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knew
how. “I am not like them.”
    He bit his lower lip. “Not yet. Soon, though,
soon you’ll be just like them.”
    “No.” She wiped her mouth, swallowing hard to
get rid of the sourness in her throat; in vain. “I do not want to
be like them. I did not know, I...” She exhaled and wished she
could find the right words. “I want to stop this.”
    “Heh.” His mouth twisted in an angry smile.
“And how?”
    “I told you. I need to find the
resistance.”
    His smile fell and he looked away, hands
loose at his sides. His shabby pants hung in shreds below his dirty
knees. His boots were holed in several places.
    We’re all human.
    “If you knew where to find them, you’d betray
them. The resistance.” He turned his dark gaze back on her and she
could not look away from the pain and anger and sadness that filled
it. “You’d kill them all.”
    “I shall not.” How to make them trust her?
She was a Gultur. Why would they ever believe in her sincerity?
She’d only just changed her mind about everything she’d ever been
taught that morning. Yet she had to succeed, she had to convince
this boy that she would not betray his trust, if he chose to give
it.
    Her mother’s words returned to her memory and
she closed her eyes briefly, drawing on them for inspiration. “Take
them... Take a message for me.” Would they know her mother? “Tell
them, Tefnut says we’re all human.”
    The message at least was clear.
    He scrunched up his face. “Who the hell’s
Tefnut?”
    “She’s...” Hera sighed. “You do not need to
know more, that would be safer for both of us. Just tell them what
I said. If they agree to meet with me, you must find me when I
return to the Gultur military port in two days for my next patrol.
Be there. Give me their answer.”
    “All right.” He looked dubious, his brows
drawn together. “Where?”
    “On the other side of the high wall where I
met you.” She saw in her mind’s eye the concrete wall and frowned.
“But I’m not sure I can break out again, they may suspect me
already. Can you break in?”
    The boy avoided her gaze. “There’re ways for
someone my size. Listen, fe, I’ll just pass your request along,
hoping it’ll somehow reach them.”
    He looked scared, even if he tried to hide
it. Hera nodded. She hoped her suspicions were right, that her
mother’s name was known to the resistance and that it would be
enough to vouchsafe her trustworthiness to the leaders of the
Undercurrent.
     
     
     

Chapter Three
     
     
     
    T he two days crawled
by. The Bone Tower, the spacious, open-air citadel of the Gultur,
stifled Hera like a headlock. The filing observation data and her
other assignments dragged, a looping nightmare that sucked on her
concentration, leaving her empty. The lessons in biology and
history failed to hold her attention. For the first time in years,
she was reprimanded and sent to read in her room.
    Terrible things were happening outside the
gilded walls and she was kept in darkness. When she finally raised
the courage to ask where her mother was stationed, she was told it
was not her business to know. Girls had nothing more to do with
their mothers after early childhood, and that was long past, so she
could not ask again without drawing attention to herself and that
was the last thing she needed right now.
    Sacmis avoided her, and ignored her when
working together on an assignment became unavoidable.
    Not as if I saved her life or
anything , Hera thought bitterly. Although, deep inside she
knew, it was not she, Hera, who had saved Sacmis – but the unknown
man with his boy, the mortals she’d been about to kill.
    When the day of the patrol finally arrived,
she was not overly surprised to find out that she’d been partnered
with Sacmis again, but it did complicate matters.
    Matters like breaking out of the Artemisia
military HQ to see if Mantis was there. The more she thought about
it, the more she doubted he’d be able to slip inside.
    Sacmis watched