“It means music,” I tell him. “A voice that carries. A story that survives.”
He considers this, then dips his head in solemn agreement. “Then she is Aker’iz Calliope. My heart. Your song.” He gets up, carefully lifts the baby, and places her in her cradle inside the saucer.
When he returns, I press my forehead to his shoulder, overcome by the quiet rightness of it. His arm comes around me, heavy and warm, and for a while we simply breathe together.
When he finally bends his head to mine, the kiss is unhurried, full of everything we are not saying. I let myself sink into it, into him, into the certainty that whatever worlds await us, we will face them as one.
Smoke rises from the hut for drying meat, which we rebuilt and now want to try to use for smoking meat instead of just drying it. If it works, we can preserve meat for weeks. The smoke smells wonderful, anyway. The frit still, we never really got working.
The fire burns low. The forest hums in the background, and the surf hisses on the ocean side.
It took a lot to get here, to make this place ours. And Callie is still missing. We will keep looking for her.
But this moment belongs only to us.
- - -
“Ithink I have them,”Dex announces in his tinny voice. “Three smaller females, one big native walking in front.”
I sit up and rub the sleep from my eyes. The saucer hums around me. Kenz’ox and Aker’iz are playing with a leather doll and a primitive rattle made from a big nut, a stick and some gravel.
“Are you sure?” I didn’t expect our search for Cora, Morgan, Riley and Sprisk to be successful that quickly. They’ve been walking in the jungle for weeks, and we could only guess where they might be along the straight line from our clearing to the red rock village that lies somewhere to the east.
“I can’t be completely sure until you confirm it,”Dex says. “But I am as sure as I can be.”
“Three girls?” I ask. “Not four?”
“Sorry,”Dex says. “It looks like Callie didn’t join up with them after all.”
I sigh. It wasn’t unexpected, after the tracks that Kenz’ox spotted in the sand. But still I had hoped that he was somehow wrong. “Can we land?”
“There’s no clearing,”Dex screeches softly. “But we can make one between the trees.”
“Don’t use weapons,” I quickly urge him. “That will scare them.”
“Very well,”the drone says with a hint of disappointment. “I will find a spot where the canopy of treetops is thin.”
A minute later we’re down.
Kenz’ox stands up and touches his sword. “We’ll go out together.”
“But me first,” I tell him and smooth down my dress. I’m strangely nervous, partly about having lost Callie. But mostly I look forward to showing my friends my new husband. “Don’t draw your sword.”
He places Aker’iz Calliope in her cradle and takes up his position by the hatch. “Ready?”
“Are they right outside, Dex?” I ask.
“The male is nearby. The females are hiding, which seems prudent.”
“They’re pretty sure it’s our saucer, but they can’t be sure,” I explain, “They’ll stay back until they see me. Open the hatch, please, my love.”
Kenz’ox hits the button and the hatch hisses open. The smell of the jungle fills my nose, the hot humidity like a punch to the face. I step down onto the ground.
“Greetings, Sprisk,” I say out loud into the greenery. I know he’s there, although I can’t see him. “It’s me, Theodora.”
Kenz’ox steps out right behind me.
Sprisk moves, becomes clearly visible and comes towards me, chameleon skin flickering, hand still on his sword. “Greetings, Dorie. You have a friend.”
