Page 4 of Last of Her Name

I sigh. “Look, Pol. If there’s trouble, I’ll drop Clio at home and come straight back. Feel better?” Before he can answer, I put Elki into a trot. Clio yelps and wraps her arms around my waist to keep from being thrown off. We leave Pol standing in the middle of the road, holding Tinka’s reins.

He’ll probably change all the door codes while we’re gone, just for spite. I’ll have to bang on the window to be let in.

“What if he’s right?” Clio murmurs in my ear. “What if it’s trouble?”

“Then at least something exciting will finally be happening around here.”

“He’s only trying to look out for us.”

“You’re just saying that because you’ve been in love with him since you were eight.”

“So?”

“So, you can do better than Pol, is all I’m saying,” I grumble. “Someone who uses less oil in his hair, for starters.”

“I like it.” She leans forward, resting her chin on my shoulder, the way we used to ride as children. “Why haven’tyouever had a go at him? You two already bicker like you’ve been married twenty years.”

I sit up as if I got a jolt from the security fence. “Are you insane? He’s—he’s— Bleeding stars, Clio, when we were toddlers our parents let usbathetogether!”

“Oh?” Clio tugs my ponytail. “Is that why your face is red? Picturing Pol in the bath?”

I growl at her. “It’s because I’m furious that you’d evensuggestit.”

“Well, that’s good to hear, because I’ve got dibs.”

“Fine! Marry him and have all his little babies. I don’t care.”

Clio laughs. “And what about our plans? Our little starship we’re going to fix up and roam the galaxy in? You and me against the universe.”

“No boys allowed,” I add emphatically, but I feel a tug of sadness.

As much as Pol is like an irritating brother, Clio is … not a friend. The word isn’t big enough for her. Clio is my sister, my balancing force. As bound to me as the twin moons of Amethyne are to each other, caught in eternal orbit. It’s been that way since we were four years old. Where I end, she begins. Her parents died in the revolution sixteen years ago, and ever since, she’s been practically a member of our family.

“You and me against the universe,” I murmur, half to myself.

Clio’s hands wrap around my middle and hug me tight. “No matter what.”

It’s a half hour ride to Afka, following the dirt road that snakes out of the hills down to the valley. Our vineyard overlooks the town; from my bedroom window I can see most of it, tucked into the green hills. Beyond the town, the slinke forest tangles over the lowlands.

As the sun sinks, the sky deepens into heavy shades of violet and red. I never grow tired of that, the way the light stains the world in the late afternoon, as if the whole place has been doused in my father’s best wines. With the smell of the grapes ripe in the air, it’s almost perfect.

Almost.

Thereisthe problem of the rattling hum that now reaches my ears, coming from behind. I turn and look past Clio to see my family’s dory come skimming along the road. Hovering a few inches off the ground, it moves at a swift pace, noiseless pads glowing along its underbelly.

“Dad!” I shout, pulling Elki to the side of the road.

My father slows the dory until it hovers beside us with a soft hum. The top is open to the air, and there Dad stands at the controls—with Pol at his side and Pol’s father, Spiros. The old vineyard manager, my father’s best friend, is a bigger version of Pol, but his black curls are threaded with silver.

“Stacia!” Dad hits a button, releasing a small metal stair that lowers to the road. “Get up here. Hurry!”

“We’re just going to Afka to—”

“No, you’re coming home with us.Now.”

“But—”

“Stacia! For once, Ineedyou to listen to me!”