The Rifts of Psyche by Kyle West (popular e readers txt) 📗

was, and how dire the situation, he couldn’t help but smile. At least here on Psyche there was some measure of freedom, even if he had almost died twice by now. At this rate, he wouldn’t last long.

He knelt next to Serah, who was slicing off a fang with gusto. It was at least a full meter long. Lucian’s stomach churned just watching.

“Try not to poke yourself with it,” she said, handing it to him. “Just a drop of that venom will paralyze you for hours. Two drops will kill you.”

“What about the other fangs? Should be three more, right?”

“Well, if you wish to search for them, you are welcome to it. I’m not allowed to trade with the Deeprift Villages. Not officially, anyway. I’ll come back later to harvest them.” Her nose wrinkled. “For now, though, I’d rather step away from this stink.”

They made their way down the cliffs, and Serah shared her water and food with Lucian. He marveled that she had thought to bring both with her last night; she likely never went anywhere without them, and for that he was grateful. He drank deeply from her canteen, while eating some mystery meat wrapped in some flatbread. He didn’t want to ask what it was, but at this point, he didn’t care. He was starving.

“Helpless as a babe,” she said, her eyes playful.

“Would a baby have killed two wyverns?”

“No, probably not,” she admitted. “It’s just so easy to make fun of you. You rise to the bait every time. We should keep moving.”

They picked their way over the boulders, taking most of the morning to get through the buried pass. It got a little brighter, and the clouds never really went away. Serah would stream antigrav discs for them to cross gaps more easily.

“Thought you said you could fly,” Lucian said.

“I can. But I wouldn’t want to leave you behind.”

“Oh, I see. Well, why don’t you give your arms a few flaps?”

She just gave a secretive smile. “Doesn’t exactly work like that, but maybe someday.”

They had now reached the same trail Lucian had followed last night. The sky, like yesterday, was filled with those strange, violet clouds, so thick that the sun was not visible.

“Does the sun ever come out?” Lucian asked.

She laughed. “If you go high enough. Of course, I hear the skies are clearer if you go Planetside.”

“Planetside?”

“Psyche is tidally locked. You know what that means, right?”

“Of course.”

“Well, we’re Voidside right now. Psyche’s atmosphere is thick, so you can’t see the sun unless you scale the highest mountains. Which is impossible to do, as the air’s only truly breathable in the rifts.”

“So where are we in relation to all that?”

“Here, we might be a third of the way from the bottom.” She pointed to the ridge behind her. “That might not look too high, but behind that ridge is one taller. That’s how it is here. You can only see so far because of the haze. I don’t really know what it’s like on other worlds. I’ve only had it described to me.”

“I wish I could show you South Shoal in Miami.”

“I remember. Lots of sun and a whole ocean of water, right? Almost enough to make me think you were telling tales.”

“Oh, it’s very real.” He noted her pale skin. “You would roast alive.”

“Sounds lovely. Are there mountains in Miami, too?”

“It’s flat,” he said. “Lots of buildings and people.”

She shuddered. “Oh, I would hate that. Sounds like Dara.”

“Dara is the city you talked about, right?”

“Yes. The seat of the Sorceress-Queen of Psyche. It lies in the Golden Vale, just before the Mountains of Madness. You should be careful with anyone from the Golden Vale, Lucian. Their slavers sometimes come into the Riftlands, and you’ll know them from their spears and armor of bronze. And their Mage-Knights wear colored robes and carry spears, too. If you see anything like that, you should run.”

Lucian clearly had a lot to learn. “There’s a queen here?”

She sighed and shook her head. “You ask too many questions. Just stay away from the Queen’s slavers. They aren’t often seen in the Riftlands, especially this deep, but we are eternally at war with them.”

By late afternoon, Lucian could better see the interior of the rift plunging toward the fathomless depths below. Even in full daylight, that bottom was lost to distance. Looking upward, he could see the steep slopes of the mountains blocking out most sunlight. The terrain rose impossibly high until the tops were lost in a violet haze.

He could discern trails crisscrossing down each side of the rift, though there seemed to be no clear way across. There were trails hundreds of meters above and below them on both sides. Even some greenery was beginning to cling to the rift’s sides, with tiny waterfalls that were quickly reduced to mist and cloud.

As they walked down the trail, Lucian couldn’t help his curiosity. “Is the entire moon like this?”

“Hardly. Voidside is mostly mountains and rifts, like this. Usually there’s a deep lake at the bottom of those rifts. They say the land gets flatter the farther Planetside you go. Once Planetside, you’re beyond the Mountains of Madness and Dara, in what’s called the Westlands. Beyond that, they say there’s lands called the Fire Rifts. And beyond even that, with the planet Cupid taking up almost all the sky, is the Burning Sands. They say it’s a hellish wasteland with no trace of water, with open cracks belching smoke and lava. Nobody in their right mind goes there.”

“So, what you’re saying is that this is the most habitable part of Psyche.”

“No. That would be the Golden Vale, where Dara is located. It’s warm enough from Cupid’s extra light, with flatter land to build on and farm, and has some rivers. These are wild lands here. But it’s here that we’re safe from the Sorceress-Queen and her slavers.”

Lucian wanted to ask more, but Serah seemed melancholy. So, he was content to be quiet and take in the new world with his own