Kest, Rali, and Warcry were hanging around one of the columns, talking in low voices. Rali had a new walking stick and was bouncing it between his hands while he talked. Warcry shook his head and interrupted whatever Rali was saying. Kest stared out at the ocean like it was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.
I swallowed and stopped a couple yards away. Getting perp-walked out to your friends is bad enough when you’re not the reason they were locked up for two days straight. Probably longer for Rali and Warcry, since Biggerstaff had dragged them along with me after the massacre. If I were them, I would’ve hated me for getting them into this.
But when Warcry saw me, he just jerked his chin at me. “How about ya, grav?”
He didn’t look or sound angry. Not any angrier than usual, anyway.
A little of the tension drained out of my shoulders.
I nodded. “Are you guys all right?”
“All right?” Rali clapped me on the back like he didn’t even notice my arms were locked behind me. “We’re great now. The gang’s all here!”
A smile tugged at the corners of my mouth. “You’re even happier than Biggerstaff.”
“He’s just hyper because he’s got someone to talk to again,” Kest said, slipping her arm through mine.
I squeezed it against my side, ridiculously glad that she was doing this weird version of holding my hand instead of telling me to get lost and that I was a horrible person.
She smirked at her twin. “The last couple days’ solitary confinement probably drove him crazy.”
“I prefer to think of it as voluntary confinement. Sort of like an enforced seclusion.” Rali held open the pocket of his raggedy cutoff shorts. “Besides, I had plenty of company.”
Purple and white scales glimmered, and Sushi peeked out. When she saw me, she giggled and swam out, doing circles around my head.
“Grady!” she yelled in my ear.
I laughed. I couldn’t pet her with my hands locked up, so I cocked my head to bump it against hers.
“Thanks for keeping Rali company,” I said.
“Sushi talks to Rali,” she said, swimming around to look me in the face.
“A lot, actually.” Rali rested his chin on top of his walking stick. “She’s a very interesting conversationalist. I think a few more speech lessons and she’ll be able to tell me how she managed to cultivate a Spirit sea and specialization of her own.”
“Are you going to try to make a new one?” I asked, leaning around Sushi so I could see him.
He shrugged. “You never know.”
“’Course he is!” Warcry punched Rali in the arm a few times. “He’s got to get back after it, the bleeder.”
Rali laughed and shrugged off Warcry’s shots. “It’s just an idle thought right now.”
Out on the horizon, the night sun was just starting to reach into the sky, painting the edge of the ocean with orange and magenta. Even though it was another sun coming up, it meant the same thing as a sunset on Earth. Night was closing in.
We weren’t anywhere near a bog, but I caught a whiff of rotting flesh and rancid mud. The image of an army of ferals climbing up out of the muck, digging their way out of a caved-in Heartchamber 2, played through my brain.
“Hey.” Kest’s voice was so low it almost got lost in Rali and Warcry’s messing around. “Are you all right?”
What do you say to something like that?
“Yeah.” I put a smile on my face. “Fine.”
She looked like she didn’t believe me, but she didn’t push it.
“Then check this out.” She held up her metal arm, and in a clear voice, she said, “Coffee Drank.”
A can appeared in her metal hand.
“Whoa.” My eyebrows jumped up, and you could tell from the look on her face that that was exactly the right reaction. “How did you do that?”
“I integrated the storage ring.” She made the Coffee Drank disappear again. “The script was kind of fiddly, but I finally found a way to make it work without having to hold my arm to my forehead.”
The wind kicked up, coming in off the water so hard it made the waves explode against the rocks. Goosebumps prickled across my back and arms, and I shivered.
Kest saw me and leaned against my side, turning on her Hot Metal Spirit. The way she felt was a much better distraction than her new arm. I twisted my hands inside the mesh, wishing I could put an arm around her, but she kind of snuggled into me. That warmed me up a lot faster than the Spirit.
“Thanks,” I said, meaning not just for the heat.
She shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal and went back to her HUD like we did this all the time, hanging out with one of us in handcuffs.
“Wonder if there’s a way to have me mail forwarded,” Warcry said, squinting out at the rising night sun.
I thought back to the package he’d sent off with the fan inside.
“Expecting something?” I asked.
He scowled and shook his head. “Nah, just talking out the side of my face. Nobody knows I’m sneaking out aheada me sentence, do they.”
“Better hope not,” I said. “Where I’m from, if they catch you, they drag you back and add time.”
The wind shifted, coming straight down from overhead. Tufts of dune grass around the castle portico whipped around and flattened out. A long boxy spacecraft—not rounded like the CPA twinkie that had dropped me and Warcry off on Van Diemann—set down. Pneumatics hissed, and a ramp unfolded from the side, the whole thing making a weird geometric silhouette against the rising night sun.
“That’s our ride,” Kest said.
She and Rali led the way onto the shuttle. Biggerstaff and the geishas watched me until the ramp clanged shut between us.
Sitting down was awkward with my arms trapped behind me, but Kest helped me buckle in, then strapped herself into the seat next to
