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failing. Aluna burst the illusion that everything was okay. But he couldn’t tell Odd that. He settled on: “The world changed, and we either had to change with it, or die.”
    “They still alive?” Odd asked. “Your family, I mean.”
    Hoku’s gut clenched like a fist. He wanted to say, “Of course they are,” but . . . were they? He’d never really thought about it before. He’d always just assumed they were fine, that they were still working and eating clams and taking care of Grandma Nani. But what if they weren’t?
    Odd’s meaty hand landed on his shoulder, heavy as dead fish, but the Upgrader said nothing.
    A cheer went up behind them as the lumbering rhinebra suddenly bolted into a jog. Dash stood on its head and held its reins, looking as comfortable as if he were standing on flat ground.
    Odd whooped. “Get your feet moving, you great globby kludge! Let’s put some meters between us and them gutless Gizmos behind us.”
    Hoku patted Sunbeam’s sweaty neck and glanced back at Aluna and Calli. Pocket walked next to them and seemed to be plying them with questions. Vachir could certainly handle such a small Upgrader on her own if Pocket decided to start trouble, but Hoku didn’t want to take any chances. He pulled on Sunbeam’s reins and sat back, slowing the horse down so he could join his “cargo.”
    “I wasn’t messing with them,” Pocket said as Hoku approached. “I was just seeing if they needed anything.”
    Hoku looked sharply at Calli and saw her trying to suppress a smile.
    “They’re prisoners,” Hoku said. “You don’t have to be nice to them.”
    Aluna grunted and scowled, and if Hoku hadn’t known she was acting, he’d probably have kicked Sunbeam and gone back to walking with Odd.
    “Well, they’re still people, too,” Pocket said. “They got wings and scales and they come from places we can’t even go, but they were like us once.”
    “They’re nothing like you,” Hoku said, then corrected himself. “They’re nothing like us, I mean. We’re tougher and more dangerous and we’re going to rule the world.”
    Bizarrely, Pocket laughed. “I’d trade my horns for wings,” the boy said. “I’d probably trade my pockets, too.”
    Calli’s chin raised proudly.
    “Never met a bird-woman before. Or a fish-woman,” Pocket said. He stared up at Calli. “Can you tell me what it’s like to fly?”
    Hoku could see Calli warming up to the boy, and it wasn’t good. Not if they wanted to keep their cover.
    Calli began, “It’s the most —”
    “Be quiet,” Aluna said gruffly. “We won’t talk to the people who are turning us over to Karl Strand.”
    “Oh, right,” Calli said brightly. Too brightly. She twisted her face into an adorable scowl. “The mermaid is right. We won’t talk to you.”
    Pocket’s shoulders hunched. He seemed to fold in on himself. “Wouldn’t be my choice,” he said softly. “I don’t get to choose.”
    “Come on,” Hoku said. “Let’s leave the prisoners alone before . . . before I have to hit one of them.” He cringed at the idea, but Pocket didn’t seem to notice. The boy followed him meekly.
    In the back of the kludge, Mags called out, “Twenty!”
    Pocket picked up the pace of his walking. He was still young, his head barely up to Sunbeam’s shoulders.
    “Does twenty mean there are twenty people coming to attack us, or that they’re twenty minutes away?” Hoku asked him.
    “Does it matter?” Pocket answered. “Have to fight them no matter what. Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide.”
    Hoku frowned. “Is there any chance they want to talk, or are simply passing through on the same route?”
    “No,” Pocket said. “They would have announced themselves already, like you did, if they wanted to talk. If they were passing by, they would have done the same. Maybe stayed a night at our fire to swap stories and goods. No, they’ve been sizing us up, counting our blades. They think they can take our tech and our beast