Midnight Horizon by Daniel José Older

Author:Daniel José Older [Older, Daniel José]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Novela, Ciencia ficción, Fantástico
Publisher: ePubLibre
Published: 2022-02-01T00:00:00+00:00

Reath had only ever seen Crufeela wearing an elegant gown of blue and gold, so he wondered, as he sat on an extremely puffy and uncomfortable lounge chair in the lobby of the Hotel Feather, whether he’d even recognize her in whatever her normal going-about-life outfit was. Blue and gold were the official planetary colors of Corellia, and Crufeela was nothing if not all about Corellia. The one time Reath had seen her, in fact, it had been on the holos when she performed at some corny galactic talent show—some high-pitched, unfortunate jingo called “Corellia for Corellians,” if he remembered right. Yes! She’d made a big deal about how she wrote it for the victims of some natural disaster that had happened there, but then it turned out the song was actually forty years old and written by an Alderaanian as a joke. To make matters worse, it also turned out that it hadn’t been Crufeela singing at all—it was some teenager from Naboo who’d gotten scammed trying to make it big on the holos and had her voice recording delivered to an already big name for use in the competition.

And all that was after the whole endangered papdoo scandal. In fact, that talent show bit was supposed to be her big comeback from the papdoo thing. Reath looked around anxiously. He was still dressed in the black outfit of the Scarlet Skulls, and even with the face paint washed off, he felt ridiculous. The Jedi robes were home; nothing could compare. He took a drink of water. He was annoyed at himself for even knowing that much about pop-culture silliness, but some of the other Padawans were more tuned in than he was, and he couldn’t help overhearing their idle chatter while he tried to study.

“Ah, you are … Dizcaro’s man?” a timid voice said, shoving Reath out of his rambling thoughts. He looked up and then almost spat out the water he’d forgotten he was sipping.

“Ah, yes!” he said, standing quickly. “Are you ready to go?”

Turned out, he needn’t have worried whether or not he’d be able to recognize Crufeela in her regular outfit, because Crufeela apparently didn’t own a regular outfit. She stood before him in the glittering blue-and-gold gown she’d worn at the talent show. The only difference was, now she had a tiny blue-and-gold purse to go along with it. Maybe she didn’t have any other outfits, Reath thought. Crufeela had light green skin, with slight silver lines running over it that Reath hadn’t noticed in the holos. A plume of colorful feathers rose from the top of her otherwise bald head.

“Of course,” she said, with a nervous glance around. She couldn’t be worried about being recognized, not wearing that thing. They headed through the lobby, Reath ignoring all the curious gazes.

“Make a right out the door,” Smeemarm ordered through the earpiece she’d given Reath before vanishing down a utility hole. (“There’s an off chance Crufeela will recognize me,” the Arcona had explained, her head poking out of the ground.

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