by Marie Dry
She resisted the need to clutch at him. Wanted to wrap her arms and legs around the only familiar person in this scary and outside world and never let go. “I didn’t know women could be doctors.”
Azagor stiffened. “Allowing a breeder to work is a new development. Traditionally they were confined to their dwellings.”
Being confined to the house didn’t sound all that bad right now. “What changed?”
“Zacar. He’s been doing things differently from the first time he went out on conquest.” He gestured to the silver domed house in front of them. It had to be the oddest thing she’d ever seen. No windows, no door that she could see. “This is our dwelling,” he said with pride.
It gleamed in the sun, the way Brother Joseph’s silver cross used to sparkle in the sun. When she was a child, it used to fascinate her. She’d wanted her own shiny cross. “Where’s the windows?”
“When you are inside our dwelling, you can choose to see outside or not. You do not need windows.” She just knew Noah would love living here. She could imagine him running around the mountain, coming home dirty and disheveled for a cool drink of water. She swallowed and looked around, trying not to crash to her knees under the longing to have her baby back.
“There’s no door.” Please let them go in through a hidden door or something. After the flying box, she didn’t think she could take any more strangeness.
Azagor set her down on her feet. She stared, horrified, when the door opened by itself. It didn’t swing inward like a normal door. Instead, it disappeared into the doorway. Exactly like the big doors in the cave. She’d been prepared to have an open mind, but doors that disappeared into the walls? What if they reappeared and cut you in half, just when you’re about to enter. “I’m a brave sea-faring frog,” she murmured.
“Go inside, Susannah.”
She didn’t want to tell him that she was afraid the strange unnatural door would close on her. It was thin enough to slice her in two. Holding Killer tight, she rushed inside and then stopped and stared at the room in front of her.
If it wasn’t for her desperation to find Noah, Susannah would’ve run screaming back to the farm. The outside of the oddly shaped house might gleam like a jewel in the weak autumn light, but inside it was silver. Sterile and cold. She shivered and clutched her arms around herself. Goose bumps broke out over her whole body. Everywhere she looked was that silver metal color. Even the one couch was the same color. The aliens must’ve made it from some silver rock. It consisted of square cut pieces to make a couch big enough for two large alien sized people. Or about four humans. She couldn’t imagine sitting on such an uncomfortable thing.
Coming in behind her, unafraid of the door slicing him in two, Azagor put his arms around her and murmured something in his guttural language. The room warmed almost immediately. She wanted to ask him how such a thing was possible. But she probably wouldn’t understand his answer.
“Everything is silver,” she said softly.
Killer wriggled in her arms, but she didn’t want to put him down in this strange, sterile place with its dangerous doors. No wonder Azagor called it a dwelling. It definitely wasn’t a home. The farmhouse might be the place she’d lived since she was five, but it wasn’t home either. Mostly it was familiar, the only way of living that she knew and understood.
“The color can be changed. If you tell me what you prefer, I will change it.”
She stared up at him. “You’d paint the whole house just because I want another color? I can work hard, Azagor. If you give me the paint, I can do it.” She’d like to stay busy, to earn her keep.
He touched the ridge on his head, rubbed it with a large finger. “I will change the color, but I do not need to paint the whole house.” He produced a small silver square with that magic that made it appear from his flat pocket. “What color would you like for the walls?”
He wanted her to like his home and, that, she found endearing. For the longest time she’d wanted her family to like her But they’d never been able to look past her up-tilted eyes and pitch-black hair.
“How can you change the color without painting the whole house?” She didn’t know if she could handle seeing more magic. Susannah looked around at the silver walls and the one silver couch and what she suspected was supposed to be a kitchen. It was divided from the living space where she and Azagor stood by a gleaming silver counter. It didn’t look like any kitchen she’d ever imagined.
“I’d like the walls to be white.” No matter what he said, changing the color of all the walls would be hard work and white was safe. She needed to feel safe now, have something familiar around her.
Azagor enlarged the silver box he’d magicked from his pants. She’d love to know how he carried all that stuff without his pockets bulging. Like Natalie, she’d like to learn their secret. Maybe he was a magician. How else could he make objects appear like that? He pressed his finger on the silver box, but she didn’t see any buttons. Around her, all the walls turned white.
Susannah swayed then walked to the wall and touched it with a trembling hand. “Magic,” she whispered. Turning around, she smiled. A smile that would’ve earned her punishment from Brother Joseph. “Make it purple.” This new life would be wonderful when she had Noah back.
The walls turned purple, and she shuddered. Even if she had to paint the whole place herself, she’d never be able to live with this color. Surely, a voice whispered deep inside her, surely someone who could do magic like that can find Noah.
“Now yellow.”
Killer barked at the walls from the safety of her arms.
“I prefer white, a sort of warm white.” She didn’t explain herself well, but the walls turned into a rich cream that reminded her of the butter and cream they used to make on the farm, before they took the animals to the new farm. She wanted to play with the colors, to avoid having to look at anything else new.
He pointed toward the doorway that led to the hall. “Larz brought your things. I asked him to put it in the bedroom. Do you want to unpack?”
Susannah didn’t know quite what to do or how to act now that she was here. On the farm, she’d been in charge. She was the woman who managed to capture him. For once, she’d been able to be in control, instead of being forced to be the victim to Joseph’s vindictiveness. She didn’t know who she was now. She walked through the doorway and down a hall until another door slid open. One moment there was only a wall, and the next there was an open space to walk through. She managed not to scream, but barely. She hadn’t thought the inside doors did that as well. Keeping a wary eye on the door, she rushed into the room and turned to make sure she wasn’t trapped alone in here with no way to get out. Azagor walked in with the fearlessness she envied. Susannah looked around at the room she’d be staying in while she lived among these people.
A large bed covered with an enormous animal pelt took up a lot of space, but the room was so big there was plenty of room left to walk around. Her belongings were neatly placed on top of the pelt.
“Did I really capture you?” More and more, she feared he’d allowed himself to be captured. That everything had gone the way he’d wanted it.
“No other human woman has ever captured a warrior before.”
Before she’d flown in his box and seen this place, she might’ve missed the way he didn’t answer her. She was learning new things every day. And the clever way he had of not answering her was one of them. “But I didn’t really capture you, did I?”
“I fell into the pit you dug,” he said.
She shook her head. “You got out of it on your own. You broke the trapdoor and, even wounded, you moved fast.”
“Moving fast didn’t protect me from falling into the trap.”
He looked her right in the eye, but, for all she knew, aliens did that when they lied. “I kept thinking that I’d dug the pit deeper than I realized, but I had help, didn’t I?”
He came to stand in front of her. Lifted her braid and coiled the tip over his for
efinger. She should’ve felt threatened, having him loom over her. But, unlike when Brother Joseph and the cousins did it, it comforted her. “You are a strong and brave human, but digging out the pit is hard work meant for a warrior.”
“So you what? You came at night and dug it deeper?”
“Yes.”
Susannah had been sarcastic, and she blinked, not sure she’d heard him right. All those mornings when she’d stood staring down into the pit, convinced it had gotten deeper overnight, she’d thought she might be going crazy. Never would she have guessed that the alien came every night and dug the pit deeper--she shook her head, her braid moving against her back--because he didn’t want her to work that hard. She’d spent her life hearing she should work harder, and now this alien acted like she couldn’t dig a hole by herself. “Why did you do that? You’re so strong, you could’ve just grabbed me and brought me here. Why fall into the pit and get wounded?”
Azagor pulled her closer to him. “I am a modern Zyrgin. I wanted you to get to know me and choose me.”
“But you killed the bear thing anyway.”
“It is tradition to kill the Eduki, but I wanted to allow my breeder to choose.” He touched her brow with a finger. Susannah shivered at the gentle touch. “If you caught me like you planned, you would get to know me and choose me.”
“I still think it’s odd to allow yourself to be captured.”
“I have watched many human films and observed the breeders. Human women enjoy caring for weak, wounded males. If I was wounded, you would want to care for me, and seeing and touching my warrior body would make you fall helplessly in love with me.”
“Helplessly in love with you?” That was a strange way of putting it, but also curiously accurate. Look how she’d chanced everything to be with Caine.
“That is what happens in the films and research material.”
He’d promised to find Noah for her, had pretended to be captured. Maybe if her heart hadn’t been crushed into a million pieces, by now, she could’ve fallen helplessly in love with him just for that.
When she had Noah back, she’d teach him about all the modern things. Maybe Azagor could teach him as well.
Killer struggled in her arms, and she put him down. “Stay close to me, Killer. We are in a strange land.” The words escaped her before she even realized what she was going to say. “When are you going to look for Noah?” She couldn’t hold back the question any longer.
“My machines are working every hour, searching for him.” He touched the wall, and it opened to show shelves. He put something on the shelf and then closed it again. “You have not eaten breakfast yet. I have designed the kitchen to look human style. Come with me. I will show you how the synthesizer works.”
“Synthesizer?” More magic. And more food. Sometimes she wondered if he was trying to fatten her up. He kept giving her these small hard things to chew. He said they were food tablets, but she had her suspicions about what it was made of.
They went back down the hall and into the large living room. Azagor crossed over to the counter. She followed him, and Killer followed her.
Something had been nagging at her since he’d admitted that he allowed himself to be captured. “If you climbed into the pit on purpose, how did you get wounded?”
“I pretended to fall in.”
“You made yourself fall into a pit with sharp sticks?”
“Your sticks cannot harm me.”
“Oh, yeah, so how come you got wounded?”
“I cut my uniform and made a hole in my shoulder with my knife and put the stick in.”
Her stomach turned. A frown pulled at her forehead. “Why did you have to cut your jacket?”
“Our material cannot be penetrated easily.” His lips curled back just a little. It was amazing how he had flying boxes and a house with magic doors that opened by themselves and walls that could change color. And yet he sometimes reminded her of an animal when he showed a fang.
“I don’t understand why you’d want to hurt yourself.”
“The first time you saw me, you ran away screaming. Human women have soft hearts. I knew if I was wounded, you would care for my wounds and touch me and get used to being near me.”
He gestured to the wall opposite the counter. He said something and a silver box came out of the wall. Susannah was proud of not screaming. She rubbed her aching head.
“This is a synthesizer,” Azagor said.
The word sounded familiar, but she didn’t know what a synthesizer was and didn’t want to broadcast her ignorance. He never said or did anything to make her feel backward, but she worried he’d find her unworthy and refuse to find Noah.
“You stand in front of the synthesizer and ask for what you want to drink or eat.”
Susannah didn’t have to think about it. Her mother told her before coffee became scarce, even the cousins were allowed to drink it every day. She’d only been able to take some of Joseph’s because of the chaos on the farm before the others left. She’d loved the taste from the very first sip. “Coffee, please,” she said. Unease shivered through her. Would she be punished for this? Coffee should be grown in the earth and harvested. It shouldn’t come out of a machine.
A panel slid open, and a silver cup filled with black coffee sat steaming in the middle of the box that had come out of the wall.
“If you want sugar and milk you have to be precise in your instructions.”
It was like magic again, but she didn’t know if she liked this magic. “Add sugar and milk please,” she said while her ears droned. She rubbed her aching head. Sugar and milk streamed into the cup. A spoon came out of the roof of the box and stirred the coffee. It looked strange and supernatural, like the black magic Joseph warned them against.
Susannah stepped back. Her head shook no, and she couldn’t stop. “This isn’t right, machines shouldn’t do that. They’re not supposed to do that.”
Azagor picked up the cup and held it out to her. “It is not so different from your pot or a kettle making hot water for the coffee.” A wonderful aroma wafted into her nose. “Take a small sip. You will like it.”
Susannah shook her head, crossed her arms over her chest, stepped back until she was trapped against the counter. Killer stepped in front of her and growled at Azagor. “I will not put anything that is prepared in such an ungodly way into my body.” She couldn’t take any more strangeness. She wanted to go back to the farm where she knew everything. She’d be safe there.
“This is how we make food.”
She shook her head. “I will plant vegetables behind this house. We can eat fresh food the way it was intended for us to eat.” It would show him how hard she could work, and he’d find Noah for her. He’d want to keep them around, and he wouldn’t mind when she threw the strange things out of the house.
“The food and the coffee that come from the synthesizer are no different from the food you’d plant. And coffee harvested in the field is hard to come by.”
She kept shaking her head. “I don’t care, I won’t drink it.”
He sipped the coffee and held the cup out to her. “If this was bad, I wouldn’t be standing here after drinking it. At least taste.”
“No, I don’t want to.” She sounded like a child, but she hated the idea of getting food like that. It just wasn’t right. She didn’t even know why she hated it. Just that she did.
He took a step forward, and Killer attacked, growling and going for his boots. His boots that could withstand just about anything.
“Killer, no.” Before she could grab him, Azagor picked him up and held him in the air, his lips ever so slightly curled back from his teeth.
“Don’t hurt him, he didn’t mean it.” She grabbed the cup he still held steady in his other hand, and putting her hands over his lifted the cup and gulped down a mouthful of coffee. “I’ll drink it. See?”
He handed Killer to her. “You do not have to drink the coffee, and you can plant your vegetables. Until they are ready to be ha
rvested, I will get fresh produce from Natalie.”
He was trying to trick her. When she wasn’t looking, he’d make the food in that syn...box...thing.
He checked his wrist. “She has a greenhouse where she plants fresh produce,” he said. At her skeptical look, he added, “She can show it to you.”
“All right, thank you.”
He must think she was crazy. She didn’t even know why she couldn’t stomach the idea of eating the food out of that box. After almost starving, she should be willing to eat anything.
“I have to report in with Zacar. I am needed to fix machines all the time.”
“You’re leaving me alone?” She bit her lip to stop the rest of the needy words wanting to come out of her mouth.
“I will return in a short time. If you need me, say my name out loud, and I will come.”
Susannah shivered and nodded. She didn’t want to know how it would be possible for him to hear her. He pressed his forehead against hers. “Kiss me with tongue,” he demanded.
Susannah rose on her tiptoes and kissed him. Each time she kissed him, it was hotter and more addictive than the last time. Caine never kissed her, and she couldn’t help wondering how it would’ve been.
Azagor walked to the wall, and the door slid open.
“Azagor?”
He turned to face her. He showed no expression, but she had the strangest feeling he was upset over something.
“Will you have time to look for my--ba--cousin?” She wanted to demand he searched for Noah and that he didn’t stop until he’d found him. But she had the scars to prove what happened to women who demanded.
“Our machines are very advanced. They are searching as we speak.”
He was gone before she could ask how the machines could possibly be searching for Noah when she didn’t see him press any buttons.
She picked Killer up and held him close. “We are in a truly strange land, Killer.” In spite of the warm temperature inside, she shivered so hard Killer yipped in protest. “I don’t think I want to be a sea-faring frog anymore. No matter what else I have to learn and accept, I will not eat and drink anything coming out of a machine.”
