Jace wasn’t about to sit around and do nothing while he waited for Lady Fairynor to make arrangements for them. Aside from how boring it would be, it just didn’t feel right.

  He was, however, completely unsuited for that kind of work. Getting into the Sevencore Academy seemed quite impossible with his limited knowledge. Or, at least, figuring out and registering for the entrance exam. Whatever strings Lady Fairynor was about to pull to get him and Lessa into this academy, it wasn’t something he could do.

  But there were still…unsanctioned things to be doing.

  Like stealing a Vault Core from an Alliance convoy. After all, he’d need some way to practice.

  “You’re sure it’s in the magazine tower?” Jace asked. He stood in the Luna Wrath’s cockpit, holding tight to a bulkhead as the freighter shot over the surface of the aspen-covered surface of Fentt.

  “That’s what the communication Starrealm transmitter operators intercepted said,” Ash replied. He sat in the radioman’s seat, legs out sideways to brace himself.

  Kinfild was flying fast and pushing the Wrath to its limit, and in the atmosphere, that meant the poor little ship was bucking and pitching and rocking. The thrusters whirred and whined, and the repellers thrummed, keeping them just above the treetops.

  The surface of Fentt was hilly, but there were no mountains in sight—only unending swathes of lime-green and yellow-leafed aspen trees. It was a border world, but firmly under Alliance control.

  “Just making sure,” Jace said. “Considering it’ll be Lessa and I jumping to the train. You’re sure the transmitters will be jammed, too?”

  “They always jam transmitters on their transport monorails,” Kinfild said. “Starrealm and Alliance.”

  Jace’s plan was simple: they’d fly close to the train (or whatever it was), match its speed, then he and Lessa would jump down. They needed Kinfild to fly the Wrath, Perril was a healer, and they needed Ash to secure their landing platform at the magazine tower.

  The train would take him and Lessa in to the Alliance storage facility—what they called ‘magazine towers’—for all sorts of military equipment and rations. Meanwhile, Kinfild, Perril, and Ash would secure a landing platform near the top of the tower, either via bluffing or force. That way, when Jace and Lessa stole the Vault Core, they’d have an easy escape.

  “You’re sure you want to do this?” Perril asked. “I’m sure Lady Fairynor could find you a Vault Core if you asked, aye?”

  Jace shook his head. “I did ask. They don’t just keep powerful Vault Cores lying around Kinath-Aertes. The Starrealm’s minor academies keep them to help train Starrealm Wielders.”

  “And none are as strong as this,” Lessa provided. Then, she whispered, “Uh, Ash, what’s this one rated at?”

  “It’s a Nascent Heart core,” Ash provided. “Capable of detecting Nascent Heart stage darklings all across the galaxy and sending the user to deal with it. Needless to say, they’re much harder to find.”

  “Never used a core like that,” Perril said. “Didn’t seem useful.”

  “Wouldn’t be all that helpful to a healer, right?” Lessa asked. “Especially when you don’t gain bounties for killing darklings.”

  “Only hunters gain bounties,” Jace reminded her. “For any other Wielder, they’re a training device.”

  “That’s not necessarily true,” Ash interrupted. “Or, well, mostly true, but there are many dark-aspect and void-aspect Wielders who can draw an opponent’s Aes without even killing them.”

  Jace raised his eyebrows. “Huh. I’ll…be careful of that.”

  “Please do.” Ash rubbed his wrists. “It’s not a pleasant experience, to say the least.”

  “Have you…had it happen to you?” Lessa asked.

  “Once.”

  “Not to interrupt,” Kinfild said, “but we’re approaching the tracks. I need everyone to keep their eyes out. There are monorails every fifteen minutes, and we should be hitting it right on the dot.”

  “Got it,” Jace said.

  “Now, you guys remember what Lady Fairynor told us, aye?” Perril asked. “Jace and Lessa have a uniform fitting at nine in the morning, on Nemday. Given Kinath-Aertes time, that’s only about nine hours from now. And the hyperspace jump will take seven hours, given how long it took us to get here.”

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  “More like eight hours,” Kinfild provided. “The Splitwinds will be against us on the way back.”

  “I don’t know how anyone can keep track of travel times,” Jace muttered. “Or have consistent schedules here.”

  “You get used to it,” Lessa said.

  “Hey, we’ve flown in a starship almost the exact same amount of times,” Jace said.

  “Yeah, and that must just be a you problem then.” She glanced back and gave him a small smile. “I’m used to it.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Your suit is ready?”

  She lifted her arm, then turned around. Her exosuit’s Aes-cell was full, and the struts were clamped tight to her arms, giving her extra speed in a fight—more than a regular non-Wielder could achieve. Heavy armour would weigh her down, and probably wouldn’t do much against a plasma bolt, but at least this way, she stood a better chance at avoiding getting hurt at all.

  She pulled the modified Luminian rifle off her back and checked its charge. “It’s full, too. I’ve got your back.”

  Jace nodded. He still wore the praetorian armour he’d stolen from the Luminian tomb, but had also donned a blue cloak, just for a little extra warmth.

  “Are you two paying attention?” Kinfild asked.

  “Or just staring into each others’ eyes?” Perril teased.

  “Shush,” Lessa whispered. “I’m watching, I’m watching.”

  Below the Luna Wrath, the ground fell away into a deep canyon. It had to be hundreds of kilometers long and a few deep, because the aspens at the bottom of the ravine all blended into one cohesive carpet of trees. A river cut through the center. Every so often, along the bare stone walls of the valley, old, inactive sewage pipe outlets protruded—now rusty and crumbling.

  About halfway down the canyon, at the very center, was a spindly track. It ran along the course of the valley, following the river. Every so often, an enormous pillar reached down, keeping it suspended, and posts stuck up beside the rail, tipped with flickering signal lights.

  Kinfild turned the Wrath to follow the track, and in the distance, a few kilometers ahead of them, a thin column of exhaust smoke rose.

  “There it is!” Jace called, pointing to the smoke. “Are we gaining on it?”

  “Starships are still faster than monorails, thankfully,” Kinfild said.

  “Even this old freighter?” Ash grumbled.

  “I thought you two had gotten over this,” Lessa replied. “You’re not still caught up on how the Wrath looks, are you?”

  “Not its looks, dear,” Ash said. “Its safety.”

  “Aye, I can’t say I trust it either,” Perril said. “But I make do with what I have.”

  Kinfild dropped the Wrath down into the valley. The freighter soared only a few meters above the monorail track, whipping through the valley at top speeds.

  Ahead, on the track, a blocky shape appeared. A train about thirty cars long trundled along the top of the single track, bouncing and rattling. Each train car was slightly different. Some carried wooden containers on flatbeds, and others were metal boxes with sliding doors along the sides.

  At the front, the engine roared forward. Steam vented from pistons on its sides, and smoke chuffed from a set of smokestacks at its front. Jace had half-expected it to look like a steam locomotive, and though there may very well have been an enormous boiler inside, the engine was blocky, with a sloping prow and a cockpit for the drivers at the very front—ahead of the smokestacks.

  “Aim for the back,” Jace said. “We’ll jump off onto one of the cars.”

  “The rear watchmen will still see you,” Ash warned.

  “Better them than whatever security they have up front. We just need to get into the train.” Jace let go of the bulkhead, then walked back to the cargo hold, swaying with each step. “They won’t have transmitters to warn the front if they’re jamming all transmissions. Unless…do they have wired telesignals?”

  “Those can still be jammed,” Kinfild said.

  “Then we’re good.”

  “Everything’s tied down back here?” Lessa confirmed.

  “Unless you untied something recently!”

  “Not as far as I know!”

  Jace pulled a switch on the cargo hold wall, and the side boarding ramp folded out. Wind whipped into the cargo hold, blasting Kinfild’s plants, making boxes shudder, and shifting the couch. The holographic table, which still displayed a galactic map, flickered.

  Jace, gripping the pistons at the edge of the boarding ramp, inched to the edge. Lessa was right behind him, but with the whipping wind, he couldn’t hear a thing she was saying—if she spoke at all.

  Kinfild shot over the back of the train—over another rigid steel car with an observation port at its top. Surely, someone would see the Wrath approaching. When the Wrath had passed two box cars, Kinfild slowed the Wrath, until it matched the train’s speed, then inched over until they were just above. Only a few feet of a drop.

  Out of habit, Jace shouted, “Ready?” He had no idea if Lessa heard him or replied, because he wouldn’t have heard it anyway.

  Taking a quick inhale, he jumped down and landed in a crouch on the slightly curved roof of the boxcar. Lessa thudded down behind him.

  A moment later, the Wrath pulled up and sealed its boarding ramp, then shot up over the lip of the canyon and raced into the distance.

  On the back of the train, the wind was less noisy, but the rumble of the monorail cruising over its single track was too loud to hear anything else.

  Jace pointed to the side of the boxcar, where sliding doors would let them inside, but before he could even crouch down, a bolt of magenta plasma seared over his shoulder, singing his cloak.

  He whirled toward the back of the train. A hatch had opened in the back lookout car, and three soldiers were climbing out, holding plasma rifles and shielded sabres.

  To himself, Jace muttered, “I was hoping we’d have a little more time to get our footing.”