For Darkness Shows the Stars

if he’s badmouthing you to the Fleet Posts.”
    “I don’t need to be friends with Andromeda Phoenix.” Elliot threw her hands in the air. “I don’t need to be friends with Kai. I don’t even need to be friends with the Innovations.”
    “But you want to be,” said Dee.
    “No, I don’t,” Elliot insisted. Whatever it took to keep her people fed, that’s what she wanted. And for that, it wasn’t necessary to make friends with these people. In fact, it was preferable not to socialize with them. Less danger, then, that she’d miss them when they were gone. “I want to take their money and let them build their ship and get them off my land. That’s all I want.”
    “Good to know,” said a voice above her head.
    Elliot and Dee looked up, and there, shadowed against the light from the swinging sun-lamps, stood Kai.

F OUR Y EARS A GO
     
    Dear Elliot,
    Last night I went with some other Posts to the Grove estate to hear a traveling musician. It was fantastic. I’d always thought that music was something that you or your mother or Tatiana played on your instruments, but at the Grove estate, several of the Posts have string-boxes or pipes, and they all play together.
    I wish you could have been there. The Grove Posts talk a lot about the free Post settlements. Apparently they’re allowed to visit family and such that have left for there. They don’t make it sound half so scary as the beggars who’ve come to the North estate do.
    They say other things I believe even less. They say Baroness North used to visit the Grove estate quite often. I thought none of the Norths spoke to the Groves.
    Your friend,
    Kai
        
     
    Dear Kai,
    I’m so jealous! Were the Luddites there, too? I have never met the Grove children. I believe there are two—a boy several years older than us, and a little girl.
    I don’t know the precise nature of my father’s argument with Mr. Grove but I think it’s gone on longer than Tatiana and I have been alive. I think it must have something to do with a land dispute of some sort. It is too bad, really. If they were on speaking terms, it’s likely Tatiana and I would have had the children as playmates. As it is, she hasn’t had a true friend since Benedict left the estate.
    But I don’t need to travel to another estate to find a friend. I have our gliders, I have our barn-wall knot. I have you.
    Did anyone show you how to make a string-box? I think we should make one and play it for Ro.
    Your friend,
    Elliot
        
     
    Dear Elliot,
    I’ve included the list of Posts who have ordered string-boxes. I can’t believe how many people want one now. I’m not sure we’ll have to paint them all the way we did for Ro. It will slow the process a lot, and besides, people might want to paint them themselves.
    Your friend,
    Kai
        
     
    Dear Kai,
    I managed to make three over the weekend and put them in the usual place. But I’m out of the silk fiber we were using for the strings. I stole it from the hem of one of my mother’s old shirts. I don’t know what else we can use.
    Your friend,
    Elliot
        
     
    Dear Elliot,
    I believe these wires will work well. It changes the tone of the instrument, but not in a bad way. Thank you for doing this. I hope your mother doesn’t miss her hems. I know how hard you’ve been working to make sure the boxes are properly tuned . . . so I know you won’t resent it when you see this newest list of requests?
    Come on. For me?
    Yours,
    Kai
        
     
    Dear Kai,
    Your wish is my command. I mended my mother’s shirt with hemp thread and she didn’t even notice. By the way, the wire works beautifully. The new sound is very different, but you’re right, it will just add to the richness of our little orchestra. I can’t wait to hear them!
    Yours,
    Elliot
        
     
    Dear Elliot,
    I’ve never been tempted to show our letters to anyone until now. But “your wish is my command”? Those are some dangerous words for a Luddite to write to a Post.
    Yours,
    Kai
        
     
    Dear Kai,
    Are you planning on telling on me?
    Yours,
    Elliot
    P.S. Made five more.
        
     
    Dear Elliot,
    It depends. Will you make boxes for this new list?
    Yours,
    Kai

Seventeen
     
    “YOU LOOK RADIANT, DEE,” Kai said. “I’m so glad you could make it tonight.”
    He looked radiant, too. Smack in his element, decked out in an oxblood jacket that soaked up the light from the lanterns and set off the darkness of his black hair. In these colors,