HMS Valediction

Chapter 34.2

When I exhale, my breath bounces off the solid face of the Xani.

Of Moon.

Of Moon as a Xani. I don't know which is the real face anymore. All I know is that this same visage has surfaced in all my darkest hours.

I feel John behind me as unmoving as a wall. Knuckles is there too. The world dissolves.

Is this why Moon's first reaction was to slice off my Xani friend's head? Lady Almighty, overreact much?

Staring into the same upside-down orange eyes of the hostile Xani, I don't feel fear anymore.

There's sadness, a hint of irritation, but mostly, it's an all-encompassing wave of pity for the face contorted in agony. I didn't recognize the pain at first, but now that I know what the features look like without the flakey, phyllo outside, the misery is as clear as a beam of light in the dark.

I take one step back.

The Xani steps forward with me, invading my space. It's ooze dribbles on my shoulder, slips down my chest, and slides down my front.

I take another step back.

It follows me.

We're face to face, it's upside-down nose scraping mine. The whirl of its blades ring in my ears.

One more step.

I drop and grab the long spear, lean back and thrust the point and pole into the creature's head.

Just like when the Crust had captured John.

When I imbed the spear into its temple, the spearhead pierces something within its jelly skull. I twist. It shrieks and crashes to the ground. I dash out of the way before its claws can slash my guts and disembowel me in its twitching.

Kai and Nuna follow my lead. They grab fallen spears to pierce the heads of the other Xani.

With three writhing on the blood-soaked floor among the other fallen Guilded, the other three Xani who escaped our spears scuttle toward the terrified mass of Olypmian citizens cowering in a corner of the port.

"Run!" I scream and wave my arms around, but the people are immobile.

The Xani approach, but they don't kill them. They corral them. They squeeze the people into a corner and prod at them with their spinning claws to usher them away.

"They're wrangling the people," I say into my PAHLM. "Pierce their temples. They have critical hardware in their head."

"Roger," Coodi says. I watch her pick up a spear and rush toward the three Xani shoving the terrified people away.

Just as she approaches and prepares to impale the Xani on the right, John springs into movement. He leaps over the injured on the ground and drops between Coodi and her Xani victim.

Using the blunt end of his blades, he shoves her away.

She smacks against a marble pillar and slumps forward.

I scream her name and rush to her side. She's breathing But knocked unconscious by the impact. Shaking her is useless—she's completely unresponsive.

"What have you done?" I scream at John.

He stands guard as the other Xani remove the people from the room.

Twisting the spear out of the hands of a fallen Guilded clinging to it, I aim for one of the escorts who remain unscathed before they take the people away to some unknown doom.