‘That fucker did what?’ Vesper snarled.
Anna flinched.
‘Dainn tried to sedate her, then bit her, and Anna has a wound on her shoulder,’ I said calmly. ‘Dainn’s head is now on the floor, separate to his body.’
Vesper was quiet a moment. ‘If I ever get out of this chain, Prince,’ he said, his voice eerily calm, ‘be prepared to wear a matching scar.’
‘Are you always so exceptionally unhelpful?’ I snapped. ‘Your feelings don’t matter. We need to stop her bleeding.’
I heard him exhale. I didn’t think that starlings strictly needed to breathe, but Vesper had taken on several organic qualities in the time he’d worn the humanoid body. I wondered if it was changing his personality as well as his mannerisms.
‘Anna, brightness, let them stop your bleeding. I’m sorry I got angry. They’re going to stop the bleeding, then they’re going to bring you back here, aren’t you, Prince?’
I gave a hasty nod as Anna’s eyes focused on me. ‘We’ll take you straight back, Anna, I promise.’
‘He promises, lodestar. They’ll stop your bleeding, then bring you back. Let them see.’
Anna turned her back to us without saying a word. She pressed the wrist screen to her cheek as Vesper continued to murmur to her, too low for us to hear.
Now that she was still, her shoulder looked worse than before, shining and mangled, her skin messily torn. Callan loosed a deep, rumbling growl at the sight of it, his eyes jet with anger.
‘Cal,’ I snapped. ‘Stop her bleeding.’
Callan approached her slowly. She shuddered when he gently mopped the blood from her skin – it had slowed its flow – and then whimpered when he pressed more bandage to the wound. The sound pulled at something deep inside me; I forced myself to stay still, not to go to her, not to touch her. Her fresh scent had turned cloying with fear; I put my hand to my face, trying to block it out before it made me lose control.
Callan had said that he couldn’t take her back to Earth, that he needed to keep her. I understood why, now; forcing myself to stay still was one of the hardest things I’d ever done. Every instinct roared to do the opposite, my chest aching with the need to take her and hide her and care for her, as if it was what I was made for.
Callan kept the bandage pressed in place until her strange red blood soaked through, then reached to gently remove the needle from her shoulder. The vial was full; it looked as if Anna’s struggling had prevented Dainn from injecting the sedative within it. My pilot handed the needle to me, and I threw it immediately into the waste chute; a moment later, he gave me the sodden bandage, which followed the sedative, and pressed a clean bandage to Anna’s back.
The clinic screen flashed. I went to it, frowning; a comms channel was open. I went still as I realised.
‘Dainn was contacting my father,’ I said blankly. He hadn’t managed to send anything – no text, no recording, no voice message – but I closed the channel and searched his recent files anyway, just to make sure. I looked across at Callan.Why would he contact my father now?‘Cal, do you think –’
Callan looked down at Anna, then back at me. ‘Put yourself in Dainn’s position, Prince. Remember the King’s orders. And remember who Dainn is – was – loyal to.’
My father, my father, my father.
Dainn was going to give Anna to my father.
I didn’t speak, just stood, listening to Vesper mutter expletives over Callan’s wrist screen, and tried not to think about what might have happened had Dainn been successful.
‘I think it’s stopped,’ Callan said softly, after he’d discarded three more bandages.
I nodded tersely. ‘Take her back to the cell. Let Vesper look after her, then take her some extra bedding, whatever water Bryn has distilled, and whatever food you can make.’
‘Don’t you want to see her settled?’ Callan asked gently.
I twisted my lips. ‘I need to clean up here and throw the garbage out the airlock.’
Callan put his hand on my arm. ‘Cide. Let me do that.’
‘I killed him.’ I took a deep breath. ‘I killed my father’s friend, my mentor, and our only medic. It’s my responsibility.’
‘You don’t have to do it by yourself.’
I brought my hand up and let it rest on his, just for a moment. ‘I do, Cal. Look after Anna. I’ll do the rest.’
His lips twisted, but he scooped Anna up carefully, making sure to keep his hands well away from her wound. Anna lay her cheek on his chest.
