“What does it mean?” I asked.
“Her blessing.” He helped himself to a piece of mypindlok, which I allowed because I didn’t want to wrestle a Runam fisherman at a village festival. “Honestly, it’s more than I have.”
“She hasn’t blessed you?”
“She thinks I talk too much.”
I looked at him.
“She’s not wrong,” he said cheerfully.
I shrugged and said nothing, which was usually the best course in most situations. Across the gathering, standing in a pool of shadow just beyond the main fire, I spotted Micher in hot conversation with Maive and the woman who had summonedher earlier. The village healer had his arms crossed and wore an expression of displeasure. When my gaze found his, he gave a short nod and pointedly looked away.
“Don’t worry about Micher,” Pasek said.
“I’m not.” I quickly ate another bite before Pasek could steal more of my food.
“Word has gotten around that you gave Maive a device like the one that healed Tregen when Micher’s treatments failed.” Pasek shrugged. “He’s a proud man. Good healer. He’s kept this village healthy for years with very little, but he’s a little too proud. He’ll come around.”
I shrugged again. It wasn’t my problem either way.
The music shifted again, slower, and the couples near the dock began to dance a little closer and much slower. I watched them. Firelight on the water, shells clicking overhead, the ocean doing its sighing underneath the smoke and food and laughter. I thought about what it took to build this. On a stripped, abandoned planet nobody wanted. With whatever they had. And they’d made something worth defending. That sat in my gut with more weight than thepindlok.
Maive found me again a while later, wearing a slightly weary expression. She stood beside me and watched the dancing.
“Everything all right?” I asked.
“Always something,” she said. “Nothing that couldn’t wait.”
“Your healer’s skills are still needed,” I murmured. “The device I gave you can’t fix everything.”
“That’s what I told him.” A pause. “How are you finding the festival?”
I looked at the torchlight and the smiles and the food, and at Aila on the far side of the fire with a cluster of small children all watching Silli perform acts of great importance on her shoulder.
“Different,” I said. Which was true, and wasn’t the whole answer.
She seemed to accept it.
I excused myself, telling her I needed to check on Silli, and worked my way toward Aila. I stopped when I was near the children, without having made a spectacle of it, but they scattered at the sight of me. Apparently, having a large, horned male appear in their space was alarming. They had good instincts, this lot. Aila looked up at me and grinned.
“How’s he doing?” I crouched down to her level and nodded at Silli.
“He had bread,” she reported. “And spiced fruit paste. He approved of both.”
I made a mental note to verify that Vradic-89D digestion could handle spiced fruit paste. “And you? Recovered from your adventure?”
She lifted her chin. “I wasn’t scared.”
Her state before, when I found her, had told a different story, but I smiled indulgently. “I know. Aila, I was curious about that bird you saw. The metal one.”
That made her brow drop low. Her eyes brightened as if she was glad someone was willing to take the topic seriously. “Silver,” she said. “It moved wrong. Sideways sometimes, then fast, then just stopped in the air. Real birds can’t stop.”
“What else?”
“Its eyes blinked red.” She demonstrated, blinking slowly twice. “It made no sound at all. I wanted to catch it but it kept moving right before I got close.” The memory of this irritated her visibly. “It went into the trees west of the village. That’s where I lost it.”
“West.” I kept my voice easy. “Did you see where it went after?”
