For Darkness Shows the Stars

It was as if Tatiana hadn’t even recognized him.
    Grubby little boy from the barn, why should she?
    Especially since he wasn’t that boy any longer. He wasn’t even the skinny, half-grown adolescent she’d last seen. Four years had turned her old friend into something different entirely. He was taller, and with broader shoulders and longer hair and a jawline that belonged more to a man than a child.
    But Tatiana might have seen all that and still failed to identify him, for the real change was that Kai no longer looked like a servant. He stood tall and proud with a haughtiness, a distance, that almost gave even Elliot pause.
    Perhaps that explained her sister’s strange behavior. Elliot had never seen her so respectful to Posts before, but then, the way these Posts acted, it was difficult to remember that that’s indeed what they were. These weren’t the obsequious or even quietly resentful bonded servants that her sister was used to. This was what Kai had run away to be a part of. And it seemed he’d succeeded beyond her wildest fantasies.
    The shock wore off and Elliot attended halfheartedly to the Innovations’ questions about the shipyard and the house. But all she wanted to do was chase after Kai. At last she knew what had become of him. He wasn’t in danger, being exploited in some lawless Post enclave, or starving and wandering among the estates looking for work. He wasn’t even employed as a simple mechanic. He was, in fact, one of the richest and most celebrated people on the islands.
    And he was still angry with her.
    Elliot longed for a moment alone to collect herself, but it was impossible. She had to settle her grandfather and direct the Reduced to take the Cloud Fleet’s belongings to the Boatwright house. She had to answer questions for the admiral and his team that Tatiana, despite her status as head of the household, did not understand. She had to make excuses for her father’s absence and assure them that everyone was quite pleased about the rental arrangements and the money and the horses, and that her father’s last-minute trip had nothing whatsoever to do with the Posts’ arrival—and she had to sound more convincing about it than Tatiana. The process took the better part of the afternoon, and through all of it, she didn’t catch another glimpse of Kai.
    Where had he gone? Was he off visiting his old stomping grounds? Had he looked in on Ro? Had he, perhaps, gone to see his former living quarters in the barn? The Posts had seemed surprised that he’d show any interest in the horses, and now Elliot understood their shock. Kai had never cared much for livestock. He far preferred machines to animals, or even plants. But they were being kept in the barn . . .
    Elliot stiffened in her seat as momentary panic gripped her. The door was padlocked. She had nothing to fear. She could afford to sit here quietly and occasionally volunteer answers on the many occasions that Tatiana—the acknowledged hostess—floundered when it came to knowledge of the Boatwright holdings.
    Fortunately, Felicia Innovation’s topics of conversation were far less taxing than her companions’, and they were ones that Tatiana could elaborate on ad nauseum.
    “I have heard tales,” Felicia said to Elliot’s sister, “that the Norths’ star-cavern sanctuary is the most stunning natural formation on this whole island.”
    “Did you?” Tatiana asked, her tone coy. “I was not aware that any Posts had seen it.”
    “My report comes from Baroness Channel,” Felicia replied without missing a beat. “Who visited, I believe, for your mother’s funeral. She is an old friend of mine. The Channel sanctuary is quite lovely,” she went on. “I wonder how they compare.”
    Tatiana blinked. Andromeda smirked. Elliot marveled. She had spent the last four years trying to learn how to properly cajole her father and sister, and here this Post was playing Tatiana like an instrument after only a few minutes’ acquaintance. She doubted her sister would be able to resist this challenge, and indeed, Tatiana could not.
    “Perhaps I should take you on a tour,” she suggested.
    Elliot wondered if Tatiana would inform their father of the plans, and if so, what he’d think of lowly Posts tromping through his ancestral sanctuary.
    “That’s most kind,” Felicia said. “I’m sure we’d love to see it.”
    You’d have to know Tatiana pretty well, Elliot thought, to recognize the look that flashed across her face