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huffed along without speaking. If Teyha was being honest, she was keeping up the paces so she wouldn’t have to listen to his whining.
    With the night firmly in place around them, she stopped. “Take a short break. I have to check in.”
    Nosku wasn’t sure what she was going to do, but as the flare exploded and arched skyward, he looked at her with horror. “What did you do?”
    “What I always do. I sent a signal to our watchtower that I would be out of danger in twelve hours. If I don’t show at the tower by then, they will send a search party for me.”
    “You?”
    She looked at him with a frown. “For such pretty faces, you have such a penchant for scowls. Yes, me. As far as anyone knows, I simply took the ambassador and his wife on an expedition to see one of the ancient cities of Gaia, or Underhill in your case.”
    He relaxed, and she could see embarrassment.
    Darku cleared his throat. “Thank you for your discretion. Hiska and Ritgar don’t deserve the stigma of stealing a ship.”
    Teyha laughed, “Especially since you were the one who stole it and convinced them to come along.”
    He looked shocked. “How did you…”
    She held up her hand. “Hiska and Ritgar are followers. You are a bully. My guess is that you wanted to impress Hiska with your daring, and it backfired in the prison. Fortunately, as a good girl of the Shadow Folk, she refused to go without her brother and that alone saved her from whatever you had planned.”
    Nosku scowled. “How could you know that?”
    “Hiska and Ritgar have not spoken to your nephew unless it was necessary since they got out of the prison, even you have avoided him. So, either he has worse body odour than the other two, or he did something that lost him trust.”
    The men were opening and closing their mouths.
    “There are also recent bruises on Hiska’s arms, and based on position, I am guessing that her piloting in was done under duress, because Darku didn’t want to take responsibility for the crash. Her hands on the controls would shift blame if scans were done. Funny thing. No scanners work here.”
    Teyha loaded the next flare and kept it at her side. “We have twelve hours to get me home or alarms will sound all over the planet. The last thing you want is to try anything out here Nosku. You are not the only adult Shadow Folk here, and Ekinar is looking none too impressed.”
    She grabbed a ration pack and bottle of water. “Okay, I am moving, so come with me if you want to get out of here.”
    Hiska moved up just behind her and spoke quietly. “How did you know?”
    “The bruises? You tried to cover them up in the cave, but they were already blue-black. They had been there a while.”
    “No, about Darku.”
    Teyha kept hiking. “Gaians have teenage boys too. They press every advantage they can and have even been known to pull some ridiculous moves to win the attention of their chosen girl.”
    Hiska nodded. “How can you see us? I mean our faces. We have always been told that if one not of our folk saw our face, they would fall in love with us and pine until they died.”
    “Really? From what I see, you folk are like statues. Pale and perfect but with little exposure to a reality outside your folk. You don’t even interact with the others of the Nine, do you?”
    Hiska shook her head. “No. Same reason though. We don’t want to dazzle them.”
    “You may want to test that in controlled environments. Can you drop the shadows at will?”
    The young woman frowned. “I don’t know. I know it fades when we sleep, so it could be a learned behaviour.”
    “We accept the reality with which we are presented. Make sure you are safe but experiment at will. Don’t tell Ekinar or your brother that I told you to though. That is a conversation I am not interested in having.”
    Hiska giggled, and for a moment, she was relaxed and her face did have an unearthly beauty.
    Two more hours and a short break. Everyone was exhausted, but they were only two