“Are you saying nothing will change?” she asked.
“I’m saying there’s a lot more blocking the factions from achieving true peace than Aquilla’s intransigence. You’re not likely to get him to embrace these men and go home in perfect harmony, but even if he did, there would still be a lot of work to do before you get true peace.”
“So what do you propose?” she asked. “That we all throw up our hands and quit? Are you suggesting we shouldn’t even try to negotiate peace?”
“Of course not,” he replied. “I’m just telling you to warn your friends. They should talk to their own men and work between themselves and concentrate less on Aquilla and Penelope Ann. They would accomplish more.”
Aimee lowered her eyes. His words stung, but he was right. He saw a lot farther and more clearly than anyone else. How would she pass his message on to her friends, though? She blushed at the thought of returning to camp and telling them she’d met him in the woods.
Why did she blush? All they’d done was talk, and he was old enough to be her own father, too. Why was she even thinking about him that way?
He startled her by speaking directly into her ear. How did he get that close to her without her noticing? “One thing is certain, though, Aimee. You can do this negotiation more good than you realize by carrying my message to your friends. You might be the only person here who can do that.”
She looked up into his face, but when she noticed his eyes hovering so close to her, her mind went into a tailspin. She stammered out the first words that popped into her mind. “Why is that?”
“Because you’re not attached to anybody else. That’s why,” he replied. “Only the human women are truly neutral in this negotiation, but all the other women here belong to some man from the various factions. That means they belong to those factions, too.”
“It doesn’t make them not neutral,” she pointed out. “Look at Anna, or Emily. They might belong to the Ursidreans, but they’ve been in contact with the other factions enough to stand between them.”
He shook his head. “These women only truly settled on Angondra when they mated with the men in their lives. Look at Anna. She traveled to two other factions and never found a home and family for herself until she mated with Menlo. That’s the way it works. None of you can truly take your place as members of our people until you meet and mate with an Angondran man.”
“So are you saying I’m not Angondran?” she asked. “I’m Lycaon. I always have been.”
“You can’t be Lycaon,” he replied. “You might be a warrior, but you haven’t made the Lycaon your true home and faction. If you had, you would have found a mate among the warriors. Angondra is dangerously low on females. I’m sure there are countless Lycaon men who would love to mate with you. You’re so beautiful and young and healthy.”
She blushed again. Why hadn’t she let herself fall for one of her warrior companions? Why had she found fulfillment in a sexless existence running through the woods?
A part of herself she’d never acknowledged rose up inside her and confronted her for the first time. Stirrings she couldn’t contain threatened to break through her carefully constructed facade. Every instinct screamed at her to run, to run as far away from this man as she could. She would run until that part of herself fell beneath the surface, never to rise again.
He didn’t wait for her to answer. Did he realize the effect his words had on her? “You haven’t fully joined any faction, Aimee. You’re the one person on this mountain who remains truly neutral. You can give my message to your friends. You can act as a go-between between me and the others.”
Her voice came out as a whisper. “And what about Aquilla?”
“I’ll handle Aquilla the same way you’ll handle your people down there,” he replied. “He trusts me the way your friends trust you. We can work together to make this peace agreement a reality.”
She didn’t notice when he vanished into the trees. When she shook herself and looked around, she was halfway down the mountain and Piwaka was nowhere nearby. She frowned. What had he done to her?
The sun dropped below the mountain, and the Ursidrean and Felsite camps fell into shadow. Only the Avitras remained in the sunshine up on the Divide. Aimee set off down the mountain with Piwaka’s words buzzing through her head.
Chapter 6
Anna glanced up from her thermal transmogrifier when Aimee entered the camp. “Where have you been? You’ve been gone all day.”
Aimee waved her hand up the hill. “I went to keep an eye on those four. Marissa asked me to make sure no one disturbed them.”
Anna looked around. “Where are they? Are they still up there?”
“If they haven’t come down, they must be still there,” Aimee replied. “They were there when I left.”
“If they’re still there,” Anna asked, “why did you leave? Someone could have come after you left.”
Aimee turned toward her tent. “No one will bother them.”
Anna snorted. “I wouldn’t be so sure. Aquilla could be planning to capture someone else to get his revenge against the Ursidreans. He could be planning to capture Aria, for all we know.”
Aimee sat down next to Emily across the circle from Anna. “The Avitras won’t do anything while we’re here. You don’t have to worry about that.”
Anna frowned at her. “What makes you so sure? He’s done it before. He might do it again.”
“I’m just sure,” she muttered.
At that moment, Marissa, Carmen, Aria, and Penelope Ann stepped out of the trees. Penelope Ann walked her friends to the edge of the circle and stopped. “I better get back before Aquilla starts to get suspicious.”
Marissa turned around. “Are you sure you can convince him to go along with our plan?”
“I can’t promise anything,” Penelope Ann replied, “but I’ll do the best I can. He’s not as stubborn as you think. He’s just careful. He doesn’t want the other factions taking advantage of the Avitras.”
Anna made a face. “No one is taking advantage of anybody.”
Penelope Ann faced her. “Aquilla has good reason to feel the way he does. None of the factions is innocent in this. You would do better to concentrate on your own factions instead of blaming Aquilla for everything all the time.”
“That’s what....” Aimee stopped herself just in time.
Anna looked at her, but the others didn’t seem to notice. Aria pressed Penelope Ann’s hand. “You’re right, Penelope Ann. We all have a lot of work to do to achieve a lasting peace. We all appreciate your efforts. We’ll do our best on this end to make the men more receptive to Aquilla when they come to negotiate.”
Penelope Ann burst into a grateful smile and gave her a hug before hurrying back up the hill. Marissa watched her go. “I’m worried about her. I wish she’d stay down here with us.”
Carmen turned away. “I’m sure any of us would do the same in her situation. Aquilla isn’t the bad guy in this, and we shouldn’t treat him as such. The other Alphas overcame their prejudices and made peace first. That’s all. We can’t blame Aquilla for mistrusting them or us.”
“There’s nothing we can do on our end,” Marissa pointed out. “Our men are all at peace. Look. We’re camping side by side. What more is there to do but wait for Aquilla to see reason?”
Aimee couldn’t hold back any longer. “Not necessarily. Even if these men do agree to peace, they won’t disband their border patrols. All the old prejudices will remain for a long time. Aquilla is only expressing the unspoken reservations we all feel toward tearing down the barriers between our factions.”
Aria sat down next to Aimee. “I don’t think any peace agreement will ever fully remove those barriers. Show me one faction that will willingly give up their unique identity, their sovereign territory, just because they made peace with the other factions. No one will. The Ursidreans will still live in their mountain city caves, and they’ll have to maintain the border patrols t
o make sure the Lycaon don’t take back large tracks of forest.”
Marissa spun around. “Who said the Lycaon would take back large tracks of forest? Don’t go bad-mouthing the Lycaon.”
Aria smiled at her. “You see what I mean? Not even we can talk about it without jumping to the defense of our own factions. We’ve only been on this planet a short time, and yet we think and act the same as the rest of Angondran society.”
“Aimee is right,” Carmen added. “No peace agreement can overcome those prejudices. It isn’t about Aquilla at all.”
“Then it’s all hopeless,” Anna put in. “We should all pack up and go home.”
“Not at all,” Aimee argued. “We came here to help sway the men in favor of peace. We can still do that. Each of us—I mean, each of you—can approach your mates and pass on the message to them that we need to work together among ourselves instead of concentrating on convincing Aquilla. That will do more for peace than anything else.”
“And what about you, Aimee?” Emily asked. “You’re the only one of us without a mate to approach. What will you do?”
Aimee gazed up the hill. “I don’t know, but I have a feeling it will come to me before too long.”
That night, Aimee lay awake on her Ursidrean army cot and stared up into the blackness. After hours reviewing her conversation with Piwaka, his words no longer played in her head. Instead, his face, with his burning eyes and penetrating stare, hovered before her eyes. His eyes locked on hers and never let her go. Whatever she thought of, he always drew her back.
In her mind’s eye, she gazed into his face, and he awoke that forgotten part of herself lying dormant beneath her warrior persona. How could she fail, all these months, even to recognize that it was there? How could such an essential part of herself lie disused and festering without giving her the slightest disturbance? Why did it take a complete stranger to awaken that part of herself and bring it to the surface?
One question disturbed her more than all the others. Why him? What made him the one to awaken her? What unique gift of sight allowed him to see that part of her lurking below the surface and draw it out into the light of day? Why him, of all people? Why couldn’t it have been one of her cousins, or one of her Lycaon friends?
He was beyond strange to her. He was another faction, another species. And he was older—much older. She couldn’t stand exposed before him—could she? The thought made her shudder, but there he stayed, right in front of her. When he looked into her eyes, he saw that part of her. He barely noticed her warrior identity. To him, it was so much window dressing. It didn’t exist to him. The real Aimee, the Aimee no one else knew was there—that was the person he saw when he looked into her eyes.
In her vision, she stood before him uncovered. She wore none of the skins of the Lycaon, but she wasn’t naked. Her hair hung down to her shoulders and beyond instead of cropped short, the way she wore it with the warriors for the better part of the last year. Her skin, her face, even her fingernails glowed with electric energy. She throbbed with life from every pore. What had he done to her?
She had only to think of herself past, the way she was with the warriors, to find the answer. When she ran through the woods on patrol, she ran from herself. Far from finding herself and her life’s purpose defending the faction she thought was her own, she lost herself in the company of people she could never connect with. They were automatons, empty shells who touched her life in the most superficial way, if at all.
She’d walked through a nightmare of half-existence, without purpose, without intimacy, without a body. She never let anyone touch her, physically or in any other way. To be touched would have shattered her carefully constructed mask of happiness. Even her cousins, who should have known her best, mistook her fervor for happiness. Frieda and Anna were too engrossed in their own struggles and dramas to notice, and Emily only saw Aimee after months away, and she barely recognized her cousin when they did meet.
In the dark, Aimee let her hand trail down her body under the blankets, exploring the vibrant sensations of her skin come alive. Every cell ached with life yet to be embraced. She had only to reach...just a little further...She stopped herself and threw her arm over her eyes to hide from all that life. If only she could turn her feelings on and off at will, she could tolerate the unstoppable torrent of emotions and sensations coursing through her, but the fateful vision left her no peace. What would become of her? Who would she become? She would certainly see Piwaka again. She ought to get out of bed right now and run back to Lycaon territory before he devastated her in some other, more dreadful way.
But she didn’t leave. She lay awake all night with his face haunting her, waking and sleeping, until the dawn and the noise of the camp drove her out of bed. She swung her legs over the side of the cot with a sigh. What could she do but get up and keep moving? Yet she shivered at the thought of seeing him again, even at a distance. She couldn’t trust herself near him. She might fly apart at the seams at any moment.
Outside the tent, she found Chris and Marissa studying the thermal transmogrifier. They glanced up at her and went back to frowning at it. “How do you work this thing?”
Aimee peered down at the thing. “I have no idea. Anna says it’s some kind of oven that cooks food, but don’t ask me how it works. Ask her or Emily or Aria.”
Chris puffed out her cheeks. “Why can’t we get a fire going like any sensible people?” She waved toward the Felsite camp, where columns of smoke rose into the grey air. “The Felsite are doing it.”
“Maybe we should camp with them,” Aimee suggested.
Chris and Marissa looked at each other. Then they laughed. “I’ll ask Carmen if we can.”
“Donen would be offended,” Chris pointed out. “He was very generous to invite us to stay with the Ursidreans, seeing as Aimee is Emily and Anna’s cousin.”
“That wasn’t the only reason,” Aimee told her. “He thought we would be most comfortable here, since the Ursidreans have the most advanced technology. He probably thought, since we come from a planet with high technology, that we would want to use it again.”
Chris kicked the transmogrifier. “I’ve been with the Lycaon too long to appreciate some metal box that pulverizes my food. Give me a spit-roast any day of the week.”
Marissa sat down on a stool in front of the box. “I’m not hungry. I can wait for one of the others to come along and make breakfast.”
Chris shook her head. “You need to eat if you’re going to grow a baby. Stay here. I’ll get a fire going and cook you a nice meal cake with a side of knackle-bones.”
Marissa smiled up at her. “Thanks. I appreciate it.”
Chris started to turn away when the flap of Emily and Faruk’s tent flew back and Emily stepped out. Her eye flicked around the circle. “Hey, guys. What’s for breakfast?”
Chris frowned. “Nothing, because none of us know how to work this infernal contraption of yours. I was just about to go collect some wood to make a fire so Marissa here can eat something before she perishes with hunger.”
Emily’s eyes widened. “If you didn’t know how to work the infernal contraption, all you had to do was say so. I’ll show you how to use it so you don’t have to build a fire.”
Chris set her hands on her hips. “I want to build a fire. I would rather build a fire than learn how to use this thing.”
Emily stared at her. “You want to build a fire? But why? It takes so long to find wood, and it wastes a lot of energy. The transmogrifier makes cooking so much easier.”
“Then you use it,” Chris returned. “I would rather take the time to gather the wood to build a fire to cook my food the old-fashioned Lycaon way, thank you very much.”
Emily opened her mouth, but she closed it again without saying anything. The others listened to this exchange in mute astonishment. At last, Emily smiled down at Marissa and winked. She walked over to a giant metal box standing between her own tent and Donen’s. She punched the butt
ons on a digital panel next to the locked door, and the panel beeped. Then it let out a ping, and the door locks popped open.
Emily opened the door and took from a metal shelf inside a round metal tray with a white enamel surface. It look like any standard dinner plate. She handed it to Marissa, and all the women craned their necks to inhale the most heavenly aroma of two poached eggs, two sizzling slices of bacon, and hash-browned potatoes. A steaming cup of fragrant tea sat in the corner of the tray.
Emily stood back and crossed her arms over her chest. “The Ursidreans’ technology is designed to make our lives easier, not harder. Anna hasn’t had any difficulty learning to use it, and neither will you if you try. Look. I’ll show you right now how to use the transmogrifier, and then I’ll show you how to use the store chamber over there. Then you can order up any food you can possibly imagine in a couple of seconds.”
She swept the group with one last triumphant look and turned away. Chris glared at her and humphed. Aimee watched Marissa pounce on her breakfast. “I wouldn’t mind getting me some of that bacon. Where do you think they got it?”
“That store chamber thing must have constructed it out of random subatomic particles,” Chris replied. “Emily and Anna and Aria must have programmed it to produce all their favorite foods from Earth.”
Aimee gazed into the distance. “Mocha ice cream with caramel sauce.”
Chris sighed. “Anchovy pizza with mushrooms and green bell peppers.”
Marissa tore a chunk off her bacon. “This is pretty good. I could be satisfied with this for a long time.”
Chris snapped out of her reverie and looked down at the plate. “Here comes Emily. Let’s find out how to use these machines. Then we can eat.”
Chapter 7
The women sat together in a line and watched Donen, Caleb, and Renier talking at the base of the hill. “What do you think they’re talking about?”
Angondra Holiday Special Page 61
