by R. D. Brady
7
Alan unharnessed himself once the veerfinah powered down. He carefully arranged his robes once he’d stood to make sure that there were no wrinkles. He needed to make sure that he made the best impression. This was his first official camp visit as the new Naku liaison. His chest puffed out at the thought, and he straightened his shoulders.
Without a word, the Unwelcome accompanying him strode to the ramp and headed outside. Alan followed them, blinking in the bright sunlight.
New Attlewood stood in front of him. A large wooden fence enclosed the entirety of the large camp. Turrets stood in each corner to allow for a view of the forest beyond the camp’s boundaries. A tall, imposing gate stood in front of him with two individuals in brown clothing waiting for him. He noted that neither of the individuals had the hardened look of the guards he’d seen at some other camps. They looked more like individuals playing dress-up.
He frowned. He’d heard that Attlewood had a fierce group of fighters. One of the guards in front of him had a potbelly that suggested that his fighting days were long past him, should he have ever had them. Was his intel wrong? Or had something happened to the fighters?
Well, he would find out soon enough. He strode toward the front gate. The fourteen Unwelcome with him fanned out along his side. He straightened his shoulders. “I am Alan Williams, liaison to the Naku. I am here to speak with the leader of your camp.”
With a nod and a knock on the gate, the gates opened, pushing inside. Not sparing the guards a glance, he strode through the opening. A group of six individuals was waiting for him, all of them looking nervous. Two men in the middle who looked too similar to be anything but brothers stepped forward. “I am Sheldon Barker. How can we help you?”
“Are you the leader of the camp?”
“I am—”
“Not.” A tall muscular man in his sixties with gray hair and a noticeable limp strode toward Alan. “I am Frank Raffe, the leader of Attlewood. What do you want?”
Alan frowned at the man’s surly tone. Some of these people in the outskirts didn’t understand how honored they were to have a representative of the Naku come and visit their pathetic little camp. No matter. One day they would all understand the glory of the Naku.
Or they would all be dead.
“Yes, I believe I have heard your name before. I am Alan Williams.” Alan extended his hand while cringing inside at all of the germs he would no doubt have transferred to it from the man in front of him.
Frank came to a halt three feet away, his arms crossed over his chest. “I repeat: What do you want?”
Alan curled his fingers back, returning his arm to his side. He threw his shoulders back. “We heard there was a violent incident involving members of your camp. They are suspected of attacking a Naku facility. We have come to arrest them if they are here, and if not, retain your aid in finding them.”
Frank glared at him. Alan had to hold himself in place to not take a step back. While the guards at the gate might look as if they couldn’t put up much of a fight, this man, even with his limp, looked like he could tear Alan apart with one blow.
Frank grunted, not taking his gaze from Alan. “None of the members of our camp have been involved in anything like that.”
“Yes, well, I’m sure you understand, we have to check.” He waved his arm, and twelve Unwelcome peeled off, separating as they started to search through the camp. Alan turned to Frank. “And now I will need to speak with the members of your camp.”
Frank’s eyebrows disappeared into his forehead. His mouth became a tight line. “Excuse me?”
“I will need to speak with your people to see what they have to say.” He nodded to the group of six that had tried to speak with him when he first arrived. “Let’s start with them.”
Frank narrowed his eyes. Alan tensed, not sure what the man was about to do. But then he spun on his heel and stormed away.
Alan let out a shaky breath. He pointed to a small shack by the front entry. “We’ll set up in there.”
One of the two Unwelcome who’d remained with him strode over to the shack, glancing in before nodding its head. Alan headed for it, the other Unwelcome covering his back.
With distaste, he stepped over a pile of horse dung. He did not like the look of this camp. Despite the horse dropping, it was cleaner than some of the other ones he’d seen—he could definitely give them that. And it was a sight better than a number of the camps he’d been a member of when he was younger, but their leader was obviously hiding something.
And he intended to find out what it was.
8
A few of the avad women were walking along the backyard. The ones with infants held them close, the ones with toddlers either held their hand or stayed close by as they toddled along the grass. Arthur couldn’t help but notice how every once in a while they would turn their slim blue faces up to the sky, close their eyes, and smile.
Two of the women caught sight of him crossing the yard and gave him a nod. A few others held their children closer. The women had been in captivity all of their lives since they were children. Having a relaxed relationship with a male simply hadn’t been part of their experience.
Thor and Arthur had been making sure that they spoke with the women each time they saw them and gave them a smile. They also made sure that no one ever approached them in a threatening way. The women were grateful to be out of the facility, but the trauma they suffered still haunted them.
Fear and uncertainty had been the dominant emotions right after the rescue. With each day, they seemed to relax a little more. He could tell the women wanted to believe they were about to embark on a better life for themselves and their children.
But years of repression under the Naku could not be shaken off so easily. They were still wary and not sure if they could trust what they were being told. But every once in a while, they would let their guard down and let themselves believe. He hoped in the days and weeks to come that those rare moments became more commonplace.
But these mothers weren’t the only ones struggling with fear. He’d made sure no one woke Lyla this morning. She was finally sleeping, and he wanted nothing to disturb that.
His chest ached at the pain he felt coursing through her. But his own fear was right along next to it when he thought of what could have happened had he not noticed her slipping out last night. If she had gotten onto the mothership …
He stopped walking, his heart pounding. No, he could not lose her. As much as he understood her need to do something, he knew better than most what Miles was going through on that ship. Simply flying the veerfinah to the mothership and trying to rescue Miles was a suicide mission. And even though he knew that, it was so difficult for him to not simply join Lyla on her doomed mission. The need to do something, anything, burned brightly within him as well.
And Miles may not even be alive.
Pain, sharp and strong, punched through his chest, making him gasp. When he’d been reading about the humans, he would often come across a passage suggesting an emotion was felt as a physical pain.
He’d thought it was hyperbole.
But every time he thought of Miles in the hands of the Naku, it felt as if a hole had been carved into the middle of his chest. The feeling was compounded when he saw the pain of Lyla, Riley, and Maisy. They were each trying to hide it from one another and from him. But it was clear how Miles’s plight was devastating them all.
Today, though, they would hopefully get some answers. They’d be leaving for New City in a short while. But Arthur felt restless, and right now he needed to distract himself from Miles’s plight and Lyla’s pain. He had never felt so helpless. He was forcing himself to focus on the Naku tablet in order to get himself through the days and the nights. Because if he focused on Miles …
He shook his head. If he imagined what the Naku were doing to him, he would never be able to get through the day. And he needed to get through the day. He needed to stay strong so that Lyla and Maisy and even Riley
could let themselves occasionally be weak.
The image of Lyla crumpling in his arms last night shot through his mind. Ever since he’d met her, she’d been this fountain of strength. But right now, she was hurting, and he didn’t know how to help her. And that was hurting him.
Ahead, laughter drifted through the door and windows of one of the small cottages that lined the back lawn. There were six of them lined up on one side of the large yard, and a massive stable on the other side of the yard.
Arthur smiled, recognizing Maisy’s laugh. At least someone seemed able to push the horror from their minds. He paused in the doorway, watching as Simon acted out the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Simon puffed out his chest, holding on to his shirt with both hands as he spoke with a voice deeper than his normal. “Well now, I, John Hancock, will make sure that King George sees my signature from all the way across the ocean.”
Iris grinned from her seat on the floor. “Did he really sign bigger than anyone else?”
Simon nodded. “Yes, he did. He made sure that his signature was much larger than any of the other fifty-five signers.”
“How many women signed?” Maisy asked.
Simon winced. “Um, actually, no women signed. At that time, women were not allowed to sign legal documents.”
Maisy and Iris looked at each other and then burst into laughter.
Simon frowned. “What’s so funny?”
Maisy grinned again, her eyes sparkling. And Arthur was happy to see it. She had taken Miles’s absence, as they were calling it, extremely hard. And if Simon or Iris could make her forget about it for a little while, then Arthur owed them a great deal of thanks. “I was just picturing what Mom would say if someone told her she wasn’t allowed to do something because she was a woman.”
Iris nodded her agreement next to her.
A small smile cracked Simon’s face. “Actually, I’d like to see that too.” He looked up and caught sight of Arthur hovering in the doorway. “Arthur, good to see you. Did you need the girls for something?”
Arthur stepped into the room, ducking under the doorframe. “No, actually, I came to speak with you. But if you’re not finished with your lesson …”
“Well, I was thinking I might take the girls through the biography of every single signer of the Declaration of Independence …”
The girls groaned in unison.
Simon smiled. “But I suppose we’ve done enough for today. Off you go, girls.”
The girls wasted no time getting to their feet. “Thank you, Mr. Tolliver,” Maisy said.
“Hi, Arthur! Bye, Arthur!” Iris said as she zipped past Arthur and out the door. Maisy stopped long to give Arthur a quick hug. “Have you heard anything new about Miles?”
Arthur gently ran his hand over the top of her hair. “Not yet, sweetheart.”
She stared up at him, her gaze intense. “But you’d tell me. Good or bad, you’d tell me, right?”
“I’ll tell you if we hear anything.”
“Okay.” She hugged him again before heading for the door, her steps slow, her shoulders hunched.
“There’s really no news?” Simon asked quietly once Maisy had stepped outside.
Arthur didn’t take his gaze from the sad little girl. Iris ran up to her and hugged her before throwing an arm around her shoulders and leading her away. He sighed, turning to face Simon. “No, nothing.”
Simon’s gaze was on the two girls as well. “They’re both struggling with loss right now. It’s good they have each other.”
“I suppose it is.”
“Lyla asked me to start those two back on a regular school schedule as soon as possible. Right now we’re only doing about an hour a day. Which led me to thinking I might have some more time in the day if some other people wanted to learn.”
Arthur frowned. “Like who?”
“I was wondering if the Unwelcome had learned how to read and write. I mean, I don’t want to suggest anything that might offend people, but I thought if they hadn’t, they might enjoy learning. And, of course, when their children are old enough, we’ll make sure that they’re part of the school system as well.”
Arthur’s jaw fell open. He’d been so focused on the immediate needs of the avad—making sure everyone had a place to sleep, making sure everybody felt comfortable, making sure everybody had food—that he hadn’t really had a chance to think about what the future would hold. He was glad people like Simon were doing that for him.
“None of them know how to read or write. That was never a priority. I can broach the topic with a few of them and see if any of them are interested.”
“That would be wonderful. Thank you. Now, you said you wanted to talk to me about something?”
Arthur held up the Naku tablet. “Yes. I’ve been reading about the history of the Unwelcome and the Naku.”
Simon gestured for Arthur to take a seat at the table at the front of the room while he took the other seat. Simon’s eyes were bright with the curiosity. “That sounds fascinating. What have you learned?”
Arthur explained that he believed the Unwelcome were originally from Earth. Simon took it surprisingly well. He simply sat back in his chair, his hand to his mouth, and said, “Hmm.”
“I was wondering if you could think of anything from Earth’s history that might indicate the time when we were taken.”
“Well, that’s a rather broad question. There’s been different swaths of human history that have gone unrecorded. History itself wasn’t recorded until a few thousand years BC, even though we know humanity existed for thousands of years before that.”
Arthur’s shoulders drooped. He knew it was going to be a long shot. But he was hoping that maybe there might be something in the human record that could help pinpoint exactly when and where his people had been taken from.
Simon furrowed his brow. “Can you give me any more information that might help me pinpoint a time period?”
Arthur leaned forward, bringing up the relevant pages on the tablet. Simon leaned forward to look, even though Arthur knew he wouldn’t be able to read it. It was written in the Naku language.
“It seems that the Naku came here to look for resources. Their home planet was running desperately short on them.”
“Why then come here and then leave again?” asked Simon.
“It actually doesn’t have a record of that, or at least not one that I can find. I do know they returned home, but by then it had been destroyed.”
Arthur gestured to the screen. “They predicted that they would be able to find enough resources to replenish theirs, but their predictions were off. As a result, they used up all their water, all of their food supplies, even all of their energy resources. They became stranded on their homeland when they returned. They had the Unwelcome work, creating as many resources as they could manage and stockpiling them. They severely restricted reproduction amongst the Naku to keep their numbers down. But that also backfired. Because soon they realized that they were not able to increase their numbers either. Finally, though, they had enough resources to make it to the planet they thought could sustain them for centuries.”
“Earth.”
Arthur nodded. “Yes. But to get here, the Naku went from planet to planet, scavenging what they could find. I believe they hope to stay here. But they did not know about the Earth’s devastation. I’m not sure how that figures into their plans.”
Simon shook his head as he removed his glasses, wiping the lenses on his shirt before returning them to his face. “It’s all horrible, simply horrible. And yet I can’t help but be fascinated by the story behind their trip and now by the story behind your origins. But none of that indicates a time period.”
Arthur scrolled through a few screens. “I know that the Great Pyramid already existed when they arrived.”
“Unfortunately there is a great deal of debate about how old the Great Pyramid is. Some say it was created around 2,000 BC. Some say it was closer to 10,000, so I’m af
raid that doesn’t limit it down.” Simon frowned. “Do you know how old the Naku are? Or rather, how old each individual Naku can become?”
“It varies. I believe they used to be able to achieve the ages of tens of thousands of years. But their bodies have grown frail over time as they have relied more on their minds and less on their bodies.”
Simon murmured softly. “Hmm, you know, there are tales of rulers that lived for thousands of years.”
A stir of excitement rolled through Arthur. “Who were they?”
“That is also a matter of some debate. But there was once a list. It was called the Kings List of these incredible beings who lived for thousands of years. Scholars often wrote off the ages as poor interpretations, although no one has been able to come up with a better interpretation. I wonder if the individuals on the Kings List were actually the Naku rulers, if maybe the Kings List itself was actually a list of Naku rulers rather than human rulers.”
“Where is this Kings List?”
“Oh, it is long lost. But I do have some books on it.” Simon’s gaze traveled to the back of the room, where a few dozen books were stacked. “You know, Riley probably knows more about this stuff than I do. He’s always been fascinated by history. He’s read every book that has ever been found by anyone in the camp on history, but especially the ancients. You should probably speak with him.”
Arthur shook his head. “No. Riley’s going through enough right now. I don’t want to add anything to his plate.”
9
Riley stood under a tall oak in the yard, watching the hustle and bustle of activity. They were supposed to leave first thing in the morning for New City, but Arthur had forbidden anyone from waking Lyla, who was finally sleeping.
Riley rolled his hands into fists. Part of him wanted to wake her and demand they get going. The other part wanted to yell at her for letting Miles get taken in the first place.
He knew neither was fair. She was exhausted. And if there had been a way to protect Miles, she would have found it. He shouldn’t be angry at her.
