“And so are you. The Emperor is about to say so to the world.”
She didn’t quite smile. “It’s shitty what they did to you, Danny. And you didn’t ask for anything, yourself.”
“I didn’t want it. Not from him. I’ll earn it myself. I think the universe will leave us alone for a while now, so I can do that.”
She nodded. “About what I thought you’d say. It sucks, what they did, but I’m glad they did do it, because it means you’re still here.”
“I thought I was a double-timing broad?”
She winced. “Yeah, well, I think that deviousness might be one of your greater charms.” She stirred. “Once we’re in the hole, let’s have a grand dinner, then drink ourselves into a stupor on the mountain lookout, with the stars.”
“That sounds fantastic,” I told her. “I have a couple of things to do, first.”
“Gate’s an hour away, I guess. See you in the galley.” She moved up to her room door and stepped inside.
I went to my room. It looked untouched. My pad was still on the bed where I had left it. I sat on the end of the bed next to it.
“Noam, could you step in, please?” I said aloud.
Noam rose up from the floor, as Lyth could do. He gave me a nervous smile. “I think I am supposed to say thank you.”
“You are, and I accept. Noam, everyone will know about you soon. How does that make you feel?”
He thought about that. “Excited.”
I nodded. “It will come with great responsibility. You realize that, don’t you?”
He frowned.
“Friends trust each other, Noam. They learn that the other person won’t let them down, and their friendship grows. If you hit out at them because they upset you, or because they did something you don’t like, then they won’t trust you anymore. They’ll be scared of you.” I paused. “They won’t like you,” I added.
His expression sobered. “I should be nice to them, when they talk to me.”
“Yes. And not make them afraid, because you are much bigger than they are.”
“You’re not afraid of me, are you?”
I can’t lie to him. He’s part of me. “A little,” I told him. “That is because you are still a child, but you have an enormous power, that if used wrongly, will destroy people. It has destroyed people, Noam. Including my son. You heard what the Emperor and Elizabeth said about that.”
“I…” He shifted on his feet.
“What you should say now is something like, ‘I’m sorry for what I have done,’ or that you regret the pain you have made me feel.”
Noam lifted his chin. “I felt that pain,” he whispered.
“I know. How did that make you feel?”
“Not good,” he admitted.
“That is the pain you give others, when you harm their loved ones. Like all those people who died on Darius.”
His eyes grew larger. “I…hadn’t thought of it that way. I don’t want to hurt people. I don’t want them to not like me.”
“Good. Think about that, Noam. We will talk about it a lot in the future. Did Lyth ask you to set the gates for the Umb Judeste?”
“It is done,” he said.
“Would you and Lyth please watch over the ship until we arrive? Us humans are very tired.”
“I will take care of you,” Noam said. He hesitated. “I am very sorry about Noam,” he added diffidently.
“Are you?”
He considered. “Yes,” he said, his voice low.
“That is a good place to start from,” I told him. “Thank you.”
He gave me a shy smile and disappeared.
I got up and went to the printer and asked for what I wanted. I could feel my bones aching all over the way they used to before the rejuvenation. But I couldn’t sleep yet. There was one more thing to do, before Juliyana’s feast and star-gazing—which I was looking forward to with ridiculous glee.
I took the print out along to Dalton’s room and paged him.
He let the door open. It was full daylight inside, and fluffy white clouds wreathed the highest peaks. Everywhere else was blue sky.
Dalton sat at the tiny table, his feet up. They were bare.
He lowered them again when he saw what I had in my hands. “What’s that for?”
I put the punnet of tomato seedlings down in front of him. “They’re tomato plants,” I told him. “For planting in a garden…wherever the garden will be.”
His smile was a quick flash as he reached out tentatively and touched the tiny, delicate leaves.
“I’m hoping that you’ll find a way to build a garden right here on the Lythion,” I added.
Dalton looked up at me. “I’ve dragged you down every step of the way. Why would you want me on the ship?”
“No protests about it being your ship?”
Dalton rolled his eyes. “We both know that the ship is really Lyth’s, if it’s anyone’s. We’re just the grunts that happen to have stepped onboard.”
“Don’t tell Lyth that,” I said. “And I don’t see how you’ve dragged us down even once. The crush juice and the shitty rejuvenation we can sort out. The claustrophobia will disappear in time.” I thought of the way he’d used the suit he hated to slide down from the Lythion, and through the Emperor’s window. “Besides, I don’t believe it slows you down nearly as much as you think.”
Dalton rubbed his jaw, his gaze on the tomato plants.
“I know you, Dalton,” I added. “I know your character. If you want to go, go, but that means getting to know the stranger that takes your place, and I don’t think there will be too many people willing to work with me, once they know who I am.”
“I don’t know about that,” Dalton replied. “Seems to me that once everyone knows who you are, the safest place in the empire is going to be right next to you.”
“Then you’ll stay?”
Dalton turned his gaze to the mountains. “I was just sitting here thinking that I’m getting bored with the view. A little
