Ghost Pirate Gambit, page 21
I’m sorry, I’m rambling.
What I want to say is that this year I saw you. At the pilot orientation, when they were scanning the pilots, I swear I saw you. They never spend any time on the newcomers, you know that, so it was the briefest glimpse — but I recorded it and saved it so at least I can pretend you’re still out there somewhere.
I just want to say how proud of you I am and how much I miss you.
I love you.
Evvi Faye
The words swim together as Lasadi fiercely blinks back tears.
She doesn’t know which part of Evvi’s letter was the biggest punch in the gut. The fact that her family made a place for her on the altar, that her grandmother speaks her name in prayers, or that her younger siblings get together to honor her memory every year.
They hadn’t held banishing for her after all.
She’s been an idiot.
An idiot not to reach out earlier, but also an idiot not to think Evvi and Amit might be watching the Star Run. If her sister recognized her, who else might have? Lasadi is supposed to be dead. Can she even reply to her sister without putting them all in danger?
She swipes the message away without rereading it, heart pounding.
This is another decision she needs to make after dinner, a shower, and sleep. She shoves the message out of her mind, scraping a thumbnail along her lash line to catch a traitorous drop of moisture there, then unbuckles from her chair and pushes herself into the galley where the others are waiting.
Jay spots her first, smile faltering — she must look as awful as she feels.
“I don’t know about you all, but I’m beat to hell,” she says, to get ahead of the questions. She slips into the open space beside Jay. “I’m going to sleep for three days.”
“And you deserve it.” Jay throws an arm around her shoulders in a hug, then reaches for the enchilada casserole bake to serve her up first.
“We all deserve a break. And you all deserve an apology.”
“We’re good, Cap.” Ruby squeezes Lasadi’s hand. “That was some fast thinking, and the rest of us will get the cues faster once we’ve worked with each other more.”
Lasadi isn’t afraid to meet Raj’s gaze across the table anymore; when she does he smiles at her, encouraging. And happy — he seems genuinely happy even after the hell she just put him through. Maybe that’s the thread of warmth Lasadi still has coiled in her core from Ruby’s touch on her hand, from Jay’s arm around her shoulder. Happiness.
“Have you seen the news?” Alex asks, voice tinged with excitement and pride. “Qacha gave an amazing interview, and Fangio went completely off, it was flash.”
“And we got a message from Vasavada saying an Alliance transport was spotted in the area,” says Jay. “But they’re not moving in. The story’s catching like fire — I think your plan worked.”
“There’s some good news, at least,” Las says. She catches the hot sauce Alex nudges her way with her first real smile in ages. Since she watched Raj play the cittern in the square in Moie, maybe.
“See,” Alex says to his sister. “People feel good when they help others.”
“Shut it, Alex.”
“It’s good for your soul.”
“Alex.”
Lasadi’s seen Ruby’s annoyance when she bickers with her brother, but now her expression holds a knife’s edge of warning. And his holds a calm defiance that makes him seem far older than seventeen.
“All right, Ruby,” Lasadi says, floating the hot sauce back across the table to Alex. “Something’s going on, and whatever it is, we’re in it together.” She smiles at Jay, wry. “Believe me. You can try to go deal with it on your own, but these assholes will apparently track you all the way across the Durga System. So you might as well save yourself the trouble and let us help from the beginning.”
Ruby’s mouth quirks up at that. “Fair point to you.”
“You’re stuck with us,” says Jay. “So spit it out.”
Lasadi knows that storm of doubt warring across Ruby’s face all too well; when Ruby’s gaze meets hers and the other woman decides to let the wall crumble down, Lasadi feels it like an electric jolt through her soul. Something fundamental and irreversible shifts in the room, and despite her exhaustion Lasadi knows one thing for certain. She’ll fight like hell to protect every single person at this table — even if that fight is against her own fear.
“Okay,” Ruby says. “So. You all know, I think, that Alex and I were raised by the Aymaya Apostles in Artemis City? Left at the doorstep — he was just a baby, and I was twelve. I left when I turned eighteen, and Alex . . .”
“Got kicked out,” Raj says.
“The ayas still love me,” Alex says around a bite of enchilada casserole. “They love me more when I’m not there, only.”
Ruby rolls her eyes. “We still — I still give them money. It was to help with Alex, but now I guess . . . it’s a tithe? I mean, they’re good people. They do a lot to help others.”
“And now they need help,” Alex says. “They asked Ruby, but she doesn’t want to.”
“I didn’t want to involve you all,” Ruby says.
“We’re already involved,” Lasadi points out.
“We’re crew,” Jay adds.
“And we’re happy to do a good deed for some monastics,” Raj says. “It’ll be a nice break after almost dying a bunch of times in the jungle.”
Ruby takes a deep breath. “Okay,” she finally says. “Only you may change your mind once I’m done telling you the story of the cursed relics of Saint Alixhi.”
The adventure continues in the next book, Cursed Saint Caper.
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Jessie
ABOUT JESSIE KWAK
Jessie Kwak has always lived in imaginary lands, from Arrakis and Ankh-Morpork to Earthsea, Tatooine, and now Portland, Oregon. As a writer, she sends readers on their own journeys to immersive worlds filled with fascinating characters, gunfights, explosions, and dinner parties.
When she’s not raving about her latest favorite sci-fi series to her friends, she can be found sewing, mountain biking, or out exploring new worlds both at home and abroad.
(Author photo by Robert Kittilson.)
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www.jessiekwak.com
jessie@jessiekwak.com
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Jessie Kwak, Ghost Pirate Gambit
