Salvage by Alexandra Duncan Page B

girl.” His pale blue eyes are filled with hate. “Now you’re nothing.”
    I stumble back and trip over my own skirt, coming down hard on my elbow. I scrabble to my feet. I am alone, near naked, and without my kinsmen’s protection. I see my father disappearing through the small latchdoor, his men retreating after him. One of them turns. Jerej, doing me the small mercy of waiting.
    I cast a last look at Luck. He stares back, his features cracked with blood and heartbreak. He cannot save himself, much less me. What will his crewe do to him? It will be worse than Æther Ready’s fate, certain sure. It will be the airlock, like his father said, or worse.
    I have no choice. I hurry after Jerej. The Æther men turn away as I push through them to my brother.
    â€œJerej . . .” I say when I reach the latchdoor.
    He pivots and sweeps out of the captain’s quarters. I follow, running as best I can.
    â€œJerej.”
    His boots clap the floor. He doesn’t answer.
    â€œPlease, wait for me!” My voice pitches down the curve of the corridor, and I hate the way it sounds. All panicked and girlish high as it echoes back. Jerej steps up his pace. Tears sting my eyes like chemical burn and dread lodges in my throat. “Please . . .”
    I can feel the threads between Luck and me snapping with every step. I trip, skin my palms and knees, pick myself up again, and push myself after Jerej. He doesn’t stop, even when I fall. A sharp bend in the hallway swallows him up.
    â€œWait!”
    I round the corner and stop short.
    â€œJerej.” My father looks at me. For a moment I think he’s going to speak to me, and I would welcome it, even if his words hit me like a slap. But he speaks for my brother. “Take that back to the ship. We’ll collect the women and meet you there.”
    â€œFather . . .” I say.
    He turns away and gestures for his men to follow. Jerej grips my shoulder and pushes me in the opposite direction, to the exit bay. I don’t fight as he yanks me along the corridor, down the ramp. The close, once-safe walls of the Æther give way to the high, open bay. The weight of the station’s gravity drops on me once more. The concourse stands near empty now the station is observing night. Dim blue light from the few open shops falls over the grit and dung and wasted bits of food and paper littering the broad midway floor. A thin scum of debris sticks to the soles of my feet as Jerej herds me along. I cling to him, even though his grip hurts my arm.
    â€œJerej,” I whisper. “Please, I didn’t know.”
    I pull back to slow him down. Maybe if I talk, I can keep him from locking me up in the Parastrata , I think wildly. Maybe he’ll take me back to the Æther. Maybe it’s not too late to unpick this snarl and ravel everything back right .
    â€œI know I did wrong.” My voice shakes. “But I would never have done it if I hadn’t thought it was Luck you meant to bind me to. I swear, Jerej.”
    He glances at me but doesn’t slow his pace.
    â€œIf you would speak to Father for me.” I wipe at my eyes. Doesn’t he remember us as smallones together? Watching my mother in the midst of the storm? The times he dropped his beancake at supper and I gave him my own? Shouldn’t that matter now? “Please, so brother . . .”
    â€œI’m none of your brother.” Jerej stops and glares at me. “My sister Ava is dead. And you, you’re naught but some bad matter left over. Don’t you see what you’ve done?” Jerej stands close to me, too close, and his words are soft with menace. “Two decaturns of trade with the Æthers, gone to vapor because of you.”
    â€œI didn’t know,” I say. “How was I to know . . .”
    â€œYou weren’t,” Jerej says. “You were supposed to keep your legs together and do as you