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“One of your lovers,” I remind her. “Not a girlfriend. I just… We just…”
I am blushing and feeling very guilty. I probably should have told Kail about that aspect of things, but I really thought that would be a distraction. He might have refused to come, and my reason for being here is truly that Siryn rules the most stable lawless society I am aware of. I could not bring her down, no matter how many of her affections I garnered. She can keep Nemo safe.
“I almost kept her for myself, you know,” Siryn says conversationally to Kail. “But she was too wily, and too loyal to the Colony. I cannot imagine the kind of love that would break her of that sick attachment.”
She is paying him a compliment and throwing me under the space bus at the same time. I feel my cheeks absolutely flaming with embarrassment. Kail is going to want to talk about this. He’s going to have a lot of questions.
At that moment, Nemo starts to whimper and then cry. He’s upset that he is not allowed to play with dead ears, and his frustration has peaked.
“The child needs food. As does the baby,” Siryn says, giving me a cutting look. “Come in.”
She leads us from the docks and into the largest of the many houses ranged along the other side. I remember this place. I remember the carvings inside the front door. They are in the shape of fish, which pleases Nemo instantly and stops him crying. There is a scent of home cooking floating in the air, roasted fish and potatoes and other alien vegetables.
I feel myself relaxing in a way I didn’t even when we lived on our little peaceful farm. That had the feeling of remoteness and a certain solitary angst. Here we are enveloped by domesticity.
“Sit down,” Siryn orders in a stern, yet hospitable fashion.
We all do as we are told, Kail setting Nemo on his knee. Siryn ladles the stew bubbling over the fire into wooden bowls and slides them to us with warm bread slices. It is a hearty, soothing meal.
Siryn does not eat. She sits at the head of the table, her back to the fire, and she regards us all with an openly calculating stare that only softens when she catches Nemo’s gaze. I knew she’d like him. No matter what happens to Kail and me, Nemo will be safe here.
“Thank you,” I say when I am full. “That was delicious, and your hospitality…”
“Quiet,” she grinds out. “The problem with you, is that whenever you are talking, the words cover your meaning. You are such a liar you cannot help but fail to tell the truth.”
Kail lets out a soft snort. “I have been working to break her of that trait.”
“You will not succeed. It is as ingrained in her as her very bones,” Siryn replies.
Caught between Siryn and a Kail place, I decide that silence might very well be the best approach. When I first came here, I earned myself the reputation she is now sharing. I cannot tell her I have changed, because that is precisely the sort of lie past me would have told.
“I almost gave my boys the order to hurl your ship into the nearest sun,” she says. “But they told me there was an infant on board. They didn’t mention that he was also a dead prince.”
Of course she clocked him right away. Siryn is nothing if not informed.
“That baby is very alive for an unfortunately murdered prince,” she says. “How did you come by him?”
“By chance,” I say, knowing she will not believe me. “Kail, tell her.”
“We found him on a Persinian trader ship. We do not know how he came to be there, or what they had planned to do with him, because I killed them all.”
“Ah,” Siryn says. “So you took custody of the mite and…”
“We tried to go straight,” I explain. “Found a little farm on a remote planet, right at the edge of lawful space. It was okay for a few months, but then the Colony found us.”
“And the Colony was looking for you because…”
“Because I was supposed to bring Kail down, and instead I let him go,” I say. “I left the Colony. There’s a price on my head, and there was already one on his after he took vengeance for the destruction of his family.”
“And they call your kind the savages,” Siryn says to Kail.
“I do not care what they call me,” Kail replies.
“So you have come here seeking refuge.”
“Yes, please, Siryn. I know I do not deserve your mercy. I didn’t deserve it then, and, well, nothing has changed. But Kail and Nemo have done nothing wrong. I need to know they are safe.”
“I don’t run a refuge for wanted savages,” she says bluntly. “What I run is a pirate operation. Anybody who wants to be part of this society needs to contribute. Kail. Give the human lie the baby. You and I need to test one another’s mettle.”
