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Jesus. She’s making my head hurt with how big she’s thinking. “You think I’m special enough to warrant all that?”
“You tell me. Do you think R’jaal is?” She gestures at her sleeping son. “Because I look at my mate, and I look at my son, and I think that they’re so incredible and unique and that I feel very blessed to end up where I am right now. Maybe this planet didn’t need a paleobiologist, but N’dek absolutely needed Devi in his life. So chew on that for a bit the next time you feel like you don’t belong.”
I swallow hard. “You’re really good at the pep talk.”
She beams at me. “When you deal with things that span millions and millions of years, you start to wonder about your place in the here and now. It’s not a very scientific explanation, but science can’t solve everything.” And then she wags a finger. “And if you tell anyone I said that, I will deny it.”
“I heard nothing,” I promise solemnly.
“Good!” She reaches for another skin, touching the edge. “So how do you think we can take something like this and make parchment out of it? And how do we get the surface to hold ink properly?”
Thirty-Four
ROSALIND
We sit by the fire in Devi’s hut, drinking tea and discussing how to make the skins thinner and which kind would be best. N’rav wakes up from his nap and Devi tells me all about the creatures she’s been identifying while he plays quietly with his toys, she makes more tea, and I scrape and scrape the test hide we have on a frame. Hannah shows up a short time later and the moment she hears the word “books,” she’s all in. The next thing I know, we’re deep into a discussion of how to properly stitch the pages we make to the cover, and do we add the spine after the fact or do we create a cover with the spine included, which requires a lot more work with the leather itself?
When R’jaal shows up, I’m surprised that he’s back already…and I’m surprised that the sky behind him is dark.
“Oh.” I get to my feet to meet him, and I’m chagrined to see that he’s got a big, steaming bowl of stew held in one hand. “Is that dinner?”
He nods, coming to my side to kiss my brow. “Is this a bad time? Am I interrupting?”
I hand the scraper over to Devi. I feel a little guilty that we’ve wasted all afternoon working on our book project. “Not at all. We were just brainstorming.”
“I should get home, too,” Hannah says, standing up. “J’shel is probably exhausted from having J’hann all afternoon. Can I bring him by tomorrow? He can play with N’rav while we figure out our paper.” She looks at Devi, then at me. “I assume we’re getting together again tomorrow, right?”
Are we? I love the thought of us working together to figure out how to make books here, but I didn’t want to presume. “I’m sure you’re both really busy—”
“This is important,” Hannah states. “Books are important. If we can figure out how to preserve information without being reliant on Mardok’s technology, then it’s better for all of us. I get that the logical response is to wait for his buddy to drop some more data pads down on the planet for us, but what if she doesn’t come back for ten years? Or ever? But if we can figure out how to make books, we can record our own information. We can set down recipes or stories for our children, and their children. I think that’s vital, don’t you?”
I could cry. She gets it. She really gets it. My eyes well with tears and I nod. “I just don’t want to take time away from things like hunting and fishing and um, whatever else it is we have to do to survive.” I look anxiously at R’jaal, who’s hovering at my side. “And I don’t want anyone to think I’m monopolizing you guys with a pipe dream.”
“I think it’s an excellent idea,” Devi says. “And if you’re worried about falling behind on chores, we can always agree to meet after lunch. That gives you all morning to get things done.”
“And speaking from experience, you could work all day and there’s always more to be done,” Hannah jokes. “Taking a few hours out for yourself isn’t a bad thing.”
But that’s all I’ve done lately. I haven’t been contributing at all. I glance over at R’jaal to see what he thinks.
“She will be back tomorrow,” he reassures them, and I want to clap my hands with joy. Not that he could stop me if I wanted to, but I also desperately want him to approve of what I’m doing. “Even if I must drag her here myself, R’slind will be back.” He indicates the steaming food in his hand. “For now, though, I must feed my resonance mate.”
