Of all of the sights Tvorh didn't want to spend his limited eyeball-time seeing, huge circles of flame burning away the spore layer as Nxtlu skywhales descended was near the top of the list.

He crouched lower behind the foliage, clutching Aoife's hand tightly. Cornartis's men hunkered in a battle line behind the Magi, hiding behind rocks and trees and in the curves of shallow pools.

The sources of fire from the skywhales weren't like drop pod engines; they were exactly the same, only bigger. The white spore-fog retreated as the nozzles turned downward and blasted blue flame toward the ground.

That lifted the skywhales up a bit, but it took only a few short spurts to clear the spore layer. The skywhales descended against the star-filled black and settled on the ground with groans.

Five of them.

"A full legion--brigade," Eztli whispered to Tvorh's left.

Thiyyatt harrumphed. "Are any of these thousand worthwhile warriors, or shall I simply slaughter them?"

Eztli looked stricken. Tvorh actually kinda felt bad for the Nxtlu Generosa. She obviously didn't want to see her family die. Tvorh could relate, even if he did loathe Nxtlu with a burning passion.

"How about we not let the psycho murderess do psycho murder, and just try to get out of here instead?" Senrii asked.

"We could light the jungle on fire," Aoife whispered. "That would probably slow them down."

"They could light the jungle on fire if they wanted," Tvorh said. "Did you see those engines?"

"Of course. You were looking through my eyes, remember?" Aoife shook Tvorh's hand. "You still are."

"We're not going to start a war," Senrii insisted as legs descended and the men of the legion disembarked from their vessels. "We're going to wait and watch. When they're looking the other way, we'll head back up the hill, away from the city."

"They won't be distracted," Eztli said. "They know exactly where we are."

"Huh?" Senrii asked.

Tvorh realized Eztli was right. "They would have left a skywhale in the air as a scout if they didn't have a bead on us. At least some low-flying lungboats or something."

"No way," Senrii protested. "How could they..."

Tvorh--well, Aoife--caught sight of a shaven-headed man descending to the ground from the closest skywhale. He was bare-chested and reminded Tvorh of Ilhicamina, even if he wasn't quite as lean; he had the same arrogant bearing as Eztli's brother had had.

Though the most obvious sign that he was a Nxtlu Generosus was the way the slaves laid out on the ground before him, spreading their hair as a carpet, and he walked on it as if he didn't even notice their existences.

"Princeps Tlalli," Eztli said.

He pointed to the back of his neck. Then he pointed directly at the treeline. Directly at Eztli.

"Blood, bones, and bile," Senrii breathed. "Guess I owe you a steak dinner or something, Eztli. Assuming we get out of here alive." She glanced sideways at Eztli. "Assuming you didn't sell us out."

Eztli didn't answer.

"Oh, you heinous bitch," Senrii said, turning full on toward Eztli. "You did."

"I--" Eztli said.

Then she gasped and clutched at her head, trembling almost like Senrii had when Oralie had spoken to her.

Senrii pulled her gun and trained it on Eztli. "Don't know how you did it, you slime-spawn, but--"

"No," Eztli said, her eyes unglazing. She lowered her hand, and her mouth curled in a snarl. "No. You liar. Nethress didn't do that. Ilhicamina did!"

She was hearing voices, that was clear. Whom was she talking to? It couldn’t be Oralie. Tvorh had disconnected her.

"Don't give a wad of bile about your dead brother, Eztli--"

"Ductrix." Eztli gave Senrii's gun only a moment's glance. "We have to send out Thiyyatt. Now."

Senrii barked a laugh. "What kind of idiot do you think I--"

"No kind of idiot, Ductrix Senrii," Eztli said, urgency driving her voice. Her eyes sought out Princeps Nxtlu striding over the field, and a fierce loathing came over them. "But I don't wish to know what happens if they take us."

"Some of us will probably receive medals," Senrii said.

"Would you ladies stop comparing cup sizes?" Aoife hissed. "I have a shot. Should I take it?"

As if he'd heard the words, Princeps Nxtlu stopped halfway to the treeline. His skin bulged beneath the surface.

Subdermal armor. "Never mind," Aoife whispered.

"One piece of scum at a time, novice," Senrii said, still aiming at Eztli. "We've got traitors aplenty right h--"

Eztli raised her voice. "Uncle, I'm coming out. Please stop there and don't shoot." Senrii's eyes widened, but before she could pull the trigger, Eztli grabbed Senrii's pistol and pushed its barrel toward the sky. "We only have one shot. Don't waste it."

Then she released Senrii's gun and rose.

Stunned, Senrii watched Eztli leave cover. And Tvorh wasn't feeling so certain of things himself.

He strained his ears as Eztli met her uncle in the clearing. The battle line drawn up behind him dwarfed Nethress's, but Nethress had cover and concealment.

On the other hand, Nxtlu had skywhales.

Tvorh would have preferred to trade places.

Tvorh relayed the conversation as he heard it and tried to ignore Senrii's outbursts of frustration and confusion as he did so.

"You've been watching me this whole time, Uncle," Eztli said.

"Of course, Ductrix," Princeps Nxtlu replied. "I told you I would."

"I never thought you would stoop so low."

"Explain."

"I received the transmission. You sent that to every Nxtlu Synapsis node, Sodality chapterhouse, and public announcement system in Tellus, didn't you?" Eztli asked.

"What transmission?" Senrii whispered. Tvorh shrugged. He was as in the dark as Senrii was.

"Fascinating. I did." The Princeps nodded graciously. "I wished you to know the fruits of your labors."

The distant sound of a Chimera's cry came from the Amber City.

"I made an agreement with Gens Nethress." The trembling in Eztli's words was as clear to Tvorh as the colors of the rainbow. "You broke it."

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"No treaty lasts forever, Ductrix. Nethress will stand in the way of what must be done. I merely ensured that the breach came at a time that was most advantageous to our family."

"You turned me into a liar!" Eztli shouted.

"Okay, heard that one myself," Senrii said.

Thiyyatt crossed her arms. "When will I have my chance to test their fitness for mating?"

"You made me break my word," Eztli said, her voice lower but still shaking.

The Chimerical shrieking from the city grew closer. They were in the tunnel.

And not just the tunnel that Tvorh had blocked, either. He could hear them coming around the sides of the city, too, flanking the skywhales. They must have come out through other exits as well.

"A ruler's word is a means, not an end unto itself," The Princeps said. "Your brother understood this. It is a shame that you will not do what needs to be done in order to protect Tellus."

"Ilhicamina was a beast."

"He was a god, unburdened by mortal conscience, concerned only with the good of his blood."

"You just told the entire planet that Gens Nethress developed and released a new genophage," Eztli said.

"Oh, that bastard," Senrii muttered.

"A ruler's word is a means," the Princeps repeated. "I told them what would be most advantageous. But we digress. You, Eztli. All of this success belongs to you." He spread his arms wide. "The false blood of Princeps Nethress. Instantaneous, constant Synapsis. Even the Chimera attacks on cities across the world."

"What?" Tvorh and Senrii said at the same time. Eztli didn't seem so surprised. Part of the transmission she'd mentioned?

"Time is short. Come, my niece." The Princeps reached for her. "Come home with us and let us prepare together for Imperium. Let us prepare to defend Tellus."

Eztli shook off her uncle's grasp. "No."

"I did not come only to demonstrate to you the fruits of your labors." Princeps Nxtlu gestured, and hundreds of guns' barrels lowered, pointing at Eztli. "I also wished you to know that to resist is pointless."

Bestial howling so loud that even Eztli and her uncle heard it echoed from the city, and Chimeras burst out of the tunnel.

Half of the guns of the legion were trained on that egress point, and bullets ripped the air, tearing through Chimera flesh. Not a single one made it through.

A moment later, the Chimeras that had exited the city along other routes came rushing through the jungles and hit the flanks of the Nxtlu lines.

Nxtlu were no fools. They'd set up a perimeter, and it held, with macuahuitls falling and rifles cracking. Chimeras fell by the dozens.

Still, there was a lot of noise, a lot of screaming, and Eztli took advantage of the distraction. She snapped up her pistol and shot at Princeps Nxtlu.

He wove away, moving as if he was double-jointed throughout his body.

"Thiyyatt!" Senrii yelled as the princess ran into the clearing.

But Thiyyatt already was kneeling and bent over, her fingers in the ground. She undulated as if she was--

Well, as if she was doing something that Tvorh imagined involved undulation.

Aoife turned away quickly. So that she wouldn't have to watch Thiyyatt writhe? Aoife wasn't prudish. She was a Sodalitatis, after all.

No. It was so that Tvorh wouldn't see.

He turned his own head away, a pointless gesture, but not quickly enough. Aoife tore her hand from his. "Gotta shoot," she snapped.

Across the open space, between the skywhales and among the Nxtlu brigade, the grass twisted, growing in spurts and bursts. It wrapped itself around the legs of the enemy soldiers. Long strands reached up to grab guns and arms and yank them away.

Tvorh heard Thiyyatt shudder as the snakelike grass became snake-headed, too, and bit at the enemy. It was a...distracting shudder.

"Cornartis, order your men to loose," Senrii said.

"You heard her, boys. Amricia bows to one god and no Generosi! Weapons free for free men!" Cornartis called.

The roar of gunclaps and whipping bullets from behind blinded and deafened Tvorh, leaving his ears ringing. When they died down, he caught Cornartis saying, "Sorry, Ductrix. Force of habit."

"Hey, if that's what it takes to get them to shoot."

The enemy line was in an uproar, wrestling with Thiyyatt's grasping grass. Chimeras had flanked it and were even now tearing through the Nxtlu soldiers, and Cornartis's volleys had dealt some damage as well, though at this distance bone bullets were more dangerous nuisance than deadly threat.

"Check shots and prepare to leapfrog, captain. We're moving."

"Where?" Tvorh asked as Senrii leapt to her feet.

Senrii pointed to the nearest skywhale. "There." She ran for the treeline, straight toward the rustling snake-grasses that had sprouted up and surrounded Eztli and Princeps Nxtlu. Tvorh slapped Aoife on the shoulder to signal her to rise, and then he and Cornartis's company came streaming after.

The Princeps's head popped up among the grasses, and they withered and died around him. He looked at the approaching battle line, stepped toward it, then paused at the sight of Thiyyatt.

Blades of grass that she'd transformed into little snakes crawled over her limbs and embraced her waist, forming an ever-moving gown. Her hair was equally serpentine, and venom dripped from a hundred pairs of fangs as she strode through the grass, which was now withering without her pressing against the ground to maintain it.

The Princeps thought better of making a stand and retreated toward his skywhale.

Aoife's rifle cracked as Senrii led the charge. Her bullet shredded the grass near the skywhale's loading leg, making the slaves on the ground there cry out in fear.

Aoife huffed in irritation. "Give me a clear shot, people."

Still, she seemed to have convinced the Princeps to veer away and head for what was left of his crumbling lines.

He expected safety in numbers. If they attacked now with everything they had, Cornartis's company could tear the head off the Nxtlu snake. Tvorh could have revenge for everything he'd gone through over the past decade--

"Erus Tvorh!" Senrii shouted in a commanding tone. He'd pulled ahead of the rest of the battle line, sloshing alone through the now waist-high grass.

Someone grunted from the waving blades near his feet. "Help me up, Tvorh," Eztli said.

Shame washed over him at the realization that he'd been more focused on the opportunity to kill his enemies than to help his friends. He reached into the dying foliage and pulled Eztli up.

She looked terrible. Her tight bun had been pulled out, and her black hair was matted and covered in blood. Tvorh couldn't tell if it was hers. "Skywhale," he said.

The Princeps's ship was outside the main length of the Nxtlu order of battle. Surprisingly, that had spared it; the Chimeras were more focused on attacking the men than the ships, though they were taking the opportunity to tear through the other four skywhales as they worked their way down the enemy line.

The slaves on the ground cringed in fear as two hundred Nethress soldiers charged them.

"Get on board!" Eztli shouted, gesturing toward the loading limb. She and Tvorh were the first ones there; when the slaves didn't respond, Eztli grabbed a weeping girl, spun her about so that her long hair whirled, and shoved her forcefully toward the gangplank. "Go!"

"You, too," Tvorh said, manhandling another slave, who'd been hugging the girl.

"Erus Tvorh, we need to clear the ship," Eztli said as the other slaves climbed the limb. "I will provide the Nxtlu authority." She smiled grimly. "If you will provide the muscle?"

Tvorh barely had to menace anybody. It was a simple enough matter to convince the navigators that they wanted to stay aboard and get out of here, rather than join the fray down below. In mere minutes, everyone was loaded, and the fiery engines were already hot. Thiyyatt was the last up the gangplank. She looked flushed, as if she had been enjoying herself in ways that maybe she shouldn't have been. "Weaklings all," she said, patting Tvorh on the cheek as he passed her on the way into the troop hold. "You will make stronger children than they would."

Aoife gurgled something that might have been a word at some point during its journey up her throat.

The ship shook and ascended, and Tvorh had to widen his stance to keep his feet. Nobody shot at them, though. All of the heavy weaponry on the skywhales must have been torn up by the Chimeras, or else was otherwise engaged in killing the monsters.

"Ductrix Senrii," Eztli said.

Senrii turned from the rest of the command huddle. "I thought you were staying on the bridge, Eztli."

Eztli shook her head. "Do you have the injection? The one you used on the Tool in the Amber City. Is there any left?"

"A little. Why?"

"Let me have it."

Eztli had been a good comrade, but a mental image struck Tvorh, of her thrusting the needle into Senrii's neck and killing her Symbiont.

She was Nxtlu. She deserved distrust because of her bloodline. Right?

Just like how Tvorh deserved to be an urchin because of his bloodline. Right.

Senrii must have realized that their antagonism was stupid, too. After a moment, she produced the syringe.

Eztli took it and plunged it into her own neck, near her spine.

"Oh!" Eztli cried out in pain and clattered to the deck. Two hundred troops in the hold looked over.

Senrii grabbed for Eztli, going to her knees. "Bile!"

An insectoid screech came from--was that from Eztli's head? Something clunked to the floor underneath her neck. It looked like a beetle. Its wings flapped madly and it bucked this way and that, then rolled over onto its back and died.

"Listen, Ductrix," Eztli croaked. "They were watching. Now they are not. I told the navigators... set a course for Acerbia. Distraction. It will be the last my family knows of our plans.

"When we leave Vallus... give the command to turn south."

"South? Why? Where?"

"You read the letter." Eztli grimaced and her muscles tightened in evident pain. "The Erus and I found. In the library."

The library... "Pellnias's letter," Tvorh said.

"Pellnias?" Thiyyatt sniffed. "What of him?"

Eztli nodded. "Hopefully they...paid less attention. While we were reading it."

She winced, and passed out.

Senrii scratched her head, then gently picked Eztli up. "I'll get her to a bunk. So...Strathlic?"

Tvorh nodded. "Strathlic."

The resting place of Last Era secrets so well-hidden even their Imperatrix hadn't known of them.

Tvorh hoped to the fathers that Pellnias hadn't been lying.