Zero Aculin's Arc

Chapter 6 of 8

Zero swung down from his riding beast. Sythara came to meet him, spear still raised. Her eyes stayed on the lavender stranger. "You brought her here," she said. It was not a question. Zero set his hand on her shoulder. "She can tell us how to fly the ship. But she needs to see it first." Sythara lowered the spear an inch. "Then let her look. And let her go." Alurianne stepped past them toward the wreck. The star hull rose from the mud, torn plates black with scorch. She stopped at the edge of the flooded doorway. Dark water filled the ship's belly. "Your power secret waits in there," she said. "I must count the cores. One will not lift this hull off the ground." She looked at Zero. "How many did your people ever find?" Zero did not know. His tribe had lived inside the dry decks for generations. No one went into the flooded dark. "One," he said. "The one I carried to you." Alurianne shook her head. "Then we must learn the rest. I cannot swim that." Her thin sandals stood at the waterline. "You are the hunter. Go down and bring me light." Zero pulled a torch from Sythara's fire ring. The hide cushions around the pit were still warm from morning. He waded in. The cold water closed over his chest. He held the torch high and followed the old power cables along the wall, the same way he had found the first core. The cables split. One line ran deeper, into a sealed chamber. Zero forced the hatch. Inside, three cradles held three cores. Two hung dark and cracked, their fluid long drained into the water. One still glowed faint blue. He counted again to be sure. Four cores in all, with the one Aldrin had mended. Only two whole. He surfaced and told Alurianne. She went still. "Two working star-hearts," she said. "A ship this size needs three at least." She wrung water from her sleeve. "So you have your answer. And a harder road." Sythara stepped between them. "You said you would trade the secret. Speak it." Alurianne met her stare. "The secret is simple. Three cores, joined and tuned. I can tune them. But you are short one." She turned to Zero. "There is a place that holds more. A dark city in the mountains, held by machine-men. My people have feared them for ages." Zero felt the cold water drip from his skins. He had the ship. He had two cores. Now he knew the number he needed, and where the missing one waited. Sythara gripped his arm. "You will not go to a city of machines," she said. Zero looked at the dark wreck, then at the far mountains he could not yet see. "I have no choice," he said. "The stars cost one more core."