The look on Rhys' face didn't promise anything good.

"What's going on?" she asked, looking at the small gate next to the massive one.

It was obvious they were both locked out. Quinn didn't even see a handle, much less any crack. Nayanors didn't leave anything up for chance when it came to the storm.

Rhys' expression was dark. She'd never seen his deep green eyes so filled with hatred before. The harbinger observed the solid wall in front of them with a cold measurement.

"Repercussions," he answered shortly.

"What –" Quinn asked as Rhys opened the link on his transmitter.

"Jos Gharo," he spoke into it. "Gate Control of Jos Gharo, respond."

There was no reply and Quinn's heart dropped. If they were left out there, they were as good as dead, with the storm ready to hit any day now and her not being prepared for it in any way. Rhys had considered it possible that a warrior might survive with sheer dumb luck.

Quinn had no doubt Rhys could find a way, just as she was certain he'd try to save her as well and die trying.

She wasn't going to let that happen. With icy determination, Quinn prepared herself to face whatever fate had in store for them, but Rhys didn't seem that concerned.

"Gate Control, respond," he repeated.

Quinn waited with him, but the transmitter stayed silent.

"Clever," Rhys said, shutting it with a cruel grin on his lips. "How meticulously careful."

"What is?" Quinn asked. "How can they have forgotten we were still out here?"

"Forgotten?" Rhys asked. "This is rebellion. The captain you saw before, or someone else, has taken it upon themselves to rid my domain of me – and you as well. It means they will die the death of cowards like they deserve if this is the method they chose instead of facing me."

"You do keep saying that there is no match for you on Luminos," Quinn pointed out, her courage returning as she saw that Rhys hadn't despaired.

The harbinger scoffed.

"Even so," he said. "Nayanors are warriors. Just because a battle is dangerous isn't a reason to avoid it."

"So why aren't they hearing us?"

"Someone has blocked short-range comms," Rhys explained, looking at the gate. "It's not a bad idea. With the storm approaching, our would-be murderers could claim that the interference was the fault of the defenses."

"I'm taking that it's not supposed to work like that," Quinn said.

"No," Rhys said. "And the storm isn't near enough yet. But it's good since it's so hard to prove. I can imagine those cowards now, saying how tragic it was. There would be bloody battles for my position."

Now he looked positively amused at the thought.

Quinn looked at him quizzically.

"Can I ask why you're not more appropriately upset?" she inquired. "As it is, we are still locked out and there is no way to communicate with those inside."

"Yes," Rhys said, looking at the staircase they'd just descended. "For now. We need to do a bit more climbing.

"The idiot who had this clever idea thinks he can keep me out of my own fortress. I don't know if it's his treachery or his stupidity that insults me more. Either way, when I find out who it was, they will not die a warrior's death, nor be buried with the honors."

Another way. Another way in.

She breathed out in relief, yet there was a part of it that bothered Quinn.

"This way of yours," she said when they resumed climbing again. "Is it not a – a flaw that the others should know about? I mean, if it's a path, it should be reinforced as well. To stand against the storm."

"It's not a pathway in the traditional sense," Rhys said. "You'll see. Don't worry. I told you I won't let anything happen to you or my fortress."

Quinn noticed they were moving faster now. It was no longer a leisurely walk, a sightseeing tour. They were on a quest for vengeance since she had no doubt Rhys was going to make the guilty party a head shorter.

For her own part, Quinn had dark thoughts in her head. It was clear that the "trouble" she'd started was causing rifts among Rhys' warriors. So far she was protected by the fact that she was the harbinger's fated and that Rhys saw disagreements as challenges.

It meant several things she would have rather not believed in, however. One was that Nayanors didn't change. If that was how quickly they picked up on someone moving away from tradition and how they reacted to it... there was little hope that Luminos would ever be a better place for women.

It also meant that her quest to save Cassie was going to be nigh impossible.

And she was clearly slowing Rhys down. Quinn could see how fast the harbinger could have covered the distance. He practically jumped up the steps that reached her chest. In fact he did, like he existed in another dimension and the same kind of gravity didn't apply to him.

Reaching out her hands and letting the harbinger pull her up, Quinn smiled.

"If climbing a set of stairs is so difficult for me, I don't know how this pathway of yours is going to work out," she said.

Rhys laughed.

"You are not a Nayanor," he said. "Most of the time on Luminos it means that you are close to helpless."

"Thanks," Quinn deadpanned.

"But there are times when it is useful," Rhys said with a grin. "Look over here."

Quinn did.

They had come up about halfway. Looking down made her feel queasy, like the terrible fall beckoned her somehow. A natural feeling for anyone up so high the air was getting thinner. That might have been the approaching storm, of course.

Rhys was pointing at the cliff wall beside them. At first, Quinn didn't see what he meant. It was a solid dark rock, beaten smooth by time and storms. She couldn't imagine how thick the walls of the fortress were to keep off the unprecedented natural disaster that was just days away from them now.

Then she saw a crack in the wall. It was so small it was barely there, no wider than her – and Quinn got it.

"You want me to fit through there," she said, unbelieving. "I don't think that's possible."

"It is," Rhys assured her, looking up at the sky. "And we should hurry. The black clouds on the horizon don't promise anything good for us."

"A person can't possibly fit through there," Quinn said, stepping closer to see better.

"They can," Rhys said. "I have."

Quinn looked at him, a smirk on her lips, measuring him from head to toe in all his seven-foot-four glory.

"You have got to be kidding me," she said, nodding to him.

Rhys snorted.

"Naturally I was much younger then," he said. "No more than a boy. My father showed me this when I inherited the fortress. For occasions just like this.

"I could still do it, if I had to. If the storm was upon me, I'd strip out of the armor and make myself fit, but it wouldn't be a pretty sight."

Quinn imagined he was right.

"Okay," she said, pushing the warm cloak off her shoulders.

She felt the cold immediately. Rhys hadn't joked about the fur of the beast being exceptional. So far Quinn had felt like it was a particularly freezing winter day. Not fun by any standard, but bearable even for a human. Nothing they didn't have back on Terra in the Northern Regions.

Now she felt the cold creep into her bones like it had a mind of its own. Her body started trembling.

"What's behind it?" she asked, ignoring the fact her fingers were going numb and pushing herself against the crack in the wall.

It would be a tight, tight fit, but Quinn knew that Rhys was right. She couldn't imagine him making her do anything that would endanger her.

"A control panel," Rhys said, watching. "It's a trap door, fitted on a rotating platform. You have to find a lever to rotate it a step at a time until the opening is big enough for me to fit through with all the flesh still on my bones."

Quinn's answer was a bitter chuckle. Nayanors really had the oddest sense of humor.

"Alright," she said. "Hold on."

I'm glad I'm not claustrophobic. Although I might be after this.

It was a fair estimation, given how tightly the rock pinned her down. Quinn had hoped the platform was not larger than a ten foot diameter, but she'd been wrong.

It made sense. If it was meant to keep the long night out, the trap door was bound to be tough enough not to be ripped out of the cliff by the sheer forces Rhys had described to her.

"Quinn?" she heard the harbinger's voice.

If it wasn't her all-alpha, brutal warlord, she could have sworn there was naked fear in his voice. Quinn imagined why, too. If she got stuck in there, not only would Rhys have to nearly kill himself to save her – but there was no guarantee he could. They might both end up dying there, the rock becoming their tomb.

"I'm okay," she called back, edging along carefully, seemingly mere inches at a time. "I'm trying to go slow not to get stuck!"

"Good," Rhys called.

"How about you?" Quinn shouted back. "With the wind becoming stronger –"

"Don't worry about me," the harbinger's voice answered, amused. "Young warriors train like this. They try to outlast each other on the stairway when the storm is nearly upon us. I've stood here with hail, with floods from the drop pouring down on us like cascades –"

His voice suddenly stopped. Then Quinn heard the unmistakable sound of swords clashing together and something even more horrible than that.

Plasma shots. Those were plasma shots!

"Rhys!" she screamed, but there was no response.

Maybe he didn't hear her. Quinn's heart nearly stopped when she considered the possibility that there wasn't anyone to hear.

She pushed on. The forced carefulness had never been so hard now that she needed to be quick. Quinn felt the rock wall tear her clothes and scrape her skin. She was bleeding from a dozen little cuts but that didn't stop her.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Quinn smelled open air in front of her. She felt warmth, too.

She was nearly out. One more push got her free and Quinn stumbled into a small control room like Rhys had promised.

Ignoring her wounds, Quinn dashed to the board, desperately looking for the lever her fated had described.

In her hurry, she forgot to look around. Only when a strong hand closed around her, pulling her away from the controls at the exact second Quinn saw the lever, did she understand that she was not alone.