After the warriors rushed over, she glanced at Miran. “You don’t want to learn?”
He shook his head. “I already know I don’t have the balance for it,” he said, then gave the warriors a warning glare. She almost giggled at the way he stepped close to her and put a hand on her shoulder, as if claiming territory.
The three ignored him.
“My name is Hifor,” the one who asked first said. He pointed to his companions. “This is Lezor and Belik.”
“Hi, I’m Nova,” she said.
“We know,” Lezor said. “You were on the Assist and helped save all those children.”
Mention of the kids made Nova focus on Lezor. “How are they doing? Are all of them reaching their expected milestones? Are the menders being gentle?”
She must’ve sounded more anxious than she meant to, because all the Hissa frowned with concern.
“Our menders would never be anything but gentle with the children,” Hifor said.
“The last report said the children were doing well, but two of them might need extra attention,” Lezor said.
Nova blinked rapidly, feeling teary at the idea of any of the children being even slightly neglected. “Everyone is so busy, I could help with the two that need more assistance.”
Miran hugged her from behind. “We’re going to make sure every single child gets everything they need to thrive.”
“Even if they’re male?” she asked. “After they’re old enough, are you going to cast them out?”
All the warriors sucked a horrified breath, then spoke at once.
“Never!”
“Why would you think that?”
“They’re Hissa now, no Hissa is ever cast out!”
“We aren’t like that,” Miran said, the most sympathetic tone to his voice as he whispered in her ear. He knew why she was upset and wasn’t as horrified by her question as the others. “Our species will never be pure Hissa ever again, but all species need to change and adapt or die out. We’re going to raise these children with Hissa values and that’s more important than anything else. What happened to Star and you would never happen with us.”
Those words reassured her more than anything else he could’ve said. Although the other circus workers had accepted and loved her, Riff had made it clear from the very beginning that if she didn’t earn her keep, she’d be sold. She’d grown up with the idea that if she wasn’t useful, she would be discarded.
Unlike her, these kids would never know the terror of having a bad performance day and going to bed crying because you didn’t know if you’d be sold to the closest slave trader the next day.
“Nova?”
Miran’s soft voice pulled her out of her spiral. He’d gone down on his knees in front of her and was holding both her hands in his. She’d been so badly sucked into her thoughts, she didn’t even notice him moving to touch her.
“Sorry,” she said and tried to smile. “I’m good.”
“You’re crying,” he murmured.
The moment he said something, she felt the tears trickling down her face. She pulled one of her hands free of his to wipe them away.
“It's only that I’m so happy the children won’t be thrown away because they aren’t exactly what you want,” she said, trying hard to smile. “I might be a little emotional. A lot’s happened in the last few days.”
“That’s true,” he said, his expression and voice nothing but gentle. “Do you want to go back to the room and rest?”
The thought of being confined to a small room sounded horrible. She wanted to move and play.
She shook her head and looked around. The three other warriors started moving away as if to give her and Miran privacy, but that was the last thing she wanted.
“Don’t you guys want to learn how to do a flip?” she asked, pulling away from Miran.
