For Darkness Shows the Stars

smiled at her as he said, “Ah, yes. Our first expedition. And what luck we had, didn’t we, dear?”
    “The island didn’t have a name,” said Felicia. “I don’t think it was ever inhabited. Just wild horses, everywhere. We brought back a pair to start the breeding program.”
    “And the money we made was enough to begin to finance the Fleet,” the admiral finished. “That was so many years ago now. Our late daughter—she was little more than a child at the time.”
    Elliot nodded once more to the Innovations and the baroness and, hoping to escape Kai’s steady gaze, she moved toward the cushions where the Groves sat with the Phoenixes. Even if he followed her here, she was sure Olivia would distract him. The girl sat propped up on cushions near her brother and Donovan and Kai didn’t move from his place near Felicia. Elliot supposed they couldn’t spend every waking moment together.
    He didn’t stop watching her, either.
    “Elliot,” said Donovan. “What a pleasure to see you in our humble tent.” A string-box sat in his lap and he plucked idly at it as he spoke. Olivia wore a dreamy half smile at the sound of the music.
    “She’s jumpier than she used to be,” Horatio explained in a low voice. “Too many people, too much noise. She’d been refusing to come at all until Donovan offered to bring an instrument. The music soothes her somehow.”
    “Only when Donovan plays,” said Olivia, with a slur in her voice Elliot had never heard before. “He’s so good at it.”
    “You’re doing so well,” Elliot managed to tell the younger girl. “It is so good to see you again.” She’d been too hasty, casting aspersions on Kai for visiting Olivia first. The poor girl had been through so much. Who knew if she’d ever really recover? And of course Kai would blame himself—this wouldn’t have happened if he and Donovan weren’t playing on the cliffs.
    This wouldn’t have happened if he and Donovan didn’t have abilities no human should possess. Even at the time, Andromeda had tried to stop them, tried to warn them.
    Now, Andromeda wouldn’t even look her way. Elliot wanted to groan aloud. What had she done to offend the older girl this time? She sat stiff as a rod on her cushion, her crystalline eyes staring, unfocused, on the blanket before her, her lips pursed into a thin line. A set of binoculars lay forgotten near her feet. Elliot supposed they must be for show, anyway. With her eyes, Andromeda would never need them. Elliot was tempted to ask if the Post girl was all right, but Andromeda would likely only snap at her, as always.
    As she exchanged pleasantries with the others, Elliot listened with half an ear to the conversation going on at her back. Baroness Channel was still curious about the Innovation horses.
    “But with the horses being so rare and valuable, I have often wondered why you never returned to retrieve more.”
    The admiral chuckled. “Can’t flood the market, can we? The Innovation Horse remains our biggest moneymaker, in part because they are so rare.”
    Felicia laughed, too. “In truth, Baroness, we did. But something must have gone wrong one winter on the island. The horses were gone. Died out. It’s a mystery.”
    Something in her tone rang false to Elliot’s ears. Was it truly a mystery? Had they killed off the other horses to make sure they had the only supply? She cast a glance back at the older guests on their cushions. That didn’t seem like either of the Innovations—to wipe out an island of horses. They were explorers, not destroyers. They were the only explorers, too, so it was unlikely anyone else would go get the horses instead.
    “Indeed!” the baroness exclaimed. Beneath the shade of her veil, her mouth formed a perfect O. “How lucky, then, that you were able to preserve the breed.”
    “Yes,” said Felicia. “We were very lucky.”
    Lucky . . . and convenient. That Felicia with her prodigious medical knowledge could take advantage of such a fortunate find. That Kai and his mechanical training had happened upon sun-carts that only he was capable of readying for buyers.
    Elliot’s blood ran cold as the truth cut through her like a scythe on a blade of wheat. She turned to stare at the Innovations in shock.
    Felicia winked at the admiral. “To get the only two horses like that in all of existence.”
    Of course they were the only two. The Innovations had never discovered any horses—any enormous, incredibly fast, impossibly