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“It’s Cassius,” she says slowly “I don’t know for certain What if he’s not alone? What if Aja is with him?”

The stor a rocky ar beyond our party Steel-gray snos into us Blotting out the sky, the ice, the h the sealSkin balaclavas Boots scrape the ice underfoot Wind roars loud as a waterfall I hunch against it, putting one boot after the other, connected with Mustang and Holiday by rope in the Obsidian way so we don’t lose one another in the blizzard Ragnar scouts ahead How he finds his way is beyond me

He returns now, loping over the rocks with ease He signals for us to follow

Easier said than done Our world is s shoulders the only shelter from the wind We scraloves while the wind tries to hurl us down gulches and bottomless crevasses The exertion keeps us alive Neither Holiday nor Mustang slow, and after uides us into a mountain pass and the storeline, is the ship that shot us from the sky

I feel a pang of sympathy for her Sharklike lines and flared starburst tail indicate she was once a long, sleek racing vessel of the famed Ganymede shipyards Painted proud and bold in cri hands Now she’s a cracked, blackened corpse ieline Cassius, or whoever was inside, had a nasty time of it The rear third of the ship sheaved off half a kilometer downhill from the main body Both parts look deserted Holiday scans the wreck with her rifle’s scope No sign of life or movement outside

“So says, crouched beside e watches me from the razor on her arm

“The wind is against us,” Ragnar says “I s” His black eyes scan the peaks of the er

“We can’t risk getting pinned down by rifles,” I say, feeling the wind pick up again behind us “We need to close the distance fastlike Holiday, you lay cover” Holiday digs a small trench in the snow and covers herself with the thermal blanket We cover that with snow so only her rifle’s peeking out Then Ragnar slips down the slope to investigate the rear half of the ship as Mustang and I press for the main wreck

Mustang and I slink low over rocks, covered by the renewed vigor of the storm, unable to see the ship till we’re within fifteen meters We close the rest of the distance on our bellies and find a jagged hole in the aft where the back half of the fuselage was shredded by Ragnar’s missile Part ofto hunt us down Instead, the ship’s an epileptic corpse, power flickering on and off Ins

ide, the ship is hollow and cavernous and al drips in the darkness as ork our way toward the middle of the craft I ser compartment, nearly a dozen Grays lie dead, smashed into the floor above us by the rocks that speared the ship as it landed Mustang kneels next to the body of a

“Darrow” She pulls back his collar and points to a tattoo The digital ink still io XIII So it is Cassius’s escort In I press down The razor slithers in Blade look for a shorter, broader blade so I can stab more easily in the cramped environs

There’s no sign of any life as we h the bones of the vessel A strange feeling of vertigo walking along the ceiling and looking up at the floor Seats and belt buckles hanging down like intestines The ship convulses back to life, illues underfoot Sewage leaks fro taps my arm and points out a shattered bulkhead hat looks like drag ht She signs to e and begun feasting on the corpses of the diplo that fate

A grisly sucking sound makes its way to us fro the dread of the scene before we enter the forward passenger cabin The Institute taught us the sound of teeth on raw ht, even for , i Beneath therim and matted, once white but now clunaw on the bodies of the dead Their heads are those of h the eye sockets of those heads are black and cold with intelligence Standing not on four legs but two, the largest of the pack turns toward us The ship lights throb back on Pale rease to ward off the cold, dark with blood fro the dead Golds, move from under the bear pelts

The Obsidian is taller than I a together with dried tendon as a breastplate Hot breath billows from under the snout of the ursine skull he wears as a helmet Slow and measured, the deep ululation of an evil war chant blossoms from between his blackened teeth They’ve seen our eyes and one screaible

The ship wheezes and the lights go out