“Youdid it.” She flung her arms around him, and he felt the embrace as if she had an infinity of arms, holding him everywhere, outside and in. “With some help from Roxy.” She held the ring up between her fingers, rotating it. Even in the shuttle’s artificial illumination, it gleamed with a scintillating inner fire. “It’s beautiful.”
“It’s more than that. May I?” When she nodded, he took the ring back from her and held out his other hand.
Her wide gaze flashed to his again, her breath stuttering. “Sil?”
He hesitated. “I do not mean to imply more than…more than an initial payment on your cut of the fortune.”
“Oh. Right. Of course.” She held out her hand.
He faltered again, trying to remember the importance of Earther fingers, and finally slipped the ring onto the short, stubby one. “It may not be appropriate for trade on your Earth, but at the Luster, you’ll be able to sell it…” He froze. “Kinsley?”
She was staring at the ring. “I feel it.”
“Yes. The song imbues the minerals with mood and emotion. That was why stone singers were once legendary among orcs: we might not feel as much through our tough hides and carapaces, but through a sung stone, we could feel everything and even share that with the universe.”
When she looked up at him, her eyes glistened brighter than the stone. “You put yourself in this ring. I feel the loss of your homeworld and the fear of failure, but it’s the dream of tomorrow that comes through most clearly.” She clenched her hand against her chest, the ring pressing into her body. “You made me feel…hope.”
“You let me feel it,” he said quietly. “I just gave it back to you.”
Slowly, almost reluctantly, she tilted her hand away from her protective stance to look down at the ring. “That is an amazing gift. I can see how it would be worth a fortune.”
As with any gift, once he’d given it, of course he couldn’t dictate what she did with it. If she sold it at the Luster, along with the rest of her portion once he’d sung what he could, that was her choice. After all, the reason they’d come here was to find a fortune.
He just hadn’t realized he wouldn’t want to give it up.
He forced himself to look away. “Now that I understand the technique—and with Roxy’s resonance—I’ll be able to start trying something more. We’ll have to get the word out before the Luster, and the Omega Reclamation Crew is known for mining and salvage, not self-promotion, but galactic collectors are always looking for something new and will pay top credit.” He slanted a quick look at her. “I’ll make sure you get yours.”
But she wasn’t looking at him. She was still looking down at the ring on her thumb, stroking the stone with her other finger. Little sparks leaped from the ring, and she murmured in surprise as they fluttered away.
She clamped her hand over the ring. “What’s happening? Is it dissolving?”
“Just like Roxy, the ring transfigures the wearer’s energy. If you touch it, it will share. But it will never leave you.”
Warily, she stroked it again, letting out a little laugh when the sparks shimmered around her. “That is what hope feels like.”
To him, it felt like her laugh. “It might be different for others, but a sung stone will know—”
The shuttle alarm chimed. “Proximity alert.”
Sil straightened. “What is it?”
“Identification delayed due to continuing interference. Hold please.” They waited a tense heartbeat. “Vessel detected. Identification delayed due to continuing interference.”
He hastened back to the cockpit, conscious of Kinsley behind him.
“Maybe it’s theDeepWander. We’ve been gone long enough that Teq probably couldn’t delay anymore. And your brother would’ve been worried.”
“Furious,” Sil corrected. “But in case it’s not theDeepWander, I’d prefer to not be sitting here waiting.”
He’d done that for too long, just sat and waited, wishing he could do more, be more. Knowing Kinsley had finally made him act.
With parsimonious puffs from their engines as scant momentum, he tucked the shuttle alongside a slowly rolling boulder. The obstruction of the dust would keep them somewhat disguised. They would just stay quiet and unseen, unless it was theDeepWander. Although he wasn’t sure if he wanted to call out to his brother either.
Maybe it would be easier to become a pirate in truth, stealing the fortune and the shuttle and apexing his own way through the Zarnox Zone —a rogue stone singer of yore, spreading his message in molecules summoned from the void. If he was a singing space bandit, abducting an alien as his bunkmate would be not just unsurprising but practically expected.
“Identity confirmed,” the shuttle announced. A ship ident flashed on the forward screen.
Kinsley traced one fingertip over the distinctive silhouette of the other ship. “Oh shit. That’s the ship that came for Dorn,” she whispered, as if the other ship might hear them. “The pirates that attacked theDeepWander.”