“Perhaps,” Boo agreed. “But no stranger than only having two arms.”

Leo snorted. It was the closest he’d come to laughing in days. “Right. No stranger than having horns sticking out of your head.”

“No stranger than having no hair on your chest,” Boo teased.

“I’m only thirteen,” Leo said. “It could still happen.” Though he hoped to never have as much as the Queleti, whose chest was a carpet. “At least I don’t wear a bathrobe everywhere I go.”

“It’s not a bathrobe. Queleti don’t bathe. We groom.”

Leo scrunched his nose. That could explain the smell Boo was starting to give off.

“Here’s something else I find strange,” Boo continued. “An Aykari that wants to get rid of ventasium. I always thought V meant everything to them.”

“Except he’s not one of them anymore,” Leo said. “He’s an exile. An outcast. Like you.”

Boo grunted, clearly not pleased with the comparison. “He is not like me. My people would never invade a planet and leave it like this. He may be an exile, but he is still Aykari. We can never forget where we came from, even if we are not allowed to go back.”

Or ever get the chance, Leo thought.

Up ahead he could make out the edge of a village now. The hollow black eyes of empty windows. The jagged edges of broken walls. Two Orin were scurrying up to meet them, dressed in their loose garments, hands clasped in some unfamiliar greeting. Face-to-face, Leo could see that their pupils took up nearly half of their eyes and their teeth comprised more than one row. One of the Orin had twice as much facial hair as the other; Leo assumed that meant it was the male—though he realized he probably shouldn’t make assumptions. They took a look at Nine, clearly recognizing the robot, then turned their attention back at Leo.

“Lark?” the hairier one said, cocking his head to the side.

“Sorry. Lark couldn’t make it,” Leo said, shaking his head. “No Lark.”

The Orin looked confused for a moment, then pointed up at Leo. “Lark,” he proclaimed.

“Okay, sure. Whatever.”

The Orin made a sound—something that sounded like Shree—and pointed to his companion; then he pointed to himself and said, “Rint.”

“He’s Boo,” Leo said, nodding toward the Queleti. “And I’m Leo. Lee-oh.”

“Lark,” Rint insisted.

“Right. Lark. Let’s go.”

The Orin beckoned the two newly christened Larks and their robot tagalongs to follow, circling the outskirts of the village. Occasionally the aliens glanced back over their shoulders, but only to make sure Leo and the others were keeping up. Somehow, even after everything they’d been through, the Orin still found a way to trust outsiders. Maybe that was Crayt’s doing. In helping them to rebuild he’d shown them that not all Aykari were alike, and that not all outsiders unleashed ghosts. You might not be able to forget where you came from, but that didn’t mean you couldn’t change.

“Do you think they even know?” Leo whispered to Boo as they followed. “What the Aykari took from them?”