others many reasons to ask questions, but the shuttle's Conductor didn't bat an eye when I showed him Imiza's blade and boarded with Xae alone.

"This is lucky," I whispered to Xae, waiting for the ramp to unfurl. "I don't like it. Something doesn't feel right."

"I'm not giving up on Cade just because you feel nervous about our luck," she said.

"I never gave up on him." My voice rose. She lifted a finger to her lips, then faced the ramp and stiffened, the Conductor returning to open the shuttle doors.

I prodded Xae's back. We marched down the ramp into the oppressive, humid sun. I hadn't seen a blue sky in far too long; neither did Xae. She was distracted, staring up at the hazy blue and fumbling in her march. "Pay attention," I said in her ear. "Watch your step, keep your eyes forward."

She took a deep breath and matched my pace. We joined a short line of low-born Legionites, most of them human and barely ranking above Fleshlings. They were doubtlessly running errands so that their masters could attend the ascension. Xae and I stood at the back of a single-file line, Legionites standing on the left, their slaves bound on the right.

I never knew the Landing to be this quiet. Father took me here when I was a girl to purchase a chambermaid for Mother. I remembered the clamorous grounds, the gates open with passing masters and their newly-bought Fleshlings, the yards crammed with sweating humans, the drafty, bug-infested barracks bulging with the sounds of ill prisoners. Now, the yards stood empty, but the barbed-wire fence was ringed with guards, seven to each outpost. I'd never seen the place so heavily secured. The Almats trusted the fortress in the past; it was enough to keep the Fleshlings contained. This wasn't normal, not even for an ascension. Something must've happened here. The gates shifted open with a boom; several defeated feet were dragged forward by shackles each time somebody was admitted. We arrived near the threshold, only to find-

No, it couldn't be. Legionite Taurus. He wore the same silver mask as he did on the day he ensnared my son and took him into Tetra's crucible. He stood at the center of the gate to screen both Fleshlings and their Legionite masters. Taurus fed the slaves down a path to a processing center; a grated trench. Only the strong would survive. I remembered Father standing here in this very yard observing the slaves like cattle. The square remained sparse, yet I've never seen so many Fleshlings processed at once.

"Xae, do you see that Legionite there?" I nodded in his direction.

"Yes," she whispered.

"If he recognizes me, we abandon the mission. We come back and try again another time."

"This is our only chance, Zale."

"Sh, don't say that name, not even under your breath."

Taurus' aged voice rang as he kicked out an old man's knee: "Move it! We've not the time for lazy Fleshlings today!"

Xae flinched. I squared my shoulders and marched with the others, the line growing short. Taurus admitted the slave before us, her master a Legionite from House Helford. I never wanted to see the House sigil again, and looking at the crest stitched into his cape made me nauseous. They turned and marched past me to board a temple-bound shuttle. I didn't recognize them, and they didn't notice me. More luck. This can't be normal, this can't be good.

Taurus crooked a spindly finger at the two of us, inviting us into the gate's shadow. "Be quick. I've lost enough time." He lost agency when he perked up from his list. "Ah. Legionite Imiza." He did away with his parchment, paying mind to my face. "Glad to see you're fully healed and back on the warpath." His mask flexed, eyeholes narrowing at Xae. "Who's the scrawny infidel?"

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