Nad nodded. “I agree. We’re not going to leave Tara behind. She’s an asset to us, and we need her to show other human women that we’re not the enemy.”
Aleksy folded his arms across his broad chest, his stance matching Tara’s. “There aren’t any women at the other facilities, not yet anyway.”
“No, there aren’t,” I agreed. “But eventually we’ll need to turn our attention to the original facility, and there’s a chance we won’t manage to make it back here before we do.”
“Very well,” Aleksy said. “There are three facilities, and so we’re going to need to divide into the same number of teams and travel to each location independently.”
Nad spoke up. “I’ll go with Miko, Tara, and Diarus. We’ll take the facility located at the Lone Rift Dunes.”
“Your group will be too recognizable,” he said. “Half of the city are looking out for you.”
“I don’t care,” Nad insisted. “There’s no way we’re separating again. We’ve already been forced apart from Tara because of Borys, and we won’t do it again.”
“I can change my appearance.” Tara ran her fingers through her long, blonde hair. “I’ll cut my hair and dye it.”
“You’ll still be a human woman,” Aleksy pointed out.
“So? It’s not as though there aren’t other women here. I remember all the other women who’d been at the marketplace with me. There are other Athion slaves on Tradrych, too, but I don’t see you trying to make Diarus stay. I won’t hide away. Not now.”
“Do you think you could find something?” Tara picked up a lock of silky blonde tresses and dropped it again.
“You want to change the color of your hair?” Diarus asked.
“Yes, as different as possible. If Borys has his team searching for me, they’ll be looking for a blonde.”
Geharz stepped forward. “I know somewhere we can get a dye. I won’t be long.”
She offered him a smile. “Thank you.”
He gave her a curt nod and slipped out of the front door and onto the street.
“At the risk of sounding completely selfish,” I said to her, “I’m going to miss your blonde hair.”
She gave me a rueful smile. “You’re kind of recognizable yourself, Miko.”
“Yeah, you’re right.”
Maybe she wasn’t the only one who should change her appearance.
Chapter Six
Geharz returned within fifteen minutes. “Here. Mix this powder with a little water and then put it on your hair and leave it for ten minutes. It will change the color.”
I accepted the small package. “Thank you. And have you got a pair of scissors?”
I felt bad asking them to do more when they’d already gone such a long way to putting an end to this horrific regime, but I also didn’t want to be recognized and put myself and the others in danger.
“You’re going to cut it, too?” Nad asked.
I nodded. “I think it would be for the best.”
Miko twisted his lips, rueful. “I assume telling you that I love your hair won’t stop you.”
“I’m more than my hair,” I said, placing my hand to his cheek and brushing my lips across his. Truthfully, I was nervous about this change, too, but it had to be done.
“There are no scissors,” Geharz said, “but I have this.”
He handed me a small, sharp blade. It would have to do.
“Thanks.”
“You want some help, Tara?” Zoe offered.
“No, I’ll be fine.”
I went into the bathroom and stared at myself in the mirror. I sucked in a breath and steeled my nerves. I was correct when I’d said that it was only hair. There were far more important things at stake right now, and it wasn’t as though it wouldn’t grow back. Despite my internal reassurances, that didn’t stop my hand shaking as I gripped the knife and lifted up a lock of hair with my other hand. Pulling the strands tight, I applied the blade only a few inches from my scalp, and then sliced downward. The hair came away with barely a whisper, and I was left holding it.
“Oh shit.”
There was no going back now.
Swallowing my nerves, I kept going, cutting off lock after lock. When I was left with a very rough pixie cut and a bundle of soft blonde hair in the sink, I mixed up the powder I’d been given and set to work applying it to my head. With my short hair, I didn’t need much, and I was grateful for that. The stench of the dye was eyewatering. I hoped it would wash out and I wouldn’t have the chemical stink lingering on me. I was already worried that the others might desire me less now I wasn’t a blonde, and it wouldn’t help if I smelled bad as well.
When the ten minutes were up, I leaned back over the sink and washed out the mixture. I did a couple of rinses, wanting to get all of the dye out, and then grabbed a towel and rubbed my head dry.
With my heart in my throat, I straightened back up and stared at my new reflection.
Wow.
The dark hair made my blue eyes pop, and my recent weight loss from being prisoner, and no longer having access to takeout food and alcohol, had defined my bone structure. I ran my fingers through it. It felt strange having it so short—the texture different somehow, though it was still damp—but I discovered I didn’t mind it at all. In fact, I even liked it.
I hoped they others would, too.
Uncharacteristically nervous about seeing them, I cleaned up after myself and then went to the bathroom door. I took a breath, put my fingers on the handle, and then opened it and stepped out.
All heads turned to me. Eyebrows lifted, mouths dropped open.
“Fucking hell, Tara,” Miko said. You look like a badass.”
Nadeusz nodded in agreement. “A hot badass.”
I still had the blade in my hand. Right now, I felt like a badass. “I think I’ll hold on to this.” I held up the knife, and he grinned back at me.
“You do that.”
“Hopefully now I won’t be recognized.”
Miko lifted his hand to his face and started to remove his piercings.
“What are you doing?” I asked him.
“You’re not the only one who’s going to be recognizable.” He brushed his hand over his mohawk. “I guess this had better go, too.”
“No! You can’t shave off your mohawk.”
“I’m more than just my hair, Tara,” he said with a grin, throwing my words back at me.
I handed over the knife.
He cut the mohawk down shorter, so it was only an inch or so long, taking many of the bright colors with it, revealing darker roots.
“You look naked without the piercings,” I told him.
“I know. I keep going to touch them, only to realize they’re not there.”
“Do you think it’ll be enough?”
He shrugged. “I have no idea. Let’s hope so.”
Aleksy cleared his throat, wanting our attention, and Miko and I exchanged a final grin before turning to him.
“We need to divide into three groups. Nadeusz, your team is clearly already arranged, so you can take the facility at the Lone Rift Dunes, as we’ve already agreed. The rest of us will take the Unmade Territories and the Edge Forest. We have hover vehicles for transportation, though when we get closer to the positions of the facilities, I suggest we land and cover the rest of the distance by foot.”
Zoe put up her hand to speak. “What about me? I’d rather stay with Tara.”
Aleksy shook his head. “We can’t make each group too large. We need to be able to move around without being too noticeable. And two human women in a group is bound to get attention.”
Nadeusz looked awkwardly between Zoe and me. “He’s right.”
One of the rebel Trads, Trovik, stepped forward and ducked his head toward Zoe. “It would be an honor to have you join us,” he said, addressing her directly. His voice was deep and smooth, like melted chocolate. He had sensual full lips and a straight, proud nose. And his eyes were a brown and as deep as his voice. “W
e’ll make sure no harm comes to you. We’ll protect you with our lives.”
The other Trad, Zuniq, nodded in agreement. “With our lives.” He brought his fist to his chest and placed it above his heart.
Zoe glanced up at both the tall, brooding Trads, her cheeks growing pink. She pressed her lips together, her eyelids batting. “Oh... Umm. Well, in that case...”
They’d flustered her, but in a good way. I had no doubt that they would both do exactly as they’d promised.
“We’re fighting back, Zoe,” I told her. “It’s the most important thing we can do.”
Chapter Seven
Diarus
THE JOURNEY TO THE facility wasn’t going to be easy. With the curfew, if we were seen, we’d be challenged, whether they recognized us or not. And Borys’s guards would be keeping watch for anyone who might be up to no good.
But I was excited about it just being us as a group again.
Nadeusz, Aleksy, and Trovik stepped forward and each picked a device back off the table. I’d never seen one of the weapons in action, but I’d heard how powerful they were. Luckily, they were stable until activated, or I’d have been more nervous about being around three of them.
“We need to make sure we’re coordinated,” Aleksy said. “Each device needs to be detonated within minutes of each other, or we’ll be giving Borys and his guards too much time to respond.”
“It’s going to take us all different times to reach the three facilities, so what time should we be aiming for?” Nadeusz asked.
“When the sun touches the horizon, set the device to go off. Then get out of there as fast as you can.”
We would. None of us would want to be within range of the blast.
“I guess this is where we go in our separate directions,” Aleksy continued. “We’ll reconvene here after—”
A volley of knocking came at the front door. We exchanged glances, the tension crackling in the room.
Geharz lifted his hand and stepped toward the door.
We were all thinking the same thing—that it could be Boyrs’s guards who’d been going door-to-door. I wasn’t sure what would happen if it was, but I figured it wasn’t going to be good.
Geharz checked through a peephole and nodded to tell us it was okay before he cracked open the door.
A Trad I didn’t know slipped in.
“We might have a problem,” the Trad said as he eased back in through the door.
“Which is?” Aleksy raised his white eyebrows.
“There’s another electrical storm brewing. It’s going to make the hovercars useless.”
Aleksy’s features tightened. “Velos! We’ve got no choice but to use the tunnels then.”
“Or we wait until the storm has passed,” Nad suggested.
“We can’t wait that long. The longer we take, the more likely Borys’s guards are going to close in on us. The storm could last for days.”
“We can’t just sit here and wait,” Tara said, her gaze flitting anxiously between us. “It’s better that we keep moving.”
I nodded. “I agree.”
Aleksy got to his feet. “The tunnels it is, then. It might take us longer, but we can’t risk being in the air when a storm hits. Make sure you’re all prepared for a journey. Take bags with water and food, data pads, so we can stay in touch, and weapons.”
Everyone got to their feet and started gathering what was needed.
The heavy table we’d been standing around, the same one that had the plans Tara had taken from Borys’s place laid out on, stood upon a rug, which in turn covered a thick stone floor.
Aleksy put his hands against the wood. “Help me move this.”
We lined up on one side and pushed. The table scraped across the floor, the legs taking one half of the rug with it. I’d been expecting to see a trap door or something similar beneath, but the floor didn’t look any different.
I side-glanced at Miko, trying to work out what was happening.
Aleksy stepped forward and pressed the heel of his boot to one corner of a flagstone. I jerked back as the piece of floor fell away, revealing darkness beyond.
“This leads to the tunnels,” he said, handing each team leader a flashlight. “We’re going to need to get away from the city, and Nad’s team will head north toward the Dunes. Tunnels leading south will go to the Unmade Territories, and south-east will lead to the Edge Forest. We’ll travel together until we reach the outskirts of the city, and the city wall, and then separate.”
The secrecy around the other locations was for this exact reason. Polityk Borys and those above him knew there would be Trads and other races, too, who would not be happy at the prospect of multiple facilities used to imprison women and birth Trad babies. Athions had similar problems with our population, but we’d never stoop as low as kidnapping and forced pregnancies. Just like all races, we had our bad eggs, but they didn’t come in the form of our government. On Athion, the rebels were the bad guys, not the good ones.
One by one, we dropped down through the hole and into the tunnels beneath. The Trad who’d arrived to tell us about the storms stayed behind to cover the hole back up so no one would ever know we’d come this way.
Our group remained together. Zoe was behind us with Trovik and Zuniq. We moved quietly, knowing that a group of this size would get unwanted attention if we were spotted by the guards.
“Are you okay?” I asked Tara as we stepped farther into the darkness of the tunnels. She was ahead of me, and though each leader held a light, the illumination was faint.
“Are you okay?” she threw back at me, glancing over her shoulder, the corner of her lips curling in a smile. “You were Borys’s prisoner, too, remember.”
That’s not the same thing, and you know it, I said in my head, keeping my thoughts to myself. I didn’t want to stir up memories of what she’d forced herself to do with that son of a bitch. I remembered when I’d seen them together at the fighting pit, the way his hand had been around her waist and his gaze had dropped down her body. She didn’t want to talk about it, but I knew she’d had to do more than simply look pretty on his arm, and the idea sickened me.
But she was asking about me now, and so I nodded.
Tara and I shared something the others didn’t. We were both strangers here. Both aliens on the planet of Tradrych.
Aleksy, Nad, and Miko all wanted her to one day feel as though she belonged here, but would she ever, really? And what about on my home planet, Athion? Would human women ever feel at home there, too? It was asking a lot, and what, exactly, were we offering in return? There was only us, and I couldn’t help but wonder if that would be anything like enough.
“Are the tunnels normally this quiet?” Tara hissed to Nad up ahead.
“The guards implement the curfew and, together with the threat of the impending storm, it must be keeping everyone in their homes,” Nad replied.
I cocked an eyebrow. “Is that a good thing?”
“Not necessarily. It means there are fewer people around to spot us, but also that we’re more likely to be challenged if we’re seen.”
We walked for another hour or so and then came to a halt.
“This is where we’re going to need to separate,” Aleksy announced. “We’ll be going south and southeast, while your group travels north. We’ll reconvene back at the safe house when the job is done.”
A strange atmosphere filled the tunnels as we said our goodbyes and wished each other good luck. Tara hugged Zoe, and then the two women stepped apart, ready to go their different ways, for the time being at least.
We were determined, but an undercurrent of fear ran through us. This could all easily go wrong, and we might lose one or more of the teams. We all knew there was a possibility this was the last time we’d see each other.
Chapter Eight
We left the city, and the rest of the rebels, far behind us.
I fought tears at the possibility of never seeing Zoe or Aleksy, or any of the others again. Thoug
h I was grateful not to have been separated from Nad and Miko and Diarus, I still cared about them, too.
The four of us stayed close together, instinctively having each other’s backs.
“Zoe will be fine,” Miko told me as we walked, clearly picking up on how quiet I was. “Human women are important. The others will take good care of her.”
“She didn’t want to go with them, though.” I sniffed, guilt churning through me. “I told her she was safe now, but instead I’ve sent her off with more Trads.”
“Not just any Trads,” Nad said. “She’s with Aleksy. If it wasn’t for him, none of this would be happening and there would be no hope for women here. I understand it’s not easy, but at some point, she’s going to have to learn to trust us.”
I nodded, knowing he was right. It wouldn’t do Zoe any good to spend the next few weeks, or even months, or longer, being frightened of the rest of the rebels. Of course, the goal would be to send the women home, but we had no idea how long that was going to take. She couldn’t live in fear all that time.
The tunnels felt as though they were going on forever, as though the rest of the world no longer existed. We were well outside of the city walls by now, walking beneath the desert above. We didn’t pass a single soul.
Whenever we reached a junction or a turning, we stayed north. Eventually, these would come to an end, and we’d be in the region they called the Lone Rift Dunes, but we’d still need to travel across them to find the facility.
After several hours and with aching legs, we took a break, sitting on the ground to drink some water and pass around some food. None of us wanted to stay in one spot for too long, however, aware that we didn’t want to be seen.
We helped each other back to our feet and kept going.
The Tradrych Strain- The Complete Series Page 29