Kaira had been right. The jump engines seemed to take an eternity to charge, one heartbeat at a time. The darkness outside the windows grew more and more intimidating as the seconds slowly ticked by, and Tarkus sat there as if he was totally unaffected.
Kaira even started to think that maybe there was something out there. Something without form or substance. Maybe something like the Taint was reported to be. And that it was focusing all its attention on her. That would explain why Tarkus couldn’t feel it.
Her stomach muscles ended up clenched so tight that she could only take shallow breaths, and it was all she could do not to start to hyperventilate. She didn’t dare take her eyes off the darkness in case something moved out there and she missed it. She hardly dared to blink. An
