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  Liari was now actively backpedaling, trying to get as far away as possible. The onlookers who remained were starting to turn and stare at her. A murmur rose from the crowd. Would they try to stop her?

  “Hey, you,” the detective called, hopping over the police tape. Liari cursed under her breath. She could run and condemn herself, or she could play this cool. It was just a coincidence she looked like the nightwalker. Just a coincidence.

  Liari turned to face the detective. She wasn’t too old, maybe in her thirties. Her rich blue scales almost matched her uniform ilhuei. The badge on her hip identified her as Weinan Faulr.

  “Can I help you?” Liari said, trying to be the epitome of innocence. Weinan nodded and pulled a pad from her pocket. She flicked a stylus from the pad’s underside and held it loosely to the surface.

  “Where were you last night at around eleven seventeen?”

  “At home.” Liari shifted on her feet.

  Weinan scribbled something on her pad. “Is there someone there who can corroborate your story?”

  “Yes, but xe was also asleep.”

  More scribbling.

  “That aquarin claims you were out here last night talking to his buddy, one Arlei Maron. Ever heard of him?”

  “Of course,” Liari said. “Who hasn’t? Big name around here.”

  “Did you know him?”

  “Do you interrogate all the stubs like this?” Liari asked. The detective looked up from her pad and raised her eyebrows.

  “Just the ones identified by friends of the victim,” Weinan said. “Did you know him?”

  “No, of course not. People like him don’t notice people like me.”

  Weinan seemed to accept this answer. “Alright. Now if you’ll just come down to the station with me—”

  Liari looked startled. “Why? Didn’t I answer all your questions?”

  “You did. But, having been potentially ID’ed, you are now a suspect. We just need to take a set of fingerscale prints.”

  “Why?” Liari began to sweat.

  Weinan didn’t look up from her pad. “Just to match to anything found at the crime scene or the victim’s home. It won’t take long.”

  Liari was trapped. Her fingerscale prints would be all over Arlei, all over his speeder. She’d be arrested instantly. There was only one way out of this. With as much nonchalance as Liari could muster, she stepped back to lean on the walkway rail. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed a walkway about five meters below the one she stood on now.

  “And if I refuse?”

  “Well, I could just arrest you now.” Weinan’s words had the tone of a joke and the weight of an order. Come with me or else. Liari swallowed. She was out of options. Without another word, Liari leaped over the walkway away from Weinan, leaving the stunned detective behind.

  Liari heard Weinan shout, then the unmistakable sound of the avian taking flight reached her. Liari hit the second walkway hard, tucking and rolling before bouncing to her feet and taking off at a sprint. She ran past pedestrians, pushing them aside as she charged away from Weinan, leaving a trail of alarmed and irritated shouts in her wake.

  A glance over her shoulder revealed the detective hot on her tail. Out here in the open air, there was no way Liari could outrun her. She had to get somewhere enclosed, and fast. Her head whipped around, searching for anything she could use for cover. Her eyes landed on the shops of the Market district, a hundred meters below her location in the Temple district. Just as Weinan flew over her head, Liari hopped over yet another railing.

  There was no safe landing underneath her. Instead, Liari swung below the walkway and clung to the pipes running along beneath it. For a single moment she found herself wishing for wings. Then she reminded herself: this was her city. She didn’t need wings. Liari eyed a walkway a couple meters away, swung twice to build up momentum, and then jumped.

  Her body collided with the walkway railing, jostling her ribs and definitely bruising something. Liari hauled herself up and over and took off running south down the permacrete, breathing hard and clutching her midsection. Weinan was airborne again, and the sound of sirens wailed through the city. She’d called for backup. Liari wanted to hit something. A third walkway ran perpendicular beneath the one she was currently on, but Weinan had gotten wise and was flying in such a way that Liari couldn’t hope to land. Regardless, Liari jumped.

  This is my city.

  Weinan turned, expecting Liari to hit the footpath, but Liari dropped right past it. At the same time, a pneumobus flew through the air ten meters below the walkways. Liari landed hard on the roof of the bus, and heard something snap. Pain radiated up her leg. One look at her ankle and she knew she’d broken it. Thank the Divari for Luminance. Weinan had recovered from her shock and was now diving after the bus, but there was no way a lone avian could catch up to a running vehicle. Liari had time. She pressed her hand to her ankle and willed the bones back into place. With no way to set them she very easily could have healed them wrong, but she didn’t have time to worry about that. She just prayed it could bear weight.

  The pneumobus took her right to where she needed to be, coming to a stop just outside of the Market district. Liari slid off the top of the bus and made a beeline for the clustered shops along the footpaths. Her ankle throbbed angrily, and she was sure she hadn’t healed it properly, but it was a busy day and she easily got lost in the crowd despite her limp. Once well hidden among the throng of people, Liari took a deep breath. She was almost safe. She just had to get down to the Lampless district without being noticed. Simple enough.

  Though every fiber in her body screamed to go faster, to pick up the pace, to run, she forced herself to slow down. Running was suspicious, and she wasn’t suspicious at all. Just another market patron biding their time, in no hurry whatsoever.

  The sound of crackling static over a comm caught her attention and Liari lifted her head to see an equina hawk not five feet from her, scanning the crowd. There was no way she could outrun or outmaneuver an equina. Maybe she could slip by unnoticed. Liari kept her pace even and ignored the grating pain in her ankle as she walked, limpless, in front of the equina’s nose. For a few moments the equina’s gaze lingered on her, and she was sure all was lost. Then xer eyes moved on, and Liari released the breath she’d been holding.

  She continued on through the markets, past the colorful stalls and hollering shopkeepers to the central walkway a few meters ahead. A moving staircase there could take her all the way down to the Lampless district. Hawk surveillance was low in Roirse’s depths. Liari would be safe if she could reach it.

  Just as she neared the staircase, a shout rang out through the crowd.

  “You there! Stop!” It was the equina hawk. Liari glanced behind her and saw xer cantering her way. A slew of curses tumbled out of her mouth and she vaulted over the moving staircase railing, nearly knocking over a levian mother and her kid as she did so. She pelted down the stairs, dodging pedestrians and swearing at her poorly healed ankle.

  She made it down three flights of stairs before the equina reached her. Just as xer paw reached out to grab her, Liari jumped over yet another walkway railing. There was no footpath beneath her, and no pneumobus to catch her. But there were long bundles of fiberoptic cables, dropping from the markets to the power grids below. Liari prayed they would hold her weight and latched on to one. She slid a few meters down the cable before friction brought her to a stop. The cable held. Liari glanced up to see the equina, many meters above her head, shouting into xer comm. Liari wasted no more time and began her descent, sliding and stopping, sliding and stopping, until a footpath was in reach. She jumped from the cable to the walkway and took off once more, ignoring the steady ache of her ankle.

  She made it to her flat in record time. The equina hawk had watched her all the way down. It was only a matter of time before they figured out which flat was hers. With no hesitation she slammed her shoulder against the door and all but forced it open. The sight that greeted her nearly ma
de her heart stop.

  Taz was home when xe shouldn’t have been, lounging on the couch and flicking through xer pad. For one split second Liari had thought the equina hawk had beat her to her own flat. Taz looked up, startled by Liari’s forceful entrance.

  “What did that door ever do to you?” xe said playfully. Liari slammed the door shut and limped inside.

  “Taz!” Liari gaped. “You’re home.”

  “They gave me the day off,” the equina gave her a strange look. “Why are you limping?”

  Liari looked at the door, expecting to see the hawks burst in behind her. “Taz, I did something bad.”

  Immediately the equina was on alert. “What kind of bad?” The wailing of nearing sirens told xer all xe needed to know. The equina’s mind immediately jumped to the worst-case scenario and xe went into guardian mode.

  “Get out the back windows. I’ll stall them at the front,” Taz assured her. Liari wanted to hug her friend, but there was no time. She rushed to the back of the flat, through her bedroom door, and raced to the window. She deactivated its holo field, and for once was glad that it was not paned with glass. Glass was a luxury that many in the Lampless district could not afford, but it would also be much harder to sneak out of.

  She heard the front door open and Taz said something, though Liari couldn’t make it out through her closed door. She had just enough time to crawl out the window and reactivate the holo field before the bedroom door was flung open. Liari dropped to the ground and huddled beneath the window, hoping that she hadn’t been seen. She heard rustling above her but didn’t dare move. After a time, the rustling moved away, and she heard a hawk barking into their comm.

  “Flat 475 is clear,” they said, and exited. Liari released the breath she’d been holding and got to her feet.

  Taz and Liari’s flat was nestled nearly flush against the canyon wall. The rough stone offered many handholds, and though the climb was steep and grueling, getting out of the canyon was now Liari’s best bet. No one would expect her to head for the open desert. Liari reached for the wall of rock and began her ascent.

  Not two minutes into her climb, Liari thought this might have been a mistake. Her bad ankle refused to support any weight, and each breath aggravated her bruised ribs. It didn’t take long for her arms to begin to ache. But, with no other options, she pressed on.

  It took her nearly an hour to reach the top of canyon. The best part about the jagged walls was the number of hiding spots that obscured Liari from view. Unless someone was looking right at her, she’d be difficult to see from the ground or up above. She was able to make her climb uninterrupted, going as slowly as she needed.

  When the lip of the canyon came into view, Liari thought she might cry from happiness. With renewed vigor she charged the last few meters up the rock and pulled herself up and out. She was out of the woods. She was home free. There was no way, no way, anyone had followed her out—

  Liari’s last thought was cut off as something plowed into her from behind. She hit the ground hard, inhaling a mouthful of sand as she fell.

  “I got her,” a voice said above her. Liari rolled over and lifted her hand against the sun, only to have that hand forcefully yanked behind her. But it had been enough to see who was handling her so roughly. Weinan. This was one determined hawk.

  “Fvadt,” Liari cursed. She allowed herself to be jostled, her hands bound in cuffs similar to the ones she’d used on Arlei the night before. She was too tired from running, too spent. She had no fight left in her.

  “Fvadt is right,” Weinan said, dragging Liari to her feet. “You’re in a lot of trouble.”

  A police speeder pulled over the lip of the canyon and settled in on its anti-grav generators. From it stepped two levian hawks, wearing identical glares that were focused on her. Liari’s heart pounded in her chest. So this was the end, then. They would take her fingerscale prints, and it would be all over. She'd either be executed or sent to spend the rest of her days on Arryna. Despite herself, Liari was afraid.

  She was crammed into the back of a hawk’s speeder and flown away to what she could only assume would ultimately be her death.

  CHAPTER SIX

  The interrogation room was sparse: three white walls, a fourth with one-way glass, and a single plate metal table with a spindly chair. The chair was pocked with rust spots, and squeaked when you shifted in it. Liari sat in this chair, hands bound to the metal table with buzzing strings of energy. On the outside, Liari was the picture of calm. She stared ahead, an almost bored looking expression on her face, legs crossed beneath the table. On the inside, she was panicking.

  There was no way Liari would make it out of this hawk station alive. They had taken her fingerscale prints. Would they know who she was—who she really was—just by them? It didn't matter. She was still the prime suspect in a serial murder case. And she was a stub. No one would let her off easy. No one would take pity on the troubled teen who couldn’t help but go down this path.

  Her finger tapped on the table without her telling it to. So this was how it ended. She prayed Taz had gotten away. With her gone, xe would be the only tie to the former Royal House. Xe could get things done. But would xe? Since their escape seven years ago, xe had been adamant about laying low, staying safe. Xe took xer mission to protect Liari very seriously. Liari had suggested joining the Remnant once. Taz had shot it down outright.

  “It’s too dangerous,” xe had said. “Let the soldiers do the fighting.”

  But Liari hadn’t wanted to sit back, passively, and let others die in her name. She’d taken it upon herself to fight how she could.

  And, it seemed, Taz had been right.

  Liari had never been very religious. Sure, she trained in the signumaria under a different name, but she’d been young. Malleable. She hadn’t yet known the meanings of the names she prayed to. Life had only shown her there was nothing and no one out there looking out for her. These Divari, Ichari and Vezah and the rest, if they did exist, didn’t care about the peoples of the Cradle. If they couldn’t even protect their chosen, the Heir, why would they bother with the ordinary folk? There was no salvation to be found in nebulous immortal deities. The only one you could count on was yourself.

  Still, as Liari sat there, stifling her fear, she sent up a fervent prayer to anyone who would listen.

  Please, she begged. Please work this out. Please don’t let this be the end.

  The door to the interrogation room swung open and in stepped Weinan, a cup of something hot and steaming in her hands. It was an odd choice, considering the temperature outside was soaring to a record high.

  “You gave us quite the chase out there,” she said nonchalantly, swirling her beverage in her cup before taking a sip. “Been a while since I got to stretch my wings on the job. So, thanks.” She flashed Liari a smile. “Glad to know I’ve still got it.”

  Liari looked down at the table and said nothing.

  “What I can’t figure out, though, is why an innocent person would choose to run.”

  Liari gave Weinan a strange look. Innocent? That was impossible. They had to have dusted Arlei’s speeder by now, his body, his clothes. There should have been a fingerscale print match. What did Weinan mean by innocent?

  Weinan seemed to read Liari’s thoughts. “Yeah, there was no match. They couldn’t find a usable print anywhere. A bunch of partials, obscured beyond being useful, but nothing concrete.”

  “If I’m innocent, then why am I still here?” Liari asked.

  “Well see, are you innocent? Innocent people don’t run.”

  “I’m a stub. You’re a hawk. We don’t really get along.”

  “So you aren’t innocent?”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “But you implied it.” Weinan took another sip. “How’d you lose your wings?”

  Liari thought back hard to her namesake’s file. How had she lost her wings? “Speeder accident,” she remembered. Weinan nodded.

  They sat in silence for a be
at, Weinan studying Liari over the rim of her cup. Then she sighed and slid off the table.

  “So as far as we know, you’re not Knight,” Weinan walked over to the left corner of the room. Out of sight of the one-way glass, Liari saw her press something small and circular to the wall. Weinan returned to the table. “But someone is looking out for you. Someone ruined those prints. Do you know who it was?”

  Liari was confused. This conversation had taken a turn she hadn’t expected. “No, I—”

  “It matters not. What matters is someone really admires your work…and doesn’t want you to stop.”

  “I’m not—”

  Weinan shushed her. She took a sip from her cup, but there was a new urgency in her eyes. “We both know that you’re Knight. Hell, half the station knows, but they can’t prove it. And proof is what we’d need. You will be able to walk out of this station a free girl and there’s nothing we can do to stop you.

  “But you’ll keep having close calls. You’re bound to slip up again soon, and now that we know what to look for, we’ll always come straight for you.”

  Liari was taken aback. “Why are you telling me all this?”

  “Because,” Weinan lowered her voice. “There are other ways you can fight this war.”

  Liari glanced back at the one-way glass. Were the detectives behind there hearing this?