by Natalie Grey
“You said you’ve been doing renovations on the apartment. You have two kids. Also, judging by the number of people who are waving at you, you’re pretty well known around here.” Aliana looked around. “Also, this is a lot of aliens. I thought High Tortuga was all…human-y.”
“The main continent, much more so.” Carter smiled to the people around him. “It’s one of the reasons I like Tethra so much more, actually. We still have that Wild West feel.”
“There’s the uncle I remember.” Aliana grinned at him and elbowed him in the side.
He smiled back at her and confided, “I do like it here. Don’t tell my twenty-year-old self. He’d be very disappointed in me, but I’m really enjoying going to sleep in a proper bed each night, knowing the same people will be there when I wake up in the morning. Also, sleeping in a proper bed does wonders for your back.”
“Who knew?” Aliana joked. She was smiling easily, happier here than she could remember being for months. The sun was shining, the street was full of amazing smells from the food vendors, and she felt like she could really relax around Carter. Of all her family, he’d been the one who was always there for her—even when he was off adventuring.
She looked at him and saw him watching her.
“How are you?” he asked her quietly.
Aliana swallowed. “I’m fine,” she said, turning her head to look at the street. She tried to recapture the ease she’d felt only a few moments before, but even though the sun was still shining and the birds were still chirping, it was gone. “Uh, so you have a lot of monkeys here, huh?”
“Those are Ubuara,” Carter said. “And they’re intelligent. That’s Oemuga there. Wave hello.”
Aliana waved, half-expecting that this was going to be some sort of prank, but to her surprise, the Ubuara who had been loitering on a nearby roof swung down to the street and leapt onto Carter’s shoulder.
It chittered at her, and then said in very good English, “I am pleased to meet you. You are Carter’s brother-son-daughter?”
“I tried to teach them ‘niece’ and ‘nephew,’” Carter murmured. “It didn’t really take. They’re obsessed with accuracy, so the term great-niece just has too many unknowns, I guess.” He waved his hands and rolled his eyes, but his smile showed that he was just teasing the Ubuara.
“I’m very pleased to meet you, too, Oemuga,” Aliana said politely. ”It is nice to see where my uncle lives.” She traced the relationship in her head and added, “My father-father-brother, I mean.”
Oemuga chittered happily. “See?” he asked Carter. “She understands.” Apparently, he considered the conversation over, since he proceeded to leap back up to the roof with a swish of his tail.
“Well done,” Carter murmured, and she heard genuine happiness in his voice. “The Ubuara are sort of…hive-minded? Not quite. They have their own thoughts, but often know each other’s. Oemuga likes you, so the rest of them are much more likely to now as well.”
Aliana smiled at the Ubuara and gave a little wave as Carter set off again. It wasn’t much farther before he led her into an unimpressive building with a wooden sign over the door. Inside, however…
Aliana broke into a grin. If Carter were going to settle down somewhere, it would absolutely be somewhere like this. The bar was lovingly tended, its roughly-made furniture carefully smoothed, its floors clean, and with tiny decorative touches that alluded to Carter’s years on various spaceships. She saw coins from various planets, little carved statues, postcards, and tiny hanging ornaments.
“Elisa is out with the kids,” Carter explained. “Wait here a moment.” He went over to the counter and called something through the window. A moment later two sandwiches were handed out, and he piled them onto a tray before taking down two glasses and pouring rich golden beers into them. He jerked his head at a table in the corner, and Aliana practically ran to pull out his chair and take a seat.
“Beer,” she said. She took a long drink and groaned. “Oh, yeah, that’s the stuff. Where’d you get this?”
“BMW. Where else?” Carter smiled. “I got the hookup.”
“How?” Aliana picked up a sandwich and bit into it. “Holy crap, this is fucking amazing. Can I swear? I don’t want to swear if your kids might walk in.”
“Probably best not to.” Carter shrugged. “We’ve been trying to say things like crap and frack and so on. We haven’t been entirely successful, mind you, but we’re trying.”
Aliana grinned and tucked into her food, wolfing it down in time to see another sandwich arrive. She ate that one as well and washed it down with a second beer, and then a third.
“I’m glad I remembered how much you could eat,” Carter said affectionately. “Your cousin Mortie, now, we called him a black hole because he was as dumb as a box of rocks. You just eat everything.”
“Everything,” Aliana agreed glumly. She’d often spent a good deal of her limited earnings on extra food when her employers had complained about her raiding the communal kitchen. She was licking her fingers when she saw the look on Carter’s face. “Oh, no. No, don’t do this. I don’t want to talk about it. I told you I’m fine.”
“And I am your uncle, and I’m worried about you,” Carter explained.
“Can’t we do this after we talk about the mine prison-break thing?”
“Nope.” Carter set down two more mugs of beer. “Talk. Tell me how you’ve been.” He seemed to be debating whether or not to ask, but finally did. “Thought you might bring Lawrence.”
Aliana had been taking a gulp of beer to steel her nerves. She set the mug back down and looked away.
“Everything all right?” Carter asked.
“No,” Aliana said flatly. “It’s not, so why don’t you just get it out of the way, Uncle Carter?” She knew her voice was bitter, but she didn’t think she could make herself sound any more polite. “Why don’t you all tell me how you knew he was bad news and I should have listened to everyone?”
There was a long silence, and Carter scooched his chair over next to hers. He leaned back in his seat, rested his feet on the table and his beer on his stomach, and handed her beer back to her. He nodded for her to slouch down too, and she gave a weary laugh when she did.
“I’m not going to say I told you so,” Carter began. “I always hated hearing that. Some mistakes you gotta make. You heard how I nearly wound up dead on an abandoned space station that one time. Uncle Wes—I don’t think you’ve ever met him—had to come bail me out, and my God did I get an earful. By the time we were halfway back to Segura Station, I was ready to tell him to put me back where he’d found me.”
Aliana looked at him. When he gave her an easy smile, she managed to find a small one of her own.
“What I mean,” Carter continued, “is that I had my reasons for making that gamble, and I’m sure you had your reasons for marrying Lawrence.”
Aliana groaned and dropped her head back. “It was so stupid of me. It was so fucking unbelievably stupid. Ugh. I’m sorry. It was so freaking stupid.”
“Tell you what, free pass on swearing until we get through this conversation.”
“Fuck, yeah.” She took a sip of beer.
There was a pause.
“So I take it Lawrence isn’t in the picture anymore?” Carter inquired.
“No.” Aliana blew out her breath in a sigh. “He married me to get rights to the ship, and then he jacked it, took my crew, and left me with a little deathtrap ship all of his creditors knew about.”
“Oof.” Carter shook his head. “Son of a bitch. You catch up with him and make his life hell yet?”
“Baby steps.” Aliana took another gulp. “I don’t want to see him, really.”
“Well, I can understand that.” Carter rubbed his face.
Aliana rolled her head sideways to look at him. “I know everyone thought it was dumb to get married so soon after, uh…” She forced herself to say it. “After Harry died.” She downed the rest of the beer in a big gulp.
“Y
ou miss him,” Carter stated neutrally.
“Of course I miss him!” Her voice was too loud, and she wiped her eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell.”
“It’s okay. I don’t mind.” He met her eyes.
“Stop looking at me like you pity me.”
“Yeah.” He nodded. “I can see how that would…yeah. You left so quickly, though, after everything. Was there anything we could have done to make it—I don’t know, suck less?”
Aliana considered her empty mug. “No. I don’t think so. You want to know why I married Lawrence?”
“Why?” Carter asked curiously.
“Because I was never going to love him like I loved Harry.” Aliana blinked back tears. “Because he was the wrong choice. I almost hated him even when I liked him. I don’t know, that would have made sense a couple of beers ago. I just mean…”
Her voice trailed off, and she lifted a shoulder.
“You did what you had to do,” Carter assured her, “to get through it. And we’re here now to help you clean up after it and get you back to wherever you want to be.”
Aliana smiled at him. “You don’t have to do that.”
“We’re family, Ali.” He shrugged. “Just try to stop us, huh?”
Aliana wiped her eyes. “Someone cutting onions in here or what?”
“I won’t tell anyone you got sniffly, don’t worry.” He laughed and looped an arm around her shoulders. “Honestly, if you wanted to come live here… Maybe? No? Well, keep it in the back of your head. And for now, I got you a present.”
“A present? Is it five more sandwiches, maybe?”
“Good grief, child. No. It’s—well, you know how you asked about the mine?”
“Yeah.” Aliana let her feet thud to the floor. She’d managed to forget all about Zinqued, who was back at the Palpari, but now she remembered everything and the beer was making her feel pleasantly invincible. “Tell me everything. How’d you hear about it?”
“I was there for some of it,” Carter said conspiratorially. “Elisa, too. She blew up a Shrillexian.”
Aliana choked on a mouthful of sandwich. “What?”
“My hand to God.” He grinned at her. “Anyway, I wasn’t there for all of it, so…I got you the guy who was.”
“Oh?” Aliana saw him looking over her shoulder and turned around as she took another bite of sandwich.
She realized too late who Carter must mean, and she had just come up with the idea to go upstairs and climb out a window when it became clear she was out of time on that front. A man with reddish-brown hair sat down across the table from her easily. He was smiling, and his blue eyes were very warm. He was dressed somewhat anachronistically in gray slacks and a vest over a button-down shirt, but it suited him.
“Aliana,” Carter said, cheerfully unaware of the fact that he’d just unleashed Aliana’s worst nightmare, “meet Barnabas.”
Chapter Fourteen
Absolute panic—that was what flashed through Aliana’s head when Carter introduced her. She stared at Barnabas like a deer in the headlights, and Barnabas was treated to a full run-down of her thoughts, which included—
Shinigami.
Yes?
You will not believe who Carter’s niece works for.
Who? Wait! I can guess.
Oh, I don’t think you can. Barnabas fought the urge to laugh as he watched Aliana plaster a smile on her face. She was trying to be nonchalant, but she wasn’t even close to succeeding. She looked like a cross between a gargoyle and a guilty child.
Holy fucking shitballs, she’s not one of the Yennai people, is she?
No, definitely not. Dial it back a bit.
Uh…I’m trying to predict human behavior, which is already a shitshow, and it’s a prediction for someone I’ve never met. I give up.
Zinqued—you know, the one who keeps trying to steal the ship?
You have got to be fucking kidding me.
Nope. Barnabas took a sip of his juice and enjoyed the frantic wash of Aliana’s thoughts. They brought her in to learn about me and con us, and she was really not expecting Carter to know me. Speaking of whom…
He looked at Carter, who—unaware of the background conversation—had launched into a delighted introduction, highlighting both Aliana’s and Barnabas’ respective careers. A quick peek into his mind showed that Carter had absolutely no idea what Aliana was up to. He was simply happy that someone named Lawrence hadn’t shown up, and he was sure that his niece was on a good path.
Barnabas wasn’t going to correct him. After all, it made sense to learn more about Aliana’s plan before she found out he could read her thoughts. Also, it was going to be funny as hell to mess with her. Barnabas was planning to ask a lot of detailed questions about her current job.
“—she’s had a bad couple of years,” Carter was saying, “but she’s doing better now and—Aliana, what are you doing now? I just realized I don’t know.”
“Yes,” Barnabas said wickedly. “What do you do, Aliana?”
Aliana’s thoughts showed that she was seriously considering throwing her sandwich as a distraction and booking it out of the bar. “I, uh…” She gave the two of them a look. “Well, you know how it is. When you need work, you take whatever you can.”
Barnabas affixed a pleasantly curious expression on his face, took a sip of juice, and let the silence grow.
“So I’m, uh…” Aliana fixed her gaze on the ceiling and said an internal prayer to get through this discussion without Barnabas figuring out what she did. “I’m on a little cargo ship,” she said with a shrug. “Kind of embarrassing compared to everyone else here.”
Barnabas would have been manifestly unimpressed with this attempt at redirection if he had not sensed that she was being honest. He saw in a flash a man with bristle-short brown hair smiling at Aliana, and a beautiful planet out the window of a spacecraft behind him. There was a sense of purpose in the memory, and a deep, wrenching feeling of loss.
Aliana was embarrassed at what she’d come to, and Barnabas was getting ready to look through her memories when he pulled his mind back, feeling as if he had overstepped. Things related to the Shinigami were his business.
Things related to Aliana’s life before that were not.
So he shrugged. “I was a monk for many years, and before that… Well, let us say my life was by and large a meaningless blur and I would rather forget most of it.” Particularly his conversion into one of the Nacht. That memory still made him shudder. “A temporary posting on a cargo ship is hardly embarrassing.”
Aliana took another bite of her sandwich to avoid having to answer, and Barnabas felt his lips twitch. She was clever, he’d give her that.
“Yeah, Ali,” Carter added. “You know I ran around on cargo ships for years.”
“Right,” Aliana said. “Look, it’s not important, okay?”
“Right,” Carter agreed, clearly sensing the tension in the air but not knowing quite what to attribute it to. “Well, anyway, you wanted to know the story of the mines. Barnabas can tell you all of it.”
Barnabas knew that Aliana now wanted nothing more than to run away and hide, but she lifted her chin and directed a very pleasant smile at him. “Of course,” she said, and her tone was warm and engaged. “Thank you for coming to speak to me.” She looked at Carter. “Thank you for calling him.”
There was affection when she looked at him—a sense of safety, and the acknowledgment that Carter had tried to do something nice for her. Barnabas sensed that Aliana wouldn’t do anything to make her uncle look bad, so she was determined to find a way through this as politely as possible.
Despite himself, he liked that.
“Well, then,” he said. “The Etheric Empire was being dissolved, and I had left my posting as an Empress’ Ranger.”
“You were Ranger One.” She gave him a look that said she knew she wasn’t going to find a way to steal his ship, but the acceptance was tinged with wry humor instead of bitterness.
&
nbsp; “Yes,” Barnabas replied, “I was. Has Carter introduced you to Ranger Two yet?”
“He knows more of you?” Aliana gave her uncle a despairing look, but she seemed to have decided that this whole thing was funny more than anything else.
“Tabitha is very nice,” Carter interjected. With a touch of pride, he added, “She loves the sandwiches here.”
“They’re very good,” Aliana said, smiling as she patted his arm. She was happy to see that he enjoyed his work; that much was clear. She looked back at Barnabas a moment later. “I’m sorry. You were saying?” There was determination behind that smile. She had decided she was going to get through this.
“Mm, yes.” He took another sip of juice. “It was mostly chance, honestly.” He ignored Carter’s snort. “I came to Tethra, decided to stop for a drink in this very bar, and met the Ubuara who owned it at the time, Aebura. She told me about her time in a nearby mine, and the fact that her fellow workers never seemed to have made it out—even though the mines had officially been shuttered.” He gave a bland smile. “So I helped shut it down.”
Carter gave another snort and rolled his eyes.
“He single-handedly led an assault on the mine, turned the vice-overseer over to his side, converted their guard force, and then went after the parent company that owned all of it.” His voice was animated. “He’s not even telling you any of the good parts!”
“I figured if Aliana had any specific questions she would ask.” Barnabas smiled at the young woman. “Do you?”
His tone had apparently grown a little too smooth because she gave him a curious look. He could tell from both her thoughts and her expression that she wondered if he was onto her.
Damn. Barnabas backtracked hastily. “It’s simply that I don’t know what parts you already knew. I wouldn’t want to take up all of your time on Tethra.”
“He thinks he’s bragging,” Carter said. “Which he’s not, since you asked.”
Barnabas hid his smile. Carter, even though he had the situation all wrong, did realize that this all felt uncomfortably like bragging. Moreover, Carter’s thoughts said clearly that he was quite grateful for Barnabas’ intervention at the mine. Although Carter had only met most of the mine workers after they were freed, many of them had become close friends.
