by Unknown
Emily steadied her spinning head with her hand. “I have to find them. I have to find out what happened to them.”
“I’m sure they’re happy where they are,” Aimee murmured.
Emily studied her. “What about you, Aimee? Are you happy where you are?”
Aimee nodded, but an unearthly veil blocked Emily from looking directly into her heart. “I’m happy.”
“Have you found a mate among the warriors?” Emily asked. “Is that why you joined them?”
“I don’t have a mate,” Aimee replied. “I joined the warriors because they needed me. The Lycaon needed warriors, and I suppose I heard the call to join. It was the best decision I ever made.”
She rose and left the hut. Emily stared after her with her mind reeling. “I can’t believe how much she’s changed. I didn’t recognize her when she first came in.”
“Most of us changed a lot when we first came here,” Chris replied. “I know I did.”
Emily started to her hands. “I have to go. I have to find my sisters.”
Faruk laid a hand on her arm. “Wait a minute. We just got here. We can’t go trekking all the way to Avitras territory just like that.”
“Stay here a few days,” Caleb told her. “Make sure you have your strategy worked out before you go all that way.”
Chris shifted in her seat. “I’ll come with you.”
Turk stood up. “If you’re going, I’m going, too.”
Chris smiled at him. “Thank you. I knew we could count on you.”
Faruk nodded. “If you’re going to Avitras territory, you’ll need someone to show you the way. I’m coming, too.”
Emily smiled at her friends. “Thank you. You don’t know what this means to me.”
Caleb stood up. “I’ll show you some huts where you can rest up for your trip.”
Chapter 8
Chris and Turk went to visit his mother and sisters. Caleb showed Emily to an empty hut near his own and Faruk to another hut across the village near the warriors’ huts. “Come to my house again at sundown, and we’ll share a meal.” Then he left them to their own devices.
Emily gazed after him. “I didn’t think he’d be so happy to welcome us. I thought they would treat us as enemies.”
Faruk followed her gaze. “If we’re right, there are no more enemies on Angondra. We’re all in serious trouble, and the only way our people will survive is to put aside all our hostilities and work together to build our population.”
Emily chose her words with care. “This could mean the end of the border patrol.”
Faruk nodded. “Caleb’s nothing like his father, Rufus. The old man would have gunned us down for even looking across the border.”
“Do you think there’s any hope for peace with the other factions?” she asked.
He turned toward his hut. “As soon as word gets out that we’re all in the same boat and we don’t have the men to waste on fighting anymore, the others will come around, too.”
“How did you separate into different factions in the first place?” she asked. “You have enough similarities that anyone would know you’re the same species, but you look so different from each other.”
“Wait until you see the Avitras and the Felsite,” he replied. “We’ve been separate so long I don’t think anybody remembers how it happened.”
“But you could come together again as one people,” she pointed out. “If you put your differences aside, you could combine into one Angondran race again.”
“That’s not likely to happen.” He strolled between the huts and observed the village life on all sides.
Emily hurried to catch up with him. “Why couldn’t it happen? You must still have the ability to mate with each other.”
He snorted. “We wouldn’t mate with each other. No one mates outside their factions. Maybe that’s how we wound up separating in the first place.”
“But you mate with human beings, and we’re not even the same species,” she argued. “Donen has a human mate, and so have Turk and Caleb. Maybe the human women on this planet could serve as a bridge to bring the factions together.”
He cocked his head. “Anything is possible.”
She took his hand. “It’s more than possible. Like you said, it could be your only hope of survival.”
He smiled down at her. “Not only the Angondrans’ hope for survival, but all of ours. You and the other human women are part of Angondra now. What happens to us will happen to you, too.”
“All the more reason why we should work to make it happen,” she replied.
He started walking again, and she went with him. “Are you sure you want to go all the way to Avitras territory to find your sisters? We could just sit tight and send word. You wouldn’t want to travel all that way just to find out they aren’t there after all.”
“If I had any doubts about the trip,” she replied, “Chris and Turk offering to go with us made up my mind.”
Faruk gazed across the camp. “I have to admit I’m surprised by their hospitality, too. I didn’t think I’d be taken out and shot, but I wasn’t expecting to be treated as an honored guest.”
“Caleb realizes the need to put aside hostilities,” Emily replied. “If all the other Alphas are as sensible as Caleb and Donen, bringing the factions together could happen sooner than you think.”
“Don’t forget, though,” he countered, “Donen and Renier just finished trying to kill each other in a war. Donen had to flee for his life. They won’t be so quick to make peace.”
“From what Donen said behind closed doors,” Emily told him, “he never wanted to fight and he sent word to Renier to make peace. He’s even willing to stand against the Supreme Council to do it.”
“What about Renier?” he asked. “The Ursidreans invaded his territory for ridiculous political reasons. He won’t forgive us so fast. And Aquilla won’t forget the Ursidreans killed his brother.”
“The Ursidreans didn’t kill his brother,” she pointed out. “You killed his brother.”
He shrugged. “That’s what happens in war. Relatives of mine died in the war, too, but I wouldn’t hold a grudge against the Avitras or any other faction for that.”
Emily turned away, but she kept hold of his hand. “At least we’re at peace with the Lycaon right now.”
He stopped at the edge of the trees and surveyed the village. “This is the first time I’ve seen their village up close. It isn’t what I expected.”
“What did you expect?” she asked.
“We hear all kinds of things about the Lycaon living in stick huts in the forest with no hot water or power,” he replied. “It makes you think they’re nothing more than animals. I never really thought of them as people. But now that I see them up close, I see their Angondran side. I see them as the same people as Ursidreans. They just live in a different environment. They build their houses differently and wear different clothes, but they treat their children the same and care for each other the same.”
“Isn’t that always the way with enemies?” she asked. “No one could see anybody else as an enemy if they saw them up close. That would dispel the myth that the enemy is something other. That’s how long-running feuds and wars come to an end.”
He nodded. “I suppose so. It still seems a long way off for the factions to put their differences aside and come together.”
Emily looked around. “What do you want to do now? We have a few hours before we share a meal with Caleb.”
“We could take a walk,” he suggested.
Emily nodded, and they slipped hand in hand into the trees, through dappled shade to a spring down the hill, out of sight of the village. Faruk looked back. “Amazing! You would never know it was there.”
“How did the Ursidreans wind up with all the technology while factions like the Lycaon have nothing?” Emily asked. “Why don’t you share it with them?”
“They don’t want it,” he replied. “When Angondra gave up space flight, the Lycaon, the Avitras, and
the Aqinas gave up technology completely. The Avitras kept metals for spear heads and other tools, but the Lycaon reverted to stone technology. That was their choice.”
“What about the Felsite?” she asked. “Aria says they live in cities, too.”
“They do,” he replied. “But they don’t use technology the way we do. They don’t use advanced weapons, and they don’t have power. They use lamps, and they eat raw meat, so they don’t use fire to cook. When Angondra turned away from space, they threw the baby out with the bath water. They think our technology will lead us back into space. They think we’ll be dealing with the Romarie again if we keep on this way, and maybe they’re right.”
“What makes you say that?” she asked.
“When Donen realized the situation with the dwindling population really was as dire as it is,” he told her, “he invited the Romarie to bring a shipment of their females here. We had a gathering on the Southern continent.”
Emily gasped. “He didn’t! He couldn’t! How could he do that when he knew what scum the Romarie are?”
Faruk held up his hand. “We weren’t going to buy the women. We were just going to look at them and decide if we really needed to procure females from the Romarie to get our population back on track.”
Emily shook her head. “I didn’t think he could stoop so low.”
“Wait until you hear the rest of the story before you jump to conclusions,” he told her. “There were four women, and the Alphas of all the factions attended the gathering to see them for themselves. Some, like Renier, only came to make sure the Romarie didn’t try anything underhanded. Caleb was there, and so were Turk and Aquilla.”
“Were you there?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Only Donen and a few members of the Supreme Council went. A fight broke out between the Alphas and the Romarie. One of the women grabbed a weapon, and the four of them fought their way out of the building.”
She stared at him. “Wow.”
He nodded. “They had help. Renier helped them, and Caleb, too. Caleb risked his life to save Marissa, who afterwards became his mate. The Romarie couldn’t stand against all those people. They fled the planet and left the four women behind.”
She listened in silence.
“So you see,” he concluded, “we don’t have to procure women from the Romarie. You’re already here, and after your ship crashed, hundreds of human women are spreading all over the planet. We probably have more human females on this planet now than we ever could have gotten from the Romarie. Donen has no reason to get in touch with them again.”
“What happens when one of these women decides she wants to leave this planet?” she asked. “I’m sure some of them would like to get back to Earth. They’ll come knocking on the Ursidreans’ door to find out what technology you have.”
He smiled at her. “Are you talking about yourself, or somebody else?”
“I have no desire to leave.” She pressed his hand. “As long as my sisters and Aimee are safe, I’m content to stay here. I have nothing on Earth to go back to.”
“There’s no way off this planet,” he told her. “The Ursidreans have some advanced technology, but we gave up space flight—and every other kind of flight—a long time ago. Some of the human women don’t believe that when they first land, but they come to accept it after a while.”
“How do you know that?” she asked.
He shrugged and looked away. “Aria told me, and she ought to know.”
“What will the Ursidreans do if a woman comes forward who won’t accept it?” she asked. “What if someone wants to use your technology to resurrect space flight so she can go home to her husband and children?”
“I suppose we’ll deal with that when the time comes,” he replied.
He sat down next to the water and pulled her down next to him. “Tell me you aren’t going to resurrect space flight.”
She gazed at the sun shimmering on the water. “I wouldn’t do it myself, but I can understand why someone would want to. I wouldn’t want to walk away from the connection we have, but some other woman might not have that connection to keep her here. She might have left too much behind back home to settle here.”
He pressed her hand in both of his. “I hate to think of you leaving.”
“I won’t leave.” She sat in silence.
“What is it?” he asked.
“How’s it going to be when I go back to Harbeiz and you go back to the border patrol?” she asked.
“I don’t suppose you would come back to the border patrol with me,” he remarked.
She smiled. “I don’t think so. I couldn’t live out in the mountains for years. I need to be settled with other people around me.”
“How do I know you won’t stay with the Avitras?” he asked. “Once we find your sisters, you could decide you can’t be separated from them. You might stay with them and I’ll come back to the border patrol.”
“That won’t happen,” she replied. “I’ve been with the Ursidreans for months, and I have you. I’ll come back.”
“How can you be sure?” he asked.
She stared straight in front of her. “I’m sure.”
Chapter 9
“Emily.”
“What?”
He laid his hand on her cheek and turned her face toward him. His eyes drilled into her soul. “It’s very pleasant to hold your hand and talk, but I need something more than promises. I don’t want to leave you, and you don’t want to leave me, but what assurance do we have that we will stay together? What commitment do we have that we’ll make sacrifices to stay together?”
“What are you asking?” she asked. “Are you asking for a long-term commitment? Are you asking me to promise you my undying loyalty? I don’t understand.”
He waved his hand. “Nothing like that. I wouldn’t presume to ask that when the future is so uncertain. I don’t know what I’m asking, but I need some sign from you that I’m not some passing whim of yours. I need something solid to hold onto.”
She studied him. “I was thinking the same thing on the way here. I barely know you, and here we are trekking all over the planet and holding hands. I want some assurance of you, too.”
His eyes brightened. “Then what are we going to do about that?”
She paused. Then she wrapped her arms around him and kissed him. He met her lips with a moment’s hesitation. Then he gave himself over to it with his direct determination. He enclosed her in his embrace, and they sank into the comfort of one another’s presence.
After a long moment, he drew back and smiled. “That will do.”
Emily laughed. They sat together on the grass with their hands joined. They always came back to that simple acknowledgment of togetherness. “What happens now that you’ve got your assurance?”
He shook his head. “I still don’t have any answers. I just needed to know I’m not dispensable to you.”
She huddled close in his arms. “You could never be dispensable to anyone.”
“You’d be surprised,” he replied.
“You could never be dispensable to me,” she told him.
“Nor you to me,” he replied. “That’s why I had to come with you.”
“Something’s been bothering me, though,” she told him. “I can’t get something you said out of my mind.”
“What did I say?” he asked.
“You said you wanted assurance that we would make sacrifices to stay together,” she told him. “What did you mean?”
“If we become long-term mates,” he replied, “one of us will have to sacrifice for the other. Either I’ll have to leave the mountains or you’ll have to leave the city. One of us will have to give up our old life for the new one.”
“Is that something you would be willing to do?” she asked.
He gazed up at the sky. “I really don’t know.”
“I wouldn’t want to live in the mountains—not indefinitely,” she replied. “But I wouldn’t want you to give up the job you
love for me, either.”
“I wouldn’t want you to live in the mountains indefinitely,” he told her. “You wouldn’t be happy, and I wouldn’t make you unhappy.”
Emily brightened up. “At least we agree neither of us should be unhappy for the sake of the other.”
“It still doesn’t get us closer to solving the problem,” he replied.
“Like you said,” she told him, “until we become mates, there is no real problem.”
He didn’t answer. The sun streamed through the trees, and they sat in silence, hand in hand, until it disappeared behind the horizon. Faruk got to his feet and raised Emily from the ground. Without saying anything, they strolled back to the village. Lycaon of all ages and color patterns moved between the houses. The women tended the last chores in preparation for night. Old men played with the children and the old women talked in doorways.
A blessed tranquility enveloped the village. Emily never experienced anything like it in Harbeiz. The hum of technology blocked it out. Here, nothing separated people from each other. No social intricacies interfered with the natural relationships between generations and sexes and families and friends. People met one another in their raw primitive form, and their relationships carried a clean, raw, direct power Emily never saw anywhere else.
Faruk’s hand weighed heavy in hers. She smiled up at him. They would have to separate now to go to their own huts. She sighed. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Have you forgotten?” he asked. “We’re going to Caleb’s for a meal.”
She brightened up and gave his hand a squeeze. They went on to Caleb’s house, where they retreated to a formal distance. They didn’t come back together until hours later, when Emily stepped through Caleb’s door.
She looked up and caught her breath. A brilliant yellow aurora lit up the night sky. Bursts of starlight lined the waves of energy pouring through the atmosphere and lit up the Lycaon village as bright as day. “I’ve never seen it so bright.”
Chris emerged from the hut. “It’s like this all over the planet. Can you believe that? It’s much stronger than the aurorae on Earth, and it isn’t confined to the poles.”
