The Girl Who Fell From The Sky - Rebecca Royce Page 0,67

translate our numbers into readable words, plus all our names, you wouldn’t have any unmarked skin on either arm.”

“She has legs,” Astor remarked. “And other body parts. I could humbly be content with one of those.”

It was a good thing I knew him well enough to understand his unusual sense of humor. This was, after all, the man who had joked about eating me when we first met. I rolled my eyes in his general direction.

“Lovely as it is to hear you all discussing my dismemberment,” I said, “I have to admit I’m surprised you aren’t more…surprised at this information.”

“Not dismemberment,” said Torrin. “Never that, never for you.” Ah, my fierce Torrin.

I shot him a reassuring smile. “I know. I was joking, but only sort of. Can we talk about Longergan and your ancestors?”

Nox chimed in, “I’m not sure what you want us to say. Have your forebears no sins?”

Oh. Well, he did have a point.

Mattis added, “Yeah, it’s not like whatever they did or didn’t do way back when has anything to do with us now.”

“But what if it does?” I said. “What if you all fight—and you might not realize this, but you’ve been fighting constantly since I got here and probably every other day that ends in y—what if you resort to violence to solve all your problems because the first people on this planet only knew violent methods of conflict resolution?”

“You’re making a lot of assumptions,” Astor said. “You said yourself there were a lot of different reasons someone might have been on a prison ship.”

“Yes, but—”

“Bianca, let this go.” That from Torrin, his commanding voice cutting through the conversation. He used that tone he used when he was addressing his soldiers, not when we were alone.

“I think it’s important,” I heard myself say. And it was true. I had no idea why this truth had eaten at me ever since I’d read those words, but it had. It had to mean something. It had to change something.

Torrin held my gaze with his, and I got smaller and smaller and less and less determined under the weight of his certainty.

“Well, I,” said Astor, “think the tragedy of prime importance here is that our breakfast is getting cold. Here, Bianca, try this meat-puff.” He gestured to a dish sitting next to one of his bubbling beakers. The mouth-watering aroma that had wafted down the hallway and led us here this morning had probably come from that tray, but I was more in a sweet mood than savory, and all the fruit was gone.

“Go ahead and start the lesson without me,” Torrin said. “And then, Bianca, you and Astor need to plan a rescue of the other refugee from your transport, the woman the Reamers claim to have captured.”

I didn’t want to let the Longergan thing go, but the need for a rescue was sort of more immediate. A thrill shrieked up my throat. Another refugee. A woman. I needed to help her, save her, and the need was urgent. He wasn’t wrong about that. “You mean we plan it and you, and your warriors make it happen?”

Torrin stood. “Certainly. Very soon. Today, I’m supposed to visit our planting crew, and I’ve already delayed too long.”

My heart sank. “Wait, you’re leaving?”

He had already started for the door, but something in my voice must have snagged him. He slowed beside me and touched my face. He bent and kissed my mouth, and I felt that kiss migrate to every nerve in my body. I was like a string instrument, vibrating to life beneath his mouth. Then he drew back. “Only for a couple of days, and I do not leave you unprotected. Teach, learn, plan, and be kind to my brothers, your new husbands. They are good men.”

Technically, only Astor was his biological brother, but I understood how close these four men were. They were all as good as brothers. I put a hand on Torrin’s arm, but he kept on toward the door anyhow, and before I could say anything else, he was through it. Gone.

Let this go.

Damn him, I didn’t want to let it go. Or him. I didn’t want to let anything go. Rather, I wanted to hold on to everything. Fiercely.

I could feel Astor close beside me, and as always, his presence suffused me with a deep sweetness and longing.

“First, meat-puff, then lessons?” he said.

I moistened my lips and blinked. “Uh, yeah.”

After we went over the relationship between letters and sounds and ate the meat-puffs—which