Page 18 of The Sunlit Man

He didn’t get a good sense of Beacon’s size, though the easy way their hovercycle settled in and became just another part of its structure made him think it probably had the same architecture as the platform he’d been on before. A few people waited for them in the blowing drizzle, lit by the deep red hand-lantern carried by the lead man, who was tall, stern, and dour. Nomad pegged him immediately as the man named Zeal, the one Rebeke had spoken to on the radio.

He was surprised, then, when Zeal’s voice instead came from the mouth of the very short man standing to the side. Not even fourfeet tall, the small man had a normal-sized head, but shorter arms and legs than your average person. His eyes were a dark brown, like Nomad’s own.

“Rebeke,” Zeal said. “What you’ve done is dangerous.”

“More dangerous than Elegy’s plan?” she said. “Did you recover it, Zeal?”

Instead of responding, he thoughtfully studied Nomad. “Is this the stranger? What is his name?”

“I was not graced with such information,” Rebeke said. “He doesn’t seem able to understand the words I speak. As if…he doesn’t knowlanguage.”

Zeal made a few motions with his hands, gesturing at his ears, then tapping his palms together. He thought maybe Nomad was deaf? A reasonable guess, Nomad supposed. No one else on this planet had tried that approach.

Nomad spoke to him in Alethi, acting confused and gesturing while he talked.

Zeal and the tall man moved to help Thomos, the gap-toothed man. The poor fellow was listing again, semiconscious and mumbling, held in his seat by only his belt. At Zeal’s orders, several others rushed him off, presumably for medical attention.

“Take good care of him,” Nomad said in Alethi.

“Whatisthat gibberish?” the taller man said, raising his lantern. The fellow was so thin and so tall that with the lantern raised, he kind of resembled a lamppost. Especially in that long black raincoat.

“He frequently makes such noises,” Rebeke said.

“Curious,” the tall man replied.

Zeal looked toward the locked-in hovercycle, then approachedslowly. The tall man joined him, as did Rebeke, all three standing and staring at the ember woman tied in the back, growling.

“Elegy,” Zeal said. “Elegy, it’sus.”

This provoked only more growling. Zeal sighed. “Come. We must petition to the Greater Good and supplicate them for your sake. Adonalsium-Will-Remember-Our-Plight-Eventually, please see to her the best you can.”

The tall man nodded.

Wait. His name was Adonalsium-Will-Remember-Our-Plight-Eventually? That was the best one Nomad had heard yet. He really needed to keep a list of these Threnodite names.

“Oh,” Zeal added, “and find quarters for Rebeke’s guest, if you would, Adonalsium-Will-Remember-Our-Plight-Eventually. Grant unto him one of the ships without local access controls, if it pleases you to do this task. He looks as if he would savor a bath and a bed.”

Zeal and Rebeke started off together down the street, and Zeal turned on a red flashlight to lead the way. A bed and a bathdidsound good, but knowing what was going on here sounded better. So Nomad started off after them.

Naturally Adonalsium-Will-Remember-Our-Plight-Eventually hastened over to take his arm and gently tried to lead him away. Nomad smiled calmly, then pried his hand off and continued. When the man tried harder, Nomad yanked free more forcefully.

It was belligerent, yes. Maybe a great way to get into trouble. Perhaps they’d attack him, and he’d have an excuse to steal that hovercycle. He probably should have just done that, but…well, he was feeling charitable. So he simply marched after the other two, tailed by a nervous Adonalsium-Will-Remember-Our-Plight-Eventually.

Rebeke and Zeal entered a building—well, a ship with a largerstructure on the deck. Nomad stepped in after them, not letting the door close. He saw it was a dimly lit small antechamber with plain flat-black walls. Adonalsium-Will-Remember-Our-Plight-Eventually crowded in after him.

“My greatest repentance, Zeal,” the tall man said, chagrined. “He just…won’t go with me.”

“Maybe we should present him to the Greater Good,” Rebeke said. “It could be agreeable to them to see him, and perchance they might know what manner of person he is.”

“It is agreeable to me,” Zeal replied after brief consideration. “You can trust him to us, Adonalsium-Will-Remember-Our-Plight-Eventually.”

“What if he’s dangerous?” the tall man whispered. “Rebeke said…he might be a killer.”

“Those bracers on his wrists,” Zeal said. “Presumably the Cinder King hasn’t yet had a chance to reset them. I think we shall be well.”

Nomad had almost forgotten the bracers he was still wearing. He managed to keep from looking down at them as they were mentioned. This all but confirmed his earlier assumption that these people had been able to disable the ember people with some kind of hack or system exploit in the bracers.

Adonalsium-Will-Remember-Our-Plight-Eventually left to deal with the chained-up woman, Elegy, and Rebeke pushed open a door at the far end of the antechamber and led them into a properly lit hallway. The contrast was briefly blinding, though the electric lights in the ceiling were set relatively low.

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