Lapis peeked into the darkened tech room; no one else was inside, though lights blinked around the khentauree heads hooked up to whirring machines. With tiptoes, she slipped to the blanketed table upon which Tuft rested, the hallway light gently illuminating him. He had not moved since Sanna and Jhor placed him there, nor had he regained his crystalline hair and tail and the dangling earrings. The ones she gave him remained in his ears, blinking in the soft light.
“Tuft,” she whispered.
No response. Not that she expected one, but she had hoped.
“Thank you for helping us,” she continued. “We couldn’t have gotten down the mountain without you. I’m sorry you were hurt.” She slipped her right hand beneath his freezing one—strange, as the room was as warm as a Midyear day, to keep his sponoil from coagulating—and leaned close. “I don’t know what I can do to help, but you saved my brother. You made certain we all survived.” A tear coursed down her cheek, and she wiped it on her right shoulder; she did not dare touch her throbbing left one. “I owe you a favor, a big one. That’s the Grey and Stone Streets way of exchange, one thing for another. Only I don’t think I can equal what you gave, but I’ll try.”
She squeezed his fingers, the numbness of the last few days cracking. Seeing him motionless, knowing he put himself in harm’s way because he helped her rescue Faelan when he could have remained in Jiy, pulled apart the tight knots she had wrapped around her worry and sorrow. She wiped her face again, though she knew it was a useless gesture.
Her chest clenched, her breath hitched, and she ground her teeth, fighting the whirlpool of desperation and anguish. Tuft was not gone. Not yet. Not until Ghost said so.
“Please come back. The rats have promised to throw a party for you at the Eaves, and that’s something you don’t want to miss.” She rubbed the backs of his fingers with her thumb. “Midir wants me and Patch to be chasers for the Wolf Collaborate. We’ll be going all over Theyndora, completing missions. If you’re up to it, you should come. You’ll get to see a bunch of new places, experience new things. I guess you can’t eat the food, but they’ll have interesting jewelry.”
A bang in the hallway shocked her from her sadness. Withdrawing her fingers, she smiled, more in self-ridicule than anything.
“Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that. I wanted you to know how much I appreciate what you did. You sacrificed yourself so people you didn’t know could walk free. You don’t like humans much, but you helped them anyway. When we first met, I didn’t think you were that kind of being, but I was wrong. You just don’t like evil people. I understand that, maybe too well.”
She looked at the door, then back at the still form. Was it silly, to talk to a machine like that? When khentauree turned off, they were off, and by all accounts, Tuft was no longer active.
Wiping at her cheeks, she padded softly to the hallway. He may not be able to hear her, but she would visit and talk to him anyway. She owed him much more than that, but for now, that was enough.
