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away.” Kai straightened, wincing slightly. His leg was better now, the limp not quite so noticeable, but Pen’s healer had warned him it might never vanish completely. At the time, Among the Nameless Stars by Diana Peterfreund
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    Kai had shrugged the diagnosis off. What did it matter if Pen’s pet mechanic had a permanent limp?
    Behind Pen, a bunch of workers were hauling in a large speedboat on a wheeled trailer. As it neared, Kai gave a silent groan. He had no idea where Pen had unearthed the antique piece of junk, but he knew precisely who would be expected to restore it to pristine condition.
    Next to Pen, Bess stood silent. She was enormous now. Kai expected her to go into labor any day. He knew Bess lived in terror of what Pen might do to the baby. Kill it? Sell it? Or, worst of all, keep it as another of his slaves? She didn’t dare get on his bad side now—not that any of them ever dared. She never complained when, because of some imagined mistake, Pen tore up letters she painstakingly transcribed for him. Pen insisted on examining every document, as if looking at the pages would convince people he could actually read them. But when they were alone, Bess was savage toward the man who’d killed her Sid and was keeping her prisoner.
    “It’s not that he won’t get lessons either,” she’d whispered to Kai once. “He can’t learn to read—something’s wrong with his brain. It mixes up all the letters. He doesn’t want anyone to know. Puts him one step closer to the Reduced.”
    “I never knew a Reduced as mean as him,” Kai had replied. He’d thought of his new friends, the brother and sister he was secretly teaching to read. The process was slow and frustrating, but it was moving forward. How awful would it be if you could never learn at all?
    But he wouldn’t feel sympathy for Pen. The man was a murderer and a tyrant.
    He limped his way over to where they were waiting. Pen slapped the side of the machine and grinned with pride. “What do you think?”
    “This is quite the contraption,” was all Kai could bring himself to say. “What do you plan to do with it?”

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    “Race it, of course!” Pen said. His expression turned hard. “Got a race planned at the end of next week, against two Luddites from the Channel and that damned explorer. This beauty is going to win me a lot of money. At least, it had better do, or I’ll know who to blame.” He pointed a meaty finger at Kai and stalked off.
    Kai swallowed thickly and stared up at the old boat. Threats from Pen were nothing new, and this latest one barely penetrated, as a single thought crowded out all the others in his mind.
    Explorer?
    “Can you do it?” Bess asked. She’d lingered behind, and her expression was grim. “Looks pretty bad.”
    Kai shrugged. “I don’t see why not. He’ll have the carpenters in on the body, so I’m mostly going to be looking at the engine. Don’t see why it should be much different than any of the other boats I’ve been fixing for him.”
    “Yeah, but he’ll want this one to go so fast. . . .” Bess shook her head. “I think he’s gone mad with pride. Since when does Pen know anything about boat racing? And against Channel Luddites and Nicodemus Innovation, too.”
    “Who is that?” Kai asked, keeping his tone as subdued as possible.
    Bess snorted. “You know … the explorer.”
    No, Kai didn’t know. Kai didn’t know there were any explorers at all anymore. The very sound of the word struck his brain like the peal of a bell. Lightness streaked through every limb, sparking with a hope Kai thought long dead. “Where does he … explore?”
    How does he explore? How do the Luddites even let him? Kai thought exploration was forbidden, like “innovation” itself.

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    “Oh, you know, nearby islands. Amazing, the kind of stuff he finds just days off the coast.
    All sorts of treasures from