Page 30 of Into Orbit
I shuddered, remembering the awful racket at the club where I’d met Maeve. ‘I don’t think it’s the same.’
Maeve laughed. ‘I bet you listen to trees.’
Willow and I exchanged a glance.
‘Oh my God, youdo,’ Maeve said into the silence. ‘You listen totree music.’ She laughed again, uproariously, and put an arm across her face.
‘Try not to grind your teeth, Maeve,’ Willow said softly, watching her closely. He looked up. ‘Ash …’
‘I know,’ Ashton muttered. He tapped his wrist screen. ‘Bridge, read me. The human needsurgentmedical attention.’
I felt a hand hit my leg. ‘El, beautiful,’ Maeve whispered, her fingers creeping up my thigh. ‘Come fly with me.’
I flushed, glancing sideways at Willow. He cleared his throat and hastily stepped away from Maeve, studying the room’s food generator with sudden intensity.
Maeve sat and nuzzled at my stomach. ‘Maeve,’ I whispered to her. ‘Ashton and Willow are here.’
She gave a deep chuckle. ‘As if either of them would care. I know I wouldn’t.’
I stared down at her, the false hope stirring briefly once more.Perhaps Iwillgive her a list.
‘Bridge,read me,’ Ashton growled. ‘Now.’
‘The Captain said she’ll let you take the human to the clinic, but that she will expect you and the doctor to report immediately after she is settled, First Guard, sir,’ the voice over Ashton’s wrist screen said tremulously.
My guard gave a wordless snarl; it ripped through the quiet and made me shiver.
Maeve just laughed. ‘Poor little elf-boy,’ she said mockingly. ‘Did something make you cranky?’
Ashton glared at her. My door hissed open and he turned on his heel and headed directly for the bed; I stepped out of the way, startled. He scooped Maeve up like she weighed nothing at all and held her close to his chest.
‘Come on,’ he growled at me.
I exchanged a startled glance with Willow, and we followed him out of the room.
It took Willow all of five minutes to give Maeve a tincture that reversed the effects of the blackbark and use one of his healing wands to rebuild the damaged tissue in her eyes. Maeve blinked swiftly afterwards, swearing she could see better than before, but bemoaning the loss of her short high.
‘What will happen to them?’ she said, when Willow and Ashton left to present themselves to my mother on the bridge.
I bit my lip; my stomach churned. I couldn’t tell if it was jealousy again, or whether it was something else entirely.
‘I don’t know,’ I whispered.
TheCaptainwascalm,which was somehow worse than anger.
‘Just so I have this right,’ she said. ‘In an emergency situation – one clearly indicated by the ship’s alarms, which you have heard during more training sessions than I could count – my First Guard and the ship’s Head Doctor spent their time not at their designated posts –posts they are entirely aware of, and have evacuated to during the aforementioned training and throughout countless ship’s drills– but in the quarters ofmy daughterand heralien bonded, ignoring theirdutiesand theirvows to this shipand theirloyalty to Tir. It doesnotescape my notice,’ she went on, cutting Willow off when he opened his mouth to respond, ‘that the ship’s Hamadryadalsoleft her post to check on the wellbeing of her alien bonded, and nor does it escape my notice thatat no pointdid either of you suggest the Ladyreturnto her heartree, thus leaving the ship in danger of not only attack, but vulnerable to Forest wiltand everything that could come with it.’ She raised one dark brow. ‘Is that the full canopy, or am I standing in the shadows?’
Willow swallowed audibly.
I’d been in the Captain’s service long enough to know that any attempt to minimise harm would be met with a more extreme punishment. We wouldn’t get away unscathed, but if we were honest, we might not lose our jobs and be dumped at the next space station to wait for a ride home.
‘I take full responsibility, Captain,’ I said, keeping my eyes on the floor. ‘Doctor Willow Unclaimed was heading back to his lab. I stopped him from going. I allowed my worry for the Hamadryad and the human to interfere with duty. There is no excuse.’
‘I’ve seen the security cast,’ the Captain snapped. ‘The doctor didn’t need much convincing.’
Willow’s jaw clenched. ‘That is true,’ he said levelly. ‘I admit that my primary concern was for the Lady and Maeve.’
The Captain exhaled through flared nostrils. ‘Do you think I was not concerned formy daughter, or for my own family? And yetIwent to the bridge –as is my duty and my honour.’
