“Some are,” Hirianthial said. “That one not so much. But I’m glad I don’t have to replace it.”
Reese nodded. “I’ve also brought this back.” She showed him a folded square, and the low light shone off the exposed nap of his tabard. “It’s meander, isn’t it?”
Surprised, Hirianthial said, “Yes.”
“And they broke it,” Reese said, crestfallen. “It can’t be fixed, can it?”
“I’m afraid not,” Hirianthial said. “I will see if what remains can be salvaged.”
She nodded and set it beside the dagger, petting it with a self-conscious hand. He watched her and knew not what to think.
Reese turned and rested her hands against the edge of the table. “I just want you to know that… I’m sorry. For things. Especially me, how I act sometimes. Well, a lot of the time.” She looked away. “I’d like you to stay.”
“Lady?” Hirianthial said, astonished.
She flexed her hands against the table, looking at the ground. “I haven’t had time to figure things out yet,” she said, more to herself than to him. She lifted her eyes. “I’d like you to stay. If you want to. Please.”
He couldn’t read her feelings past the blur in her aura, and lacking that he fell back on more visceral things: the swiftness of her breath. The trembling tension in her fingers. And the uncertainty in her unguarded blue eyes.
“I would be pleased to do so,” Hirianthial said.
She took in a little breath, then nodded and left in surprising silence. Hirianthial stared at the door. He stared at it so long that when it chimed again he started.
“Come in.”
This time the door slid open for Kis’eh’t holding a tray. “Ready for food?”
“More than ready,” Hirianthial said, putting aside the first aid kit.
As the Glaseah set the tray on the table, she said, “Was that Reese I saw walking down the hall?”
“Most probably,” Hirianthial said.
“Did it... was she... “
“She came to ask after my health,” Hirianthial said.
Kis’eh’t let out a long sigh. “Thank the goddess. Reese is good people, but sometimes she bites off her foot after the trap is open.”
The truth of the words surprised Hirianthial into a laugh. “So do we all. But only sometimes.”
“Thank goodness for that,” Kis’eh’t said, setting out the dish and a napkin. She peeked past her arm. “Are you really staying?”
Hirianthial closed his eyes. Between his shoulder-blades, resting over his back where his heart kept time, he felt a warm breeze through high branches and smelled the cool spice of Martian wood. He rose slowly from that memory. “Yes. I am.”
The Alliance is mostly composed of the Pelted, a group of races that segregated and colonized worlds based (more or less) on their visual characteristics. Having been engineered from a mélange of uplifted animals, it’s not technically correct to refer to any of them as “cats” or “wolves,” since any one individual might have as many as six or seven genetic contributors: thus the monikers like “foxine” and “tigraine” rather than “vulpine” or “tiger.” However, even the Pelted think of themselves in groupings of general animal characteristics, so for the ease of imagining them, I’ve separated them that way.
The Pelted
The Quasi-Felids: The Karaka’An, Asanii, and Harat-Shar comprise the most cat-like of the Pelted, with the Karaka’An being the shortest and digitigrade, the Asanii being taller and plantigrade, and the Harat-Shar including either sort but being based on the great cats rather than the domesticated variants.
The Quasi-Canids: The Seersa, Tam-illee, and Hinichi are the most doggish of the Pelted, with the Seersa being short and digitigrade and foxish, the Tam-illee taller, plantigrade and also foxish, and the Hinichi being wolflike.
Others: Less easily categorized are the Aera, with long, hare-like ears, winged feet and foxish faces, the felid Malarai with their feathered wings, and the Phoenix, tall bipedal avians.
The Centauroids: Of the Pelted, two species are centauroid in configuration, the short Glaseah, furred and with lower bodies like lions but coloration like skunks and leathery wings on their lower backs, and the tall Ciracaana, who have foxish faces but long-legged cat-like bodies.
Aquatics: One Pelted race was engineered for aquatic environments: the Naysha, who look like mermaids would if mermaids had sleek, hairless, slightly rodent-like faces and the lower bodies of dolphins.
Other Species
Humanoids: Humanity fills this niche, along with their estranged cousins, the esper-race Eldritch.
True Aliens: Of the true aliens, four are known: the shapeshifting Chatcaava, whose natural form is draconic (though they are mammals); the gentle heavyworlder Faulfenza, who are furred and generally regarded to be attractive; the aquatic Platies, who look like colorful flatworms and can communicate reliably only with the Naysha, and the enigmatic Flitzbe, who are quasi-vegetative and resemble softly furred volleyballs that change color depending on their mood.
Reese is only just getting used to running the Earthrise in the black—and with an Eldritch in her crew—when a trip to a colony world gives rise to a whole new problem: Hirianthial is showing powers that even the Eldritch rarely have, and that only in legend. He badly needs training, support and advice, and the only place he can find them is... at home.
To see the world of the Eldritch is a once in a lifetime opportunity, a thing of fantasies and rumor. And to finally meet the Eldritch Queen, the author of so many of Reese’s windfalls! You’d have to twist her arm to get her to admit it, but Reese can’t wait to go. But a court out of fantasy and a breathtaking land aren’t enough compensation when they come packaged with a rabidly xenophobic species whose world is falling apart. The last thing they want any part of is some mortal interloper.
Is Reese ready for the Eldritch world? Better to ask: are they ready for her?
Daughter of two Cuban political exiles, M.C.A. Hogarth was born a foreigner in the American melting pot and has had a fascination for the gaps in cultures and the bridges that span them ever since. She has been many things—web database architect, product manager, technical writer and massage therapist—but is currently a full-time parent, artist, writer and anthropologist to aliens, both human and otherwise. She is the author of over 50 titles in the genres of science fiction, fantasy, humor and romance.
Earthrise is only one of the many stories set in the Paradox Pelted universe; more information is available on the author’s website. You can also sign up for the author’s quarterly newsletter to be notified of new releases.
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Earthrise (Her Instruments Book 1) Page 39
