Free Star Catcher by Kimber Vale Page A

flapping the little metal wings as he gazed around at the dilapidated shacks nearby.
    “Where are the people?”
    “No one’s lived here for ages. It was a mining town that must have been deserted once the gold or silver ran out.”
    “Gold or silver?”
    “Gold.” Stella held up the floating heart necklace her mother had given her for her sixteenth birthday. “You know, the precious metal that’s worth a lot of money?”
    Noth held the small pendant between his thumb and forefinger, leaning in close enough so that Stella could feel his breath on her cleavage.
    “Yes. I know this metal. We have this one.”
    “Of course you do.” Stella took a sip of her wine. “Did you try this yet?”
    Noth made a face to answer the question.
    “Well, at least I don’t have to worry about you having a drinking problem,” she said with a chuckle. They finished their light meal, and Stella re-corked the bottle and packed her bag. If she’d had any thought of a romantic make-out session while they were out, the creepy crumbling foundations had killed the mood and made her anxious to get back on her horse. She was glad Noth was here with her. They walked back to their tethered rides, and Stella glanced in the yawning doorway of a one-room building with a collapsed roof. Mounds of rusty tin cans spilled from the opening and filled the dark space beyond in piles higher than her waist.
    “Let’s get out of here. This place is so weird!”
    Noth wrapped a reassuring arm around her shoulders, and she sank against him with a sigh. With him nearby, the ghosts couldn’t touch her.
    *
    Noth rode alongside Stella. These creatures they had borrowed were noble. They reminded him of the yalps back on Artanos, only smaller and with fewer eyes. His black horse wanted to move faster, and Noth had difficulty concentrating on Stella’s words with the beast constantly begging for more slack on his rein.
    He would have liked to give it to him, but Noth wasn’t confident he could hold on if Goliath broke into a hard run.
    They took a different route back to the ranch, and Noth considered Stella’s revelation about the element she called gold. Had he realized it could be used for commerce, it could have saved the surrogacy planning commission much work. Instead, they had spent time and effort to acquire a sample of the American paper money and then duplicated the bills to fund Noth’s stay. What a waste.
    A dry lake bed followed along the path, cracked and dotted with spikey plants. Stella pointed it out on her map.
    “I wonder how long ago that dried up,” she mused. “I can’t imagine a lake right here, can you?”
    “No.” It was hard to picture a huge body of water in the spot, especially on such a warm day. Noth was thankful for the head-shield Stella had provided. The setting sun still made him squint as they rode toward it.
    “Look! A painted rock!” Stella pointed to a boulder with faded red lines slashed across the surface.
    “Is that writing?” Noth asked.
    “Yeah. Native American writing.”
    “American? You are American. Why is it different from yours?”
    “I’m sure you’ve heard of American Indians, right?”
    Noth shook his head.
    “I guess it’s pretty narcissistic of me to assume they teach U.S. history over there. Realistically, except for all that cold war stuff, I guess we don’t learn much about you guys either.”
    Noth waited for her to explain. Stella sighed.
    “The Indians were the first people to live in our country. Then people came over from Europe. Mostly Spain, France, and England. The new settlers drove the natives off their land. They killed or cheated them, and infected them with deadly diseases. There are still some Native American groups in this country, but most of them were displaced from their original land.” She gave a sad shake of her head.
    “They did that to their own kind?” Noth was surprised. Artanians had made interplanetary war, but had no history of large-scale battles