Seventeen
Scarlet was piloting the podship. She could not recall how long she had been flying it, or where she had been before, or how she had ended up behind these controls. But she knew very well why she was there.
Because she wanted to be.
Because she needed to be.
If she did well, she would be rewarded. The thought made her feel joyful. Eager. Willing.
And so she flew fast. She flew steady. She allowed the little ship to become an extension of her. Her hands gripping the controls, her fingers dancing over the instruments. She had never flown so well, not since the day her grandmother had begun teaching her in the delivery ship around the farm. How the ship had warbled under her unskilled hands. How it rocked and sank, its landing gear brushing against the just-tilled dirt, then miraculously drifted back up toward the sky as her grandmother’s patient voice talked her through the steps …
The memory disappeared as fast as it had come, snapping her back into the podship, and she could not remember what she had just been thinking. She could only think of this flight. This moment. This responsibility.
She paid no heed to the stars blurring out in all directions. She gave no thought to the planet falling farther and farther behind her.
In the ship’s backseat, the woman was hissing and cursing as she tended to her wound. She was upset, and this alone bothered Scarlet, because she wanted the woman to be pleased.
Eventually, the angry muttering died down and then the woman was talking. Scarlet’s heart fluttered, until she realized that it was not to her that the woman was speaking. Rather, she had sent out a comm. She heard two words that sent a bolt of panic through her—Your Majesty.
She was talking to the queen herself.
It occurred to Scarlet that this knowledge should terrify her, but she couldn’t recall why. Rather, she felt embarrassed to be listening in. It wasn’t her place to be curious. She tried to ignore the conversation, allowing her mind to muddle and wander. Inside her head, she recited childhood rhymes that she hadn’t thought of in years.
It mostly worked. Only when a name broached her consciousness did curiosity overcome her.
Linh Cinder.
“No, I could not capture her. I was overpowered. I am sorry, Your Majesty. I have failed you. Yes, I have already sent the last-known coordinates of the ship to the royal guard. I was able to capture a hostage, Your Majesty. One of her accomplices. Perhaps she has information on where Linh Cinder might go next, or what her plan could be. I know it isn’t good enough, Your Majesty. I will make this up to you, Your Majesty. I will find her.”
The conversation ended and Scarlet’s ears burned at having eavesdropped. She was ashamed. She deserved punishment.
In an attempt to make up for her delinquency, she refocused on her task. Flying as smooth and fast as any pilot had ever flown. She thought only of how she must fly well. She thought only of how she must make her mistress proud of her.
She felt no awe as she approached the great, crater-filled Luna with its gleaming white surface and sparkling domed cities.
Cities that were home to countless strangers.
Cities that had been his home, once …
She flinched at the intrusive thought. She did not know what it meant. She could not remember who he was.
But this was where he came from …
She suppressed the voice out of nervous panic that her mistress would sense her confusion. She did not want that. There was no confusion.
She knew precisely where she wanted to be. Precisely who she wished to be serving.
Scarlet felt no fear as the moon dwarfed the tiny ship, expanded until it was all she could see through the glass.
She paid no attention to the hot tears as they crept down her cheeks and dripped soundlessly into her lap.