Page 28 of Into Orbit
Ishriekedinpain,my eyes instinctively shuttering. Tirians had a second eyelid to manage the swiftly-changing light conditions of the Forest – its dark depths, its bright edges – and I blinked through the viscous tears that came with it, healing whatever damage the light had done.
The light faded after half a minute or so, leaving me with a white ring around my vision and a fierce headache. Maeve’s head was in her hands and she sank backwards onto the bed, moaning. Ashton and Willow were doing the same thing as me, blinking swiftly as the after-effects of the light pulse faded.
‘Green gods, we’ll use up our blackbark supplies after that,’ Willow muttered, pressing his fingertips to his temple. ‘So much for the blockers.’
‘Whatwasthat?’ I said, reaching out to rub Maeve’s shoulder tentatively. Our fierce kiss had been utterly unexpected –had Maeve beenworriedabout me?– but I would take anything she gave me, and I’d give her anything she’d take in return. Even if that thing was a shoulder rub while she was in obvious pain.
‘That,’ Ashton said grimly, ‘was astarling.’
‘Astarling?’ Willow repeated, startled. ‘What makes you think so?’
‘Because I’ve seen it before. Another peacekeeping ship had one in custody for inter-galaxy embezzlement. The starling pulled that move –’ Ashton nodded out at the Forest, where the light had come through the dome’s glass ‘– to escape. I saw the screencasts, both from inside and outside the ship, and watched the little fucker go supernova. It’s extremely difficult to hold them, if they don’t want to be held.’
‘Do you think the Roth had a starling prisoner, then?’ Willow said softly.
Ashton shrugged. ‘I couldn’t say. Maybe they had one imprisoned; maybe one was working with them. Starlings don’t really pick sides. The one on the peacekeeping ship was some kind of dignitary’s spawn – the guard who sent me the casts thought they’d turned to embezzlement out ofboredom.’ Ashton shook his head. ‘Fucking sapling.’
Maeve grabbed my hand. I rubbed my thumb over hers, soothing. ‘It’s all right, Maeve, you can open your eyes now,’ I coaxed. ‘It’s gone.’
‘I couldn’t tell either way,’ she said, her voice strangled.
I blinked. ‘What?’
She tilted her head up, her face drained of colour, her eyes struggling to flutter open. ‘Elswyth, I can’tsee.’
For a moment, I didn’t understand the words.Elswyth, I can’t see. I could see – even if the light was still fading – and Willow was frowning at Maeve, and Ashton was poking at his wrist screen, so we should have been fine.
Except Maeve’s eyes weren’t like ours.
‘Willow!’ I shrieked, but he was already at Maeve’s side, tipping her chin back and gently lifting her eyelid with the tip of his finger. Ashton strode to the door and snarled wordlessly when it didn’t open.
Willow moved his hand in front of Maeve’s open eyes; there was no reaction. ‘Light blindness,’ he confirmed grimly. ‘I’ve read about this. It can affect species who fly too close to a star during a flare.’ He glanced at Ashton. ‘I need to take her to the clinic, Ash. I wasn’t on duty, so I don’t have my emergency kit. I can’t do anything from here.’
Maeve hung her head and moaned in pain. ‘God, my head is fuckingkillingme.’
‘Bridge, read me,’ Ashton growled into his wrist screen.
There was a pause. ‘First Guard, sir?’
‘The human female has been injured by the light flare. She needs medical attention. Open her door,now.’
Another pause. ‘The Captain says no, sir.’
‘The Captain sayswhat, sapling?’
An audible swallow came over the audio. ‘She says is the human female bleeding, sir? She says is she about to perish?’
Ashton took a deep breath. ‘She is not bleeding, sapling. But she has lost her sight.’
‘The Captain says you must stay, sir. Until the threat has been cleared. She says …’ Another swallow. ‘She says that she is interested to know why you are not on the bridge, and why Doctor Willow Unclaimed is not currently in his clinic. Sir.’
Ashton shut off the communication with another wordless snarl. ‘Will.Do something.’
‘Do you have any blackbark, Lady?’ Willow said to me.
I ran into the bathroom and grabbed the regulation box of medical supplies, dumped it on the bed next to Maeve, then ran back and found a glass and filled it with water. Willow took it from me without comment, then measured out a tiny dosage of blackbark powder for Maeve.
‘That isn’t enough,’ Ashton growled.
