The jacket goes back on, and he lays his shirt out on the other side of the fire to dry before retrieving the blanket from the ground. He wraps this around me, and I don’t even care anymore about its coarseness—it’s warm despite being damp, and though all I can feel right now is the chill of my own body radiating back at me, I know in a few moments I’ll be better. My eyes follow Tarver as he goes through the motions of setting up camp, jerky and quick. It’s not until he’s got the canteen set to boil over the fire that he joins me, ducking abruptly inside my cocoon of blankets and wrapping an arm around me before I can react.
The fire’s still too young to give off much heat, hissing unhappily at the drops that squeeze past the sheltering trees overhead. After a time I stop shivering, but he keeps his arm around me nonetheless. There are no voices to be heard above the popping fire and the splat of raindrops on the canopy above, and in a rush my sleepless nights catch up to me with all the force of a mag-lev train. I ought to disentangle myself from Tarver, go to sleep properly on my own. I ought to wait for dinner to boil. I ought to let him rest without having to take care of me.
But I’m warm now, and for once there’s no one calling to me in words I can’t understand, and for reasons I don’t care to examine, the thought of pushing Tarver Merendsen’s arms away makes my stomach twist unhappily. And so I stay still, and let my head drop onto his shoulder, and if he minds the way my wet hair drips on him, he says nothing, and lets me sleep.
“You told us that Miss LaRoux suffered some minor head injuries as a result of the crash.”
“That’s right.”
“There were no side effects? She was able to travel without difficulty?”
“I’d like to see you hike across a planet in a ball gown and the type of shoes those girls wear. I don’t think I’d say the walk was without difficulty.”
“It’s a relevant question, Major Merendsen.”
“And?”
“And I’d be obliged if you’d answer it.”
“I’m not aware of any difficulties she had that were a result of the knock to her head.”
“What about you?”
“It was a walk in the park. What do you think?”
NINETEEN
TARVER
SHE WAKES EARLY, this girl who probably used to sleep until noon and lie abed until three. I roll over into the warm spot she leaves behind, eyes closed, but I can feel her watching me. She pushes away the dirt I used to bank the fire, stirring up the coals. Warmth flickers against my face as she builds the fire up again with the kindling I gathered last night.
Moving slowly, probably stiff and sore from our drowning dash last night, she crouches down beside me and rests a hand on my shoulder. When I crack open an eyelid to peer up at her, she looks tired. Both her eyes are marked underneath with dark smears of blue and purple, and one is still marbled black and yellow as her magnificent black eye starts to fade. She’s pale, with new freckles from the sun overhead standing out like punctuation on a page.
But she’s captivating too, maybe more than she was before, with the tale of our survival written on her features.
“I’m going to get us some water.” Her whisper’s barely audible—she wants to let me sleep. “I won’t be long.”
I clear my throat a little, and she takes that as a sign that I’ve heard her. I wonder for a moment if I should let her go alone, but she’s not the girl who crashed with me. She’ll be careful.
I didn’t see any paw prints while I was gathering the kindling last night. I don’t think there’s anything big living around here. It’s an isolated clump of trees by the bank of the river, surrounded by open plains. A predator wouldn’t make the trip this far, or be able to live on what could survive here.
As I watch her through my lashes, she straightens and turns away, and I let myself drift again. Apparently I’m not going to be punished for the fact that she woke up wrapped around me. The cold shoulder would have been worth it, but it seems she’s accepted our sleeping arrangements as a necessary evil. Sleep reaches for me, and I let it take me for a little longer.
When I wake, I have no sense of how much time has passed—seconds or minutes, or longer. The thing in orbit around the planet has set, which means at least an hour or two has passed since dawn, but how long ago did Lilac leave?
The air’s so damp that my shirt still hasn’t dried. I give up trying to avoid smelling like smoke, though I know she’ll wrinkle her nose at it, and hold the shirt directly above the fire. When she gets back with the water, I’ll try hot soup for breakfast. Some of the plants that tested okay should add some flavor, and we’ve still got leftover chunks of the latest small, scampery thing. I don’t know what to make of its elongated snout, or the oversized ears. It’s like a parody of the small fauna I usually see on terraformed planets.
Then Lilac comes crashing back through the undergrowth like somebody told her there’s a shoe sale going on here at the campsite. It honestly doesn’t occur to me that something might actually be wrong until I get a look at her face.
She’s white, breath ragged and hair tangled. Her eyes are huge, and the knees of the mechanic’s suit are covered in mud—she’s fallen on her way back.
Part of me wants to drop my shirt and reach for her, but my hands know better, and first they’re setting it aside where it can’t catch fire, then reaching for the Gleidel.