Steel Tree by Sarena Ulibarri

Author:Sarena Ulibarri [Sarena Ulibarri]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Android Press
Published: 2023-11-05T00:00:00+00:00

Klara awoke with a foul taste in her mouth, a crick in her neck, and an overwhelming sense of dread at the realization that all the rats and fairies and hidden histories were not, in fact, an elaborate dream. She’d fallen asleep on Dross’s couch. The bunched-up velvet of her party dress left creases in the skin of her arms and legs. She smoothed out the fabric, noticing stains and tears collected during the previous night’s adventures.

When her parents were still on Eta, the day after the Silber House party was always a day of hard work, removing decorations and cleaning up the remnants of the festivities. Klara was used to hard work, whether in the fields and orchards, in the factory, or scrubbing the floors of the house. But this morning, waking up alone, in the aftermath of the party’s disruption and the revelation of the fairies’ plight, the amount of work ahead of her was a mountain she couldn’t imagine climbing. She pressed a pillow to her face and fell over onto the couch, wishing she could hide in sleep a little while longer.

“Fritz went home,” Dross said.

“Thank goodness,” Klara said, voice muffled by the pillow. She removed the obstruction and sat up. “I spent more time with him yesterday than I have my entire life. Which is not an experience I’d like to make a regular habit of.”

Dross sat in a chair across from her, sipping at a steaming mug. “Then I’m sorry to say he’s asked that you meet him at the factory later this morning. Plum went with him.”

Klara groaned, but this was good news. “He’s fixing the nutcrackers he tampered with?”

Dross nodded.

“I should get out there, then.”

Klara stood, but before she could take a single step, Dross held out a bundle to her, which her bleary morning eyes eventually interpreted to be a fresh set of work clothes.

“After breakfast,” he said with a kind smile.

Klara changed out of her party dress and then joined Dross in a kitchen that was much smaller than the one in Silber House. She ravaged the jams and breads and fruits he’d set out—not a single Pirlipat nut to be seen in any of them, she noted with relief. It would have been a lovely breakfast if not for the thumps and mewls coming from the giant rat trapped in the pantry. Finally, feeling stronger, and slightly less overwhelmed, Klara and Dross trekked together over to the Silber House processing plant.

Fritz had the nutcrackers all lined up like a platoon, and he was in no more mood to talk to Klara than she to him. While he and Dross tinkered with the androids, she went to the intercom, choosing the one on the second floor that had the fewest sticky buttons and scratches on the lens.

With the “Emergency Recall” tag, she sent a message to every other intercom on Eta, requesting everyone immediately return to the plant whatever allotment of Pirlipat nuts they had taken from the harvest. Then

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