He hadn’t forgotten that one death, no.

But so many horrors lived inside him, and he didn’t want to think about any of them.

Diamond scanned the terrain, and Karlan noticed. The huge boy had made it his job to stand guard over the survivors. Stepping close, Karlan dropped the gun’s barrel and offered a broad smile that was just a little short of mocking, and with a man’s rough voice, he said, “You don’t have to thank me again. Once was enough.”

“I didn’t thank you,” Diamond said.

“For saving your life. No, I guess you didn’t.” Karlan laughed and pointed the harpoon’s tip at the fletches. “Anyway, they’re lowering cages. At most, you’ll be out of here in three recitations.”

A Bloodwood fletch was hovering overhead, cages dangling from its belly. Wings were screaming in the distance but not nearby. Only a few whiffbirds were close, and most of them were resting on the higher slopes, surrounding the gully where Karlan saved Diamond. Meanwhile papio soldiers were walking the coral, talking with hands as much as words, and sometimes picking up pieces of Divers’ wet flesh.

“Thank you,” said Diamond.

“For which part?”

“Killing her,” he said.

“Oh, your sister’s not dead,” he said, laughing in a slow awful way. “I just made her angrier, if that’s possible.”

Elata and Seldom always tried to find brave, hopeful words. Not Karlan. Karlan ground the truth until it had a keen edge, and Diamond had never appreciated the boy more than now.

Horns sounded, and human soldiers began dropping out of the fletch, riding the lines down to where they felt safe enough. Then they let go and fell, landing with guns in hand and packs bouncing and a few curses to lift their focus and practiced courage.

An officer looked at everyone before asking Nissim, “Any other survivors?”

“Honestly, I don’t know,” said the Master.

The officer gave his squad orders to search the wreckage below and then the burnt remains higher up.

Fighting various aches, Nissim stood and waved the officer closer. “There’s one body that has to be recovered.”

Diamond looked away, but he couldn’t stop listening.

“Merit,” whispered his teacher. Then louder, he said, “I won’t leave until you find him. Understood?”

“Clearly,” the officer said. “And I want you to understand something, sir. We have a truce with the papio and it lasts as long as it lasts. If they block us, we back away. Once we get the boy, everything else is negotiable.”

The cages began to arrive, rattling on impact.

Two soldiers came at Diamond from the opposite sides, lifting him and carrying him without ceremony.

Diamond said, “Bring the others.”

“First you,” one man said.

He could have struggled, shouted or begged. But Diamond went limp, feeling as if he was floating over the hard ground. Then he heard a grunt and a familiar voice saying, “No no.”

Good landed on his head, clinging tight to the dense filthy hair.

The first cage had room for several people, and most of them were soldiers. The prize stood in the middle, legs and torsos pressing in on all sides. An electric winch yanked the cable, and the reef fell beneath them, and almost too late, Diamond thought to look out between the uniforms, catching a brief glimpse of whiffbirds and papio soldiers carrying pink meat back into a gully covered with tent fabric.

Divers was hidden, and Diamond was glad for that.

Then he was inside the fletch, and two more fletches swept close, ready to loan covering fire, if necessary. Voices called out on loudspeakers, every mouth mangling the enemy’s language. The air shivered with commands to stay back and honor the truce and honor the long peace, the status quo and the good lives of unborn children; and rolling inside Diamond was the idea that somebody would have to put every game piece back on the shelves where they belonged.

The other cages were chasing after him.

Diamond wanted to wait. He needed to speak to Master Nissim, though the best words kept slipping out of his grip. And he wanted to be near Karlan too, which was so unexpected. Elata needed to go home, wherever that was, and so did Seldom, and somebody should offer them a few encouraging words. But the soldiers were suddenly carrying him, almost running. They swept him into the hanger, and with no warning or explanation, Diamond was dropped into a little airship. Good climbed into his lap, feeling fit enough to snap at a careless finger. The new ship was tiny like the one that Fret and Father had ridden, but it was much quicker, engines roaring at the beginning and then screaming as he soared up and out into the sunshine.

Good cursed, and the pilot behind them echoed each word.

The Ruler of the Storm began large and swiftly became huge, covering half of Creation before they dove inside its enormous, heavily armored hanger.

More soldiers were waiting for the prize, but this time the boy evaded them, breaking into an easy sprint, diving under a pair of arms and reaching the hallway in the lead. Yet suddenly the strength in his legs was gone. His lungs refused to breathe, and his heart was a lazy muscle, and feeling as if he was weeping, he lifted one hand and then the other, wiping at the dry cheeks and dry unfeeling eyes.

Good caught him, barking some general complaints.

The quickest soldier fell in beside him, saying, “The boss wants to see you on the bridge.”

“List,” said Diamond.

“Not today,” the young man said, smiling nervously. “Tomorrow, sure. But today, we’ve got your girlfriend ordering us around.”

For no good reason, he remembered that little girl from school.

Prue was in charge of the world.

But of course his Archon was at the front of the pack. List was behind her, smiling as if his life depended on it, and various generals and aides took the trouble to look the boy over. The brown school uniform was in shreds, his feet bare and distorted by freshly grown callus, but the rest of his flesh and everything beneath the flesh was perfect. Not a scar to be found. Prima got down on one knee, which made her shorter than Diamond, and with concern and pain, she said, “I am so very sorry about your mother and your father. Those good people will always be missed.”

Words hit him and flowed away, and he just nodded.

“The Eight,” she said.

Diamond blinked. “Who?”

“I know this is hard, and too soon,” Prima said. “But that creature down there. The one that murdered your father. Did she have a name?”

“Divers.”

“Divers, yes.” She glanced at List before looking at the boy again, and very carefully, she asked, “Do you think Divers is responsible?”

The question made no sense.

“She was trying to kill you too, wasn’t she?”

“Yes, madam.”

“And did she say . . . do you have any sense . . . did Divers have any role in the attack that dropped the trees?”

Diamond wanted to vanish and couldn’t. Quest could disappear easily, and that was a fine reason to be jealous of her. “Others did the attack. She told me. But the ideas were hers, and she was in charge. Yes, madam.”

“Well,” said Prima. “Thank you. I needed to know.”

Then she was on her feet, and gone.

List lingered.

“Where’s King?” asked Diamond.

The Archon of Archons didn’t answer immediately. He had to study the boy, his mouth working itself into a tight rough pucker. And then a new smile arrived, plus the words, “I’ll take you to him.”

King was using a fancy telescope. Nobody else stood near him. Nobody wanted to be close to him. King had never been taller or more powerful, dressed in shorts and those gorgeous bright scales, spikes jutting from his elbows and that spectacular head. Hearing Diamond approach, he took a step backward. “You can have a good look,” he said. Then he gave his brother one long stare before saying, “I saw you and the smoke fighting all of them.”