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no doubt always kept full.
    “Do you have the chain?” I asked, biting back my anger. I didn’t want Delph struck with another arrow.
    He lifted his shirt and I saw it strapped around his waist. Seeing my chain on him made my face flush. He smiled at my obvious discomfort. “To the winner go all the spoils, Vega.”
    “Right,” I said briskly. “Well, let’s crack on.”
    We were joined by a dozen ekos. They all carried short-barreled mortas and pouches of powder and ammo. We made our way up a set of steps in the same chamber that we had fallen into the previous night.
    With the cranking of gears, and ekos straining on ropes below, the ceiling canopy rose, revealing the blue sky. As we clambered onto the surface of the Quag, the dozen ekos raced past us and formed a perimeter, their weapons ready and their gazes scanning both sky and land. They looked like they had done this before. Then they removed their peaked caps and put them in their pockets.
    Next, they sank down into the long grasses. Except for their eyes, they were completely invisible. Now I understood the grass on their arms and heads. They had adapted to their environment.
    I shot a glance at Delph and saw that he had noted this too.
    “Blimey,” he said. “Figger me dad would have liked to seen that.”
    I nodded and glanced at Thorne. He was scanning the skies, and then his gaze swept the area we were in. He grunted at an armed ekos, who came forward and relinquished his weapon to Thorne. Thorne expertly examined the morta, raised it to his shoulder, swiveled around, aimed into the air and fired. A moment later a bird fell from the sky, mortally wounded.
    Thorne handed the morta back to the ekos and gave me a derisive look. “Unlike you, Vega, I came into the Quag armed and ready. However, when I fell in the hole, I thought I was finished. But when I fired off the first morta round at the ekos, they scattered like dormice. After that, they came back to me on their knees and it’s been that way ever since. That was the easy part, actually. The hard part was teaching the blighters to do things, make things. I plan to return to Wormwood in triumph. That’s the only thing that’s kept me going all this time. Now let’s get on with my lesson, Vega. How do you want to proceed?”
    “I have to go with you,” I said.
    “How is that possible?”
    I indicated the straps still hanging from my chest.
    “Why can’t you just tell me what to do?” he countered.
    “Fine,” I said. “You jump straight up or get a running start and leap into the air. You point your hands where you want to go. Shoulders and head up to gain height. Reverse that to go down. Right before you touch the ground, slip your feet downward so you can land on them. But if you botch any of that while you’re up there by yourself, we’ll need something to pick up the pieces of you with.”
    Thorne, if it was possible, paled even more than he already was.
    “Let’s try it your way first , ” he said with as much dignity as he could muster.
    I held out my hand. “Let me have the chain, then.”
    “Why?” he asked.
    “If I’m controlling the flying, I need to have the chain.”
    He lifted his shirt, removed it, handed it over and then stood with his back to me while I strapped him into the harness.
    He glanced back at me. “Just remember, Vega, that your friend and your canine will be surrounded by my ekos. If anything happens to me, they die.”
    I turned away so he would not see the utter hatred on my face. “I understand.”
    Destin, I could tell, had been ice cold while around Thorne’s waist. Now the links warmed to my touch. That gave me comfort.
    “Because we’re tied together, we’re going to have to jump straight up. Just mimic my movements. Right, then, on the count of three. One … two … three!”
    On the last number, I kicked off hard, and so did he, albeit a little late. We rose awkwardly into the air and then quickly gained both speed and height.
    I slowly