Page 70 of Last of Her Name

“I what?”

“When he talks about you, his pulse goes nuclear. Your being here is even worse. You’re bad for his blood pressure.”

“I’mwhat?”

Damai ruthlessly pushes me out of the infirmary door.

“My patients come first,” she says. “I must see to his well-being.”

With that, she shuts the door in my face, tessellating it slightly so it sinks into the floor. My efforts to push on it get me nowhere. That’s the tensor version of a lock, I guess.

“I amnotbad for his blood pressure!” I yell through the stone. “What does that even mean?”

No answer. She’s probably in there studying Pol’s exquisite bone structure with her long, clever fingers. Well, see if I care. I kick the door, then yelp at the splinter of pain that shoots through my foot.

“Whoa,” says a voice behind me, and I jump, startled. “While I appreciate the irony of breaking one’s foot on the infirmary door, surely there are less destructive forms of self-expression?”

I turn to see Riyan standing there, eyes amused. “For the last time,pleasestop sneaking up on me like that!”

His lips quirk, a grin he’s trying to suppress. “Sorry. Is there trouble here?”

“She locked me out!”

He nods knowingly. “You’ve met Damai.”

“Who does she think she is, not letting me see Pol? Who knows what’s going on in there! She could be hurting him or poisoning him or … or worse.”

Riyan’s eyebrows arch up. “Worse?”

“Nothing. Forget it.” I shake my head, looking at him closer. “I thought you’d be locked up or something. Aren’t you a criminal here?”

“They know I won’t run. I’ll face my trial with honor, or what honor I have left.”

“You only went to search for your sister. Anyone would’ve done the same for their sibling.”

“Not anyone. Damai didn’t.”

“Damai …” I blink. “She’s your sister too?”

He sighs again, looking suddenly weary. “I have eight of them.”

“Eight!”

“Come,” he says. “I’ll talk to Damai later about letting you in. Meanwhile, we’re wanted below. The Lord Tensor wishes to meet you.”

“The Lord Tensor? As in, your people’s leader?”

Riyan nods.

My stomach sinks to the floor. “Sounds fun.”

We walk through passages that remind me a bit of the Loyalist asteroid base, but back there the walls had been rough-cut and raw, while the tensors’ structure is so smooth I can see my reflection in the dark stone. When we walk through an open atrium that looks out to the snowy forest, I come to a stop and look out. The trees look dusted with flour, while the mountains to the side are harsh angles of stone and ice. For all its forbidding climate, Diamin is undeniably beautiful.

“Such a strange and lonely place,” I say softly. “Why here? Why settle so far away from the rest of the Belt? Aren’t the tensors originally from Alexandrine?”

“We didn’t have a choice. Our abilities made us pariahs on Alexandrine, so we fled here and the people of Diamin gave us asylum.” He stares out at the white landscape, his eyes distant. “Some of the native Diaminicans assimilated into our culture, but the full-blooded ones died out long ago. Radiation hampered their fertility rates. Our tradition of granting unconditional asylum to outcasts is done in their memory.”

“Really? I never knew much about the tensors,” I admit. “And I think most of what I did know was … um, a bit untrue.”