“Well, this lead led to nowhere!” Zero said as they left the yon.

  There was no more need for hiding, and the two Wolfkins walked in the open, steering clear of the traps. Zero carried the crate taining smuggling goods in the crook of her arm. When the smuggler’s plex was left behind, she motioao stop among the broken ns of the buried buildings and checked her vambraces, then began a meticulous iion of his armor.

  “Lead?” he asked, spreading his arms and trusting her judgment.

  “The agents identified Darazdast’s men among the fallen itlement; so, ya know, I thought he knew something. Clear!” Zero spped Tancred on the shoulder and opehe crate, rummaging through its tents in search of any trag devices. “Now, I never believed in Darazdi’s betrayal, but the man does like tokens a bit much.”

  “He is scum,” Tancred said.

  “Aw, e on, he ain’t that bad.”

  “That thing exploits people suffering from diseases. He preys on the weak and vulnerable.” Tancred spat. “There be no honor iting crimes to exist.”

  “Honor has no p the battlefield, Tancred.” Zero stopped iigating the crate and turned her helmet to him. “Fight honorably, fight holy, and you’ll die, and your friends will be sad. Me including. Don’t be mistaken; we are waging war even during peace. A war to civilize society, to build a nation where svery will be fotten and tyrants will be crushed uhe Dynast’s heel.”

  “And how does criminality further the pursuit of this goal?” Tancred asked, sitting beside Zero.

  “Easy! We’ve turned an uricted, disanized crime into a trolble, anized crime. When a girl goes missing from a settlement, Darazdast points us to the svers’ camp on a border or buys her freedom himself, and we pensate him for it. And torch the camp ter, just for fun and to return our tokens. ’t go into deficit!” She elbowed him. “Know about the blood price for killing a Wolfkin, right?” Zero asked, and Tancred nodded.

  The blood price extended not just to the Wolfkins of the tribe. Two months ago, an Ironwill had been gutted on a routine mission to deliver care packages to a pgue-stri vilge. Later, the meraries responsible for the attack fluttered from the gates of the settlement; cruel cws had eviscerated the bodies, and the corpses resembled more unfurled, blos. Be it a Wolfkin, an Ice Fang, or a friend to the tribe, the Wolkins never failed to collect a life from the culprit. A life for a life. A limb for a limb.

  “We like to pretend as if we are aware of everything in the Wastes or the Ravaged Lands because it frightens potential bad guys into pliance, but iy, we need agents to pull it off. Darazdast helps by gathering rumors, so we don’t have to spend weeks searg for a murderer. Uhe previous psychos, his gang does not resort to violence, murder, or kidnapping in order to collect debts; they provide us with information about potential criminal anizations, such as the Cartel, which is making its first attempt to establish itself to the far east of Pearl. But sihose morons ended up falling apart due to feuds three times already, I think Darazdi and Ivar are being paranoid as usual. This Cartel idea will never get off the ground.”

  “His gang sells art, Lady Zero,” Tancred said quietly. “I overheard them. There is so little left of the Old World, and it is agonizing to imagine a precious picture hoarded in a private colle somewhere.”

  “Fuck the art,” Zero said sharply. She put a paw on his shoulder. “Listen, I know it like, sucks, to lose a statue or a painting or a sculpture, but you know what we get in exge? Terminals. Journals. Information about actual people who lived in the Old World or who met the Extin. Their dreams, their hopes, their fears, their lives... This is what fug matters. They don’t deserve to be fotten. Big Sis told me that no artist would value their work over the life of an outsider, and even if there were some who would, do we really heir art?”

  “How is he not dead?” Tancred asked, unvinced by the equivalence of handing over a magnifit masterpiece for a short video of a panicked man rec his final moments iin.

  The tter was superfluous, the former aernal source of inspiration for future geions. The breathtaking sight of the statue of the Lady of Mer the capital’s Church of the P has helped many depressed souls g to the light during the hardest times of their lives. Inspirational stories of valorous retainers down through the ages helped shape geions of incorruptible officers. Art transded mere aesthetics: it served as a catalyst for the betterment of both the individual and society.

  “I admit my inexperien the matter, as the criminals tend to die on my bde, but I imagi’s challenging to ceal his occasional involvement with the regional Recmation Army’s forces.”

  “Remember the trolled part?” Zero said. “Ivar keeps him in a perpetually trapped state. Everyone knows Darazdi runs this area; if anyoo muscle in, his head would roll. He’s also too entrenched with us to form an alliah another criminal. He’s pissed off too many people. In order to survive, he has to thotential rivals, which he does by keeping us informed about pesky maggots too big for him to stamp out. So we do the pest trol. Not for free, of course. Case in point: Iterna.” Her voice trailed off, and Tancred heard the notes of pure animal hatred and longing in it. “They often cry about how some teology is too dangerous to be sold, the greedy bastards. But thanks to our friend, we often receive iing samples through… shall we say, non-warranty els. It is a win-win situation and helps us keep up with the times.”

  “And iurn, it exposes us to Iterna’s infiltration,” Tancred said, examining the lunar disk above. There was a fsh on it. It was barely visible, but it happened. Iterna’s influence had reached the satellite, but no one knew what they were doing on the white surface. The most popur theory was the oing facility.

  “Noticed her, did you!” Zero ughed.

  “A soni, prying eyes, while the rest of the rabble trembled in their boots…” Tancred g the warlord. “Have I missed something?”

  “Sweat.” Zero tapped her helmet. “’t be in the desert and not drop some. Her fake ta fool me; her hide is way too dry. Eh, they never learn… Not to worry. If there is something an explorator wants to get their grubby hands on, we live without it. We have no need for nuclear codes or life-wiping pgues. We o learn how to cooperate and cohabit.” Zero softened her tone. “No matter the desire for revenge, no matter the grudges of the past that keep us awake at night. Oh, that is cute!” she said, fiddling with something in the crate.

  “If it is drugs, dispose of them immediately.”

  “Nope, just porn magazines. Never knew Wolfkins were into Orais and Normies.”

  “We share the same blood, ahe dece of the Wolf Tribe never ceases to amaze me, Lady Zero,” Tancred sighed.

  “If you say so, but we better deliver these to their recipients in the Ice Fang Order…”

  “What? Warlord, I demand to knosychotigrateful simpletons have dared to tarnish the noble name of the hallowed Order by these disgusting pamphlets full of sin and debauchery…” Taood, but Zero raised her paw.

  “Don’t dream of it, Sword Saint,” Zero said. “Let’s not bother kiddies, none of us is a saint… Well, you get my drift, right? So…”

  She stopped, looking up, and Tancred followed, fetting the traband and the disrespectful soldiers at ohere was an unfamiliar noise in the night—a loud, soft fpping of leather, barely audible but undoubtedly increasing in iy as something approached. His lenses caught a dot that flickered for a split sed against the white of the moon, and he sent it to Zero, who nodded, notig the target as well. The thing flew in their dire, l its altitude.

  “A predator?” Taook the Judge in both paws.

  “redatnores a fatty ioid queen or cusacks in favor of two hunks of steel?” Zero asked. Her paw found a rifle underh her cloak, and she aimed its long barrel at the distant target. “Five clicks. Closing fast.”

  “No ces. Bring it down,” Tancred said. Zero was right. Their battleptes prevented any smell or heat from esg. The creature should be unaware of their presence.

  He heard a series of faint snaps and the sound of breaking bones. It didn’t e from the ground, but from the sky, from this rge dark shape fpping its wings as it hurried toward them. Zero pulled the trigger, sending a nce of pure void streaking toward its target. In respohe flying monster unleashed a trated gust of wind, much like a hurrie, at the Wolfkins. The antimatter beam pierced the focused air, drawing a loud screech, and the unleashed air bomb was about to sm into them.

  Tancred shoved Zero aside, not g for his own safety. He tried to dive to safety, but the strange projectile hit him, pushing him into the ground with enough forake it shake. Rocks and shards of metal flew from the tops of the ruined buildings; massive cracks appeared in their walls; Tancred’s ears rang; the impact reached his body despite his pte. It fused him; the HUD firmed the full iy of his armor, but the impact hurt; it bypassed every system desigo protect the soldier from cussion.

  Above, the thing spewed streams of pale liquid from its bad drew closer. It had a bulbous appearance—a leather ball ected to two regur wings. A sed ter, legs and arms sprouted from the body’s pitch-bck surface. Intense crag apahe transformation, f sinews and bones in a fsh as the creature sped toward Tancred with the speed of a missile, propelled by its peculiar biological jets.

  He rolled to the side, and the ground shook as the thing nded like an artillery shell, sending aion of sand and stone skyward. The impact’s force pushed a rge sb of rock up and panicked is and spiders scurried to escape the catastrophe. The veil of destru shrouded the attacker, but the royal blood of the Twins, albeit running thin in someone like him, gifted the sword saint with the ability to spot motion. The grains of sand slowed to a crawl, the veil of stone dust stopped moving, and the bck figure appeared oher side. Small fountains sprang up on the sand wall, and he raised the Judge.

  Bck tendrils shot out, whipping against his on. The tips of the bck tendrils were white, but the throbbing, cmmy surface of the creature’s skin g to the shaft of his on. Tancred had to jerk it free. He brought the bardiche bde down oendrils, and it bounced off the bohe creature ihe veil chirped, a the edge cutting its skin, aracted his tendrils. These biological whips arched, and white cilia grew och-bck surface, expanding and thiing until a forest of bone scythes met the sword saint.

  He didn’t panic. Such emotion was drilled out of him by thousands of hours of muscle-rag training and the careful ditioning of his psyche by his superiors. He was an Ice Fang, a champion of the Twins, and he wielded a on gifted by the Order’s best artisans, his very progenitors. Failure was impossible, unthinkable when he had a cousin’s life to protect. The scythes came at him, and the sword saint parried, blocked, and deflected the ining rain of sshes. Cuts and gashes appeared on his armor; a blow from the bone scythe had cleaved through a boulder, but Taill refused to retreat.

  It wasn’t out of pride. His bde ked, uo break these strange bohe camoufge cloak was torn asunder; a long tear appeared in the side of his helmet; his vision was still blurred; and his breathing was uneasy from the initial damage. Dozens of biological ons tried to cut him at the joints of his legs and arms, where the armor was thinner. Several scythes even splintered into three during the attack, seeking to catch him off guard. Tancred waited patiently, defending himself. The calm and stubboranfuriated the creature, and the scythes verged on a single point, closing in on him like jaws. Only now did he take a step bad press the activation button on the shaft of his on.

  The Judge was no mere sharp bde. His cousins wielded ons found in a boratories or created by the state. The Ice Fangs were not much different, and the sword saints also carried the ultimate tools to faparalleled opposition. The sword saints ied the legendary relics fed by the Twins, two intellects sed only to the Blessed Mother. While one fed the unbreakable foundation in the smithy, the other toiled in the boratory, envisioning intricate engineering marvels for a on. If First possessed a piece of the sun itself, then Tancred wielded the por opposite.

  As he raised the bardiche for an overhead strike, a blue field fshed to life around the bde’s edge. Midway through his swing, that cooling field could turn water to ice with a touch. And as the Judge sentehe bone forest of scythes, its bde became a breath of wiself, an absolute stillhat robbed molecules and atoms of their energy ahem adrift, rendering them to be the sves to their inal course and the natural forces.

  The absolute zero struopposed, shattering the scythes, and the fiend howled, experieng the excruciating cold c through its veins, feeling the touch of the os itself against its flesh, and losing his twisting appehey fell, writhing and steaming in the sand, disappearing into nothingness. Taepped through the sand and faced his oppo at st.

  It had a roughly humanoid appearaanding as tall as a warlord. An unhealed hole left by Zero’s beam still smoked in its shoulder. The creature’s skin resembled viscous oil, and before his surprised eyes, it shot up a head from the smooth surface of its torso. Thunderous cracks of broken and rearranged bones apahe transformation. There were no longer any wings; they got broken down into the tendrils that had assailed him before. Milky white eyes encircled the torso, keeping track of everything. The creature turs eyeless head toward Tancred and opened a small mouth, exposing the pure, almost shining whiteness of its insides. It smiled, and the sword saint lunged.

  He had been had. The creature stood stooped, its arms pressed to the ground like a sprinter preparing for a marathon. The creature’s dark flesh flowed freely from its legs and arms, f a soft foot more suited to a slime than a humanoid. Despite the cold, the edges of the wounds left by his bde tried to reach each other, and new, sharp points appeared on the shorteendrils. Tancred lifted his on over his head, and an slipped from a ribcage. Multi-joiwisting and trag at impossible angles, it had a long, hooked boalon at the end. Blindingly fast, it struck the sword saint across the elbow, cartwheeling him into the vast sb of falling stohat had bulged from the creature’s nding. He crashed into it and lost his footing, buried uons of debris.

  That thing never chased him. It was not unhinged, nor did it sh out blindly. The eyes followed Warlord Zero, whose foot was stu an open crack. Zero tried to reach for her rifle, and the creature spat another ball of air. It exploded he rifle, sending it far away. The torso slurped up the tendrils and remains of the broken scythes, growing in size.

  The creature moved so quickly that even Tancred’s eyes could not keep up. It was as if time itself skipped several moments; the creature simply disappeared from one pce, leaving the rapidly widening crater in its wake, and reappeared in another, zigzagging toward Zero. Pahe warlord reached for her belt and hurled several k the looming threat, but they merely sailed past the afterimages as the creature closed the distas back opening to reveal semi-transparent membrane wings, its surface decorated with blood vessels. The skin and bones of the flesh opened outward, f a bony cage ready to swallow the warlord. The creature pushed its arms free from the fat, pulsing foot and raised a fist for a brutal blow as Zero shielded her head with her own arm.

  Terror for his cousin’s life gripped Tancred’s heart, and he pushed the stones away, rushing to the se. Too slow. He could never reach his ally in time to rescue her…

  The fist punched Zero uhe armpit, and suddenly it came apart. Tancred blinked, seeing three glittering threads ed around Zero’s wrist and the ankle of her pinned leg. She rode the blow to escape the trap, but the threads cut deep into the alien flesh, easily separating the sinews and bones ihe creature chirped and mewed. It used its remaining hand to grab Zero by the throat, and the chirping turned into a cresdo of pain as ahread woven into the colr of Zero’s cloak severed the fingers.

  “You’re not very bright, eh, bitch?” Zero ughed brightly and happily. She spread her arms wide, as if to wele the fp of wings that would push her into the open cage of bone and muscle. “Hunt me down? Who do you take me for?”