65. Servo

servō ~āre ~āuī ~ātum, tr.

1. to save; to make safe, healthy

Rax pushed Sunscreamer to its absolute limit, crimson jets blasting red-hot on his spine.

And then he let go.

It was harder to let go than to hold on. He’d held on for so long, knew the ins and outs of holding, had carved it so deep into his very nerves it’d become an automatic reaction he had to fight. Release. Remember what it’s like to be nothing.

The greatest rider in a century let the g-forces win. His blood flow stopped, his heart not strong enough, and unconsciousness came swift. Darkness seeped in on the edge of his vision, and in the moment before it was too late to change his mind, he saw his fate open itself under him—overload, hospital bed, prisoner, fear. The first time he’d felt fear in the saddle in a decade.

And then it swallowed him whole, bones and all.

But it wasn’t the end. In the very depths of the blackout, he saw color: skin and hair and eyes. It was the Lithroi man—washed-out and soft and speaking in a pitch-perfect replica of his real voice, and Rax could feel it—this had happened before but not to Rax. To someone else. Not a hallucination—a memory like the dream.

“They have forgotten, Synali, what the rabbit means.”

Rax was in Synali’s body, hate and sore bruises and that sharp smell that followed her everywhere—sweet and coppery and so close it sent his heart beating wildly as she scoffed.

“Then what does it mean, old man?”

The Lithroi man looked at his cane patiently. “On old Earth, the rabbit was a cornerstone of the food chain, the link between the sun that grew the grass and the animals that fed on those who ate such grass. The rabbit had ten thousand enemies: wolves and tigers, vipers and eagles and foxes. And yet still, it survived.”

Rax felt her mind go different, listening intently now.

“The whole of Earth was against the rabbit,” Lithroi said. “And yet Earth relied on the rabbit. It fed. It gave life. The nobles of this Station have forgotten it is the rabbit that sustains the lion and not the other way around.”

She and Rax looked up in determination. “They will kill me regardless.”

The Lithroi man smiled so bright it looked like sun. “They will have to catch you first.”