Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 91775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
“This one is not blue,” Bel’eb the Mighty says, and there’s a hint of glee in his tone. “I am keeping her aside. She is for you.”
He makes no sense. “What do you mean, she is for me?”
“Our line is dying,” my father continues. “You have not resonated despite passing the wall for several turns. I think perhaps there is no woman of our people for you.”
“I am barely thirty,” I protest. He makes it sound as if I am one of the elders doddering about with canes. “I am in my prime.”
“But your chest is silent and it has been many turns. I am your chief. I have decided. This female is for you. You will feed her and care for her. You and only you will go in and out of her chamber. She will see no one but Rem’eb the Fist. And she will resonate to no one but you.”
My camouflage flickers, my colors rippling as the shock of my father’s words sink in. “This is madness.”
“Our line will continue, even if I must add strange blood to it.” Father lifts his chin. “Do you not want to go and have a look at her? Your mate?”
I stare at him with growing horror. This goes against all the rules of our people, everything we stand for. Our males protect our females, at all costs. We keep them safe behind the wall, only to come out when resonance occurs. While it is awful that we must be separate, ever since the rule was enacted, no one has died of the sickness. And yet here my father drags a stranger down into the safety of our tunnels. He is risking us all by listening to Kin’far the Exile. He cannot raid against the blue strangers. He cannot steal them.
If the rebels heard of this, they would riot. My father would be overthrown. I would be exiled alongside him, and it would not be the paltry exile of Kin’far, but a far more dire one. Ours would end in death.
I will not die simply because my father wants me to resonate. I have to find this stranger and somehow get her back to the surface, back to her people, without any of the rebels finding out what my father has done.
“She is probably hungry,” Bel’eb the Mighty says, leaning back in his chair and looking rather smugly pleased with himself. “You should take her some food. I imagine she is awake by now.”
It takes all of my control not to storm over to my father’s chair and shake him like the fool he is. My color flares again, showing him my displeasure. “Where is she?” I grit out. Why does my father create messes that I must constantly handle? Why can he not leave things alone? “Tell me.”
“Cas’zor the Worthy will show you.”
The warrior steps forward, his expression inscrutable. “Rem’eb the Fist, I greet you.”
I gesture, torn between defeat and disgust at my father. “Lead the way, then.”
Cas’zor the Worthy nods and crosses the room, heading for the doors. I pause to look at my father one more time, but the gleeful look on his face fills me with disgust. I should be close to him. I should feel something for him other than exasperation, but he left me to be raised by the warriors of the village rather than to care for me himself. He is my chief more than he is my father.
I follow a few steps behind the large warrior as he crosses through my father’s well-tended gardens. “Tell me you do not approve, Cas’zor.”
Cas’zor grunts. “I do not approve. But it is done, and your father will not change his mind.”
“Who knows about this? How many?” I imagine how the news of a strange female will spread over our village and it fills me with fear. We grow more fractured each turn of the season. Is this the crack that will make the entire wall crumble?
“Your father has not been the same since your mother’s death and the erection of the wall. None of us have, but he grows more troubled the more silver his mane becomes. He should be robust for another hundred turns, and yet he ages. His mind is no longer focused on protecting his people, and he listens too closely to the stories Kin’far spins in his ears.”
“I cannot keep this female. Someone will come looking for her.”
“I imagine they will, yes. The exile has been left in charge of the blue stranger and his female, and I do not trust him. I told Set’nef the Wanderer to be wary of that one.”
I nod. Set’nef is clever. He will not let things get too out of control. “Tell me Father at least keeps her somewhere nearby.” Preferably not in his home, because I will have to somehow sneak her away without others seeing her. It is a hassle that leaves me frayed and impatient, because I will have to drug her again and haul her through the lava tunnels while she is unconscious. She cannot know where our village is, or our people will be unsafe.