Or rather, lent. I don't own a thing in the world, Maia thought, recalling the betrayal of Thalia and Kiel, that naked sprint through the streets of Grange Head, and her plummet into the icy bay. And my best, maybe only, friend on Stratos is a stranger who knows even less than I do.
The thought would have made her laugh bitterly, if she had energy to spare. Maia fought a losing battle just to keep her eyes open.
"That's all right," Renna commented. "Sleep. I'll stay right here."
She shook her head. "How long …"
"You were out most of three days. Had to drain half a liter of water out of you, when they dragged you aboard."
So much for those swimming lessons the mothers paid for, she thought. Laps in the Port Sanger municipal pool had prepared her for real-life trials about as well as the rest of Lamatia's much-vaunted summerling education.
"You've been here all the time?" Maia questioned Renna through an enveloping languor. He dismissed it with an offhand wave. "Had to go to the can once or twice, and . . . oh! I held onto something for you. Thought you might want it when you woke."
Maia could barely focus on the glitter of brass as he slipped a small object, cool and rounded, between her hand and the coverlet. My sextant! she realized happily. It was just a silly, half-broken tool, of little utility. Yet it meant so much to have something familiar. Something allied to memories. Something that was hers. Tears welled in her eyes.
"Hey, hey," Renna soothed. "Just rest now. I'll be here."
Maia wanted to protest that no one had to keep watch over her, but she lacked the will to speak. Part of her felt it was untrue.
Renna gently placed his hand over the one holding the sextant. His touch was warm, his calluses more evenly spread than Naroin's coarse ridges. They must have come from more subtle labors, or perhaps even deliberate exercise; though, as she drifted off, Maia found herself wondering why anyone would ever lift a finger she or he didn't have to. Better, it seemed, simply to lie in bed forever.
"What are you going to do, make me lie in bed forever?" Maia pounded the covers with both fists, causing the doctor to pull away the stethoscope. "Now, don't get all worked up. I just said you should take it easy awhile. You're young an' strong, though. Get up whenever you like."
"Eia!" Maia shouted, throwing the covers aside and bounding onto the wooden deck. Too quickly. She felt a rush of dizziness, but refused to let it show. "Anybody have some clothes to lend me? I'll work off the debt first thing."
"You don't owe anybody," Kiel said from the foot of the bed. "We'll make up what was in the package we left for you, at the hotel. Clothes and some money. It's yours, free and clear."
"I don't want your charity," Maia snapped.
Standing across the small cabin, by the door, Thalia frowned unhappily. "Now don't be mad, Maia. We only—"
"Who's mad?" Maia interrupted, clenching a fist. "I understand why you did it. You've got big-time, political uses for Renna, and figured I'd just get in the way. Even though I'm a var like you."
Thalia and Kiel looked pained, and relieved that Renna had stepped outside during the examination. "We're engaged in dangerous business," Kiel tried to explain.
"Too dangerous for me, but okay for Renna?"
"It's probably a lot safer for the alien to come with us, than simply handing him over to the PES in Grange Head. There are … factions in Caria City. Factions that don't have sweet plans for our Outsider."
Maia found that believable. "And you rads don't have plans, I take it?"
"Of course we do. We want to make a better world. But the peripatetic's goals aren't incompatible with our—"
The physician closed his bag with, a loud snap. His authoritative glare must have been learned at Health Scholarium. "S'cuse me for interruptin', ladies, but did you say something about gettin' this poor girl some clothes?"
Medicine was one rare track of higher education in which gender hardly mattered. Some excellent practitioners were men, who seldom let the innate mood swings of their sex interfere with professionalism. Thalia nodded quickly, at once the attentive and compliant var. "Yes, Doctor. I'll get 'em now."
At the door she turned back. "Meanwhile, don't you run around naked on deck, Maia! Not a good habit in the big cities we're headed to!" She giggled at her own wit and departed. Maia briefly glimpsed Renna pacing outside. He looked relieved when Thalia gave thumbs-up while closing the door.
"The youngster is undernourished," the physician went on telling Kiel, while regarding Maia over the rims of his glasses. Maia crossed her arms and lifted her chin while he clucked disapprovingly over her thinness. "I'll tell Cook double rations for a week. You make sure she eats every bite."
