Page 282 of Commander’s Mate

Deyan stared at me.

Then laughed harder.

“No.”

“Privacy request noted.”

She touched my cheek.

“Thank you.”

“I didn’t rescue her.”

“You kept her from becoming only a number.”

* * *

Two days after the Breskaa rescue, once Nera was stable enough to sit up and argue with medical, she asked to speak with me.

Medical objected.

Nera objected more effectively.

The compromise was a chair beside her bed, ten minutes, and a medic standing within sight.

Deyan remained at the other side of the room pretending not to listen.

Nera looked like someone had tried to erase her and failed.

Her left shoulder sat lower than the right. One side of her hair had been shaved for treatment. Bruises bloomed along her arms in colors I had stopped finding shocking.

She looked at my slate.

“You keep names.”

“Yes.”

“My mother told me.”

“She tells people things.”

Nera smiled weakly.

“She always has.”

I sat.

“You don’t have to give a statement.”

“I know.”

Knowing the choice was hers changed the room.

“Then why did you ask?”

Her gaze moved toward the wall.

“Because they took people away before you came.”