by R. E. Butler
“Agreed.” Tarihn sighed wistfully, twirling her eating utensil in the food. “I wonder, though.”
“About what it would be like to be valued simply as a female and not for the ability of our wombs to create life?”
Tarihn’s eyes shimmered with unshed tears and Pilar stood and moved around the table, leaning over to hug her tightly. “I know it’s not the same, but I value you greatly as a friend. You’re worth your weight in deenars.”
With a sniffle, Tarihn hugged her back. “I value you, too. And I wish the fates would smile down on both of us and bring us worthy males. Ones who would find us worthy, as well.”
Pilar smiled, but she didn’t really think there were males like that. At least not on Norlan.
After returning to her seat, she finished her meal, swiftly changing the subject to brighter topics, like her culinary classes and Tarihn’s love of gardening. When their meal was finished and the rest of the leftovers had been picked clean, Tarihn helped her dispose of the empty boxes and then walked her to the door.
Tarihn said, “Thank you for coming over and visiting.”
“We should get together for a drink,” Pilar said.
“I’d love that.”
Pilar pulled a card and pencil from her bag and scribbled on the back of it. She handed it to Tarihn and said, “My home address is on the back. Give me a call when you want to get together.”
“I will.”
At that moment, there was a rumble that shook the building. They both walked out of the medical center and saw a ship blast into the sky. She didn’t have to be told that it was carrying unmated males on an abduction trip to another planet to find their soul mates.
“I heard it’s going to Earth again,” Tarihn said, her voice low with a touch of sadness.
“Usually those trips take years to raise the deenars for.”
Tarihn shrugged. “For some reason the government absorbed some of the costs for the unmated males. I think since so many of the Earth brides are pregnant they view the abductions from that planet as a success. There were some males who had brides from other worlds, but they weren’t granted any relief from the costs like the Earth soul mates were.”
Any male who wished to go on the soul-walk to find a bride had quite a heavy financial burden to bear. Not only did he have to pay for the use of soul-walk machine to find his soul mate, but he also had to pay for the actual trip to his soul mate’s planet, food and supplies for the journey, and the mating jewelry. Males saved for years for their abduction trips. If they hadn’t raised the necessary deenars for the trip by the time enough females from one planet had been located, then they would have to wait for another trip to be executed.
“Lucky for them,” Pilar said.
“For the brides or the males?”
“Both, I guess.”
Pilar hugged Tarihn goodbye and hurried to her hover-machen. After setting the vehicle’s coordinates for home, she settled back in the seat and rubbed her neck. She could have gone home hours ago, before the sun set, but she’d enjoyed sitting with Tarihn and thought the resulting extra-strength tiredness was worth it.
Pilar lived in a small home outside of Kyvern City on a quiet street. The dome-shaped home was similar to all the others, but she had planted her favorite orange yushi flowers, which gave her home a spot of brightness the others’ lacked. Their short stems and bright leaves always made her smile when she saw them.
She entered her home and walked back to her bedroom. Too tired to even change clothes, she climbed onto her bed in her black sleeveless top and matching skirt, toed off her shoes, and closed her eyes. Sinking into the mattress, she sighed deeply and thought over her conversation with Tarihn. It would be a wonderful thing if she woke up the next day and found a male who didn’t care that she was sterile. He’d probably have to be an alien, though. Norlanian males were obsessed with the future of the planet; without babies, their people would die out. She cared about that on some level, but mostly she thought it was rotten that simply because she couldn’t have children, she was considered not worthy of being mated.
It was hard to be labeled for something she had no control over. She would love to be a mother, but fate hadn’t dealt her those cards. As her mother had liked to say, there was no use crying over spilled melean.
Turning her thoughts away from something that would never happen, she drifted off to sleep.
Chapter 3
Villi and his group waited at the edge of the forest. Just beyond was Kyvern City.
Dex dropped his pack and opened a side pocket, withdrawing injection needles. He lifted two, one with a bright blue liquid and one with a shimmery green liquid. “Blue is for females and green is for males. If anyone, male or female, should see us, get close and inject them. They’ll fall asleep. When they wake, their memory will be muddled and they won’t recall seeing us.”
“Why do we need different liquids?” Dero asked as he looked at the two needles that Dex had given to each of them.
“The blue is a lower dose. A female given a male’s dose could die. Sloan made sure that both of the drugs weren’t harmful in the long term, but do not get them mixed up. A male wouldn’t be drugged fully if he were given the female dose. A soldier could kill one of us or set off a city-wide alarm.”
“The better choice is to be quick and silent, and not get caught,” Villi whispered.
“True,” Dex said. “Let’s get this done and get home.”
Villi slipped the needles into his pack. Dex moved out of the forest first, sticking to the shadows. Several moments later, Villi and the rest of the group followed, moving where Dex had and staying alert. They stopped in the shadows of a large building.
“We’ll meet inside the edge of the forest when the tasks are over. If you get into trouble, use the injections.”
Villi and his brothers parted ways from Dex and his group. Having committed the city layout to memory, they easily navigated the dark streets. The streetlights were not bright, and they were able to skirt the spills of light and move without being detected.
The medical center soon came into view. It took only a moment for Carus to disable the security mechanism as Dex and Warrick had instructed and for them to slip inside. The center was closed except for an emergency services area on the other side of the building. There were security officers who patrolled the interior of the building, but according to Dex, they relied mainly on the sensors alerting them to trouble instead of actually patrolling.
The first stop inside the medical center was the cold storage room for the drugs. Carus unlocked it and they slipped inside. The drugs were kept in large glass vials, each with an opening where medical officers could attach an injection needle and fill it. It took only a few moments for Villi and his brothers to attach needles to each vial and then break the tips so the vials emptied their contents on the floor. With the liquid swirling around a drain in the center of the room, Villi opened the door and carefully checked their surroundings. No alarms had been set off. No soldiers raced to the room to stop them.
Breathing out a silent sigh of relief, he motioned for his brothers and they left the storage room, closing and locking the door before heading to where the main computer database was kept. Villi had never seen much in the way of technology; their people lived a quiet life, what Sloan said would be considered primitive. They had no hover-machens, no machines to make or cook food. He liked their way of life, but he could see the appeal of having technology to make it a little easier.
Dero pulled a piece of parchment from his pocket and sat down at a chair in front of a large screen. Sloan had written out the steps for uploading a virus onto the computer, which would destroy the files that contained the instructions for making the prenatal vaccinations and the drugs for the soul-walks.
“If we lived here, do you think we’d have gone on soul-walks?” Carus asked.
“I don’t know,” Villi answered. “We were raised to believe that the soul-walks weren’t a valid way of
finding a soul mate. But if we were born on this side of the mountains, we’d probably believe as the others do.”
“That the only way to find happiness is with a government drug and a machine?” Carus asked.
Villi nodded. In a way it seemed like a good idea, but after talking to Ashleigh, Kate, and Bella – who had all been abducted in the name of the soul-walk – he knew that there wasn’t anything romantic for those females who were taken. They never had a chance to say goodbye to their families and friends, and they were living their lives on an alien planet, having no idea if their families were still alive or not.
The screen flashed a few times and a warning appeared in big block letters, alerting them that the files were about to be permanently erased. Dero entered the response to continue. Villi and Carus planted the remote bombs that would ensure that not only were the files erased, but the computers themselves would also be destroyed – a way for their people to know that they’d done all they could to help the Norlanian people and the abducted soul mates.
Dero stood and pushed the paper back in his pocket. “We’re done?”
“Yep,” Carus said.
Villi opened the door carefully, listening for footsteps or noise, but heard nothing. “We’re clear,” he whispered, and his brothers followed behind him as they headed toward the doors.
When they exited the building undetected, Dero stopped and inhaled deeply. A growl rumbled in his chest and he raced to the left, heading around the building toward the front of the medical center.
Villi and Carus gasped in alarm and took off after him.
“What in the stars?” Carus cursed under his breath.
There was a feminine shriek of alarm. Villi and Carus rounded the building and found their brother holding a female Norlanian against the side of the building. His hand was over her mouth and the female was shaking with fright. Her chest heaved as she panted for breath, the scent of her fear so strong that Villi wrinkled his nose at the acrid smell.
“What are you doing?” Carus whispered angrily. “We were almost free!”
Dero turned his head slightly, baring sharp teeth at them. “Mine.”
The female let out a squeak and then went limp. Dero lifted her into his arms and curled her close.
Villi moved forward but Dero growled. “Don’t growl at me, Dero. What have you done?”
“I…. She’s mine,” Dero said, his hands tightening on the female’s body.
“She’s Norlanian, and you scared her so badly that she passed out,” Carus pointed out.
“I was trying to talk to her, but you interrupted me,” he said with a scowl.
Villi shook his head. “This isn’t good. What do you think you’re going to do with her?”
Dero didn’t say anything for a long moment as he gazed down at the female. “I’ll take her to one of the old wooing chambers in the mountains. The one where we found Sloan and Warrick. When she wakes up, I’ll take care of her and ask her to be my soul mate.”
“You can’t take her like this. It could raise suspicion,” Villi pointed out.
“I don’t care. Give me time to convince her to stay with me.”
Villi opened his mouth to protest when a small, square piece of paper slipped from the female’s pocket. He bent and picked it up. In raised letters, it read, “Pilar Rotahn, Academy Instructor, Caterer,” along with a number to reach her. When he turned the card over and found an address written in blue ink, a sweet scent caught his attention. He brought the card to his nose and inhaled, finding the same scent again. It was overwhelming. His body tightened and his teeth throbbed in his gums.
“Mine,” Villi said.
“What?” Carus asked.
He cleared his throat. “I mean the scent on this card belongs to….”
“To who?” Dero asked.
“I think to my soul mate. I need to find this street and see if I’m right.”
“What in the stars is going on here?” Carus asked. “How can both of you be finding your soul mates? And what are we going to tell Mama and Papa?”
Villi looked at Dero, who was staring at the unconscious female with absolute adoration. He knew that the same tugging in his heart toward the scent-laden card was for his own soul mate.
“We need to talk to Dex,” Villi said. “Let’s hurry.”
* * *
“Don’t hurt her,” Dero said, growling at Villi as he lifted the blue-filled syringe from his pocket and sank it gently into the female’s upper arm.
“I’m not trying to,” Villi said.
The female grunted softly but didn’t wake as the drug took effect. When they’d reached the bottom of the mountains where their team was to meet Dex’s team, Villi had suggested that Dero inject his female with the serum to keep her unconscious. If she woke up while he was carrying her on the narrow trail to the wooing chamber, she could fall and get hurt.
Carus said, “Dex and the others will be here soon.”
“I’m going,” Dero said. “Thank you.”
“You’ve got two dins to convince her to join you in our home,” Villi said.
“I want a week.”
“It’ll be hard enough to convince Warrick and Dex not to come after you immediately. You can’t have a week.”
“Four dins, then.”
“Three.”
Dero growled. “Fine. In three dins, I’ll travel with the female to the other side of the mountains. Watch for us when the sun sets.”
Carus took his blue-filled syringe from his own pocket and gave it to Dero. “If she doesn’t want to come with you, you’ll have to take her back to the city and inject her again so she’ll lose her memory of you. Otherwise, she could lead the military to us.”
Dero’s brows drew down. “I won’t fail.”
Villi said goodbye to his brother and watched as he hurried toward one of the paths. The wooing chamber that had been used by Warrick to seduce Sloan before they were mated was halfway up the mountainside. It was set back in a cave, with a security door that would be easy for Dero to unlock, as there was no electricity to keep the door armed; it would be a matter of simply picking the lock and then forcing the door open.
“Mama and Papa will be furious,” Carus said.
“I don’t think so. They’ll be happy that we’ve found our soul mates.”
“Yeah, for you two. How come I didn’t smell my soul mate?” Carus frowned as he folded his arms over his chest.
Villi looked up at the dark mountain where he could no longer pick out Dero’s shadow as he made his way up. Before the Norlanian females became sterile, the soul-walk machine matched Norlanian males and females, and the male would abduct his soul mate and take her to his family’s wooing chamber, where he’d spend time attempting to convince her that he would make a suitable husband.
Once Norlanians had begun to search other planets for their soul mates, the wooing chambers became obsolete. The males used their time on the return trip from their soul mates’ home planet to woo them.
Looking at his brother, he said, “I don’t know. I believe that we’re all meant to have soul mates. That Dero and I both happened to find our females doesn’t mean that you won’t.”
“You haven’t found yours yet,” Carus said.
“Found what?” Dex asked as he and the other males moved from the trees to join them near the hidden tunnel that would lead them through to their city.
Villi exhaled loudly and then explained what had happened.
The two males with Dex stood silently with their mouths open in surprise. Dex stroked his jaw with his knuckle and said, “We never discussed what could happen in this event. Even though Bella mentioned it, I didn’t think it was a possibility. Norlanian males like me aren’t as affected by smells as you are because our senses aren’t as heightened.”
Villi handed Dex the card and his brows rose. “I know her. She and Sloan were friends. What did the female look like who had this card?”
Villi described her and Dex said,
“I think it’s Tarihn. She works at the reception desk in the medical center. She’s sweet, but she’s sterile, and so is Pilar.”
“I don’t care about that, and Dero won’t either.”
“I’m just making sure you understand that most Norlanian females are either entirely sterile or can only bear male offspring. It’s pretty well known which females are completely sterile, which is why I know about Tarihn and Pilar.”
“I want to find Pilar.”
“This street is outside of the city, so you shouldn’t have any trouble getting there,” Dex said as he knelt and used his finger to draw in the dirt.
Villi committed the instructions to memory before Dex brushed away the map, straightened, and said, “If you can’t get back here by sunrise, you need to find a place to hide. She’s not going to know what you are. Our people were told that Ligaru were a myth to frighten children. You have to promise me one thing.”
“What?”
“If she won’t come with you, use the blue syringe to wipe her memory.”
“I used mine on Dero’s soul mate.”
Dex took his syringe and gave it to Villi, who tucked it into his pocket. “I’ll expect you back in our city no later than tomorrow night. Your parents will kill me.”
“I think they’ll understand,” Villi said.
Dex smiled. “I know what it’s like to be entranced with a female so quickly. I wanted Bella from the moment I saw her photo. If you already feel strongly about Pilar just from her scent, then follow your instincts. Norlanian females aren’t used to males wanting them as more than a one-night rendezvous.”
“I’ll do my best,” Villi said.
He hurried away from the others and disappeared into the woods, moving fast so he could take advantage of the darkness. While he ran silently and swiftly, he kept hold of the card with Pilar’s scent. He couldn’t wait to meet her, to hold her in his arms and tell her that he’d been waiting his whole life for her.
He just hoped she felt the same.
