Later didn’t arrive before they reached Vedenemo.

Kayana tried not to be resentful. After all, the more quickly they finished these tasks, the sooner she could be away with money lining her pockets. The instructions for this challenge had been as basic as their equipment—the ship would put them down outside a small village, where they would find something called the Temple of Beasts. The jewel—a star aquamarine called the Water’s Heart—waited for them inside.

That was it. No equipment. No tracker.

Safe, still waters reflected the wispy clouds that dotted the cerulean sky. Boats were pulled above the tideline, having brought every kind of fish imaginable back to the community, and food was being distributed through some means she couldn’t understand.

At least there were fire pits in the village. Those she could understand. Warm, welcoming cookfires seemed to be every few feet along the quay. Her v’tana reached out to each flame as she walked past, the echoing heat reminding her of Ax. He’d said he had a gift for her, but since they’d transit beamed to the surface he’d been impossible to find.

That wasn’t entirely true. He was easy to see. He was at the water’s edge, surrounded by a gaggle of laughing children, where he’d been almost since they’d arrived. He swung them into the air; some he tossed into the water. The smallest took turns riding on his shoulder. The open fun they were having was infectious, and even some of the adults smiled and laughed from watching them.

None of which prevented her from feeling like he was avoiding her.

Like most Malebranki, she had been an only child. Given the tendency of her people to manipulate and backstab each other, that had never bothered her. Watching the joy with which Ax played and capered with the village children though, there was a twinge of loneliness that she hadn’t experienced such a carefree childhood.

Having a family seemed...nice.

A new child had clambered onto his shoulders, and Ax swung the first in wide, giggling circles. In moments, they each clamored for their turn to be next, eager to experience their chance in the air.

She took a step forward, not wanting to interrupt, and yet jealous of the time he’d given the children and wanting some for herself. One of the locals cut her off, handing her a skewer filled with grilled fish and some kind of starchy vegetable.

Kayana took it reflexively, wondering what the catch was. “Thank you?”

“Predators follow prey,” said the man in return, and she couldn’t decide if he was reciting a proverb or telling her the nature of reality. Either way he didn’t seem to be asking for money. In fact, he’d moved back into the crowd, distributing the skewers through whatever criteria made sense to him.

She took a sniff. It smelled delicious—citrus and spice that made her sinuses flare and water. The first bite only confirmed the impression; the delicate flavors of the fish married smoothly with the seasonings that the villagers had used to present both in the best way possible. She groaned, unable to stop the appreciative sound from slipping out.

“That good, eh?”

She started at Ax’s voice, surprised that he’d snuck up on her while she’d been distracted. “It’s delicious. Do you want a taste?”

“After eating nothing but ship’s rations? Sounds amazing.”

He reached for the skewer, but she stepped out of the circle of his arms and pointed toward the crowd of villagers. “Great, the guy who had them went that way.” The look of momentary surprise on his face almost made her giggle. She let him take two steps before stopping him. She pulled a piece off and held it out between her fingers. “Though, I guess I could share.”

Ax turned, and the hunger in his eyes chased away any thought that he might have been avoiding her. He curled his hand around her wrist, lifting her fingers to his mouth. Every nerve in her body felt like it stretched toward him as he ate the fish from her fingers. She inhaled as he pulled each fingertip between his lips, his tongue swirling against the pad. The whole time, his gaze never left hers, making the crowd evaporate until the whole planet consisted of him and her.

When he finished, his smile was nothing but predatory. “Delicious.”

“You’d definitely know.” She felt her cheeks heat at the memory of his mouth other places, and it made her wish they actually were alone instead of prepping for a challenge.

He had an uncharacteristic look of embarrassment as he straightened, at odds with his wistful smile. He reached into the survival pouch on his belt and pulled out a cloth-wrapped package. “I, uh, made this for you while we were travelling.”

She took it from him, curiosity scrunching her brows together. “What did you do?”

Inside the package was the glove from an exo-suit, trimmed down and fitted with a small collection of wires. A battery blinked lightly on the back of the hand. Her skin warmed as Ax drew close. He nodded, “I don’t know how much contact you need for v’tana, so I trimmed out the palm and fingertips. If you touch your thumb and pinky together, it should complete the circuit.”

She slipped the modified glove onto her hand. Curling her fingers together as he’d described awakened a spark in the middle of the glove. Her v’tana connected to the spark immediately, and she grew the spark into a gentle orange flame in her hand.

She extinguished the living fire and created a second. Then a third. Joy filled her, the simple pleasure of not being bound by her poorly developed skill. Kayana pulled Ax into a tight embrace before kissing him.

“I guess that means you like it,” he said, when she let him draw breath again.

“It’s the nicest thing anyone’s given me.” Which was certainly true. The engagement gifts from Endarion had been to her family, not to her, and the Malebranki didn’t often engage in other frivolous present exchanges. Gifts always came with strings.

A young girl tugged the sleeve of his exo-suit. Ax responded by grabbing her up and tossing her in the air far above his head. The little girl’s scream made panic rime Kayana’s spine, until she realized the girl was laughing rather than terrified.

Once the girl had toddled off, Kayana touched Ax’s shoulder. “I don’t suppose any of the children mentioned anything about the Temple while you were playing.”

Ax laughed. “Not really, no. Mostly we’re just playing.”

“Mostly?” She raised her eyebrow at him. “It looked like all play to me.”

“It was, but one of them said something odd right at the beginning. I’m pretty sure it’s a clue for the challenge.”

The girl he’d tossed into the air returned, a younger sibling holding her hand and watching Ax with wide, expectant eyes. He stalked forward and snagged the youngster before swinging them over his head.

Her heart warmed at the peaceful domesticity of the tableau. “What did they say?”

Ax held up a finger. “Sea creatures never lead.” As soon as he said it, the first girl repeated the phrase. Ax extended a hand toward her. “And then that happened.”

Al’kheri’s second maxim rang in her mind. Only a fool believes in coincidence. One time is random, twice was a pattern, and patterns had meaning. She quickly told him about the encounter with the skewer-sharing man.

Ax nodded. “Yeah, that sounds significant. The question is how we move from weird aphorisms to actually getting someone to show us to the Temple of Beasts.”

As soon as he named the place aloud, a hush fell across the crowd. Kayana scanned the people, trying to figure out what to do next or find the person who had brought her the fish. The crowd parted several moments later, and an aged woman strode forward. Some of the villagers made a deferential gesture as the woman passed by them. Kayana repeated the gesture, which earned her a bemused smile when the woman drew close.

“I don’t think we’re related,” the older woman said. “But thank you all the same.” Kayana must have looked confused, so the woman clarified. “They’re showing me respect as the eldest member of their clan. I’ve got a fair bit of family here.” Though the words were short, her smile was genuine, and Kayana was relieved that the woman wasn’t actually offended.

Ax set the young boy he’d been swinging down and nodded to the woman. “Do you know where the temple is?” He stepped close enough that Kayana was acutely aware of his presence. Like a magnetic field that surrounded him and against which she had to fight so as not to lean into him.

The woman looked between them and nodded, her smile slight and secret. “Indeed. And before you ask, I’ll take you to it as well.”

There was a catch, Kayana could feel it in her bones. “How soon?”

The matriarch smiled again. “Immediately if you wish, though I do recommend another skewer of pol-fish for the road. It’s a bit of a hike. Your matter transfer beam won’t get us any closer I’m afraid. Something about elemental deposits or polarized neutron flows. I forget.” She waved a hand in the air derisively.

“So you know what we’ve come to do then?” Despite the AI’s assurances, the use of the word temple had given Kayana pause. She wanted to make sure they weren’t stealing some holy relic from these villagers. Even her avarice as a pirate had limits.

“Oh of course. We put the gem in there for the Corporation. It’s perfectly all right. In fact, if you survive, we’ll have a big feast to celebrate.” She paused for a moment. “Then again, we’ll have a big feast if you don’t survive too. Octiron’s paying us either way.”

Ax paled a bit as he focused on the element Kayana had missed in her amusement. “What do you mean if?”

“It’s like I said, you can’t use your ship’s matter transfer beams at the temple. So once you go in, you have to solve the puzzle to get out. If you don’t solve the puzzle, well...” She drew her thumb under her chin in an elaborate throat-cutting gesture. “That’s all the challenges you get.”

Kayana sighed and grabbed a pair of skewers from a tray that a villager brought by. It figured. Octiron wasn’t ever going to let it be simple.

#

A BIT OF A HIKE, SHE says. Ax struggled to maintain his composure as he followed along behind Kayana and the matriarch, and hoped he didn’t look half as bad as he felt. The humidity and dense air made it feel like he was breathing through a wet, rolled-up washcloth. The quiet whirr of the holovid drone had begun to grate in his ears like the whine of an annoying insect. He resisted the urge to check the time, knowing they’d been hiking for two hours the last time he’d checked. In the plus column, lagging behind let him watch the way Kayana’s ass moved beneath her exo-suit, the flex and play reminding him of the too-short time they’d had in her cabin.

She had chased her pleasure with such abandon, almost desperate in her desire for release at the end. He’d been with more than a few women over the years, but something about Kayana made bringing her to release feel like an act of worship. Ax would have been happy to spend the whole travel time in her cabin, learning every sensuous, scarlet curve of her. Memorizing every sound she made, every sigh and gasp that could be coaxed out of her.

Dammit. The only thing worse than hiking, was hiking and fighting an erection at the same time.

Stupid Berniss and her stupid camera drones. Ax shot a dirty look over his shoulder and wondered what the penalty would be for abandoning the camerawoman and her equipment somewhere. Ideally some place just dangerous and primitive enough to keep them from ever leaving. He glanced at the yellow drone following along at a respectful distance. No doubt Octiron would disqualify them.

It might be worth it.

At least it had given him time to cobble together the spark-glove out of the remnants of the drone that got damaged during her attack. He scribed every moment of her unmasked joy in his heart like a treasure. Building the glove had been a spur-of-the-moment idea, given her need for a flame to do her fire-shaping thing. He’d expected it to be helpful, and she’d treated it like he’d given her solid gold.

Shit. Maybe he had. He should look up Malebranki marriage rituals when he got back to the ship, see if Algol had any information on them. He already had one broken engagement in his shadow. Ax didn’t need a second.

The matriarch giggled at something Kayana had said and gave her a congratulatory punch in the arm. Whatever her actual age might be, the woman was spry as a child. She set a grueling pace as she led Ax and Kayana toward the temple. Not that Kayana was having any trouble keeping up. She stopped to hold another of the broad-leafed, thorny vines out of his path while Ax ducked under it, leaving him deliciously aware of how close he had to pass to her in the process.

He glanced up at her, and she laid her hand against his cheek. The smile on her face was just wicked enough to make him think she’d be open to marooning the holovid crew as well. He brushed his lips over her wrist before looking in the direction of the ocean. “Well, you can’t say I never take you anywhere nice.”

That much was certainly true. Vedenemo looked like a paradise. Even the temperatures were better once you got to the water. The rustic community of the village had felt like a better version of home with the giggling children replacing the gaggle of cousins, nieces, and nephews that crowded the family mansion. Whatever else his parents were, they firmly believed in the importance of family, and stuck to the adage that a house wasn’t a home without the laughter of children.

Until he and Kayana had come to the village, he hadn’t realized how much he missed it. A sudden pang of homesickness twinged in his chest, and Ax tried to will it away. After all, it wasn’t like he was headed back home. Ever, if he had his way. Ax blinked and refocused on Kayana.

Her grin widened. “Get done with this challenge quickly enough and maybe we’ll have time to take each other somewhere nice.” She narrowed her eyes. “Or several somewheres.”

He chuckled, but the tightness in his pants returned with a vengeance. “Careful. I’d hate people to think that scary exterior is just a façade.”

“If you two are done flirting under that Lamanea leaf, I’d like to get to the temple already.” The matriarch’s bark held little bite, however. Her grin was almost as lecherous as Kayana’s had been, and it made Ax wonder exactly what stories the two women had been sharing as they walked.

“Were you a drill sergeant?” Ax called back. “Seriously. I’ve been through boot camp that was easier than this.”

“Then suck it up, Buttercup. Let’s move.” The older woman smiled again. Clearly these people had found the secret to everlasting youth on the island or something, as her energy was bottomless. “I’d like to be back home before nightfall.”

Kayana glanced at him. “You were in the military?”

“Oh, hell no,” he said, and patted his chest. “Problems with authority. But I watch a lot of movies. This is way harder than movie boot camp. Longer too.”

She rolled her eyes and shoved him up the trail ahead of her, but her smile had lit up her whole face. Another treasure for him to tuck away for when all this was over. Each grin felt like a reward, the warmth that flowed into him better than the finest New Terran brandies and twice as intoxicating

They crested the rise at the matriarch’s side, and Ax realized they’d passed all the way through the interior of the island. A deep cove sat in front of them, surrounding a low stone building that extended over the blue waters. Columns guarded the front of the building, like something out of a fantasy movie, with no clues to what lurked inside.

As they drew closer, Ax could see that the stone of the columns and the inner wall around the door had been carved with stylized animals in all the available free space. As for the entrance itself, it loomed black and empty beyond. He looked at the matriarch. “Any insight you want to share before we go in there?”

“Yeah, take a boat back when you’re done. That hike sucks.” On cue, a small hydrofoil cruised around the back of the temple and headed toward the waiting woman. When Ax boggled at the craft, she chuckled. “What. We live rustic. We’re not savages. Oh, and lest I forget—birds are first in all things.” She gave them both a sage nod, as though she’d just announced the secret of life.

“Birds first. Got it.” He glanced at Kayana, and she nodded. So far, they had plenty of clues and no puzzles. He just had to hope they had the right ones to succeed at the challenge.

“If you live through the challenge, there’s a flare gun with the Water’s Heart. You can send up a signal, and we’ll come get you.” The matriarch made a shooing motion with her hands. “Now get in there. I’ve got things to do.”

He and Kayana stepped into the darkness of the entrance, and the older woman reached in and tapped something on the wall. A dim glow spread out from the spot she’d touched, following the carvings in a random and unpredictable fashion. She gave them both a final smile and said, “Have fun!”

A heartbeat later a heavy stone barrier slammed into place over the entrance, sealing it off. They were trapped.