Page 37 of The Space Between Stars

“Sister!” Mitek screamed dramatically. Fankalo nearly rolled her eyes. He barreled into her, smothering her with a hug so unexpected it shocked her from her stupor. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Which neighborhood are you from?” Dent-Chin asked. “My cousin lives in Gembolta’s Skywalk. She’ll help us get you to your parents.”

She hadn’t expected her “rescuers” to know the literal neighborhoods of the Skywalk. Her inner disquiet became a storm. Mitek had wanted to “wing it”. Mitek hadn’t wanted to spend an extra moment in her presence to plan if he didn’t have to.

“Dorune,” she blurted out—the Kaidechi street with the prettiest houses—in the same instant that Mitek said “Ketowa.” A scene played out in her mind where she punched the deckhand right in the nose.

The sailor’s brow cinched.

“They didn’t abduct us from Seraphinden,” she said quickly. “They took us from Kaidech.”

“All that way?”

Keeping a stern face had never been more difficult.

“It won’t be long before nightfall. The raiders’ll return soon,” Mitek interrupted. At least he was able to keep his senses after saying something stupid. Unlike her, chest in a squirming knot. She took his arm. Perhaps she could salvage this.

“Bring them up!” the officer barked at his crew. “Quickly now. And burn this vessel.”

Fankalo’s stomach turned once again. The plan had definitely not accounted for that.

Several of the soldiers jumped to action, removing small casks from their packs and pouring their contents along the floor. The sharp, woody scent was unmistakable: turpentine.

Another man in uniform, long-limbed and with a nose that stuck out like a hawk’s, ushered Fankalo and Mitek up the ladder to the main deck. When they surfaced into the world of sun and wind, Mitek’s eyes caught hers, and she could see that his misgivings finally mirrored her own. Zeb was supposed to meet them on the far side, but he couldn’t have swum all the way to the cove yet. The Blue Wing vessel sat at anchor alongside the Respite, its masts shooting at least a story taller. If these sailors started a fire, she and Mitek would be trapped with them.

A wave of heat belched from the hatch.

“Hold on,” said Hawk-Nose, rounding on Dent-Chin as the full Blue Wing crew surfaced from below. “Did she say they were from Kaidech?”

Fankalo bit at her lower lip in earnest plea, but the man’s expression soured.

“Kaidech is under quarantine. Wiped clean by the Strikapa.”

The words igniting a burning disbelief. Her skin prickled. Strikapa?

The blaze took hold below, and the sailors ushered her and Mitek away from the lattice dividing them from the mess deck.

Strikapa? “What do you mean, Strikapa?”

Her question was carried away with the wind, lost to the cove, but her fury swept through her: building, blistering, devouring.

Wood scraped wood as the gangplank between the two ships suddenly retracted. Just meters away, the sails of the Blue Wing vessel unfurled. The anchor was raised.

Dent-Chin ran to the rail and nearly tumbled over the side. “What the—”

A uniformed man, presumably their shipwatch, thrashed in the water beneath them. “We’re breached!” he screamed.

With increasing velocity, the Blue Wing vessel moved north, taking Fankalo’s heart with it. Surely their crew hadn’t seen the haze starting to rise from the hold? Surely she and Mitek were worth more than a pretty new ship?

The main deck of the smoking Respite erupted into madness, officers shouting and cursing as their vessel sailed away. At risk of being stranded on the burning Rogue’s Respite, the Blue Wing company jumped overboard to swim for the cove, except for Dent-Chin and Hawk-Nose, who seemed to be in charge of her rescue.

Hawknose gripped Fankalo’s arm with a hand like talons. “The boy said they were abducted two ten-days ago.” He thrust a thumb at Mitek, who stood with his mouth agape, all confidence evaporated. “Kaidech’s Strikapa outbreak was a full moon ago.”

Dent-Chin seized Mitek by his hair. “What neighborhood?” he demanded. Mitek’s face went white as a sail. “What neighborhood?” He obviously didn’t recall the name she’d given them on impulse. “Kretch!” the officer moaned. “They’re in on it!”

“I say we hang them up on Gembolta’s tide walls to lure those fucking raiders in as bait.”

The ship was burning. Burning. And no sign of Zeb yet; they’d expected to have more time. Fankalo swallowed. She had been too ashamed to tell her father she’d never learned to swim.