Themis by Suki Selborne

Author:Suki Selborne [Selborne, Suki]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Matrioshka Books
Published: 2019-07-09T16:00:00+00:00

10 Coralie

We walk through the forest together, admiring the way the sunlight falls through the deep blue leaves. It’s kind of a weak sun, but Themis tells me that just means it’s filtered through cloud cover. It’s warm so it can’t be farther away than our own sun is from Earth.

I still can’t believe I’m here, on another planet. It’s like a dream. One day, I was taking my first ever trip into space, expecting to go home the same day. Now, I’m walking the surface of a planet I’d never heard of, in a solar system I didn’t know existed, with a guy who’s in an alien royal family.

Yeah. I have to be dreaming.

I pinch the back of my hand to check, and then have to rub it better because ouch, that hurt. It’s going to leave a bruise.

Themis is distracted and doesn’t notice. I can tell he’s still worried about that visual of his brother. The screen just switched on while I was in the room. I don’t know what it meant, but it was kind of strange.

No wonder he’s concerned. I would be too, if it was my brother. I mean, if I had any brothers or sisters.

We turn a corner around a thick blue tree trunk, and find ourselves in a little clearing full of paler blue bushes. They’re laden with some kind of small round fruit, deep pink with pale pink stems.

“Hey, what’s this?”

Themis leans down to look more closely. “Looks a lot like the zamberries that grow on Quolvio at the end of the summer.” He picks one and rolls it around in his hand. “It’s not quite the same. But it’s probably edible.”

I look at him, eyes wide with trepidation. “You’re sure?”

He pops it in his mouth before I can object. “Mm. Yes, it’s very sweet. Tastes a lot like a zamberry. Not identical but close enough.” He pulls off a handful and passes them to me.

Should I risk it? Maybe it will poison me. Maybe Quolvians are immune to the poison, but humans aren’t.

I torture myself with “what if?” a while longer. Then I just think screw it and eat the damn berries.

Themis is right. They’re delicious. Sort of like grapes, only sweeter and with more of a brown sugar flavor. I grab myself a second handful and savor them.

“This is sort of an okay planet,” I say, when I’ve finished my berries. “I mean, there are probably worse places you could crash land onto.”

“You’re right.” Themis looks into the distance. There are worlds behind his eyes that I can never know about.

“You’re thinking about your brother again, aren’t you?”

He smiles briefly. “It’s that obvious?”

“It’s natural for you to be a little on edge about this whole thing. We don’t know what’s happening.”

“I just wish I knew where he was. Is his ship damaged? Did he land in that sandy place deliberately? Or was it an unexpected diversion, like ours? If he’s near here, we could rescue him on our way back to Quolvio.

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