“This is the only image I have.I’m not sure you would recognize it.”
Pallas stared at the toddler, his face blank.He lifted a hand to touch the toddler’s chubby cheeks, the wide smile the girl had was infectious.“You look like her.”
Tinsley’s smile was wide and hopeful.“You think?”
Pallas withdrew.
Graydon watched it happen.His expression shuttering as his emotions snapped off.The light in his eyes extinguished.
Pallas didn’t say anything as a void opened at his back.Tinsley tried to hold onto her smile.Her lips trembled as tears gathered in her eyes.
“I’ll meet you there,” Pallas threw at Alexander before disappearing.
Alexander sighed and shook his head.“This is why I told you not to look.”
His features weren’t entirely without sympathy as he gazed down at Tinsley’s bent head.
She swiped at one of the tears that had fallen.“She didn’t make it, did she?”
“No.”
Tinsley nodded, not looking up.
“Is there anyone else you want to ask about?Now is the time, while I’m feeling relatively magnanimous.”
“Edris.”
The oshota stepped forward hurriedly, holding out the memory stone he already had in hand.
Alexander’s gaze flicked down to the image of a child with the same blue black hair as Edris.“Yes.”
Emotion overwhelmed the oshota, a raw sound escaping his throat.
Tinsley wrapped an arm around him, burying her face in his chest.“He’s alive.I’m so glad.”
Her other oshota hugged both of them, looking at Alexander over their heads.“Thank you.”
Alexander nodded.
“What did Pallas mean?Where’s ‘there’?”Graydon asked.
Alexander started to answer before pausing as Isla arrived at a run.“I suspect you’ll know soon enough.”
Isla caught her breath, nodding as Graydon signaled her to wait.
“Solal, Amila, finish cleaning up here.See if there’s anything else you can find and then meet me back at the ship.”Graydon glanced at Rhett as he moved toward Isla.“Did you have something to say?”
It was obvious that he did.Asanth’s interim lord played the role of spectator well, but Graydon had learned to read body language and micro expressions from the best.
Rhett wanted something.
“Certain promises were made at the beginning of this journey.I’m just wondering when those promises will be met,” he said with a pointed look at Alexander.
Graydon and the others glanced at him in expectation.
“Soon,” Alexander answered.
Graydon gestured for Isla to follow.As soon as they were away from the rest, he looked at her.“What is it?”
