Sword of Dreams (The Reforged Trilogy) by Erica Lindquist, Aron Christensen Page B

ago, only a week or two after Gharib. That first time, the pain had been so sudden, so shocking in its intensity that Duaal had screamed. Screamed until his throat was raw. But he had been alone in the Phoenix that night, while everyone else was off visiting Maeve at the hospital. Only Orphia had heard. She had clawed and screeched behind the door to Tiberius' room for a half hour after it was all over.
    Duaal glanced sidelong at the hawk, perched on the back of Tiberius' shredded chair. She glared straight ahead with clouded black eyes, oblivious – or uncaring – of Duaal's suspicion.
    "There aren't as many stars in the sky, but the air up in the mountains is so thin and clear that they glow like fire. They look so close that you swear you could reach up and touch them. I've been to twenty-seven worlds and none of them have a sky quite like Prianus."
    Tiberius was talking about his homeworld again. It was not the first time Duaal heard about the wonder of the Prian skies. The perfect, endless black. The diamond-glittering stars. Polar auroras like the bridal veils of the old heathen gods.
    "Some of the highest mountains in the entire galaxy are on Prianus," Tiberius said. "Mount Vessan is over sixteen miles high. There's so little air up at the top that most atmospheric ships can't make the flight."
    "Sounds… big." Duaal listened, but his eyes kept drifting shut.
    "The Spiral Falls are in the Oak District, where I used to live. Have I told you about them?" Tiberius did not wait for the answer, which was yes . "It's the cinder cone from an ancient volcano. One of the glacial melt rivers cuts waterfalls in a spiral all around the mountain."
    Duaal's boots thumped to the floorplates as he turned to look at Tiberius. "If you love the wonders of Prianus so much, why aren't you more excited to go back? You've been raw about it ever since Xia told us about it on Axis."
    A monotone beeping forestalled Tiberius' answer. He sat up and glared at a round yellow light that blinked on one of the control panels. The discolored label read vpA pressure .
    "Damn it! I told Gripper to check the carbon filters!"
    "Maybe he forgot," said Duaal. "He's been working on something for the last few days. I have no idea what."
    "Maeve!" Tiberius shouted. Bellowing, he stomped out of the cockpit in search of his first mate.
    Duaal sat alone amidst the controls of the Blue Phoenix, wondering why Tiberius was yelling for Maeve instead of the engineer. Sometimes it was a miracle anything got done on the Blue Phoenix.
    ________
     
    Maeve made her way aft, toward the engine room. Panna stood in the fibersteel corridor, looking over Phillip's shoulder and pointing to something on his datadex.
    "Is that close enough to cause any problems with the densitometers?" she asked.
    "Not unless there's a quake," Phillip told her. "But then, you're going to have a lot more to worry about from rockfalls than instrumentation failures."
    "That's reassuring," Panna said with a small laugh.
    Even in the dim, dingy light of the narrow hallway, her blonde hair shone like polished gold. The girl was irritatingly pretty, with a delicate, heart-shaped face and wide emerald eyes. Panna heard footsteps and turned those green eyes on Maeve's gray ones. The human's jaw clenched and she hurried through the nearest open door. Phillip blinked in surprise, waved shyly and then followed Panna to finish their conversation.
    Maeve stood in the abruptly vacated passage for a moment, shaking her head, and then headed down the hall to the engine room.
    She held her wings out awkwardly behind her to keep them from dragging over the stained floor or tangling in the bundles of wire hanging from the ceiling. The ship's mechanic sat on a stool at one end of the workbench, perched on the too-small seat like an owl in a treetop. He did not seem to notice Maeve's entrance or hear her calling his name.
    "Gripper?"
    He started and jumped to his feet. "Smoke! There you are. Come look!"
    The Arboran