Spinning Starlight (32 page)

Apparently so.

He tilts his head back. It feels like a sigh. Then he taps several commands on the wallscreen, pulling up something that fills the whole space. A map. Land masses, large bodies of water…based
on the scale, it might be the entire planet. Tiny white lights dot the expanse.

“These are all of the Khua shrines on Ferinne,” Yilt says. “Where would you like to start?”

A quick look lets me estimate the number. Thousands. There are thousands of them. There’s no way I can get them all.

I don’t know what’s enough.

Here comes another headache. But Yilt asked a question. Where to start.

I point at a random light. Except nothing’s random anymore. It’s where Spin-Still wants us to go.

So that’s where we’ll go.

I’ve lost count of the Khua. I’ve lost count of the days since I left Sampati. I haven’t lost count of the hours of sleep I’ve had lately, because I can
manage those on one hand. Preferably not the hand I hold the sempu in when I free the Khua, because that hand is mad at me. The pinpricks show up in nearly the same spots every time, again and
again. Yilt’s healing treatments don’t stand a chance before we’re moving on to the next location.

Because the thing with a spherical planet is, it’s always nighttime somewhere. We’re chasing moonlight and there’s no time for sleep.

I get in the streamer and study the map briefly before tapping a location. We reached several Khua in the first wave, before many guards were in place. It’s trickier now, but we
haven’t run into anyone yet. Yilt says they can’t guard them all. The keeper ranks are just sufficient for their normal duties, there are only a few dozen Aelo, and there aren’t
actually that many Agnac on this planet.

I’m too tired to hate the streamer anymore. Some rides are short, others long. This one’s on the short side, so I don’t get a chance to fall asleep.

The routine is the same every time. Approach the Khua carefully in case it’s guarded. Yilt keeps a lookout, I set the Khua free, we go to the next one.

This time, Yilt stops me with a mammoth hand on my shoulder. “Are you certain you don’t want me to do it?”

I glare at him. We already had this conversation once—as much as I can converse with him, at least. I know it bothers him to see my hand bleed over and over, but he’s a better
lookout than I could be. He’s faster, stronger, and sees better in the dark.

Besides, I didn’t tell Yilt this, but it feels like my responsibility. Even though I don’t believe what Fabin said about this being specifically his fault, my brothers and I are
tangled up in the situation, so it’s our job to untangle it. Because we can.
I
can.

The glare is enough for Yilt to give in and nudge me along. This particular Khua is on the edge of some farmland. The field is full of plants taller than I am, and the air is thick with an
earthy, green smell. I never paid much attention to the agricultural areas of Erkir—they’re mostly sentimental, with the way we produce food now—but it seems like I saw images of
these plants before. Maybe in one of the boys’ research projects. I think this is how squash grows. Unless it’s beets.

While attempting to complete a vital task to help a newly discovered race, Liddi Jantzen got distracted by questions of vegetable identity.

I almost laugh at my own mental media-cast. I need to get some sleep soon.

For perhaps the hundredth time—maybe less, maybe more—I secure the sempu in my hand, say a mental hello to the Khua before me, and brace myself for the imminent pain.

And it hurts. It
really
does. A little worse each time, either because my hand never gets a chance to fully heal, or because I’m so tired it takes a little longer to push the Khua
free.

This time hurts so bad, I’m certain I’ll see pinpricks on the back of my hand, too. So bad, my muscles override my brain and pull back. A second attempt ends the same.

“I know it hurts, Liddi. Try to hurry and get it over with.”

It’s the most sympathy I’ve ever heard in Yilt’s voice. The warmth it brings is short-lived.

“Who’s there?” That’s not Yilt. The voice comes from farther away, but not by much.

“Wait, it’s her. Stop!”

I glance over my shoulder. Maybe it’s farmers. Yilt can handle a couple of farmers.

But not when the farmers are just as big as he is. Haleian farmers seem pretty unlikely, and I catch a glimpse of a uniform as they approach. Keepers.

Yilt punches one and kicks the other. Not enough to stop them, just to keep them busy. “Liddi, go!”

Not without finishing the job. Panic gives me the adrenaline I need to shove the Khua free, even with the energy slicing into my hand.

“Now, run!”

I hesitate. I could try to help Yilt. Not sure how, exactly. The two keepers handle themselves just as well as he does. Mostly I could get myself knocked out, but it doesn’t feel right to
leave him.

“I said run! Finish it!”

The Haleian’s expression has never been so clear to me. Steely eyes, set jaw. This is more important than him, than me, than even my brothers.

Yilt is right, and I run, but I hate it.

The keepers came from the direction of the streamer, so I can’t go that way. The only option is into the field.

Cornfield. Corn grows on plants like this.

Amazing how my brain comes through when it’s the most irrelevant.

I run while I can still hear the fighting, but the whip and rustle of the cornstalks soon drowns that out. The pack of supplies on my back makes moving between the plants awkward, but this
situation is exactly why Yilt made me carry it every single time.

They’re going to arrest him. The government may be slow, but what if capital offense trials are fast? They can’t kill him for helping me. I can’t stand even thinking it.

I don’t know what to do.

Sounds as good as anything. I turn directly to the right and keep moving, slower now, trying not to disturb the stalks and give away my location.

Maybe I should keep going.

The heat-blocking material is in my pack. I lie down and cover myself with it.

Maybe Spin-Still should launch me back to Quain’s ship.

All I can do is lie here, breathing the soil, not moving. My arms sting with cuts from the cornstalks, but it’s nothing compared to the pain in my hand. At least I’m well-acquainted
with silence already. The footsteps of two approaching Haleians are hard to miss. Voices accompany them, just close enough to make out.

“Anything?”

“No. You?”

“Nothing. If it’s true she captured and enslaved a Khua, she could’ve used it to get to the other side of the planet.”

Shows what they know.

“All right, one of the flyers is going to do a sweep of the area, just in case. We should get the traitor to Chalu.”

The voices fade with the ground-jarring footsteps and scraping of the cornstalks. I stay covered, keeping my ears tuned for the telltale whirr of flyers overhead.

A traitor. That’s what they think Yilt is. Someone who just thought this world could use a little jostling, and I was the laserball that came barreling in for a bigger collision than he
expected.

I say a silent apology to the Haleian for getting him into this. And a silent promise that if I can get him out of it, I will.

As usual, the workshop was noisy and chaotic, but Mr. Jantzen and the boys liked it that way. And the boys liked it best when their father had the time to spend with
them.

Liddi added to the chaos by running into the room and crashing into her father’s legs.

“Whoa, slow down there,” he said, swinging her up into his arms.

“I’m sorry, Nevi,” Mrs. Jantzen said from the doorway. “She keeps slipping away.”

“Oh, let her stay, Sav. The boys don’t mind, do you?”

A chorus of “No” responded, and Emil added, “Liddi can sit with me.”

Mr. Jantzen set her down and reminded them to make sure she didn’t hurt herself before moving on to help Durant with a tricky timing mechanism.

The boys kept working, and Liddi entertained herself with various bits left out on the workbench. Some she examined and set aside; others she added to her collection, piecing them together.
She even sneaked into Emil’s kit to snag a power supply. An hour later, Fabin noticed what she had in her hands.

“Um, Dad? I think Liddi made something.”

He came over to look, but before he got there, Liddi’s little fingers flipped the switch. The lights she’d cobbled together burst into life as the device flew up from her hands
on its tiny hover-motor. It floated there, shining and sparkling as everyone stared at it.

“Boys, did she get that from one of you?” Mr. Jantzen asked.

Another chorus of negatives, and again Emil followed it. “I watched her make it, Daddy.”

Vic and Luko responded in one voice. “But she’s two.”

No one could make sense of it, but Liddi was too little to care. All she cared about was watching her bright little machine, the way its light played off the walls.

“Pretty spark!”

TWO NIGHTS LATER,
I’ve freed several dozen more Khua, all of them around Podra. Enough that seeing an untethered Khua floating around
isn’t all that rare anymore. After falling asleep for a few hours in the cornfield, I woke before sunrise and cleared out. I worried that Podra would be in the most danger, with so many
anchored Khua around it, so I had to brave the more monitored areas.

Getting here involved “borrowing” an unsecured streamer, to add to my list of offenses. I don’t dare use it anymore, though. Too easy to track. So I rest during the day and
spend the night running across the countryside.