Page 31 of Skinwalker's Bane
Magorian thrust himself to his feet. “Thatis the crux, isn’t it? No one knows what is going to happen in the future, when we thought it was all very straight forward. Fly for a thousand years, stop and settle down. Now, we can’t even begin to guess how our futures may go. We can only speculate. Hopefully, we can shepherd the speculation so it isn’t as wild as it has been. Thank you everyone. Figure out a time and date for the big-think and we’ll provide the facilities.”
He nodded and left the room, as everyone else got to their feet.
Devin rose, disappointed that the meeting was over, yet at the same time, relieved. An unusual sense of excitement was making her shake. In a very small way, she had helped change the direction of the meeting and the people working for the good of theEndurance.
Many of the people murmured goodbye to her as they left and for a minute she was busy acknowledging the farewells.
Haydn Forney was standing close to Noa, the Institute general director. They were talking quietly. With a jolt, Devin realized they were partners, as well as colleagues, just as Lizette and Dennis were. How many other couples were in this group? She glanced around. No one was obviously together the way Noa and Haydn were.
Devin’s gaze drew back to the pair at the end of the table. As she looked, Haydn rested his hand against Noa’s cheek. His thumb stroked her cheekbone. The look on his face was one of such tenderness that Devin turned away, almost embarrassed for having witnessed it.
Her chest ached in a hollow way she had never felt before. The soft and warm feelings the two had let her glimpse were completely missing in her own life, which was so devoid of feelings, that a hug from Bishan came as a surprise.
Suddenly, Devin wanted that warmth in her own life. She had never missed it before. Now she wanted it in a way that hurt.
When the pair had gone, Devin moved stiffly to the door and out into the admin office. The people working at the desks glanced up but paid her no special attention. As there was nothing to keep her here, for even Magorian had disappeared, she made her way back to the Bridge gate. That involved several detours and asking for directions, until another Guard escorted her to the gate.
As she walked along the Colinas, her stride lengthened and her muscles relaxed, the tightness in her chest easing with the exercise. Why was she focusing on something so small when the meeting had been such a rousing success? Bishan would be over the moon about her contribution to the meeting. She should tell him straight away. He would probably expect her to do that the moment she left the Bridge.
As she emerged from the Colinas Gate, Devin swerved toward bank of public terminals built into the wall, right by the start of the tankball arena building. She should connect with Bishan and arrange for a post-mortem deconstruction, to analyze everyone she had met. She had worked to memorize the names.
Instead of punching out Bishan’s code, Devin instead found herself pulling up the short note from Adam Wary and hitting “reply”. He had sent it from a private code, so it would be safe to use it to reach out to him. She wrote quickly.
The Rock House, Palatine.Stop by after your shift, any time. Want to tell you about Captain and the shard. –D.
She sent it before she had time to consider the wisdom of what she was doing, then shut down the terminal and walked swiftly toward the Port Corner and her office, hugging her arms around her middle and trying not to think about what she had just done.
It was impossible, of course.Allshe could think of was that she had invited the man she had sworn she would never speak to again to her private residence. To talk.
Chapter Eight
It was impossible to work after that. Devin tried. The coming evening was hanging over her, stealing her thoughts, making her worry that she was being a complete fool. Because of her guilt and her excitement, she deliberately failed to contact Bishan. He would spot in a moment that she was writhing about something, then would drag it out of her and she really didn’t want his lecture about appearances again. Not today.
If she didn’t call, though, he would come to find out what happened on the Bridge.
So she packed up her desk, told Nichola she would work from home for the rest of the day, made her way back down the length of the ship to the hub, then caught a taxiboat home.
Her house was in daylight when she got there, with the sun directly overhead, so the warmth baked into her bones. She held her face up to the glow, enjoying it. She could feel kinks and knots unravelling, just standing there. The Rock House was one of three that had been built on top of the Table, a nearly two-hundred-foot high plateau built out of rocks and soil that had been deliberately heaped up to raise the level closer to the daylights. It had created a warmer landscape for some of the biomass that needed dry, hot conditions to flourish. In summer, as it was now, the heat from the daylights was enervating to some. Devin had fallen in love with the house on first sightbecauseof the heat. Heat had been missing from her childhood.
She glanced at the nightline as she got out of the boat. Night was about an hour away.
Inside, the house was cool and airy, thanks to cold ceramic tiles underfoot and thick white stone walls. As soon as the nightline arrived, she would throw open all the windows and listen to the cicadas. There was not a better sound to be heard anywhere on the ship. It was the sound of peace and contentment.
Except when the nightline passed over and dark fell about the house, Devin didn’t feel the usual relaxation wash over her. She couldn’t settle on the chair and the story she tried to watch didn’t hold her attention. She got to her feet and wandered barefoot over the tiles in the dark. There was no point raising the light level. She knew where every piece of furniture was and the glow from the daylight side of the rotunda shed enough light to let her see her way around.
She walked, trying to order her thoughts and failing miserably.
When the taxiboat grounded on the dirt beyond the yard, she jumped. Then she hurried to the open door and looked out.
Adam Wary was climbing slowly from the boat, glancing around, a frown between his brows.
“Adam,” she called softly.
He tilted his head. “Then the driver did get the right place. I wasn’t sure. There are no lights.”
Devin palmed the control panel next to the door, bringing up the exterior lights, just enough for Adam to see his way through the ‘garden’.
He looked around as he walked the path. “It’s all boulders,” he said. “Green boulders.”
