Page 139 of My Noble Disgrace

As before, no one answered, so I went down to the ocean, splashing my face to wake myself up. If we weren’t going to be rescued, I needed to start making a home on this island. Iheaded inland with the radio while Graham still slept on the sandy shore, searching for the spring we’d found.

I drank thirstily from it, then picked up the radio again.

“Come in,” I said. “Pleasehelp us.”

Finally, against all odds, a noise came onto the line.

I held my breath as I waited to hear her speak.

But instead of Cait, it was a deep male voice speaking words I couldn’t understand. It wasn’t Cael, at least, so in my desperation, I responded.

“Who is this?” I asked eagerly.

The voice returned, the words still incomprehensible. I wondered if it was Latin. Whatever language it was, it wasn’t mine.

My head spun with possibilities. Who could we possibly have made contact with if not a Cambrian? I ran back to the shore and nudged Graham awake. “Someone’s on the radio!” I said.

He sat up, blinking his tired eyes awake.

The strange language came through again.

“Do you speak Cambrian?” I said into the radio.

After a brief delay, the deep voice spoke, finally understandable. “Yes.”

I punched the air in celebration.

“My apologies,” he continued. “I’m not accustomed to encountering your language, but my translator is active now.”

“Translator?” I said to Graham. I figured the man must’ve been highly ranked if he had a personal translator, let alone radios.

“Who are you? Can you help us?” I said into the radio in a rush. “We’re stranded on an island. We don’t know exactly where, but—” I paused, realizing I had no idea how to give my location, especially to someone who wasn’t from Cambria. “We’re somewhere in the south of the Cambrian archipelago.”

There was a delay before he spoke again. “I’m sorry, but I cannot help you.”

“Why not?” Graham and I asked at the same time.

“I’m afraid that entry into the Cambrian seas is forbidden.”

Graham’s face paled.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“It’s a nuclear threat,” he responded.

I shrugged at Graham, clueless as to what that could mean.

He looked as confused as I felt.

“I don’t understand,” I said. “We’re not a threat. Why can’t you help us?”

“The Cambrian nation has had a strict entry ban in place for over one hundred years.”

Graham and I looked at each other, trying to make sense of his words. Though they were in our language, none of it made sense and I had a million questions.

Though it wasn’t Cait on the line, itwasproof of a surviving world outside Cambria. Proof that Cael, despite his power, only ruled one small portion, not the entire world—just the world we knew.

Hope awakened in my heart and I lifted the radio to my mouth again. “If you can’t come to us,” I said, “can you tell us how to come to you?”

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