Page 13 of The Last Hope

We’ll need to tie him up somehow.

Knock him out. And then we can go.

He steps near, his fingers to his nose, and he squints like his eyes sting from the putrid smell.

“Stop!” I shout and raise the tip of the rod to his throat. Not letting him get far. Not without answers. My pulse thumps in my ears, and I bark, “Show us your identification.”

His mouth quirks with a short laugh. “You’ve got to be shitting me.”

I cringe at that gross-sounding phrase. “What?”

Mykal glowers and pushes forward like a hunter on attack. “What’d you just say to her?”

Court clasps his shoulder to calm him.

“Take it back,” Mykal warns. “Take it back right now.”

Bludrader stands still but searches the brig with his eyes alone. “It’s a harmless expression—where are your clothes?”

In a heap near the cot.

I wave the rod at his gaze. Capturing his attention. What feels like eons ago, I held an iron poker at a stranger’s throat.

That stranger turned out to be Court Icecastle.

That stranger became one of my greatest friends.

But I can’t sense Bludrader’s lies from truths and truths from lies. Right now I can’t take a chance on someone who could trick us.

“You’re not touchinganyof our belongings,” I say. “We don’t know who you are. You could be a thief, a stalker, someone who wants us dead—”

“A murderer,” he adds. The word is completely foreign.

Mykal frowns.

Court shivers behind me, and I try not to tremble. “Say that again,” I demand. “With the definition.”

Bludrader tilts his head, his earring swaying. “Murderer.A person who kills another person. Also known as a killer. Saltarians cannot be murdered, but you three can be.”

His speech leaves me feeling defenseless and bare. If I had a choice, I wouldn’t be human. I’d know my deathday and remind him that I won’t die for another so-and-so years.

I lift my chin. “You could be a murderer, come here to murder us,” I retort, trying to appear as indestructible as I once did, and I push the tip of the rod at his throat.

He doesn’t stiffen. Doesn’t balk or recoil. “I’m the guy who’s going to get you off this bloody ship.”

What?

Our confusion escalates at his odd words. Court keeps shaking his head, not understanding.

“What’s a ship?” I ask.

Bludrader stares more keenly at the rod. “It’s what you call a starcraft.”

“What’s the meaning of aguy?” Court questions.

“A man…” He almost rolls his eyes in thought. “A boy.”

“All right man-boy,” Mykal says gruffly, not fond of this person. “Step aside and we’ll be on our way without you accompanying us.”