But him—she didn’t blush at the thought of him, alone by himself. The image of him standing in front of her with that straightforward look on his face gave her a sense of peace. If only she could erase the house around him and leave him standing that way in the middle of the forest with no one around but her. And then what?
She stopped on one of the platforms between the houses and watched the lights winking on and off again. She could name every person in the village, but those lights didn’t beckon to her tonight. They left her cold and cast out.
Then she spotted the same group of Avitras Guards who brought the Ursidrean to Penelope Ann’s house. They filed one behind the other, back along the tree branches, back toward the house. Anna’s blood ran cold. What were they doing?
She hated to return, but she couldn’t trust Aquilla or his men with that prisoner around. Whatever they did with him, she had to see it for herself. She had to bear witness to this moment. She couldn’t say exactly why.
Chapter 3
Anna hurried by a back route back to Penelope Ann’s house, but the Avitras Guards veered off and went a different direction. They didn’t return to Aquilla. Anna sighed with relief, but at that moment, voices bubbled out of the house and called her back. She couldn’t keep running away.
A deep rumbling voice answered Aquilla, and a shiver went up Anna’s spine. She hurried to the door. Aquilla stood in the middle of the room, face to face with his captive. “Who are you?
The man looked him squarely in the eye. “I am an Ursidrean.”
Aquilla’s eyes flashed. “I know that. Tell me who you are. What is your name?”
“My name is Menlo,” the man replied.
“What is your position in the Ursidrean army?” Aquilla asked.
“I am not a member of the army,” Menlo replied. “I am a geographer assigned to the border patrol.”
Aquilla’s arm shot up. Anna flinched, but he didn’t strike the Ursidrean the way she expected. He simply waved his arm. “We both know that’s nonsense. Every Ursidrean is a member of the army. You have a militaristic society. Men, women, and children get inducted into the army from an early age, so don’t give me any fairy tale about being a geographer assigned to the border patrol.”
Menlo cocked his head to one side. “Who told you that?”
Aquilla waved his hand. “Everybody knows it. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.”
“When?” Menlo asked.
Aquilla glared at him. “I’ll ask the questions here. Don’t step out of line, or you’ll wish you’d never been born. Keep your place if you know what’s good for you.”
Menlo said nothing, but he never took his eyes off Aquilla’s face.
“I saw for myself during the Ursidrean campaign how every Ursidrean participated in the battle,” Aquilla went on. “Even young children fought alongside their parents.”
“That was during the first war,” Menlo replied. “The Avitras invaded our territory and laid siege to our city. We all had to fight for our lives.”
“Your society operates as one enormous army,” Aquilla returned. “You prepare for battle from your youth. You might as well admit it now and tell me your position.”
“I already told you I’m not a member of the army,” Menlo murmured.
Aquilla’s mouth twisted into a wry smile. “Are you telling me you never fought in any war?”
“I never said that,” Menlo replied.
Aquilla jabbed his finger at him. “I knew it! You are a member of the army.”
“I fought in the last war,” Menlo admitted, “but I haven’t been in the army since.”
“You’re on the border patrol,” Aquilla shot back. “That’s the army.”
Menlo shook his head. “We’re assigned through the civil Labor Pool. I reported to the Labor Pool after being discharged from my squadron. They looked up my Academy records, and when they found out I had training in geography, they assigned me to the team mapping out the borders. I’ve been doing it ever since. I haven’t even had any combat training.”
Aquilla snorted. “You wouldn’t need any after the time you spent fighting the Avitras on our own soil. You can’t cry me a river about women and children fighting for their lives that time.”
Menlo narrowed his eyes. “I read history books. The Avitras provoked the second war the same way they provoked the first one. They breached our border, but we drove them back and fought them in their own strongholds where they couldn’t harm our defenseless civilians.”
Aquilla gritted his teeth, but Menlo cut him off. “After the war ended, we made a peace treaty with the Avitras. Our Supreme Council cut back the border patrols between our territories. That’s what left us open to invasion from our supposed allies.”
Aquilla dropped his voice to a menacing snarl. “How dare you blame the Avitras for your own brutality? How dare you come into my house and beg for sympathy—from me?”
“Who begged for sympathy?” Menlo asked.
Aquilla didn’t hear him. “Do you know why you’re here? Do you know why you’re bleeding on my floor tiles right now instead of laughing over your bubbling sanctity in your own country?”
Menlo watched him with patient reserve. “I’m sure you will tell me.”
“You killed my brother!” Aquilla burst out. “You murdered him, and now you’re going to pay the price.”
“I?” Menlo asked. “I killed your brother?”
Aquilla waved his hand. “What difference does it make? An Ursidrean killed him. That’s all that matters. I’ll never rest until I pay every single one of you back for it.”
Menlo arched his eyebrows. “What makes you think an Ursidrean killed him? You people have seen precious little of Ursidreans. You know next to nothing about us.”
“Who else could have killed him?” Aquilla shot back. “He died in the war.”
“Anybody could have killed him,” Menlo replied. “He could have been killed by friendly fire. He could have stepped in front of a cannon as it was going off.”
Aquilla fixed him with a terrible glare. “You’re a prisoner here. Don’t you understand what that means?”
“It means I’m bleeding on your floor tiles right now instead of laughing over my bubbling sanctity in my own country, whatever that means,” Menlo replied. “So your brother died in the war. What of it? My brother died in the war, too. And my mother and my little baby nephew and my great-uncle were all wiped out by the Avitras when they closed up the mouth of refugee shelter outside Harbeiz. You don’t see me taking Avitras prisoners and dragging them back to Ursidrean territory for revenge.”
Aquilla didn’t answer. Faster than thought, he flew across the room and struck Menlo in the face with both fists. Menlo buckled under the blow, and when he collapsed onto the floor, Aquilla fell on him with feet and fists flying. He pummeled the fallen man with blows even after the heavy frame lay still and bleeding at his feet.
Once, Menlo rallied under the hail blows to fight back. He grabbed Aquilla by the ankle and pulled him off his feet. The house shuddered when Aquilla hit the floor, and Menlo brought his elbow down hard across Aquilla’s neck.
Menlo struggled to get up to press his advantage, but he was too big and bulky to move fast enough. The Guards’ rough treatment and Aquilla’s blows slowed him down enough to allow Aquilla to recover from his fall. Menlo got onto his hands and knees and moved toward him, but Aquilla flipped around and locked his legs around Menlo’s waist. With one twist, he sent Menlo crashing back onto the floor, where he kept the upper hand.
Anna and Penelope Ann watched in mute horror. This couldn’t be happening right in front of them. Menlo was the first Ursidrean Anna had ever seen, and now Aquilla was attacking him in their living room. Anna always admired Aquilla for his steady determination and calm leadership. He never lost control before, and now, in front of her eyes, he’d descended into madness.
All at once, black rage erupted from the forgotten depths of her soul. She tackled Aquilla with all he
r might. She never raised her hand to a living soul before, but something snapped inside her, and she couldn’t stop herself. She slammed her fists into his back and grabbed at his arms. “Stop, Aquilla! Leave him alone. That’s enough.”
Aquilla outweighed her by a ton, and she couldn’t budge him. Then again, she couldn’t hit him very hard. She’d never hit anything before, but she wanted nothing more than to hurt him as much as possible. It was the only way to snap him out of this insanity. In the end, he stopped of his own volition. Menlo lay motionless at his feet. He shoved Anna away. “Leave me alone.”
Anna glared at him and panted to catch her breath. “What’s the matter with you? Can’t you see he’s unconscious?”
He rounded on her, but he kept his voice measured and calm. How he could remain calm at a time like this she could never understand. “Don’t ever interfere between me and my prisoner again.”
Anna shrank back, but she wouldn’t back down. “You already beat him up on the way here. You don’t dare face him in a fair fight, and every word he said just now was true.”
Aquilla turned away. “He’s a murderer. They all are.”
Anna crossed her arms over her chest and looked the other way. What was the point of arguing with him anymore?
Aquilla turned to Penelope Ann. “Come on. You wanted a happy night together after I got back. Let’s go have it.”
Penelope Ann stared at him. Where was her strong steady partner who went off to the frontier, and who was this maniac who took his place? But Penelope Ann didn’t have time to react. Aquilla hooked his arm around her shoulders and guided her out of the room. Just before the two disappeared through the doorway into their own bedroom, Penelope Ann cast one last glance over her shoulder toward Anna.
Their eyes met. The door closed, and silence descended over the house. Anna gazed down at the still form at her feet. Then, all at once, the door flew open again. Aquilla strode across the room and dragged Menlo to the support post holding up the log roof. He tied his wrists behind him to the post before he strode back to his darkened bedroom.
Chapter 4
Anna sat on the couch and stared at the unconscious prisoner. She didn’t dare touch him. Aquilla would fly into another rage if she interfered, but she couldn’t take her eyes off Menlo.
The lamp burned out, and crystal clear moonlight lit up the room. His shoulders rose and fell with grated breathing through the blood in his mouth, but she still didn’t move. The sound punished her for doing nothing. She couldn’t let Aquilla get away with this.
In the small hours of the morning, he stirred and groaned, and when he discovered his wrists tied behind his back, he winced in pain. He struggled against his restraints until he worked himself into a sitting position. He leaned his back against the post, and then his head. He closed his eyes and sighed.
Anna sat motionless and watched in silence. He didn’t know she was there. Why did he fascinate her? She’d seen enough Angondrans that another one didn’t surprise her much. He wasn’t alien enough to make her stop and stare the way she did when she first met the Lycaon. That wasn’t it. His quiet calm in the face of Aquilla’s accusations, his determination to lift himself out of his pain to a sitting position—Anna had never seen anyone act this way.
Before Aquilla went away, Anna thought he was steady and determined and dignified. Now he turned all that on its head. His steady determination and dignified hospitality was nothing but a facade to hide the pathological hatred burning below the surface. No wonder Penelope Ann stared at him in astonishment. She never knew who her mate really was.
Menlo kept his eyes closed, but his breathing settled into a quiet tide now that he sat up straight. Had he gone to sleep? The first glimmer of dawn brought the cries of the tree creatures, and Menlo snapped alert. That’s when he saw her sitting across the room from him.
His eyes flashed once set Anna’s hair on end. Then he sighed and closed them again. His head fell back against the post. “What are you doing here?”
She watched him for a long time without answering. The day expanded outside the window, and in the light, she saw the full extent of his injuries. She compressed her lips. “You must be hungry.”
He didn’t open his eyes. “Don’t offer me that kibble again. I can’t eat that.”
The longer she sat there, the angrier she got. “Did they feed you on the march here? How long has it been since you ate anything?”
He didn’t answer.
She couldn’t sit still anymore. She strode across the room to the counter by the door, but her heart sank when she got there. The Avitras ate nothing but this mixture of nuts and seeds. That was their whole diet. They didn’t hunt or trap animals. There was nothing else in the house or anywhere else in Avitras territory. She surveyed the counter in despair. Her mind ran through the surrounding forest for anything other than seeds and nuts to feed him.
“If you tell me what you eat,” she told him, “I’ll try to get it for you.”
He muttered under his breath. “Leave me alone. Don’t make this any harder than it has to be.”
Anna spun around. He sat on the floor with his head tilted back against the post. He kept his eyes closed against the growing light, and blood trickled down his temple from a cut above his eye. She pressed her lips together again.
She squatted down in front of him. “I’m trying to help you, Menlo. You won’t survive this if you don’t keep your strength up. Aquilla might want to starve you until you’re too weak to resist, but I won’t let that happen. Let me find you something to eat.”
His eyes squinted open. “You’re one of them.”
She started. “One of what?”
“You’re Avitras,” he replied. “You’re one of them.”
“I am not Avitras. I’m human.” The words startled her, but she couldn’t stop them. They came from some forgotten part of herself, and that part would no longer remain silent.”
“Then what are you doing here?” he asked. “You joined their faction.”
She shook her head. “The Romarie abducted me from my home planet. Their ship crashed here, and I’ve been with the Lycaon for months.”
“I know all about it,” he returned.
Anna blinked. “How could you know about it? All the women on board went to the Lycaon village. They rescued us after the crash.”
“Not all the women went to the Lycaon,” he replied. “The Romarie ship broke up in the atmosphere. One of the women fell out and landed on the Ursidrean border. Our patrol found her, and our medic saved her life. We brought her back to our city for treatment.”
Anna’s blood ran cold. Where had she heard those words before? “You....you know this woman?”
“I told you our patrol rescued her,” he replied. “I suppose I know her as well as any Ursidrean.”
Anna swallowed hard. “What was this woman’s name?”
“Emily Allen,” he replied. “She told us she worked on mountain search and rescue for six years in a place called Prince Rupert. I guess that’s somewhere on your planet.”
Anna frowned. “Emily Allen is my sister.”
Menlo’s eyes flew open. A spark of recognition flashed across his face. Then he instantly recovered his cold reserve. “You’re Avitras now. You lived with the Lycaon for a while, but you joined the Avitras. You’re one of them.”
She shook her head. “I can’t explain why I came over to the Avitras. I guess I wasn’t settling down with the Lycaon. I had nothing to lose by moving. I know Frieda felt the same way.”
“Who?” he asked.
“My other sister,” she replied. “She came with me. We thought a change might help us find our places on this planet. But now.....” She glanced toward Aquilla and Penelope Ann’s room.
He clenched his jaw. “It doesn’t matter. Food won’t help me. He won’t quit until he gets his revenge, and I’m the only Ursidrean around. He’ll find a way to get it from me.”
“Let me help you,” she urged. “Don’t starv
e yourself to spite Aquilla. You’ll only kill yourself faster.”
He snorted, but didn’t answer.
“Tell me what you usually eat,” she told him. “I’ll find you something.”
“We don’t eat nuts and berries,” he growled. “I can tell you that.”
“What about meat?” she asked. “Do you eat meat?”
His head shot up, and a ray of light crossed his face. Anna smiled. So that was it. He ate meat. “I understand how you feel. I’d give anything for a fried chicken right now.
His chin fell onto his chest. “You won’t be able to find it around here.”
Anna’s smile faded. He had a point. “What else? Do you eat fruit and vegetables?”
He gazed at the floor. “I’m not hungry. Don’t worry about it.”
She leaned back and smiled again. “I’ll find you something. I don’t know what it will be, but I’ll find it for you.”
His eyes shot to her face, but before he could answer, the bedroom door swung open and Aquilla strode into the room. He took one look at Anna squatting in front of his prisoner, and he frowned.
“How many times do I have to tell you not to interfere with my prisoner?” he snapped. “I can’t trust you in my house any longer.”
He slashed the rope tying Menlo’s wrists to the post and took hold of Menlo’s collar. He dragged him across the floor and out the back door. Menlo’s heavy body bumped over the balcony to a windowless store room behind the house. Aquilla flung him into it and barred the door.
When he came back, he pointed a threatening finger at Anna. “Don’t let me catch you doing that again.”
Anna stiffened. “I’ve always respected you, Aquilla. You were kind enough to offer me a place in your house until I found my own home here, and for that I’ll always be grateful. But don’t expect me to go along with your plan to interrogate this man to find your brother’s killer. People die in wars. Be a man and let it go. Your people will be much better off if you do.”
Saved by a Bear (Legends of Black Salmon Falls Book 2) Page 76
