Epilogue #2
Njkall picked up the object and turned it over in one enormous palm. “And you still don’t know what it is?”
“No.” Rjmar’s irritation vanished beneath genuine interest. “It’s older than the facility. Much older. They found it there or brought it there, but they didn’t make it.”
“Imperial?”
“Not anything Imperial I’ve ever seen.”
Doren leaned against the shop entrance. “Which means naturally we’re going to drag it halfway across the Empire looking for someone who has.”
Njkall looked at Rjmar and frowned. “You’re leaving Hothrest?”
“Thinking about it.” The trader’s gaze drifted past them, towards the landing field, toward the ships and the sky beyond. “Been on Hothrest my whole life. No kin any more, no clan. Maybe it’s time for a change.”
“Rjmar—”
“Don’t.” He held up one hand, claws glinting dully. “I don’t need a speech, Clan Leader. You can’t solve everything. And there’s a big universe out there.”
“Thanks the gods,” Doren said.
“You’re going with him?” she asked.
“Fuck, yes. I have a powerful desire never to see another snowdrift.”
“You’ve been here less than a year,” Rjmar growled, but she noticed he didn’t dispute the fact that the younger male would accompany him.
“Longest year of my life,” Doren snapped.
“And without me you’d have starved halfway through it.”
“See?” Doren looked at her. “Always keeping a ledger.”
But he was smiling when he said it. Rjmar cuffed him hard enough to stagger him sideways, and she laughed.
“Come on,” she told Njkall. “We’re supposed to be at Izzie’s.”
They left Rjmar and Doren arguing behind them.
Izzie opened the door before she could knock.
“Finally.” She pulled Polly into a hug. “I was beginning to think Baralt had invented this mysterious message just to get you here.”
“I do not invent things,” Baralt called from inside.
“You told me you were dying once because you had a splinter.”
“It was a large splinter.”
She laughed and hugged Izzie back, then realized that something was different. She drew back and looked at her friend. Izzie had always been curvier than her, but she seemed even more so than usual. She was wearing a loose tunic, and beneath it—
Her eyes widened, and Izzie’s hand immediately went to her stomach.
“I guess you noticed.”
“You’re pregnant?”
Izzie’s face lit up.
“Yes! We’re having a baby. Well, I’m having a baby.
Baralt’s having a nervous breakdown.” She grinned at Polly, smoothing her hand over the unmistakable bump.
“We’ve been keeping it quiet until we were sure everything was progressing normally.
But the baby is strong and healthy, and I’m starting to show. ”
She stared at that gentle curve, something warm and aching opening in her chest.
“May I?”
“Of course.”
Izzie took her hand and pressed it against the side of her belly. For a moment, nothing happened. Then she felt a delicate little flutter against her palm, and her throat tightened unexpectedly.
“Congratulations,” Njkall said from behind her.
Baralt appeared at his side, looking unbearably smug.
“The child is strong.”
Izzie rolled her eyes. “According to him, no other child has ever kicked before.”
“Not like that.”
“You’re impossible.”
Baralt’s expression softened as he looked at his mate, and she suddenly understood exactly why Izzie didn’t sound particularly annoyed.
“Come on,” Izzie said. “Before he starts telling you how exceptionally talented the baby is. Baralt has something for you.”
They went into the living room and Baralt handed her a small wooden box. She opened it, then gasped. Pieces of beach glass, green and blue and milky white, mixed with small fragments of coral in colors never found on Hothrest.
Warm colors. Ocean colors.
Her hands trembled as she lifted the folded note resting on top.
Polly—
Made it. The trip wasn’t bad. Kamat told me I don’t have to decide anything until I’m ready. She understands.
Sherae is warm. You were right about the ocean. It’s too big and I don’t trust it, but I like looking at it.
Athtar’s mate found me a job at a bar next to the ocean and the windows are always open.
I have my own room. The door locks from the inside. Sometimes I forget to lock it.
Don’t make a big deal about that.
I found the glass on the beach. I thought you could make something out of it.
Be happy.
Tess
She read the note twice. Then a third time.
“She’s all right,” she whispered.
“She’s getting there,” Izzie said, and maybe that was better.
She touched one of the pieces of blue glass. “I’m going to make her something.”
“I assumed you would.”
“I’ll send it with Glasach the next time she comes through.”
Baralt lowered himself onto the bench opposite them. “There may be more news by then.”
“News about what?” she asked.
“I turned over copies of everything we’ve gathered about the ships, and the false manifests, and the males Tess identified to an Imperial representative I trust. Not everything—not enough to endanger anyone here—but enough to start pulling at the network from the other end.”
“Will they do anything?”
“I wouldn’t have given it to him if I didn’t believe he would act. The Empire is really trying to crack down on illegal slavery, and the scope of the operation is outside of anything we can handle.”