Chapter 17

The hours pass in heavy silence as we muster the courage to dig through the smoking rubble for the bodies of our fallen tribesmen. The women didn’t make it, either. Our final count has about two hundred people dead, which means there are a couple hundred Kreek survivors still somewhere out there.

We’ve sent out messages to each telegraph point, hoping our brethren of the Fire Tribe will intercept them and bring them to safety while we relentlessly toil to bury as many of our own as we can.

Fadai and I agree to burn the rest. It’s easier to build funeral pyres from whatever wood we can find around us, particularly down by the river. Jewel works hard to chop a few blackwood trees down while Fadai carries the logs up, where I assemble the pieces.

We steal glances at one another but when it’s done, it’s as if the whole of Sunna breathes a sigh of relief.

Jewel’s gray eyes are sad and puffy, the occasional tear still bursting from them. I make sure to kiss each of them away, and when I’m not near her, Fadai does the same. She knows she’s not alone in this. She knows this isn’t only her burden to carry. The three of us bear the responsibility. And the three of us will bear the retribution against the Sky Tribe, too.

“I only hope they didn’t suffer too much,” Jewel says as we watch the flames engulf the funeral pyres. We managed to build ten, each holding about ten to twelve sets of remains. It was a gruesome job, and I doubt I’ll ever forget these images. I don’t want to forget. “I hope it was over quickly.”

“Judging by the blast radius and the depth of each explosion, it’s likely that most of them didn’t even see it coming,” Fadai says.

The smell of burnt flesh still lingers in my nose. It makes my stomach turn, but I swallow the whole sensation and keep it in. I keep it to myself as I rest an arm around Jewel’s shoulders. “The others were probably out sleeping under the night sky, down by the river,” I reply. “Otherwise, we would’ve found more bodies.”

“It’s a good thing they liked sleeping out in the open, then,” Jewel sighs. “If I catch whoever ratted us out, I’ll…” She stops herself, shuddering with anger, and takes a deep breath. “No, that wouldn’t be fair. We’re not made of stone. Whatever the Sky Tribe did to their Kreek captives, it must’ve been bad enough, unbearable enough to force this information out of them.”

“This was always a possibility, with or without a captured Yellow Gang member talking,” I say. “We cannot dwell on what happened for much longer, Jewel. The damage we delivered to the Sky Tribe in Pearl City will lead to much worse. This happened before we even took their starship out.”

She gives me a worried look, fear glistening beneath her long, black lashes. “They will be out for even more blood.”

“Yes. And you know where they’ll go first,” I reply.

Fadai nods slowly. “Sapphire City.”

“The ceasefire has clearly ended,” I say. “What they did here is nothing compared to what they’ll do now that we’ve cost them another space vessel.”

“Worse, even, we got Jewel out of there. Shaytan and Blaze must be seething,” Fadai says.

“Let them,” Jewel mutters. “I look forward to watching the light die out in their eyes once I’m done with those two. I may not be as big and as strong as a Sunnaite, but I will make those fuckers pay for what they did. Mark my words.”

“Oh, I believe you,” Fadai says. “And you have our full support.”

She is unstoppable even when she’s in a good mood, but now, it’s different. She carries grief and guilt in her heart and anger in her mind, yet everything is led by her natural determination. There is no one alive on Sunna to stop this woman when she becomes laser focused.

I can tell from the tone of her voice that something has changed within her. A new kind of fuel has been added to her blazing inner fire, and I’m actually tempted to feel pity for those who are dumb enough to stand in her way.

Truth be told, I am exhausted. Not just physically but mentally, too. This has been going on for so long that I can barely remember a time when I wasn’t looking over my shoulder or ducking laser projectiles. I can barely remember a day that didn’t end in violence or with a laser pistol under my pillow.

How long are we supposed to function in this fight-or-flight mode until it finally kills us? Until our bodies finally give out?

“How are we going to do this?” Jewel asks. “Or better yet, what will we do next? Because as much as I want Shaytan and Blaze to pay for what they did, we’re still not done with our main mission.”

“We’ve got one more starship to destroy, yes,” Fadai says. “It’ll be even trickier, though.”

“But It”s not impossible,” I reply. But yeah, we need a plan, and we’ll need to cover every possible front. The Sky Tribe will spread themselves thin to do the same. The whole of Sunna has likely heard about what happened by now. Shaytan’s honor demands revenge, but he can’t ground that last starship for much longer, either.”

“We have to find it,” Jewel says.

We barely found this one, and the price we paid in order to get to it feels steep. What will the last starship cost us? Our lives on top of the lives of our brothers and sisters? Good grief, I can still feel their carbonized remains crumbling in my hands from earlier.

I shake the memory away and look up at the three moons instead. The sight of them used to comfort me, but nowadays, even they can’t soothe my wretched soul.

It will get harder.

Unbearably harder.

The Sky Tribe will fight us with everything it’s got, but we can’t slow down either. It’s time for our tribal chiefs to start reaching out to the other cities. Shaytan’s failures should bring a few more fighters under our command—those who have been sitting on the outskirts until now, waiting to see which side would rise to the top.

We may have lost a couple of hundred warriors last night, but we did take down a starship, and we did snatch our most precious human woman right out from under the dear leaders’ noses. Surely, that has to count for something.

I give Jewel a long, hard look, wishing I could just kiss her pain away. “We will organize accordingly,” I tell her. “Recruit new fighters, if we must. Diamond City, Emerald City. Hell, even Pearl City’s survivors will surely have a bone to pick with Shaytan after what happened.”

“They’ll blame us,” she says.

“I’m not so sure about that,” Fadai replies, the shadow of a smile testing his lips. “From what I heard while we were there, the locals weren’t happy with the starship being there in the first place. Something tells me we could still spin this in our favor with the right kind of messaging. We have printing presses and enough resources in Sapphire City to send out one-page memos to every major city left on Sunna, especially to Pearl City. None of this would’ve happened if the Sky Tribe had kept its affairs out of there. And given the body count, I’m sure there will be plenty of dissenting voices who won’t mind letting their sons go to war under our banners instead of serving the fuckers who are ultimately responsible for that disaster.”

“Amber can spin it into a good and effective message,” Jewel mumbles, her gaze darting from one funeral pyre to another as she processes her frantic thoughts. “She’s got a way with words, especially where the Sunnaites’ emotions are involved. Alicia will probably help, too. Yeah, it could work.”

“We have to try,” I tell Jewel, determined to bring her out of the darkness so she can set her sights on a brighter future ahead—the kind of future that is still possible. We have to try and try until we have the life we deserve—the life we promised each other.”

We cannot be complacent and go to our deaths.

If the idea of self-sacrifice seemed somewhat appealing in the past, I cannot consider it anymore. Not when I’ve delved so deep inside Jewel, not after all the times we’ve had together, not after I’ve tasted her soul on my lips.

I want to live out the rest of my days basking in her sunshine. It’s the three of us against the world if need be. But I am not dying a martyr on a hill in the middle of fucking nowhere.