Free Among the Nameless Stars by Diana Peterfreund Page B

they reached a shabby gathering of mud huts. Kai collapsed off the side of the mule. Before him, in the dust, squatted a girl about his age. She was wearing a shapeless gray sack and nursing the scrawniest baby he’d ever seen. There were a few other children around, all skinny as sticks and covered in dirt.
    “What’s this, Teb?” she asked his savior. “We don’t need no more bellies ’round here.”
    “He writes,” Teb mumbled as he took the rest of the packages off the mule.
    The girl raised her eyebrows. “For real? Get Jin.” She motioned toward one of the dusty children. “Get this man some water, now, you hear me?”
    Kai gratefully accepted the water, and tried to keep his eyes averted from the girl’s bare breasts. She finished feeding the baby, handed it off to one of the other children, and covered herself up. Then she sat back in the dirt, watching him warily.
    “How do you know writing?” she asked. “You Luddite?”
    “No,” Kai croaked. “I’m Post. My da taught me—”
    The girl nodded in understanding. “Ah, your da’s Luddite.”

    Among the Nameless Stars by Diana Peterfreund
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    Kai didn’t have the energy to disagree with her. The girl seemed to take such relationships for granted, but Kai had ever known only one Luddite who loved a Post. And in the end, love hadn’t been enough for Elliot.
    “I’m from the North Estate, originally,” Kai offered.
    She blinked at him.
    “It’s north of here, beyond the ruins. By the sea.”
    “Must be bad there, for you to leave.”
    Kai looked around, at the huts, at the bare, rocky earth with no gardens or even grass for the children to play on, at the skinny, illiterate people living here, and said nothing.
    Teb returned, bringing with him a woman Kai thought at first must be ancient, due to her weathered face and white hair, but when she came closer, he realized that beneath the creases and the dirt, she was probably closer to forty.
    “You Kai? You read?” This must be the promised Jin. She thrust a packet of paper into his hands. “Read this.”
    Every one of these odd, dusty Posts had stopped what they were doing and were staring at him. He shifted slightly, and his leg cried out in agony.
    “I’ll read it,” he said slowly. “But if I do, you have to help me. I hurt my leg and can’t walk. I need a healer.”
    “I can fix you,” said Jin. “But I can’t read. Please, we’ve had the letter for a month. It’s about my son.” She pointed at the words. “That’s him. S-I-D.”
    The envelope was labeled: To Jin, mother of Sid, Miner Estate, Fire Fields.
    Kai unfolded the envelope and scanned the letter. He looked up at the woman. “You want me to read this out loud? Here?”

    Among the Nameless Stars by Diana Peterfreund
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    The woman’s face turned to stone, as if she knew already what the letter contained. “Please,”
    she whispered. So Kai read:

    Dear Madam,
    My name is Bess, and I’m a Post in Channel City. Your son Sid and me worked together on the docks, Sid mostly digging, me cleaning fish when I couldn’t get any scribe work.
    I am sorry to inform you, but last night, Sid was killed in a fight with a Post named Pen. Pen is a very powerful man here in the enclave. He has a lot of workers of his own, Post though he may be, and he don’t take kindly to refusals. Sid and me, we refused him.
    I’m so sorry to deliver such bad news, madam, but I’m sorrier still for what I write next. Pen is still after me, and I don’t have anyone here to protect me from him, so I’m going back home. My old estate is in the South Island, at a place called Mountain Pass. It’s not horrible there, and I know at least I’ll be safe. I don’t think there’s much of a chance that you or any of Sid’s people will ever be down that far, but if you are, and if everything goes well, you’ll have a grandchild at Mountain Pass Estate. If it’s a boy, I’ll name him Sid.
    Fare well,
    Bess

    Jin nodded brusquely and took