Page 17 of The Sunlit Man

Rebeke’s voice caught as she replied. “No. He fell.”

Silence through the line. Finally the man continued, “May his soul find its way home, Rebeke. I’m sorry.”

“My brother chose this risk,” she said, tears mixing with the rain on her cheeks. “As did I.”

Nomad glanced toward her across the fuselage. This Rebeke looked young to him suddenly. Barely into her twenties, perhaps. Maybe it was the tears.

“Zeal,” Rebeke said. “I’m…bringing someone. If it pleases you to respond with temperance, I would appreciate it.”

“Someone?” the man, Zeal, said. “Rebeke…is that why you fell behind? Did you go for your sister,explicitlyagainst the will and guidance of the Greater Good?”

“Yes,” Rebeke whispered.

“She’s dangerous! She’s one of them.”

“We exist because of Elegy,” Rebeke snapped, voice growing stronger. “She led us. She inspired us. I couldn’t leave her, Zeal. She’s no danger to us as long as she remains bound. And maybe…maybe we can help her…”

“We’ll talk about this when you return,” Zeal replied. “Signal to Beacon has been granted. But Rebeke…this was reckless of you.”

“I know.” She glanced at Nomad, who was making a great show of leaning back, eyes closed, pretending he didn’t understand. “I’ve got someone else too. A…captive?”

“You sound uncertain.”

“I rescued him from the Cinder King,” she said. “But something’s wrong with him. He can’t speak right. I think he might be slow in the head.”

“Is he dangerous?”

“Maybe?” she said. “He helped Thomos, who I missed spottingin the grass. Tell his family I have him. But before that, this stranger pretended to be a killer to get me to free him, then wasn’t much use in the fighting.”

Not much use?

Not muchuse?

He’d brought down two enemy ships without even being able tofight back. He forced himself not to respond, but Damnation. Was she lying or… Well, she hadn’tseenhim back there. But she’d noticed him carrying a rifle after the other ships vanished. Where did she think he’d gotten that?

Have you noticed the names? the knight asks curiously.

“Elegy,” Nomad said in Alethi. “Divinity. Zeal. Yeah, I did notice. Do you think…”

Threnodites, the knight replies, modestly confident in his wise assessment. An entire offshoot culture. Didn’t expect that. Did you?

“No, but I should have,” he said. “The clothing is similar. Wonder how long ago they diverged?”

Did you guess that the captive was this woman’s sister?

“That I did pick out,” he said, thoughtful. “Threnodites. Don’t they…persist when they’re killed?”

They turn into shades under the right circumstances, the hero explains to his dull-minded valet, who really should remember almost being eaten by one.

“Right,” he said. “Green eyes, then red when they want to feed. Complete lack of memories. I feel like we would have seen those already. Shades come out in the darkness, and we’ve been in nothingbutdarkness since getting here.”

Perhaps this group split off before the Shard’s death—and the event’s aftereffects—took them.

Nomad nodded thoughtfully. The persistent clouds of this region—without even the rings glowing in the sky to orient him—felt more pernicious now. As if he were soaring through space itself, with nothing below or above. Eternal darkness. Perhaps populated only by the spirits of the dead.

He was pleased, then, when some fires appeared up ahead—the light of blazing engines underneath a city. In this dark, rain-filled landscape with misty showers and tall black hillsides, they had to be practically upon the place before it became visible. It seemed smaller than the large city he’d left behind, and didn’t leave as much of a trail on the ground from its engines—and what it did leave probably washed away in this rain. All things considered, it was well hidden in here, even with those blazing engines.

Rebeke flew the hovercycle up to the agglomeration and locked it into place at the side of the city—the place known as Beacon, he assumed. Despite its name, it was running impressively dark. He spotted a few lights here and there, but only small ones, always soft red. The engines underneath would be masked so long as they stayed low and let the hills and rain shield them.

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