Elentinus moved beside me and touched my arm. I looked at him, but his gaze remained fixed on the scene.
“What do you expect to see today, Maritza?”
I turned away. The question put some dread in my stomach. I took a deep breath and said, “A slave labor camp. Hopefully one that’s not as bad as a Nazi concentration camp.”
“I’m not familiar with your reference.” He still didn’t look at me. “What if it is as bad as what you fear?”
It couldn’t have been, but the mere suggestion made me furious. “Then you have to fix it.”
He made no response. The conversation made my shoulders tense. If he was worried about me seeing this then there must have been something to worry about. It couldn’t be that bad, could it? Not on Elentinus’ watch.
We heard a girl’s voice. All our heads darted towards the source in unison. We couldn’t see anyone past a huge mass of blackberry brambles.
Elentinus zipped past me toward it. “No one’s supposed to be out this far.”
I gathered up Inga and followed. The Defenders whirred along with us. One of them plowed ahead to trample open a path.
“Don’t move, humans!” the Defender said through a booming speaker.
I heard several women scream.
We ran through the break. There were seven girls: most teenaged, two adults, and one elderly. They wore plain green frocks and bandanas. Each had a large tote bag loaded with berries (though one was spilled on the ground). They stood clustered with wide eyes fixed on us. One of them was eating berries out of her bag.
Past them I saw two Defenders who hadn’t come out of the ship. They rolled forward.
“Lord Elentinus,” one of them said, “the women are out here with our permission.”
I heard a piston. The Defender who’d plowed ahead was pulling a little cannon back into one of his compartments.
Elentinus approached them. We timidly followed behind.
“That is fine,” he said in English. “I apologize for startling you.”
Everyone relaxed.
“Sokay,” said the younger of the two adults.
“No prob,” said the old woman.
“You smashed a shit-ton of blackberries, though,” said the shortest girl. She looked Hispanic.
“Would you shut up, Jules?” a teen with a blue streak dyed in her hair said, “These are the falacking aliens.”
“I’m just sayin.”
The girls turned toward Jules, who appeared to be the youngest, and scolded her. She ignored them and held out her tote.
“You want some blackberries?”
I got a surge of joy that almost broke me into tears. There’s no way this was a Nazi level concentration camp.
I went to her. “I’ll try some.”
“Who the Hell are you?” a lanky brunette with a dark tan said.
“I’m…” I looked back at Elentinus who gave me a Dak-Hiliah nod. “I’m Lord Elentinus’ wife.”
A few of them gasped.
One pointed her thumb at Inga. “Are you the other one’s wife?”
“What the fuck are you people doing?” Inga said in English. “You just come out here and pick fucking berries? Frolic about all day?”
“I want an alien husband,” the younger adult woman said. “How do I sign up?”
“Me too,” Jules said.
“What are they saying?” Nayjoor said to Elentinus.
“No we don’t fucking frolic around all day,” the lanky brunette said to Inga. “We work our asstistas off.”
“You’re too young to marry anyone, Jules!”
“Be silent! All of you!” Whore said in English.
The women gawked at him. Jules sneered.
“How dare you all chatter about like fools before your ruler, Lord Elentinus. Collars can be affixed to your throats easily enough. Perhaps examples need to be made of you.”
Jules’ sneer evaporated. I hated the fear I saw in their eyes. Of course they knew what he was talking about. This place was still far from my ideal.
The older of the two adult women touched her throat. She spoke through burgeoning tears. “I’m pregnant.”
Whore scoffed. “You think that will spare you?”
“Stop it, Hor-Denay!” I strode out in front of him. “No one’s getting shocked, for God’s sake.”
“That’s not for you to—“
“Hor!” Elentinus said.
Whore withdrew to the back of the group.
“I’m sorry about that,” I said to the women. “That’s his asshole servant, don’t even pay attention to him. Lord Elentinus isn’t cruel like that.”
The women’s postures slackened in relief.
“Oh thank God.”
The pregnant one took my hand. “Thank you.”
Nayjoor gave me a start by appearing beside me. He grabbed a fistful of blackberries.
“I don’t know what they’re saying, but I want to try these.”
We all tried them. I could see there were plenty more in the bushes around us.
“Have you eaten these before?” Elentinus asked me in the Dak-Hiliah language.
“Oh, sure. We had them in my day.”
“You speak their language?” Jules said.
I nodded.
“I can learn their language, too,” the younger adult said. “So how do I get on the wife list?”
“You want to trade with me?” Inga said. “Fucking fine.”
The woman looked at Nayjoor and shrugged. “I’ve seen worse.”
My brow rose.
“You want to be treated like a slave and get shocked every fucking day? Huh?”
Damn it, Inga.
The woman’s lip curled. “Ew, no.”
Elentinus placed his arm around my waist. “We should continue with our tour, my darling.”
“I’ll take a husband like him, then. Any of those around?”
I smiled. “This one’s mine.”
Jules giggled.
“She seems happy enough.” The younger adult gestured to me while speaking to Inga.
“Psh.” Inga turned her back to them.
We went back to the road toward the barracks. The Defenders flanked us, four on each side.
“Did you hear that woman?” I said to Elentinus. “Why don’t you get some wives from the colony?”
“We promised to only take wives from the past so Earth’s population could recover. It was part of the surrender agreement.”
I frowned. (Nayjoor was huffing and puffing as he walked behind me).
“It does seem like a missed opportunity,” Elentinus said. “The women outnumber the men by a considerable margin here. The male population had already been depleted during the war with us before the Instajants invaded.”
“Can you…revise the surrender agreement?”
Elentinus made a sinister smile. “I can do whatever I wish, Maritza.”
I pursed my lips.
“The reason I hesitate is because we want other worlds to know we abide by our surrender agreements. They must feel able to submit to us without any uncertainty. Otherwise it could prolong fruitless resistance.”
“Hm, yeah. Wouldn’t want that.”
He gave me a sideways hug.
I saw there were some people and two Defenders waiting for us where the road entered the complex. As we drew nearer I could see a paunchy man with thinning grey hair and an unruly grey beard along with a black woman wearing a head scarf and a thin elderly white woman clutching a gnarled walking stick. The man move to block Elentinus once we drew near.
“What’s going on?” the man said, “I don’t have all the pregnancy tests done yet. It hasn’t even been a week.”
“Cease with your confrontational tone, Dugan.” As he spoke he signaled the man to get out of his way. “I am not here on business.”
Dugan met my eyes briefly. “Alright then, Lord Elentinus. I apologize.” He stepped aside. “So why did you come?”
“Our brides wish
ed to see the compound.” He brought me forward with a light touch on my back. “Maritza, this is Dugan, Esther, and Magpie. They are representatives for the three jurisdictions of the colony.” He tipped his chin at Dugan. “This is my wife, Maritza.”
Dugan looked puzzled. “Did you…dye your hair?”
I shook my head in confusion, but then realized why he asked. “Oh, no. You’re thinking of Sasha. I’m the new wife.”
“What happened to Sasha?” Esther, the black woman, asked.
My bottom lip quivered in hesitation. I glanced at Elentinus, but he kept his eyes lowered.
“They divorced.”
“Okay,” Esther went on, “so where is she? She’s not in the colony.” She looked at the other two. “Is she?”
“Not in my pods,” Magpie, the thin white woman, said.
“The only new people I have in my pods are babies,” Dugan said.
“What business is it of yours?” Whore said.
Esther looked at him and gulped, but then set her gaze back on me. “Where did she go?”
I started to panic. What the Hell, lady? Did she expect me to give her escape details right in front of my husband? I looked at him for an answer.
Elentinus had turned smug. He stared at me with his chin cocked and his eyes narrowed. It was an expression that said, ‘Well, Maritza? What are you going to tell them?’ I couldn’t believe he was challenging me like this. I know he thought he was being funny. I didn’t appreciate it.
“Can’t say.” I shrugged.
“Who are these humans, Elen?” Nayjoor asked. “Why aren’t we getting on with the tour?”
Elentinus leaned close to explain to him.
“Are you happy with him?” Magpie asked me.
I gave a genuine smile. “Oh, yes. He’s very kind to me.” Then I drew my lips into my mouth to wet them. “Are you happy here?”
Magpie scrutinized me a moment. “You’re from the future, right?”
“The past.”
“Yeah, right, that’s what I meant.” She snuffled and looked away from me. “Presuming that’s true, then you don’t know about everything that happened? About the war and the parasites and everything?”
Elentinus, Inga, and both servants were now fixed on her with me. Nayjoor was looking around, bored.
“I know some of it. What they’ve told me. I don’t know your side of it though.”
The three representatives exchanged glances.
“I’d like to know what they’ve told you,” Dugan said.
Magpie lifted her hand. “Later, Dugan.” She took a deep sigh. “You girls need to know who you’re standing by. I had a brother, and I had two sons. All of them drafted. All of them killed in Dak-Hiliah attacks.” She paused to swallow. “They kept asking us to surrender, and they kept punishing us when we didn’t. Our governments said we had to keep fighting. That the Dak-Hiliah would enslave us. Rape all the women, castrate all the men. That’s what they kept saying. So we fought and we fought. Lowered the draft age. Dragged all the countries into it. Every fight was fucking hopeless. They only ones who survived were the few female soldiers, who all got kidnapped. Our governments pulled them out of combat pretty early. Basically the Dak-Hiliah toyed with us. Toyed with us! We never did much damage. If we managed to kill even one soldier they’d come back at us ten times worse in his name. That shit went on for 25 years. Millions and millions of people died. I don’t even know what the totals are. Every day you’d hear 5,000 killed. 20,000 killed. We never won a battle. Hell, we never even fought off an attack. They just left when they felt they’d killed enough.”
“Your husband was the general.” Dugan pointed his thumb at Elentinus. “He was the one sending in all the squadrons. You know that right?”
I parted my lips to answer, but no words came out. Had I known? I thought I did, kind of. It never sunk in before.
Magpie started up again. “Do I want to go back to that time? When we were at war? When I was worrying for my last son’s life night and day? No. I wouldn’t. But you don’t know the half of it. The next invaders were even worse than these ones. Those parasites…like slimy green spiders as big as cats with these…these spiked elephant trunks. They just rained on us. Grabbed people by the head.” Her voice started cracking. “Jabbed that spiked trunk thing right through people’s foreheads. Turned them into dead-eyed zombies who just marched and marched and marched to where the ships came and got them.” She let out a shuddering sigh. “It happened so fast. You weren’t safe in your house. They could get through your roof, your walls. My group was able to hide in the sewers. We were down there for months. We could never go up. Those things were always crawling around—and there was no way you could kill them. You sure couldn’t outrun them. Not even in a jitney.” She shook her head. “I spent that year eating rats. I had mold growing up my legs that itched like Hell. It was always damp. Always cold.” She winced. “At least five in our group committed suicide. Manny—when his teeth started falling out—he went insane.”
Esther squeezed her shoulder.
Magpie took a deep breath. “I’m grateful for every day I get to be out of that hole. See the sun shining. Breathe clean air. So to answer your question, yes. I’m happy here. I deserve to be happy after everything we’ve been through.”
“The first…the first year…” Esther paused to bite her bottom lip. “It seemed too good to be true. After what we been told for so long we all sat here holding our breath, waiting for them to show us their true selves.” She gestured with one hand as she spoke. “But it’s been, what? Three years now?”
“Of course your leaders would lie to you,” Elentinus said. “The soldiers had to believe surrender was worse than death in order to sacrifice themselves. Your allies reassured your governments time and time again that we were gracious conquerors. They hid this from you.”
“’Gracious conquerors.’” Dugan sneered. “You knew our soldiers were lied to and you still killed them all.”
Whore stepped forward, but Elentinus lifted his hand.
“The only reason you’re not paying a penance now for your prolonged resistance is because of those lies. We are usually not so gracious to stubborn worlds.”
“Was it gracious to sic those parasites on us?”
“Shut your mouth, Dugan, for God’s sake,” Magpie said. “What’s the point?”
Dugan turned away with his chin quivering.
“Okay, so fine,” Inga said. “Never mind the past. How is it for you now?”
“Well, we’ll show you,” Esther said.
Dugan crossed his arms. “I don’t have to be involved, do I?”
“Leave,” Elentinus said.
Dugan set off straight ahead. The women led us to the side, toward a row of barracks. We passed vast gardens that several people were tending to. A few calico chickens scurried around. Normally this would have excited me. The air felt too heavy on my shoulders to enjoy it. I looked, but all I could think about was Elentinus as the ruthless conqueror.
I knew what the Dak-Hiliah had done to Earth before I got here. It hadn’t mattered before. I was a girl kidnapped out of her home and time. Of course my kidnappers were evil. I was just glad one was nice to me and that I was going to be able to survive the ordeal.
Now I had to reckon with everything I’d learned. Inga pushed me out of my safe bystander mode. I couldn’t justify not helping her out of loyalty to my husband.
My husband was evil.
That thought made my legs weak. I loved Elentinus. He was good to me. We joked together and got wild in bed.
I felt safe with him.
But he was Earth’s conqueror—and completely unrepentant.
“Maritza.”
Elentinus’ voice snapped me out of my daze.
“The only reason we attacked Earth was because we were facing extinction. If we didn’t conquer them, there was no hope for our survival.”
I looked at him. If I was paranoid I would have thought he could read minds
. I knew better. We were on the same wavelength again.
“Do you have as good a reason for all the other worlds the Dak-Hiliah conquered?”
He looked into my eyes a moment, and then turned away. “No.”
My shoulders rose and fell with a deep sigh.
“Maritza.” Elentinus took my hand. “I’m not proud of everything in our history, but I led this war because our existence depended on it.”
I nodded. In a way I was touched at how badly he wanted my approval. Elentinus kept proving his love for me was genuine. He made it hard for me to stand against him.
But it was the right thing to do.
Esther and Magpie led us into the nearest barrack. We went through a lobby area first which had been converted into a daycare. Toddlers played together on the floor while several women kept watch. I saw some cribs along the back wall. The rest of the building was a gigantic mess hall with long tables. It was only a quarter full. I could smell bread baking. About a thousand people, mostly women, turned to look at us and point. There were as many people knitting or crafting as there were eating. Esther was talking about how they milled their grains and how many kilos of produce came out of the gardens, but I was still distracted.
Out the back were open dirt fields that had white lines painted for sports. I thought it was soccer, but there were four goals instead of two. A loud group of girls were kicking around a ball in one of the fields. Elentinus took my arm. I realized our group had moved on to the next barrack.
We came in the back directly into living quarters. About 200 double bunk beds stretched out in front of us in two lines. Most of the top bunks had bare mattresses. The bottom bunks all had blankets hanging from the top bunks to serve as curtains. This had obviously been a military barrack once, but all the order was gone. Personal items were piled high on homemade shelves against the walls. The beds that were visible were sloppily made. We walked down the center aisle glancing down each row. Some of the lower bunks had the beds removed in exchange for three cribs. The apparent mothers had bunks on either side and above it. I saw both men and women in the area. This explained the need for the curtains.
“Elen, how can you let them live in such disorder?” Nayjoor said. “The whole place stinks.”
There was a bit of a college dorm funk, but nothing catastrophic.
Alien's Bride Book Three Page 3
