Page 17 of Claim
“It’s not enough.”The thrum of his voice was so low it didn’t reach beyond the two of them but somehow it threatened to rattle her apart.“Iam not enough.”
He was the biggest, the strongest, destined from birth to be king.If he failed, what chance did the rest of them have?
Her knees were actually shaking, only her hold on his arm keeping her upright.“Why are you telling me this?”Even as she said it, she knew it wasnotthe supportive sort of thing that the other Earther brides had said they admired about her.
Mag didn’t look stricken; his expression never changed at all.Only the sudden stillness of his antennae revealed his anguish.“I thought you would understand.”
She would understand what it was like to be not enough?Ouch.She almost laughed at the unexpected pain.In case she had ever wondered how he felt about her.He hadn’t tried very hard to change her mind when she laughed off his proposal.He’d even denied the i’lva, as if it meant nothing too.
And…he wasn’t really wrong about her, was he?
Maybe that stung more.
“I left,” she said.“On Earth, I was starting to feel like the strands of hair I swept away every day, unwanted, a dead end.So I signed up with the IDA, and I left.”
“I can’t leave theDeepWander.”He flattened one hand over his glyph.Unlike her hand, his fingers completely covered the mark.
Before he could say more, Teq and Adeline walked up, Ollie darting around them.June had noted Teq’s intense respect for his apex and guessed he would’ve normally hung back, but now the big crusher was distracted with swishing his new cloak so he didn’t seem to notice the tension.
Adeline did.Making quick eye contact with June, Adeline put her hand on one of Teq’s elbows to stop him, but he had just swished the hem over Ollie who was flapping his own matching cloak like he was his nickname owlet.The two males chortled, completely missing Adeline’s cue.
June gave her a shrug-smile to say it didn’t matter—because it didn’t.Wasn’t like she was going to stand there all night insulting the apex, right?
“I love cloaks!”Ollie said.“June, you’re the best!”
She slanted a quick look at Mag, just in case he’d missed the accolade.“Thanks, Ollie.I’m glad you like your look.”The boy wouldn’t be going to the Luster, but she’d wanted him to be included in the big day.She eyed Teq, but of course Adeline had experience with styling, and the crusher was definitely swooshing the part of powerful bruiser turned successful businessman.“And Teq, you look ready to go.”
“Just need some last tailoring and then Sil’s work,” Adeline said.“I know the contracts are going to pour in.”
June glanced again at Mag.He was holding himself tall, but she almost felt him recoil.He didn’t think it was going to happen.
“Everything is coming together well,” Teq said, as if he still hadn’t noticed his apex’s mood.“Since not everyone is attending the Luster, we should mark this moment together.Before we go: one crew, one purpose, one last vat of Amma’s worst.”He clacked his tusks in amusement.
Mag inclined his head.“I’ve said my words, but bring out the yezo and the songs.Even the infinite void can’t stand against such brilliance gathered here.”
“But you must be there to lead us,” Teq admonished.“No vanishing this time.”
For a moment, June thought Mag would say no.He’d skipped the last party to look for her, but now she understood he didn’t want to be there because he wanted to hide from his people.And unlike the ghost in the graveyard, he didn’t want to be found.
Chapter 6
Mag didn’t usually stay for celebratory mingling in the gather-hall, at least not for long.
After his first big salvage contract, when victory had been so sweet, he’d loved the sound of his orcs chanting his name.He’d been only a subadult, his carapace barely hardened.Then Amma had explained how he wasn’t like the others, that the glyph scored into his torso—which still ached sometimes when he drifted in the cold of space, despite the protective exo-suit—meant he could not find reprieve and release as the others did.She’d handed him a mug of her liquor, poured no deeper than the first knuckle of his smallest finger, and said, “Find your fulfilment in knowing you have led them well,” she told him.“And use that time while they sleep off the festivities to figure out where our next meal is coming from, our next refueling, our next contract.”
The admonition had been sobering in a way that no amount of liquor could overcome.
Now, a couple of orcs, with Ollie’s help, herded some slymusks into the hall to scribe their glowing marks over the columns and walls, the temporary brightness making the quieter nooks darker by comparison.Pars carried Amma on his shoulder while Iffo rolled a barrel of something special across the hall.
“My great-grandmother brewed this cask of yezo from the last of the algae that came from our natal caverns,” she said, her voice thinned with her old age but still strong, like a titanium thread shining in the light and shadow.“And now, with these Earther wife-mates, our hopes for the first hatchlings of this generation, and a place in the Luster, we breach this cask as a vital sign of the future we seek.”She hefted a mallet, swirling it deftly in a six-fingered hand.“Apex, do the honors?”
Mag was glad she had spoken so he didn’t have to.Stepping up, he hefted the mallet.With one last glance around at his mighty, beautiful crew, he swung the mallet and smashed open the cask.
Liquor poured out, splashing into waiting mugs, and the heady smell, like fiercest fire and darkest stone, burned in his antennae.With an enthusiastic roar, the orcs surged forward to claim their mugs, drinking deep as their fellows stepped in behind them, a slow circulation of sharing.
As the cask drained, Mag caught the last dregs in his own mug.He glanced around.Whatever Amma’s great-grandmother had brewed, it seemed good judging by the shine in the dark eyes, the bright flush on the Earther women’s cheeks.His gaze skipped among them—his people by blood and by IDA contract, to whom he would give his blood and contract to keep fed and flying.
And his focus snagged on little June.
