To Control the Stars by Xander Jade & Nathan Drake

Author:Xander Jade & Nathan Drake [Jade, Xander & Drake, Nathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-05-31T16:00:00+00:00

XIX. The Healer of Crolnik

“Stop. Stop–stop!”

Nate sat up with a gasp and inhaled a lung of cool desert air. The light was different. It wasn’t as bright as it should be. It was much darker, in fact. Twilight.

He was sure that he had been dreaming of something dark and terrible, of racing towards the sun in an experimental ship, perhaps, or of a large, flying creature heading straight towards him with a roaring maw full of teeth…

But now he was lying on a scrap of padded clothing, looking up at the sky and seeing the stars start to come out over the alien planet. There was a murmur of voices nearby, and a small like incense.

“Nate? Nate Just Nate?” said a familiar voice, as Nate pushed himself up to see none other than the hammerhead Uolan, engineer Melchizor Fram rushing towards him over the rocky escarpment.

“Melchizor? What are you doing here?” Nate groaned, reaching up to touch his head. It felt woozy and light, but he surprisingly didn’t feel near dead.

He was in the same place where he had fought the Test, it appeared, as he could see the spit of rock where the others had assembled, and the stairs down to the sandy ‘arena’. Of the giant Sand Ray, there was no sign (which he was quite thankful for).

“Miraculous! You are alive!” the hammer-headed alien was saying to him with a tone of polite surprise. “I had thought your species was quite weak, but it appears I was wrong.”

“Gee thanks, I guess,” Nate pushed himself up into a seated position, for his head to suddenly hammer and he wondered if his species really were as tough as Melchizor was surprised that he should be.

“You did well, although it was a fool’s test, nonetheless,” said an unfamiliar voice, as Nate realized that there was a woman walking towards him, and trailing behind her was 43, and the girl Layla.

The woman was bald, with skin like bleached mahogany. She was dressed in wide, heavy robes, like a mixture of ponchos and saris.

And there was a power that emanated from her, Nate knew immediately. He could feel it in his teeth and running across his skin, like buzzing static electricity. Nate saw that there were others still gathered on this rocky outcrop under the giant tower, more of the sandpeople had started small fires in metal containers, and they were seated and appearing to wait, expectantly. All eyes were on the woman, who had paused before Nate, and the circle of incense he was contained within.

“I am, I suppose, the Healer of Crolnik. I have your friend, the Captain Urzli, in my care as we speak,” the woman said. Her eyes were quick and sharp, and there was something about how the woman moved; the quick, smooth exactness of her motions, or the way her eyes were brighter than you might expect, told Nate that she wasn’t human.

“Triest will be pleased at least,” Nate grumbled as he blinked, rubbed his eyes.

“Here,” the

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