Honor Bound by Rachel Caine

Author:Rachel Caine
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2018-12-29T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

Binding Actions

CRUNCHING UP THE path to the pyramid or the temple, whatever the hell it was, gave me the chills. Felt like we were walking on layers of dust that came from centuries of death, and that . . . was probably true. If other crews had landed here, that powdered glass storm would’ve flayed them alive, left them to decompose into the dust beneath our feet.

This entire world was a graveyard.

No danger, my ass.

As we landed, I’d noticed that this site wasn’t ruined like the temple on Firstworld, leaving us the damn fine question of how we were getting inside. We mounted a black stone ramp that could’ve been jet or obsidian or some alien mineral I didn’t know about. Time had stripped the shine and pocked it with holes. Some spots seemed like natural erosion.

Others could be blast damage.

Moving slowly upward, I didn’t see anything as obvious as tripwires or pressure plates . . . not that I’d be able to second-guess how an alien species would rig traps, anyway. I wished I could stop and feel a little of the majesty of this thing: a real space pyramid.

A walkway went all the way around at the base, and I led the parade; the pyramid had a silver side, a black side, and a white side, which baffled me. There was a puzzle to solve in those choices, and one of those options would offer us a way in. Three brains were better than one, so I started speculating aloud.

“There won’t be human associations with these colors or material choices. Starcurrent, does your lore cover any of this?”

From Starcurrent’s posture, ze was checking out the seemingly impenetrable structure as well. A flare of tentacles. “Black is the abyss from whence all life springs. White is the nothing to which we return when our songs fall silent. Silver is the walk-between, for those who see both worlds, beyond life and death.”

“Huh, okay. Anyone have thoughts as to where the door would be, the one that doesn’t kill us?”

We were standing in the open, close to the temple, but not near enough to activate murderbots, if there were any. I didn’t like the delay, but survival meant taking our time, even when all my nerves were urging me to smash and grab. The cool heist-planning part of my brain knew fast action would be fatal. There was a reason people didn’t return from here, so we had to be smart and careful, more than anyone who had come before.

Chao-Xing scanned the structure and bounced the data to Nadim to be analyzed with Bea’s help. We got back a stream of numbers, but nothing that helped with the symbolism or pinpointed the safe pathway. Per those readings, there were corridors that led inward from all three sides.

“I don’t like theoretical bullshit,” C-X said finally. “How do we know having different colors on the sides isn’t just . . . alien design choices? Colors mean so many things to different cultures, even back on Earth.

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