Among the Nameless Stars

don’t own people, Kai. That’s disgusting.” She eyed him. “More disgusting than cheating. But you know that already.” She continued her survey of his space.
    Next to his bed was a tiny pile of books half concealed under a blanket. Some were borrowed from Bess’s stash, but the dangerous ones had been procured by Cleopatra, who occasionally got access to a Luddite’s home library. Kai moved to conceal them with his body, but Mrs.

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    Innovation sidestepped him and bent to look more closely. She lifted the edge of the blanket with two fingers and read a few titles. “ Geography of the Southern Hemisphere , Beginner’s Celestial Navigation , and Tales of the Conquistadors ? Bold choices.”
    Kai swallowed. That last was Napoleon’s favorite.
    “Aren’t you a curious one?” she said, straightening again. “I’m beginning to suspect things about you, Kai.”
    “Ma’am?”
    “My name is Felicia. Has been for the better part of twenty years.” Her gaze seemed to bore right through him, and Kai shrank back. This woman—this slight, pretty woman with her dark hair and her fine clothes— she was far tougher than Pen. “I gave some thought to what you said, and I think you may have a point. About the cheating.”
    “I didn’t—”
    “You didn’t end up in my pavilion by accident today, and you weren’t trying to cheat on behalf of your master,” she finished, though that wasn’t what Kai had been planning to say either.
    Still, he didn’t correct her. She’d come to find him. That was enough.
    “I was born on an estate, like you,” Felicia said now. “I was a skilled laborer, like you—but I was trained as a healer. I could have stayed there, helped my people, but Nicodemus and I, we wanted something more. For ourselves and for any children we might someday have. We didn’t want anyone ever to own us. Does that sound familiar, Kai?”
    He nodded. His mouth had gone dry.
    “But you are right. It’s hard to prosper in this world when the deck is stacked against you from the start. It’s stacked against every Post on this island. Some are born slaves; some have no choice but to become slaves to cruel and petty opportunists like Pen. I would be lying if I said Among the Nameless Stars by Diana Peterfreund
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    that everything I ever did was aboveboard, beginning with running away from the estate where I was raised.”
    “So, what are you saying?” Kai asked. “That you’ve thought about it, and it was okay for me to cheat?”
    “For you, for me, for Bess,” Felicia said. “It’s impossible to play fair when the entire game is rigged. And it’s ridiculous to expect people to follow rules in matters of life and death, don’t you agree, Kai? This race today, it was a matter of life and death for Bess. So she cheated. She cheated Pen, and apparently, she cheated you, too. And I, for one, cannot blame her for it.”
    “Good for you,” Kai grumbled. “You’re not the one stuck here.”
    “No,” Felicia said. “But neither are you. I have a proposition. I am looking for someone like you. Actually, I’m looking for a few someones. People who are young and smart and not afraid to break a few rules to get what’s been stolen from all of us.”
    Kai stared at her in wonder. Was she saying what he thought? “I promise,” he said quickly, before she changed her mind. “I’m actually a great mechanic. The machine would have worked if Bess hadn’t sabotaged me.”
    Felicia chuckled. “I’m sure it would have. After all, Pen keeps you around for a reason. So are you in?”
    He hesitated. What was the point of those promises he’d just made in his unsent letter to Elliot if he didn’t believe them? “Are you offering me a job or another bond?”
    Her smile grew as large as her husband’s. “I’m offering you a chance at the future you’ve always desired. Tell me, Kai. You say you’re good at fixing boats. Have you ever thought about living on one? Of finding out what lies beyond these islands, once and for all?”
    Beyond the islands, beyond the Luddites, beyond everything he ever knew?

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    Kai looked down at the letter he was writing to Elliot. He crumpled it up in his hands and dropped it to the floor.
    “Yes. I’m ready to leave now,” he said, and followed Felicia into a radiant new world.