Page 62 of Cloverleaf Station

He nodded. “And we were lucky to get that much.”

“We? You took on a new research partner?”

“No, the station got a new boss.” And Kieron didn’t want Laina to know anything about him. He rolled his eyes. “The ‘hands-on’ type although I think one offseason at Cloverleaf was enough for him.”

“I daresay.” She relaxed a bit more, sipping slowly at her dark-red tea. Kieron joined her, holding back his wince as the acidic wash of it coated his tongue and teeth. He lacked the sensory receptors to really appreciate this particular plant like a native Traktan could.

“I’m sorry Xilinn couldn’t be here,” Laina added. “She’s going to be detained in the capital for … some time. It was a very last-minute thing.”

“I’m sure she’d be here if she could.”

“Of course. He was our husband, after all.” Her eyes went back to the box. “Speaking of … if you don’t mind, I should get this into the descendancy unit to ensure its authenticity. The process shouldn’t take more than a minute or two.”

“I understand.” A minute or two. She was going to chuck Zak’s remains into a DNA tester to make sure they were real, no ceremony of homecoming or convocation of the family—it wasn’t normal. It wasn’t right. Xilinn and Kriev and all the children ought to be present for this.

What the hell was going on here?

Laina set down her cup, picked up the box, and left. A few seconds later, Pol’s head appeared around the kitchen door. “Uncle Kieron!” he whispered. “C’mere!”

The boy looked frantic. Kieron glanced in the direction Laina had left, then chucked his awful tea down the sink and headed for the hall. Pol took his hand and tugged him down the hall and into a small room—Pol’s own room, from the familiar look of the background there. He shut the door and said, “Please, you have to help!”

“Help how?” Kieron asked the little boy, whose teary eyes looked far too big for his face. “What’s going on?”

“Mama’s been taken!”

Chapter twenty-six

Kieron’s blood went cold. “Taken?” he repeated, kneeling down so he was on Pol’s level. “Taken by whom?”

“The city magistrates! They said Mama was speaking sed … sidi … it’s something that means lies,” he said tearfully. “So they took her away! Mother Laina says she’s already been moved to Garelle.” Garelle was the continental capital, where Trakta’s government had been leaping into so many bad decisions lately.

“What do they want with her?” Kieron asked quietly. He could imagine Xilinn having trouble keeping herself from speaking out against the new separations of classes, despite him bringing Zak’s body back to protect her own children. She was a teacher and dedicated herself completely to her students. Seeing some of them torn away from their old lives and forced down a harsher path had to infuriate her.

“Papa Kriev said she’s going to be another example,” Pol whispered, anger twisting his little face. “I hate him! He could have asked for her back, but he’s already courting another mother and father in Garelle. He wants to forget about my mama and change me and Szusza and Lorna’s names and everything!” Lorna was Zak’s other biological child, with Laina.

That couldn’t be legal … then again, Kieron didn’t really know what qualified as legal right now. Everything in Trakta was up in the air—its justice and legal systems, its healthcare, its educational institutions. To not only not contest Xilinn’s abduction but to be complicit in it, though … “What does Laina think of all this?”

“She doesn’t care!” Pol began crying. “She told me not to speak to you at all, but I have to because you’re the only one who might be able to get Mama back.”

How in starlight’s name was he supposed to get Xilinn out of whatever hole she’d been dragged off to? It wasn’t like he’d come here with an army; he’d come alone …

Well. With a very intelligent ship, actually, but …

Oh, shit.

Distantly, Kieron heard something beeping. “Pol,” he said firmly, “we’ll figure this out. All right? We will, I promise, but right now I need to go back to the kitchen before Laina realizes I’m missing. Can you meet me behind the house in five minutes?”

“Yes.” Pol sniffled, rubbing beneath his eyes with the edge of one hand. He was six now, only six, and this was what he had to deal with. He had to be terrified.

“Good boy,” Kieron said, and before he could second-guess himself, he pulled Pol into a hug. The little boy shuddered for a moment in his arms, but he didn’t fall apart. “I’ll meet you behind the house very soon. Only come if you won’t be caught, all right?”

“Okay.” He reluctantly stepped out of Kieron’s arms, then turned and ran down the hall, his feet nearly silent on the dark floor. Kieron stood up and went back into the kitchen, picking up his cup again just as Laina rejoined him.

“It’s authentic.” She beamed at him, genuine delight on her face. It reminded him of how she’d once looked, almost a decade ago, back when she had first married in, and things were so much happier than they’d become. She had been more open-minded in her youth, inclined to listen to others and not just defend what she knew. She’d even considered leaving Trakta for a brief tour of the nearest star system although in the end, she hadn’t quite been willing to risk it.

To think that now she was complicit in letting her wife wither away in some government containment facility. Kieron had to force himself to smile back at her.

“I knew it would be.”