She came with me, abandoning the organized chaos of the com center. Didn't even ask for a debrief.

  Trusted me, like I should have trusted her.

  My domicile felt suddenly small, the air close. Just panic, I told myself, and pulled back the curtain like a poor stage magician, exposing the hatchling.

  "So this is what you've been hiding," Riina said.

  She didn't sound surprised. The hatchling kept on sleeping, his soft, wet snores coming with almost unnatural regularity, like the pulses of a neutron star.

  "You knew," I said.

  "I knew you had something," Riina said with a soft smile, making her look even more grandmotherly. "Not a dog, because it didn't need walking, and not a sheep or chicken, because it ate meat. Why do you hide it? A lizard makes a good pet for you."

  A lizard. The hatchling could pass as a lizard. For a second, I was tempted to lie. But that was the old me, the one who'd left my charge locked-up in my cabin, waiting for me to return.

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  If I hadn't...

  No, she needed the truth. We both did. For now, and for the future.

  "He's not a lizard," I said. "He's a void wyrm hatchling."

  It didn't make the impact I had expected, merely a deepening of the wrinkles on Riina's forehead, a small drawing together of her eyebrows. If I'd have found out that there was a live void wyrm mere meters away from me, I'd have reacted more strongly.

  Like by screaming and running.

  "Really?" Riina said, squatting down, her hand above his scales, not quite daring to touch.

  "You can scratch him," I said. "He likes to be scratched between the wing stubs, and behind the ears. Don't scratch beneath his chin, he might nibble you. But Riina, he's a void wyrm."

  "I know what a void wyrm is," Riina said. "And what it would mean if news got out that we have one."

  I felt an intense relief, unshed tears gathering in the corners of my eyes. And this time I realized why.

  Because Riina was like family, and the Belithain and all the Kylians on board meant a home, and I felt safe leaving the hatchling there.

  It was a strange feeling. I hadn't felt safe in a long time.

  "Will you take care of him?" I said. "If at one time I don't come back?"

  Riina patted me on the arm.

  "You will come back," she said, in her sing-song voice. "I know you will, or I wouldn't send you out."

  It felt good, that comfort, but comfort wasn't what I needed.

  "Will you?" I said.

  "Yes," Riina replied.

  A single word, and all the promise I needed. Because home was where the people you trusted were, and the Belithain was home.