Page 206 of Star Bringer
The houses are brick and solid-looking. There are a lot of stores that seem to carry pretty impressive goods. And there are even stores selling some decent-looking food.
Definitely one of the richer towns in the system.
Makes me wonder if that’s a rebel thing or if there’s something else going on here that I don’t know about. It doesn’t matter, I guess, but I don’t like mysteries. And I especially don’t like mysteries that involved unexplained money, because it usually means there’s more to worry about than I thought.
For most of the Senestris System, the Sisterhood of the Light isn’t the organized religion. Greed is, and people will do anything for a buck.
I make a mental note to dig a little deeper into Sorcha when we make it back to theStarlight.
If we make it back.
The wind kicks up again—there’s nothing money can do about the fact that Glacea is a meteorological shithole—and I hunch against the chill as we traverse several more streets, winding our way deeper and deeper into the center of the town.
I don’t like how far away we are from the edge of town and theStarlight. But I’m not calling the shots here; Beckett is.
She finally stops in front of a tavern called the Dancing Varnook.
“We’re here,” she announces, and for the first time, she looks a little nervous.
“You good?” I ask. Maybe her paleness has more to do with meeting her mother than her actual sickness.
“Worry about yourself,” she snarls before pushing through the heavy double doors. Max and I exchange a look—here goes nothing—then follow her inside. It’s dark after the sunlight, and I take a moment to let my eyes adjust.
The room is bigger than I expected, with numerous tables—all empty at the moment—and fires already built in the fireplaces at both ends. I gravitate toward one of them, but Beckett coughs and nods toward a door at the side of the bar.
A tall man with a black beard stands in front of it, a gun on either hip and a scowl on his face. Beckett heads over, with Max and me right behind her.
“It will work,” he tells me.
“It had better.”
The man, who’s clearly Permunian like most of the rebels, doesn’t speak. He looks us over, his face expressionless, before opening the door and nodding at us to enter.
The room beyond is much smaller, with a second door opposite and no windows. But there is a fire, and I can feel the warmth sinking into my bones. I really, really, really hate this fucking planet.
There’s another problem, though. There’s no one here but us. Maybe Beckett’s mother isn’t coming after all. Maybe she’s decided she doesn’t trust us.
“She’ll come.”
Max is being annoyingly optimistic. “And you’re being a miserable bastard.”
I lift a brow. “You mean a realist?”
At that moment, the door at the back of the room opens and a man enters. This one isn’t Permunian. At a guess, he’s from Serati. He’s tall and broad and just big in every direction. His skin is swirled, his eyes are a dark blue, and he has a head of bushy black hair that looks an awful lot like Max’s when he doesn’t get near a barber for a while.
Beside me, Beckett makes a little shocked sound. My hand goes automatically to my own weapon, but then she’s running forward.
The giant opens his arms, and she leaps right into them. Then he swings her into the air with a belly laugh that fills the room.
“Well, that’s something you don’t see every day,” I tell Max.
“A giant?”
“Beckett looking happy.”
He shrugs in a live-and-let-live way.
Finally, the man puts her down and pats her cheek—and she doesn’t even try to bite his hand off. Surreal.
