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  Saytera’s heart sank. “I’m sorry. I—”

  What she’d wanted was to tell her that she had Terens after her, that they could put Kia and all the academy in danger, but the furious look on the woman’s face prevented her from doing so.

  “What are you?” the woman asked, her voice trembling.

  Saytera looked down. “In my… village… we practiced this stuff.”

  “How, how did you do that?” The woman looked incredulous and maybe scared.

  “It wasn’t on purpose!” Saytera pleaded. “And I didn’t meant to—”

  “I’ll set everything up for you to take Tamara’s place. Now go.”

  Saytera got up. She should be happy that she got what she wanted, but she felt empty instead. Somehow, having Kia look at her that way reminded her of the disappointment Yansin must have felt.

  It all felt so strange and lonely. In her current life, the only person who liked her was half crazy. Maybe that said something about herself. But then, starting tomorrow, she’d have a second chance.

  The sun had barely risen when Saytera got on the back of a truck. Few familiar faces. Kiki noticed Saytera but then looked away. Tamara held another girl’s hand and grinned at Saytera, who smiled back. Both were happy. Tamara didn’t seem bad. Why hadn’t Saytera ever taken the time to get to know the other cadets? She glanced at Kiki. Perhaps that was the answer. The girl’s rejection had been such a blow. Saytera wasn’t sure if she’d handled the situation well. Were isolation and loneliness better than tolerating rude people? Once, she’d have said yes. Now, she wasn’t so sure. It didn’t matter anymore except as a lesson learned. They could all be idiots in this base she was going. And this time, she’d have to stay there for a long time, perhaps forever. She sighed.

  The truck stopped at a small intraspace port, from where she embarked on a small shuttle. At least now she’d be by the ocean. It wouldn’t be Storm Islands, but at least she’d be connected with nature again, maybe she could be herself again.

  Dess’s hollow chest didn’t prevent him from feeling the odd energy in the port. He’d told Marcus to leave while he checked Vera and remained in the port. But he had an odd feeling.

  Zizo was on his desk and he walked there. “Something happening?”

  The old man shrugged while tapping on his screen. “Not much, not much. Nothing unusual.”

  “What kind of not-unusual thing?”

  “We just…” He closed his eyes. “Haven’t heard news from Sophie and Tara.”

  Dess was taken aback. “Are they alive?”

  The man’s eyes were back on his screen. “It seems so, but they are far away from the continent, maybe trapped in a storm or something.”

  Dess didn’t really like those girls, but still… “We have to rescue them.”

  Zizo shook his head. “We’d risk losing another team. It’s too dangerous. If the storms stop, you can try, otherwise we have to hope they make it.”

  “Hope they make it? Hope they make it? Is that all you do? Why haven’t we had any training, any guidance, nothing? You’re sending us there to die!”

  “I’m following orders, boy. You have a problem, take it to the council.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I’ll do.”

  13

  Firewater

  Saytera’s heart was pounding as she walked to the isolated red building. Was it excitement that she could see the ocean? Or was she nervous to be—again—getting to a new place on her own? She carried no luggage, no bag. She’d come to Academy 7 with nothing, and had left with nothing but the dreadful grey clothes she’d worn on arriving there. Nobody had come to greet her. The shuttle pilots were a young man and a woman. They had waited a bit, but eventually had to leave.

  Saytera almost asked to go back with the pilots, fearing maybe the base was abandoned or had been attacked. If that was the case, how long would it take until anyone realized it? She knocked on the door a few more times and had no answer, then decided to walk around the building.

  Emotion swelled up in her chest. The ocean here looked green rather than grey, and she stood on top of a gigantic cliff, watching waves crashing on the bottom on rocks and a long, sandy beach. So much beauty and power, and at that moment she had no doubt she’d made the right decision. The place was brimming with energy, and she could feel it flowing through her, the same fire in her and in the nature around her. She sat down, feeling the softness of the grass, hearing the lovely sound of the ocean.

  “Hey!” a voice called her.

  Saytera turned. A young man in a red jumpsuit was walking in her direction. He had messy brown hair and hazel eyes.

  She extended her hand. “I’m Saytera, the new recruit.”

  His eyes widened. “Oh. Right.” He smiled. “I’m Kay. Welcome to the end of the world.” He stared in her eyes.

  “Yeah, they’re mismatched.”

  Kay cocked his head and had a cute dimpled smile. “I think they match you.”

  Saytera didn’t know what to say, so she pointed to the ocean. “This place is beautiful.”

  “It’s amazing. We’re on the tip of a peninsula. Quite isolated, as you see. Come.”

  He walked back to the building and opened the door she had knocked on earlier just by turning its handle.

  “You don’t lock it?”

  “There’s people inside. And nobody comes here anyway.”

  Saytera nodded. “I see.”

  He led her to a winding staircase in the middle of the building and they climbed it. They came to a top room with controls and a window facing the ocean. A guy and a girl were kissing on a couch.

  “Hey,” Kay yelled.

  The two teenagers turned.

  “Manners,” Kay said. “This is our new teammate. Saytera.”

  The two waved. Saytera waved back. Kay pointed to the girl. “That’s Nara. She’s our fierce crab catcher.”

  The girl was a petite blonde with green eyes. “He’s kidding.”

  “That,” Kay pointed, “Is Saulo, our charmer. He’s also our best cook.”

  He had brown hair and blue eyes. Saulo laughed and said, “Welcome to paradise!”

  Kay got out and closed the door, then said softly. “These two will spend the whole day like that if we let them.” He descended one floor. “You’ll share a room with Larissa. She’s grumpy and doesn’t like me.” He pointed to a door. “It’s here.”

  The room had a window overlooking the ocean, and two beds, but nothing in it was clinical, cold, like in the academy. The beds were made of wood and they had colored quilts over them. There were two wooden chests and small bedside tables. It all looked lovely and warmed her heart.

  Kay looked at her hands. “Where are your things?”

  “I… didn’t bring anything.”

  “Wow, that’s freedom!”

  Saytera shrugged. “Maybe.”

  “Well, Larissa will give you your uniform. I’ll show you our weapons. There are always vultures and crabs, sometimes spiders. Some sea serpents sometimes come to the beach. You can never leave unarmed.”

  Saytera’s insides got cold, but she nodded. “Sure.” She noticed he wore a belt with two pistols, but had another question. “And do we have to wear the uniforms?”

  “Yeah, the eternal debate. I know, right? Red. It’s like saying ‘shoot me’. The idea is that if something happens our forces can identify us more easily. It also helps the villagers see that they’re protected.”

  “Is there a village nearby?”

  Kay laughed. “One hour from here. I know. Nobody will see. Still, Commander Stone said he’d leave us without supplies if he saw even one of us without uniforms. Not that they give us much, mind you. Still, we get used to them. Plus, not sure you noticed it, but there are no clothing stores around here.”

  “True.” Especially in Saytera’s case, who hadn’t brought anything. She was also trying to understand the hierarchy of the place. “So this Commander Stone is the one in charge.”

  “In t
heory. He supervises four bases. Rarely comes here. We’re on our own. We had a supervisor, but she left.”

  “I thought nobody could leave.”

  Kay waved a hand. “Nonsense. You can be transferred if you know who to ask and how to ask.”

  “They said at the academy—”

  “That this was a life sentence? I know. I wonder if they spread those rumors to avoid everyone coming here. You know, nothing to do, no supervision. We call it paradise.”

  Saytera smiled. “Looks like it.”

  “The tricky thing is just getting our food. Other than that, we’re free.”

  “We also need to supervise the anti-aerial-cannon, right?”

  “Yeah… sort of. It’s kind of automatic. Larissa will explain it all to you.” He smiled and held her hands. “I’m glad you’re here.”

  His smile was really nice with his cute dimples. Saytera felt relieved to be in the same base as someone friendly—not to mention good looking. Not that she was thinking anything. Maybe. Probably. Hopefully.

  A girl’s voice interrupted them. “Kay, calm down, will you? She just got here.” A tall girl with thick curly black hair approached them. “I’m Larissa. Come. I’ll show you the bedroom.”

  She pulled Saytera by the hand and closed the door.

  “Okay, so there’s only one rule here: stay away from Kay.”

  Weird. “Oh. That. I… He was just showing me the place.”

  Larissa shook her head. “He’s a flirt and a heartbreaker. We lost two sentinels. Two. They left. And I don’t want to lose you too.”

  “Well…” Saytera didn’t know what to say. The guy was cute and all, but she hadn’t thought of any of that. Finally, she smiled and said, “Thanks.”

  Larissa shrugged. “Well, yeah. I try. The last one got angry. She thought I was jealous or something. Frankly, he’s not even my type. Anyway. Watch out for Kay.” She then looked at Saytera up and down. “You need your uniforms, right?”

  They came to the hallway and Larissa pulled a package from a drawer. “It’s here. Two jumpsuits, one set for sleeping, one coat, a raincoat, some underwear, black boots. If anything happens to them, there are sewing supplies in the armor room, downstairs. You’ll only get new ones in a year, so be careful with them.”

  Saytera opened the package. The jumpsuit had no sleeves, and was made of an ever thicker material than the jumpsuit in the academy. Saytera had promised herself she’d be different this time, but the prospect of wearing that thing forever made her stomach churn.

  Larissa thankfully didn’t notice Saytera’s hesitation and said, “Let’s go downstairs.”

  They went to the ground floor, where the girl opened a sliding door. Behind it were some twenty different pistols. “Whenever you leave, take these with you.” She handed Saytera a belt, then one pistol. “This is a zapper.” She handed her another pistol. “This is a cracker. Use it wisely because our supplies are limited. But the other ones don’t work well against crabs.”

  Saytera nodded. She wasn’t going to tell her that she and pistols didn’t get along very well. Hopefully she’d never need to use one.

  “Go get in your uniform, then you can rest or walk around today. We don’t have a lot of stuff to do here, but we share the duties. I’ll set up your personal comm. Any questions?”

  “No. I’m fine. I’ll ask them as they come.”

  Saytera went to the bedroom and got out of her old clothes. In a way, it was good to get rid of them, as they brought her painful memories of Nowla, Vivian, and the life she’d left behind. Better not to dwell on that.

  At least the uniform wasn’t dull and grey, and she was happy to get in bright colors again. The main issue was having her legs constrained, tied. Perhaps she should have gotten used to it.

  Saytera looked out the window at the magnificent view. She had no clue what her destiny was, no idea if Yansin or any islander would ever come back to her, and no idea why some people wanted her dead and others wanted her alive. Maybe she would never know. Maybe she should stop trying to know. And she had to stop blaming herself for Nowla. She sighed.

  Here she was safe and isolated, and here she could start a new life. No more waiting, wondering, letting her life pass by. She was going to find a way to be happy and start over. Her life was here now. Here now. Maybe forever. She’d better find a way to get comfortable.

  Saytera ran downstairs and found Larissa walking out the door. “Wait.”

  “Yes?” the girl asked.

  “Can you show me the sewing supplies?”

  Adjusting the jumpsuit had been quicker than Saytera had predicted. She put it on, glad to have some freedom on her legs. She left the bedroom and went downstairs to ask Larissa more questions.

  Larissa nodded when she saw her, then stopped. “What happened to the pants?”

  “I just turned the bottom into a skirt. Pants suffocate my… uh, yeah, they’re suffocating and bothersome.”

  The girl was still staring.

  Saytera shrugged. “The rules state we need to wear these things. They also state we can adjust them. There. And I’m happy now.”

  Larissa shook her head. “The worst that can happen is we won’t have ammunition for a week if Commander Stone sees you and doesn’t like it, but I guess we’ll survive.”

  “Well, I hate pants and I’m not gonna spend the rest of my life wearing them. We’re in the middle of nowhere anyway.”

  Larissa snorted. “I guess.” Then she lowered her voice. “I hope you’re not doing this to impress Kay.”

  Saytera exhaled. “Right. I base my life decisions on what guys think of me.” Perhaps Larissa was jealous. “Plus, I’m not going to fight for a guy. You can have him.”

  “Not my type!” she protested. “I’m just watching out for you.”

  Five Days. That was how long Dess would need to wait to speak with Leader Aziz. Meanwhile, people were dying and they were the only team left going to Mainland. It probably meant they’d need to go back to collecting water and fish again.

  Dess looked outside his window at Sapphirlune city, now illuminated by their system star, days and days without night.

  Marcus put his hand on his shoulder. “Hey, it happens. It happens. It’s a war. They’re soldiers.”

  “Sophie and Tara weren’t soldiers.”

  Marcus sighed. “They knew they were doing something dangerous. It had been their choice.”

  “Choice? Against what? Working in the mines?”

  “Dess, you can’t change the world. I mean, maybe a little. If we want to change things we have to win this war, and we’re helping, aren’t we? Who knows, it might make a difference a month from now, when they renegotiate the truce.”

  Dess closed his eyes. “I know.”

  Their bell rang. Marcus went to the door. Dess was about to go to his room when he noticed that it wasn’t only Sylvia, but Sylvia and Nadia, leader Aziz’s daughter. She was also the daughter of Mr. Tarell, the current head of Staralloy—the company that used to belong to Dess’s parents. It was annoying to have her in his home. The girls sat at a table in the kitchen and Dess ignored them.

  He walked to Marcus. “Can I have a word?”

  They entered Dess’s bedroom.

  “What’s she doing here?” Dess asked.

  “She’s Sylvia’s friend.”

  “Great. Now we’re going to host parties. I mean, it’s my apartment as well. I could at least have been warned.”

  Marcus shook his head. “I didn’t know she was coming. What am I going to do? Kick her out?”

  Dess shrugged. “You three can go somewhere else, perhaps.”

  “You know Sylvia and I can’t—”

  “Be seen in public. Yeah, I get it. You have no problem with that, good for you. I have a problem with that. I don’t want visitors who’ll pretend they don’t know me.”

  “She’s the leader’s daughter, Dess. Seriously, you should just relax. Maybe she can help us.”

  “You don’t get i
t, do you? What if she’s interested? I say no; I’m screwed. I say yes; I’m screwed.”

  Marcus rolled his eyes. “In what world is the second possibility something bad?”

  “Her mother.”

  “Chill. Maybe she was just bored and wanted to go somewhere with her friend. The world doesn’t revolve around you. And maybe this is your chance to get an audience with leader Aziz”

  Dess didn’t like it. The timing was too convenient. Sill, he decided to go to the kitchen. Sylvia had brought a bottle of firewater.

  Dess sat down. “Celebrating? Two of our colleagues died today. Fun, right?”

  Marcus glared at him.

  Nadia said, “I’m so sorry, Dess, so sorry for your colleagues.”

  “Sorry for me, right? Our moon didn’t lose shit. They’ll just replace them.”

  The two girls looked at each other.

  Sylvia said, “It was something we wanted to talk to you about. We don’t like the way things are done either.”

  Dess nodded. “Indeed. And it’s super sad, right? Cause it’s not like you two have access to anyone in command, or can even talk to the council leader.”

  Nadia stared at him. “I want to talk to my mother, but I need to know what to say. That’s one reason I’m here.”

  “Well, ask her to give me an audience earlier. It’s not like we can wait forever. We need to train people to go there. Decently.”

  Nadia nodded. “Yes, and you could do it, right?”

  He hadn’t been thinking of taking charge of the training in person, but it wasn’t a terrible idea. “I guess.”

  “It could be a way to restore your position. We could give you the leadership of that branch.”

  Dess glanced at Marcus. “You mean us both.”

  Nadia had a half smile. “Sure.”

  Dess got up. “Great, then. I’ll be waiting.”

  “Hey,” Marcus said. “Have a drink at least.”