Release(66)

“You awake?” he asked.

“No,” she said. She was sure she’d fall asleep in another minute.

“Transman’s got it bad for that girl he brought along with him.”

Did this matter? “I thought you said you thought he liked men.”

“Well, he doesn’t.”

“Okay,” she said, burrowing deeper into his warmth. “Well, that’s lovely then.” She yawned.

“Apparently, she was raped by Risciter. He said he doesn’t know how to pursue her now. I didn’t know what to say to him.”

Winda sat up in bed. “Raped?”

“Yeah, I guess I should have figured. He said he saved her from the duke.”

“You didn’t tell me that.” He was an idiot, her husband. Sometimes, he was a complete idiot.

“Yeah, I did,” he said. “Anyway, do you have any advice? I mean, after the thing with your sister, maybe?”

But Winda was already getting out of bed and throwing on her dressing gown.

“Where are you going?” Gordic asked.

“My sister couldn’t sleep alone for weeks afterwards,” said Winda. “And we left Ariana alone in that room hours ago. I’ve got to go check on her.” She rushed through the space station to the guest rooms.

* * *

When the door to her bedroom slowly opened, Ariana let out a little yelp.

“Sorry,” said a female voice. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I only wanted to come by and make sure you were all right.”

It was Winda, Gordic’s husband. Ariana didn’t move from the bed. “I’m fine,” she managed.

“Were you sleeping? Did I wake you?”

Ariana wasn’t sure what she should say. “No, I was awake.” She didn’t want to explain that she’d been paralyzed by fear, unable to do anything but replay what had happened to her in her brain.

“Do you want some company? Should I turn on the light?”

“Um, sure.” Actually, that would be nice. Maybe she wouldn’t feel so trapped by all of this.

As light bathed the room, Ariana found she could move. She sat up in bed. The light made her feel a little foolish. Everything seemed better already.

Winda sat down on the bed next to her. “Listen, Keirth told Gordic what Risciter did to you, and Gordic told me.”

“What?!” How dare Keirth do something like that? She didn’t even know these people? Ariana felt hot embarrassment creep up her body and over her face.

“I know,” said Winda. “That’s terribly embarrassing. You don’t want everyone to know. But Gordic and I are friends, and we don’t judge you for it and think less of you at all. It wasn’t your fault, you know.”

Ariana did know. She’d been robbed of having a fault by Risciter. She’d had no choice. She refused to look at Winda.

“When I was sixteen,” Winda said, “my older sister Emeil went to a bar one night. She and I grew up on Trill with our father. Anyway, she came home late, and my father was livid until he saw her. She wouldn’t talk about it for hours, and when we finally got her to tell us what happened, my father was so angry, he left the house with his blaster rifle to try to hunt down the man that did it to her. He found him. He killed him.”

Ariana looked at Winda with horrified eyes.

Winda nodded. “It was terrible. They arrested him, and so I was left at home with my sister, who’d been raped and was completely traumatized by it. My father didn’t end up serving much time after his trial, but I couldn’t get him out of the jail myself, not before the trial. So I did my best to comfort Emeil. She hated the dark. And she hated being alone. And when Gordic told me what happened, and I thought that I’d left you alone in this room, in the dark, I just couldn’t—”

Ariana put her hand on Winda’s. “Thank you. I was...I was scared.”

Winda wiped tears out of her eyes.”You don’t have to talk about it.”

“It seems like it’s getting worse,” Ariana said. “Right afterwards, I thought I was fine. I couldn’t remember it very well. And Risciter was only... He only did it for a few seconds before Keirth stopped him. But now, more and more of it keeps coming back to me, and I feel like I can’t think about anything else.”

“Of course, you can’t,” said Winda. “You don’t have to sleep in here if you don’t want. You and I could sleep in the living room. Or if you want me to get Keirth—”

“I don’t want you to go to any trouble for me,” said Ariana. “I’ll be fine. Risciter’s dead.” She thought of his dead, mangled body. “He can’t hurt me again.” If she could keep the light on, maybe she could chase it all away. She couldn’t spend the rest of her life afraid, could she? “It wasn’t as bad for me as it was for your sister. It was only a minute. It was less than...” But Ariana found herself suddenly dissolving into tears.