“You still don’t remember?” She shook her head, and Marcus was relieved all over again. Just as she didn’t remember the nightmare of Talas, she’d been spared the ordeal of Baikonur. Back at the Cosmodrome, hidden in their ramshackle hangar, Nurassyl had come to their rescue. When things got bad and the beasts were howling around them and the villagers themselves began to lose their minds, he’d urged them to all hold hands, or tentacles, or flippers, or whatever. Once they were all connected, he opened his power to them, letting it flow from one person to the next until they were all soothed by it, letting them forget. He’d dropped them into a sleep so deep that none of the turmoil outside the hangar woke them. He’d gone with them, and thus they’d slumbered through a dream of forgetting as the world raged around them.

Afterward, Nurassyl had offered that same forgetting to any who wanted. Many did. Refugees and soldiers. Nat and ace and jokers alike, Kazakh and Russian soldiers, even a few Committee members. All of them, in their own way and for their own reasons, saw Nurassyl for the wonder that he was and deigned to ask for his healing touch. Marcus had been sorely tempted himself, but he chose to keep the memories. As much as he would’ve liked to forget, he knew he needed to remember: both the horror of the other dimension and the beauty of seeing this one return. And he’d promised to remember for Olena, to tell her everything so that she’d know, but wouldn’t have to live with the firsthand horror of it. Hopefully, she’d never have nightmares like Marcus was sure he would. No post-traumatic stress for her. And if she was sane, he stood that much better a chance of staying sane himself.

“Yes,” Olena said, “but you haven’t told me about my father. And this.” She held up her hand, the one with the coin imbedded in it. She wore a snug-fitting cyclist’s glove over it. Mollie had got it for her. Bought it legal-like and everything, she’d assured them.

“We’ve got a few long flights ahead of us. Let’s save it for there.”

“When we’re up above the world and all the things of it look tiny?”

Marcus liked the sound of that. “Yeah.”

“Let’s go, then,” she said.

“You’re really coming with me?”

She nodded her head. Leaning toward him, she tipped herself up on her toes and kissed him. “I always said I wanted to, didn’t I? First time I met you I said it. I knew. Now you know, too.”