Among the Nameless Stars

his gaze drop to the oil still smeared on Kai’s knuckles. “That’s not what I heard.”
    Kai remained silent. The man rocked back on his heels.
    “I heard the gimp working here’s a mechanic. Pretty good one, too. Not … lazy at all. And that’s what I like to see in my workers. I’m down on the docks. Some of my people seen you coming and going. Got a room down there?”
    Carolina let out a strangled squeak, but Kai saw the trap for what it was. There was no point lying to this man. He already knew everything. Lying was only going to make this situation worse.
    “Yes I do. And I am a mechanic, of sorts.”
    “Want a better job?”
    Kai stared into Pen’s mean little eyes and remembered Bess’s letter to Jin.

    He has a lot of workers of his own, Post though he may be, and he don’t take kindly to refusals. Sid and me, we refused him.

    “What kind of job?”
    “A job with me. I’ll pay whatever Bart here’s been giving you.”
    “Then what is the benefit of me moving?”

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    Pen’s voice dropped low, and he stretched out his neck toward Kai. “The benefit, boy, would be you’re working for me .”
    Kai highly doubted that would be a better situation. “I’ll have to think about it.”
    “No you don’t,” Pen said with a shrug. “I made you a better offer.”
    Same money—if he was telling the truth about that, which Kai doubted—and working for a bully and a murderer?
    “I like where I am.”
    Pen stared at him, long and hard, like he was used to staring folks down. But Kai refused to look away, and at last Pen snorted again, and turned to go.
    “Not for long, you won’t.”

    Oh, Elliot, what am I going to do?
    I knew things would change. I didn’t know how soon. Two days later, I came home to find my few belongings thrown out in the street. The money and food I’d been storing up? Gone. I know. I shouldn’t have been so naive as to think it would have been safe in my room, but I was much more worried about being robbed on the street. The enclaves can be a dangerous place.
    My landlord wouldn’t tell me why he kicked me out, but the rates for my room have tripled.
    At least, the rates he’d let me rent them for. I spent the night in the streets, and the next morning, when I went into work, Bartholomew said he had to let me go.

    “Why?” Kai asked.

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    The tailor wouldn’t meet Kai’s gaze. He stood at the door, eyes downcast. Inside the shop, Kai could see the others watching him, eyes wide and wary. “You know why.”
    “Pen?” Kai kicked at the stoop with his bum leg. “I’m not afraid of him.”
    Now Bartholomew did raise his head. “I am. I know what he can do. What he has done. I got no choice. I’m sorry, son, I really am, but you’re going to end up there sooner or later, so it might as well be sooner. I tried my best, but I got family to look after.”
    Kai clenched his jaw. He hadn’t traveled all this way to be forced to work for another bully who thought people were his pawns to move around at will.
    “That estate you come from,” Bartholomew said. “Was it very bad there?”
    “No,” Kai admitted. He hadn’t known how very not-bad it had been until he saw the state of affairs in the fire fields.
    “Maybe you ought to go back.”

    I’m not going back, Elliot. First of all, I don’t know how I could even get back on this leg.
    Navigating the fire fields once was bad enough, and I was healthy through most of it.
    But more than that —there has to be another way. I can’t go back now. I can’t look you in the eyes and let you know I’ve failed. I’d rather work for Pen. I’d rather I died in the fire fields.
    Well, maybe not that. At least I’ve seen Channel City, had my own room, held my own money. At least I’ve had those things. And I can’t give up now. I won’t!
    Sometimes I wish you were here so I could ask for your advice. But then I think about poor Sid, and Bess, and their baby, and I realize it’s better you’re not here. You’re safe at home, where a man like Pen will never be able to touch you.

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    I had so many dreams, Elliot, and you knew all of them. If they die here—if Pen kills them—it will be a comfort to know that they’re still alive somewhere up north. That they’re still alive in you.
    Yours,
    Kai

    Among the Nameless Stars by Diana Peterfreund
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