Don't Disturb Stella and Her Mates novel · Chapter 20 of 24
Chapter 20: The Man Who Sold the Tonic
Stella came across the landing pad with her arms open.
"You're alive," she said, and her voice shook. "Oh, thank the stars. I was so afraid."
She went to Joren first.
He stepped back.
She went to Ansel, and Ansel stepped back.
Keir stood with a bandaged hand and looked at her and said nothing.
Stella's smile held for another breath.
Then she turned to the captain of the guards behind her and said, softly, "Take them. They're not themselves. She's done something to them."
The captain did not move.
He was a square man in Ostrow gray, with the Marshal's seal on his collar.
"Ma'am," he said, "I have orders."
"From me."
"From the Marshal."
He pulled a folded sheet from his coat and read it aloud in a flat voice, with every drone in the sky leaning in.
"Stella Ostrow is to surrender her satchel and her case of morning preparations to the guard, and to remain at this landing until the Marshal arrives."
The color left Stella's face.
"That's a mistake."
"No, ma'am."
"Mother wouldn't."
"Give the satchel, please."
Two guards stepped forward and took it from her arm.
She let them.
Her hands hung empty, and for the first time since Thora had known her, they did not know what to do.
The captain opened the satchel on the hood of the shuttle.
Rows of glass vials lay inside in a padded tray, each stamped with a curved white S.
There were at least forty.
"Gods," Dax said softly.
"Those are vitamins," Stella said. "For the boys. They get tired."
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