AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Liv inclines her head towards the pods. “Do we need to know what they know about what Mercenia was doing here?”
The question hangs heavy in the air between us.
“Do we know that they’ll know anything?” I say.
“No, but the same logic can be applied the other way. Lorna has been talking about science experiments.”
Liv is clever and cynical enough to have made the same connections I did.
“We need to know,” Liv says, firmness coming into her voice. “We need to know what Mercenia was up to, and what the chances are of them coming back.”
I remember those days on the beach, Liv telling us all that Mercenia wouldn’t be coming for us, that we’d have to make the best we could of our new lives in the raskarran forest. I remember the arguments about staying, waiting for Mercenia to come back. Being torn about staying or going. I knew Mercenia probably didn’t have good intentions for us girls, but going with the raskarrans was giving up on everything I’d ever known. Part of me would have preferred Mercenia to arrive, take the decision away from me, return me to familiar hardship.
Now, the thought of Mercenia coming back here makes cold dread run down my spine. I think of my work with Shemza and Rachel, Molly, the community growing between the tribes. Calran and the deep, ever-growing love we have for each other. I don’t want Mercenia to touch any part of any of that.
“We do need to know,” I say. “But, you’re right. We can’t wake them now. Another month or two and the huts will be finished. Lorna might have managed to decipher a bit more of the information - there’s plenty of stuff in folders, written down, that she can take back with her. We don’t even know how to open the pods safely. You need to give her time to figure that much out, at least.”
Liv dips her head. “True. Ugh, I just hate to think that through inaction, I might leave the tribe vulnerable. The raskarrans might think they can protect us - and from threats from their world, they can.”
“But not threats from ours.”
Liv doesn’t respond.
“This place has been abandoned a long time,” I say. “What reason would Mercenia have for coming back for it now?”
Liv’s expression goes completely dark for a moment. But then she smiles at me.
“You’re right,” she says, voice bright but sharp. “You’re right. We have to deal with what’s in front of us. We don’t open any pods until we know how to do it without hurting the women inside. Their lives are far more important than Mercenia theoretically returning. One thing at a time.”
The next smile she gives me is warmer, more genuine.
“Thanks, Grace, I appreciate your advice. Most of the decisions made for the tribe - we discuss them together, me and Gregar. But this - whatever we decide to do with all of this,” she gestures round the room, “it’s on me. Gregar doesn’t understand. He can’t understand. I’m grateful to have other people around me that do.”
Later, as Calran kisses my neck, trying to initiate some sex before sleeping, I find I can’t get thoughts of Mercenia out of my head.
“You are troubled, my Grace,” Calran says, drawing back from me only enough to put an arm round me and pull me into an embrace. “Speak of what is on your mind.”
I wonder if it’s the right thing to do to tell him, but then I remember how he asked me to always tell him what I was thinking and feeling, so he would never overstep with me. That helped us build our relationship, helped me to overcome my past and my struggles. Continuing will keep our relationship strong.
So I tell him about the coincidence of the timings, the fact that raskarrans were probably held here - maybe just for study, maybe for something worse. I tell him about my conversation with Liv and the frightening possibility that Mercenia might return, and what I fear that could mean for the tribe. For us.
I let it all out in a torrent. When I’m done, I look up, expecting to see fear, apprehension, maybe confusion in his expression. I’m surprised to find him looking relaxed, resolved.
“I am not worried about these things,” he says, stroking his fingers through my hair. He still loves to play with the curls, stretching them out to their full length before allowing them to ping back into place.
“Don’t you think you should be? Just a little?”
He shifts us so we are facing each other, gazing into each other’s eyes.
“It troubles me some,” he says. “An unease in my heartspace at the thought of my brethren kept in this place. But I kept faith with my goddess when things were at their darkest. When the sickness came and it seemed that all was lost, I trusted in her ways. And now she has brought you to me. I do not believe she would give me such hope and joy only to have it taken from me again.”
“She couldn’t protect you from the sickness…”
“Because it was new. Your people have been here, have left their mark on Lina’s forest. And you are here, sharing in her dreamspace with me. Lina knows your people now. Should we need to be, she will ensure we are ready to protect what is ours from them.”
He kisses me, and his confidence, his certainty, melts away some of my unease for now. And as he rolls on top of me, fingers questing for the edges of my clothes, a thought fills my mind. A firm, unwavering thought.
That whatever comes, it won’t just be the raskarrans who are ready to protect the tribe. It will be us girls, too.
