Among the Nameless Stars

Kai’s device, but he’d need to cast blame on someone, and Kai was as good a scapegoat as any.
    He wanted to break free of the current, find Cleopatra and Napoleon, and get out of there.
    He’d deal with Pen’s wrath later. He tried to shove through the crush of people to no avail.
    Everyone was bigger than him. Someone banged against his bad leg, another shoved him out of the way, and soon he found himself pressed close to the base of the dais, his eyes level with the feet of the racers as they ascended the steps from the cove.
    “The winner of the race is Captain Nicodemus Innovation!” cried the announcer. Another cheer went up from the audience, and Kai clenched his jaw. Even from this vantage point, he could see the storm brewing on Pen’s face. No one in the man’s employ would be safe tonight.
    “And now,” the announcer said, “for the distribution of the prizes. Each entrant wagered something in the race, with the winner taking all.” He looked down at the sheet in his hand.
    “Captain Innovation’s pair of horses shall remain in his possession, but today he’s also going home with the following—” The announcer paused as his words were almost drowned out by cheering.
    Kai watched as Innovation beamed and waved to his adoring fans. Now that he saw the man up close, he was surprised. After hearing of his reputation and seeing his pretty daughter and wife, Kai had been expecting someone handsome and dashing. But Captain Innovation was a bit Among the Nameless Stars by Diana Peterfreund
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    on the portly side, with thinning red hair and a sunburned face. Still, he had done marvelous things. He’d beaten the odds of his birth. Who was Kai to judge?
    As the shouts died down, the announcer started again. “The Luddite Sheridan Lake wagered his yacht, the Boatwright-built Long White Cloud .”
    Innovation’s smile grew so broad Kai feared it might split his face in two. And little wonder.
    Since the Boatwright shipyard had been shuttered, it was hard to lay hands on any vessel nearly so fine as the ones Elliot’s grandfather used to make. A Boatwright vessel was worth a lot of money. As the announcer read from the list of wagers, Kai’s fear multiplied. These were amazing prizes. He had no idea the race was as important at this.
    Pen might be more than merely angry. He might kill someone.
    “The Post-Reductionist Pen wagered the boat he raced on, ten ounces of gold, and the bonded services of his scribe, the Post-Reductionist known as Bess—”
    “What?” Pen’s voice sliced through the announcement. “I did not.”
    The announcer blinked in the setting sun. “I am reading your entrance form.”
    Pen took two steps forward and snatched the paper from the man’s hands. He looked it over, as if reading the words, but Kai and everyone else who worked for Pen knew the truth. Pen could not read.
    “Bess!” he roared. A few moments later, Bess emerged from the crowd and climbed the steps to the dais. Her hands were folded over her belly, her head was cast down.
    “Read. This,” he hissed at her, thrusting out the form.
    From his spot, Kai could see how her hands shook.
    “ I— ” she whispered. “I, Pen, hereby submit my entrance wager for the boat race to occur at the marina on the third day— ”

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    “I know that part!” he growled at her. “Read the wager.”
    “ I wager the boat I race on, ten ounces of gold, and the bonded services of my scribe, the Post-Reductionist known as Bess— ”
    “You bitch!” He grabbed Bess by the hair and forced her to her knees. “How dare you!”
    Kai’s jaw hung open, and he was quite sure he was not alone. Bess had planned this. She’d planned for Pen to lose. Was it Bess who’d sabotaged his machine before she’d brought it to him at the marina? Bess who’d offered to hold it for him so Pen wouldn’t find it? Bess who’d sabotaged his chances to escape in favor of her own and that of her unborn child?
    Not that he could blame her, when he thought about it like that. After all, Kai’s plan had been vague. Bess’s was definite, and she was the one who needed results quickly.
    And he couldn’t envy her at this moment either, as he watched Bess writhe under her master’s grip. She screamed in pain as Pen twisted his hands into her hair. “She did this! She changed my wager. I did not agree to that!”
    Captain Innovation stepped forward. “See here, Pen. Let her go.”