They came from the mountain in a silent wave, walking purposefully to Milaga and through the streets to the port. Not a child cried, not a person spoke. They walked silently and swiftly to the ships. The people of Tivor stayed back, awed at their presence. The Spirits of the Forest were leaving. Their people had come to claim them, after four hundred years. They were no longer Tevalis'noru, the Lost Ones. They had been found.
Paltronis was only dimly aware of their arrival. She crouched in front of the hatch, refusing to leave until someone came out to talk. Rain dripped around the ship. She was mostly dry, huddled underneath the curve of the landing shuttle.
The Spirits came into the port, walking through the afternoon rain like ghosts. They moved silently, splitting into three waves, dividing into the three ships. Those headed for the shuttle she sat under paused when they saw her.
A young woman stepped forward. She was vaguely familiar, but Paltronis was too tired to recognize her. She'd been awake for two days. She had no idea how much longer she would have to stand vigil at the hatch, either. There had been no sign of life for the last twenty four hours, not since they'd carried Dace inside.
The woman stopped a bare step in front of Paltronis. Her overcoat, a thick quilted jacket of deep green to match her eyes, was spattered with mud. It was the jacket Paltronis finally recognized.
"You," she growled, rising to her feet. "You sent her down that mountain to die."
"I did what had to be done," the woman answered.
Lanoni'lai, Paltronis remembered the woman's name. "You had no right!"
"She would have destroyed us all, if I had not," Lanoni'lai insisted.
"You did it to her, you broke through her shields. You should have helped her."
Lanoni'lai shook her head. "I could not have helped her, though I wanted to. She was too powerful for any of us. We could not help her."
"So you threw her out? She almost went mad."
"She was already mad. Why do you stay here and grieve for her? She lives. She is finally where she belongs."
Paltronis reeled back a step. Dace was still alive? But the Hrissia'noru had her now, and Paltronis knew they would never give her up.
"They are the only ones who can help her," Lanoni'lai said flatly. "You help her most by letting her go. Go to your ship, go back to your people. Dace is with her people now."
Paltronis shook her head. "She would never choose you, if you even give her a choice."
Lanoni'lai's face softened. "Go back to your ship. Let her die in your mind. It will be easier for everyone."
Paltronis found herself moved aside. Lanoni'lai led her people into the now open hatch. Paltronis watched stupidly until the hatch began to slide closed again. She lunged forward, too late. The hatch clicked shut. She pounded on it, screaming wordlessly.
"Paltronis, Cici, let it go for now," Leon said behind her.
She went limp. "Don't you dare call me that." But there was no force in her words.
"It's your name, Cici."
"Nobody calls me that and lives," she said as she let him lead her away from the hatch and into the rain.
"Beryn does regularly," Leon said with a grin.
"I'm not even going to ask how you know that."
"Paltronis," he said seriously as he led her into the airlock of the Windrigger. "She's gone."
"No, she isn't. That woman, Lanoni'lai, told me she was still alive."
"And you trust her? You saw Dace go down, so did Harouk. He said there was no way anyone could survive that."
"She did," Paltronis insisted. "I know she's still alive."
"You're going to tell me you're psychic, too?"
"A bit," Paltronis said with a shrug. "I can feel that she's still there, Leon. She isn't dead."
"But she's in their ship and we aren't going to get her out of there. The Hrissia'noru are more formidable than an entire army of Imperial lawyers."
"You're the best, Leon. You can get her out of there." Paltronis put every ounce of belief she could into that statement. Even if she had to make some of it up.
"You really think that?" Leon looked up at her, puffing out his narrow chest in its bright pink shirt.
"Yes," Paltronis said, and found she meant it.