The Fallen by Ada Hoffmann

Author:Ada Hoffmann
Language: spa
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780857668714
Publisher: Watkins Media
Published: 2021-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

One Month Ago

Elu was sitting in his chair on the Talon, fussing with the details of some new outfit Akavi needed – a rich person’s disguise, this time, formerly fine clothes now a little worse for wear, replete with all the new signals people used in the Chaos Zone now to signify their status, odd accessories and trimmings made from Outside objects – when someone knocked at the airlock.

He startled into full alertness. Akavi never knocked like that. Elu wished he still had his network connection; his cameras could have shown him who this was, but he couldn’t get to them from here. It could be Qiel, it could be the other angels coming for him, it could be anyone.

But if it was the other angels, running wouldn’t do any good. He could try to take off, but he’d be shot down before he could shake off pursuit. If it was the other angels, he was dead whether he opened the airlock or not.

He took a deep breath and opened it.

Qiel Huong, her hair plastered to her face with sweat, stood in the airlock. Hanging off her was a little child Elu thought he recognized, her cousin Lingin, cradling a badly broken, inexpertly splinted arm.

“I’m sorry,” she said immediately upon entry. “Sorry, I know you like your privacy here, I just–”

“What happened?” Elu asked, hurrying to them.

“I don’t know, Juorie turned her back on him for five seconds and he fell off something. I wouldn’t have bothered you, there are people back in our own group who can do first aid, but now it’s swollen and–”

She broke off despairingly. Both of them looked utterly exhausted. Qiel knew an angel like Elu would have supplies on his ship, including medical supplies. She still wouldn’t have come here, wouldn’t have put herself and an injured child through such a long search for an uncertain outcome, if there were other options.

Elu bent down, looking more closely at Lingin’s arm without touching him. It wasn’t only broken; it looked inflamed, infected, and there was a feverish flush to the child’s skin. “How did you get here?” he asked Qiel.

“I looked. Like, you’re hidden decently, but only because nobody knows there’s anything worth looking for in here, you know? Once you know it, if you’re any good at tracking, the signs are there. Still took a little while, but…” She shrugged self-deprecatingly. “Can you help him?”

He nodded. He refused to think yet about what this meant, what precedent it set, what Akavi would think.

“Hi, Lingin,” he said, turning his attention to the child. “My name’s Elu. I’m going to take a look at your arm, okay?”

“Okay,” said Lingin, in a voice quiet and shaky – maybe from general disuse, maybe only strained with pain and fear. He’d learned over the course of these six months to fear angels. Had Qiel tried to explain to him that Elu was different? Had he understood? Or did he only know that one of his oppressors was standing over

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