I collapsed against the dirt, defeated. So close and yet so far.

I heard a clicking, whirring sound.

With my fading vision, I looked up into the face of one of the droid supervisors, her machine at her side. “You’re the ones we’re meant to pick up?”

I managed to nod.

“Shit,” she muttered, and then she hauled us up by the shoulders and dragged us toward the ship, the droid assisting her. I watched our legs trail through the dirt. She kept under the cover of trees, looking around nervously. I didn’t have the breath to tell her that she didn’t need to bother, that Mana-ma had already found us and let us go, at least for now.

She put us in the ship and closed the hatch behind us. All sound cut off, and we were in a hallway. Everything was made of metal. I’d never seen that before. Looking up, we could see the metal crosshatches, the boots of people walking past and the wheels of droids.

“I’ll get the medic,” our savior said, and took off at a jog. All fell silent and then I heard the low roar of the engine. I hadn’t expected it to echo all around us, from all directions at once. And I could tell when it left the ground.

“We’re flying!” I whispered to Taema. But she couldn’t respond.

I slumped on the floor, my arms around her, tears running down my face. “Please,” I kept gasping. “Please.” I actually prayed. Prayed to a God. Not Mana-ma’s. My own idea of a God, one who wasn’t a total asshole.

A group of people came running down the metal hallway. About five or six, their footsteps and voices echoing all around me. I was barely conscious. For a moment, when the unfamiliar faces peered down at us, I wondered if they were going to toss us out like so much junk. But my first experience with those from the outside world after we’d actually left the Hearth was kindness.

They’d never seen conjoined twins, and they looked at us with a mixture of awe and fear. They touched us gently, as if afraid they’d break us. I was almost all gone by then, but I still remember those soft fingers laying us down in the sick bay. I could see a gray fog with vague shapes and hear distorted sounds, but that’s it.

A mask was put over my face and I could breathe better. My vision cleared, but I still felt so very weak. I wrapped my arms around Taema and closed my eyes, pressing my face against her neck.

The last thought I had before I fell unconscious was that I really, really didn’t want us to die. Not when we were so close to that big, wide world out there.

28. Taema

TWENTY-EIGHT

TAEMA

Something is wrong.