Chapter 2 #2
The Kantenans stood off to one side with Janae. Even from here, Sereya could see that Khalzin kept turning toward his new mate whenever she spoke.
What would it be like to have someone listening that closely?
The thought embarrassed her. She watched the other males instead.
One had horns that rose high above his head in two narrow crowns. Dhomhes, the Protector's son. She recognized the name from the briefings. He was saying something that made the broad-horned male beside him strike his arm.
He laughed.
Sereya could almost hear Roemary approving: that one. The money was in the refineries. She had said it often enough.
But when a guard passed behind the group, Dhomhes turned his head. Only briefly. His smile remained, and a moment later he was speaking to the others again.
Sereya found herself looking toward the guard too.
Then Dhomhes looked up the ramp, directly at her.
Sereya forgot to look away. His laughter had stopped. He drew a breath, and something lifted beneath the shoulders of his robes, changing their shape. He put a hand to the fastening at his throat without taking his eyes off her.
She glanced behind herself. There were other women waiting, but none of them seemed to have noticed him.
When she looked back, he was still watching. One foot had turned toward the ramp.
“There you are.”
Roemary's voice came from behind her.
Sereya stepped aside so the rest of her group could move down the ramp. Roemary had returned to the bay entrance despite the crew's efforts to send her back to the cabins. Two staff members followed, trying to keep their disagreement quiet.
“I am entitled to observe,” she told them. Then, to Sereya, “You saw what happened.”
“Yes.”
“A complaint needs witnesses.”
Sereya glanced below. The broad-horned male had left his friends and was walking toward Adryel's group.
“You are listening to me?”
“Yes, Roemary.”
The first explosion struck beneath the platform.
Sound hit her chest before she understood what it was. The ramp jumped under her feet. She caught the rail, missed, caught it again as someone slammed into her shoulder.
The bay lights went out.
For an instant she was in another place, another dark passage, with smoke coming up the stairs.
Then the emergency lighting flashed on. A woman was on her knees beside Sereya, trying to stand while people stumbled around her.
Sereya grabbed her sleeve.
“Hold on here.” She pushed the woman's hand against the rail. “Don't stand yet.”
Outside, the platform tilted.
She saw the Kantenans sliding. Saw Janae go down, so far from Khalzin that there could be no reaching her. The male with the mechanical leg caught her near the edge. Something hooked into the decking beneath him. Khalzin scrambled toward them.
A loud crack split the platform.
The ship moved.
Sereya felt it through the rail, a deep shudder followed by a grinding that went on and on. The woman beside her began to cry. Sereya put an arm across her shoulders and held her against the side.
“Stay here,” she said. “Just stay here.”
She had no idea whether here was safe.
A Kantenan clung to a railing below, robes caught around one leg. The tall, narrow horns. Dhomhes. He hauled himself upright, shouting something she couldn't hear.
Then the engines beneath the platform roared.
Slowly, painfully, the ramp began to level.
Sereya could breathe again. She helped the woman to her feet. There was blood on the woman's wrist, and Sereya realized it was her own, running from a torn knuckle.
“Inside,” a crew member shouted. “Move inside.”
Women were coming back up from the platform now. Sereya flattened herself against the rail to let them pass. Beyond them she glimpsed Adryel, down near the hull, with a Kantenan bending toward her.
And Graecey farther out, waving two women toward the ramp.
“Come on,” Sereya whispered. “All of you. Come on.”
A hovercart rose beside the platform. Guards ran down the terrace approach carrying medical cases. Voices called for space, for help, for people Sereya couldn't see.
The worst of the movement had stopped. Someone behind her said the backups were holding.
Then a strip of damaged decking near Graecey's feet bent downward.
Graecey reached for a woman beside her and pushed her toward solid ground. The male with the mechanical leg caught Graecey's other arm.
He was going to get her back. Sereya could see it. He had braced himself, pulled her weight toward him. One more step.
The decking tore loose.
For a moment Graecey was still there, her free hand reaching up, and Sereya had taken a step down the ramp without deciding to move.
Then both figures dropped below the edge.
Sereya reached the bend in the rail and stopped.
Nothing. She could see nothing where they had been.
Someone caught the back of her dress and hauled her away from the rail. She fought the grip, trying to look over the side, trying to find the pale curls or the green of his horns.
“Back,” a guard shouted. “Get back.”
“Graecey.” Her voice wouldn't carry. She tried again. “Graecey's down there.”
The guard was speaking into his comm. More people crowded past, pushing Sereya toward the ship.
At the entrance, a crew member spread his arms across their path.
“Back down. Follow the guards to the hall.”
Someone protested that they'd been told to come aboard. He shook his head and kept pointing. Sereya turned with the others, one hand sliding along the rail.
Roemary was already below, pushing past a woman with a bloodied sleeve. Sereya followed them off the ramp and onto the terrace. She kept looking back until the guards moved her around a damaged cart and she could no longer see the broken edge.
Graecey had been telling them where to stand only minutes ago.
Sereya still had the number three glowing on her wrist.