Page 75 of The Sunlit Man

“So let me get this straight,” said one of Zeal’s team—a beefy guy swathed in so much leather that Nomad wondered if he’d depopulated an entire corridor of beasts to make the outfit. “We are flyingintothe blessed maelstrom itself.”

“Indeed,” Zeal said, standing on one of the seats by the wall, leaning back, arms folded.

“Then,” the guy continued, “we are going to getout of the ship—still in the great maelstrom, mind you—and find the blessed sunhearts?”

“Yup,” Zeal said. “Well,you’llbe getting out of the ship to harvest them, Hardy. I’ll be running operations from the comfort of the cab, probably munching on some tea cakes. Oh, and we dumped all our harvesting machinery, so you’ll have to dig them out by hand.”

The group chuckled. From what Nomad had gathered, this was how they ran operations—Zeal organized and maintained the team, but he relied on the others to do most of the fieldwork.

“You blessed fool,” Hardy said. “We’re all a group ofblessedfools.”

Wait, the knight says. Is that fellow using the word “blessed” as…as a curse?

“It’s a conservative religious society,” Nomad said in Alethi. “You use the tools you’re given.” Then, before any of the others could interject, he spoke in their language. “I’llbe going out into the storm, not any of you. We brought you because Zeal insisted that I have you here for backup.”

All four stared at him, then they nodded as one.

“Well, that’s good enough for me, then,” Hardy said, settling back. “Wake me when we get there.”

“You’ll know,” Zeal said with a grin. “Oh, you’ll know.” He lookedto Nomad. “We’re behind you, Sunlit. It’s enough for me that you think this will work.”

“I appreciate it,” Nomad said with a nod.

In the corner, Elegy began to stir, finally. They’d brought her because, as before, there was really no other place to put her. He supposed they could have locked her to a random part of Beacon’s deck, but in the frenzy of motion getting ready to leave, he honestly hadn’t thought about that.

She blinked awake, then pulled back against the corner, glaring with primal confusion at the assembled group. Until her eyes settled on Nomad. Recognizing him, she seemed to relax.

He turned and climbed into the cab with Rebeke, wanting to keep his eyes forward. Always running. Always watching for the next chasm to jump.

Are you worried, the hero muses, about how much those people back there trust you?

“Not if it helps us all keep moving,” Nomad said.

Would they tell you, though, if this were a terrible idea?

“They did tell me.”

And went along with it anyway.

“Because it’s going to work,” Nomad said. He settled into the copilot’s seat next to Rebeke. On the dash next to her was a small glowing fragment of sunheart. It didn’t have much of a charge, but he was still surprised to see it. He thought they’d gathered all those up and bundled them together for this ship to use as a power source.

“Thank you,” she said to him, “for letting me come along. The others always treat me as some kind of…memento or figurehead or…”

“Mascot,” Nomad said.

“I don’t know that word.”

“Kind of like a good-luck charm.”

“Because they followed my sister, their great Lodestar, and to a lesser extent my brother,” she said. Her voice caught a little when she mentioned him. “They don’t follow me, though.”

“You’re young,” Nomad said. “People underestimate the young.”

“Can you…” She took a deep breath, steeling herself, gloved hands on the controls. “Can you teach me to be a killer?”

“I’m not so good at it myself these days.”

“What do you mean?” she said. “I’ve seen you resist. I know you’re a killer.”

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