“No, Silas doesn’t care about Commander Norrin. In fact, if it weren’t for the good of the village, he would never have accepted the commander’s plan to impregnate you. I still don’t know how he’s going to let them take your babies or you. I don’t think he realized how it would be with you two.”
“What do you mean with us two?” Rowan asked, tilting her head to the side. She had come to see a different side of Silas, that was certain, but to him, keeping her wasn’t a possibility. He said as much himself, or at least she had understood as much: he’d do what he needed to do to get his son back and keep his village safe and he said it knowing her fate. She accepted it in a way, even if it did hurt.
Rowan walked off a few steps. It did hurt. Even understanding his reasons, it hurt that he could not choose her. But what if what Kara was saying was right? That he had marked her as his? She touched the back of her neck.
“You ok?” Kara asked from behind her.
“I’m fine,” Rowan said, turning to Kara. “Let’s get our work done.”
* * *
It was early afternoon before Kara went home and Dr. Stone called Rowan in to eat lunch and take some rest from the sun. All the while, her mind was spinning, coming up with scenario after scenario of what was happening, of what the alerts meant.
Dr. Stone’s first question took Rowan by surprise: “How are you settling in?”
“Um, all right, I guess. People are not staring at me anymore, or at least they’re staring less and Charlie’s mother seems to have turned around.”
“I’m glad to hear it.” At that moment his tablet went off with a similar alert as Rowan turned to get a glimpse. But Dr. Stone just pushed it away and shook his head. “This will never end.”
“What is happening?”
“Nothing that concerns us and it would be wise for those on the council to remember that,” Dr. Stone said.
“Can I ask you how long you’ve been living in this settlement?” she asked.
He studied her for a moment. “I was born at the colony you come from,” he said. “I left it when I was twelve. I’m now forty-one.”
“You left? It’s not possible. It’s forbidden.”
“Precisely why I ran away. The commander who was in place then was worse than the one they have now but no one seems able to see that. The colony’s laws are not our own. We should not interfere but keep to our own government. Work on becoming as self-sufficient as possible so that we no longer depend on them.”
“But they still hold power over the settlements,” she said, nodding.
“Yes. Without them we have no electricity and no clean water, to mention just two very necessary things. But they need us just as much. We provide food for them, food they are unable to grow, but as they claim all land as their own, they look at it more as a leasing of land and a peaceful existence in exchange for keeping our heads down and carrying on as we always have.”
“And these alerts are news of unrest within the city walls?”
“Yes and within some settlements. Truly, I understand that we will never be free of the colonies. It is simply not possible. Even if we were to do all that we had agreed to, they could wipe us out in a matter of hours if it so pleased Commander Norrin,” he said with disgust in his voice. “Just look at how they got Silas to go along with the plan to breed you.”
Before she could answer, a nurse rushed in out of breath. “Doctor, we have an emergency!”
Dr. Stone was on his feet in an instant and rushing out to follow the nurse. Rowan remained forgotten in his office. She eyed the tablet on his desk and glanced at the door before picking it up. As she did, another alert flashed on the screen:
Explosion at Colony Andorra market square. Chaos, rebel forces rising. Attacks on settlements have begun.
The screen went blank. Rowan stared at it just as the door flew open and Silas rushed in.
She jumped to her feet in surprise, her heart in her throat. “What’s happening?” she asked when she saw his face.
“Come!” he said, taking her by the arm and dragging her out of the clinic.
“What is it? What’s happening?”
“Soldiers from the colony are coming,” he said, his hands digging into her arm as he nearly lifted her off her feet to carry her.
“What?”
“Commander Norrin has been arrested,” he said, pushing open the front door of his house.
“I don’t understand.”
He stopped and turned to her. “There has been intelligence that soldiers have been sent to collect you. Soldiers sent by the captain.”
“No.”
“I won’t let them take you.”
“You can’t stop them! He’ll have you killed. He’ll kill anyone who gets in his way.”
“Silas!”
Both Rowan and Silas turned to the door to find two men standing there. One of them, the one who had called out Silas’ name, Rowan recognized to be Jonah, one of the elders.
“I will not give her to them,” Silas said, his voice hard, as if he’d already had this conversation.
“It’s the only way to keep the village safe. Remember what happened six…”
“No!”
Jonah exhaled and walked inside. “My friend,” he said. “This is impossible. Your son is lost, accept it. The rest of us have but you are unable. Let him go.”
“I cannot!”
“Silas,” Rowan said, “Your son…”
He turned to her, his eyes red.
“He’s not… There’s something you should know,” she began hesitantly.
“What do you know of my son? What have you not told me?”
“The picture on your tablet, the one you showed me, I recognized it. I recognized him.”
Silas’ expression changed and he shook her once.
“Please,” she begged, hands on his chest. He eased his grip and she continued. “Some months ago, I woke in the night from noise in the courtyard. Outside, two guards led a boy into our building. It was strange and I watched but there was something wrong, something different about the child.”
Silas’ lips tightened.
“She knows it too, Silas. Perhaps you will listen to her even if you will not believe your own informant,” Jonah said.
Silas kept his eyes on Rowan all along, the battle within him playing out as a wild storm in his eyes.
“There’s a reason Commander Norrin didn’t show you his eyes. It wasn’t an accident.”
“What are you saying?” he asked her through clenched teeth.
“He’s not like you, Silas,” she said.
His eyes narrowed, filling with tears and it tore her apart to continue. “No.”
“He’s like me. That’s why they wanted you to breed with me because you can make a male breeder. He was the first of his kind. You created him with your wife. You carry the same gene as we do.”
“No.”
“They won’t give him back, Silas,” Jonah said.
Silas ignored the man and continued to stare at Rowan who now felt the hot trail of tears streaming down her face. “He’s right. If your son was who I saw that night, a male breeder, then they won’t let him go. Ever.”
* * *
Silas’ head was spinning. He walked through the village seeing nothing, hearing no one. Jonah tried to speak to him but he pushed the man’s hand from his shoulder and walked out of the settlement.
They had received intelligence earlier in the day about his son. Jonah and Alistair had gone behind his back to obtain information about him and what they had learned had been unbelievable, shocking news. And this on the heels of the long-awaited uprising.
Captain Amro had assumed command of Andorra and Commander Norrin lay injured and jailed on the captain’s orders. The captain had then sent word that he would be collecting his breeder and that should she not be returned peacefully, he would level the entire settlement, killing any and all who stood in his way. The man’s obsession with Rowan was nothing like Si
las had ever seen before and Silas refused to give her to him, refused to simply hand her over. But the news of Tobias, of what he was, and of the sure fact that neither Commander Norrin nor Captain Amro would return the boy to him…
No! He would not allow them to keep Tobias. They had no right. Breeder or not, he had a right to a life, a home, and a family, and he belonged with his father!
He needed to think, to figure this out. He wanted his son back and he had no intention of returning Rowan to them. Amro would kill her, he would do to her what they had done to Ina.
* * *
Rowan sat in the underground bunker beneath Silas’ home. He had placed her there so that Captain Amro and his soldiers would not be able to track her from her device as the walls were too thick to allow the signal to penetrate. He had given her instruction that she was not to move an inch. If she did, he would punish her severely.
Silas now knew about his son and so did the elders. The latter had accepted the fact that he would never be returned to his home and expected Silas to as well. But how could they ask a father to abandon his son? What father could?
She stood and walked around the small space. How much time had passed? She scratched her forehead and thought, wanting to do the right thing, unsure what that right thing was. Well, was she unsure though? She knew Captain Amro well enough to know that he would stop at nothing to get to her. He would kill Silas easily, destroy the settlement without a thought as to the people, and he would use Silas’ son without any consideration to the fact that the boy was just that, a boy.
But perhaps if she went to him on her own, he would spare Silas. Spare the village and the boy. She would not know until she tried and if she did nothing but sit here, he could level the village and kill everyone. He had the soldiers and the arms to do it.
But did she want to disobey Silas? And could she walk away?
She had no choice. Sitting here in hiding was cowardly and she was not that.
Rowan rose to her feet and climbed up the ladder, pushing the door open and quietly emerging into their shared home. Dark was approaching and she gathered her fur. The journey would be two days, perhaps more, but the sooner she began it, the sooner she would arrive in Andorra and turn herself in to the captain. At least she would have the knowledge that she did what she could and the blood of innocent villagers, among them her friends, would not be on her hands. This thought comforted her as she walked quietly out the door.
Chapter Fourteen
“Where is she?” Silas stormed into the hall the following morning interrupting Jonah and Alistair’s meeting.
“Silas,” Alistair said, shocked at his abrupt entrance.
“Where is Rowan?”
“I told you we would give you a day to decide. I do not know where she is, I assume she is where you left her.”
“She is not.”
“Then perhaps she chose herself to do the right thing,” Alistair replied. He had always been the harder of the two men.
Silas looked at them and knew they were not lying. He turned and walked out the door and into his office to collect his tablet. He hadn’t even reached the edge of the settlement when the device located her.
“Shit!”
Without stopping for food or any other materials, Silas went after her knowing she was on her way back to the colony.
“Damn it!” he muttered, walking fast. He knew her plan exactly, knew how her mind worked. She would go back, give herself up to the colony in exchange for the release of his son, for the safety of his settlement. The idea, as noble and wholly selfless as it was, was naïve at best.
Silas steeled himself. No, it was important now to remember that her disobedience could very well cost her her life, and not only hers, but those of the people of his settlement as well as his son. As courageous as her action was, it was also stupid.
She had some hours’ start on him, but the path she was taking was not the shortest and if he were fast, he could cut her off at the very waterfall they had so enjoyed the last time. He’d warned her to stay put and when he found her, after ensuring that she was all right, he would teach her a lesson in obedience she would not soon forget.
* * *
Rowan looked around her, trying to get her bearings. She took a sip of water from the jug she carried and sat down on a rock under a lone tree. Her gaze traveled the panoramic scene before her, heat rising off the earth in blurred waves as the sound of a faraway insect carried on the slight breeze to her ears. She looked up at the position of the sun, knowing at least to follow a general northerly direction but unsure of how far she’d gone off the path last night. She hadn’t wanted to rest but to get as far from the village as she could instead. She hadn’t planned well, carrying no food, and she knew Silas would come after her.
A few moments of rest and she climbed back onto her feet. When she felt like she would drop from exhaustion, she came upon a landmark she recognized, a specific tree that looked to be leaning heavily in one direction. She smiled and with a renewed energy, began the mile long walk to the waterfall.
* * *
She must be taking rest, Silas thought as he approached the tree that marked the path to the waterfall. She remained in the same place for the last hour. Perhaps she had fallen asleep. But what if she were hurt? No, he couldn’t give in to thoughts of fear, not now when he was so close. He walked into the wooded area and up the path she would have taken. The deeper in he walked, the greater grew his feeling that something was wrong. Silas quickened his step, touching for the dagger he kept.
The faint sound of the hidden waterfall was the only sound he heard. He walked on, the display on his tablet showing that she had yet to move from the spot where she was. He would have called out to her but something told him to approach in silence and a few minutes later, he spotted her. He felt relief and fear at once when he realized why she sat so still, huddled against a tree. Her face was white, her eyes wide with terror. He heard her sniffle, saw her try to pull back, but panic would only result in her death.
“Stay as still as you can,” he whispered, withdrawing his dagger as he approached slowly.
The thick yellow snake with the bright red stripe along its spine that had wrapped itself around her legs hissed and turned its head at the sound of his approach, its split tongue darting out between its sharp fangs.
Rowan made a sound and he knew she was moments from losing it.
“Be quiet and still,” he repeated, never once taking his eyes from the snake that now turned its attention back to her.
Silas moved closer, seeing Rowan’s hands fist handfuls of earth as the serpent tugged her legs tighter. He’d have one chance to do this, one strike of his own before the snake would strike. This animal, a mutation due to the post-asteroid plague, was deadly with two ways to kill: the lethal poison of its fangs as well as the slow crushing power of its body.
Rowan’s scream was what caused him to jump into action in the next moment when the serpent reared its head back and opened its mouth, ready to strike. Silas threw his weight on top of the animal sideways, his arm wrapping around its neck while his dagger sliced into its throat. The snake was powerful and immediately turned its attention on its attacker. Silas rolled it onto the ground, his knife digging deeper, slicing through thick flesh as the animal wrapped its lower body around Silas’ legs and tried to squeeze. The serpent’s lunge at him was powerful, the creature was strong, but Silas stabbed again, this time nearly decapitating the thing. That was when Rowan began to scream, suddenly animated herself as the serpent’s life slowly seeped from its wounds and into the earth.
Silas held onto it, dragging his dagger through again, nearly splitting it in two and only when the creature’s body unwrapped itself from his legs and fell unmoving to the ground did he ease his hold on it. His breath came fast and sweat dropped onto the dead snake. Silas took his knife and with one final cut, severed the head completely from its body.
Dropping the dagger, he rolled off the snake, breathing hard,
and looked at Rowan who stood shaking, her panicked eyes on the dead, dismembered thing, on the bloody dagger, on him. She took two steps back, her hands fisted at her sides, her body hunched over with the shock of what she’d just witnessed, the terror of what had just happened to her. She opened her mouth to speak but her lips only trembled and tears fell from her eyes. Silas watched as she turned and ran.
Jumping to his feet, he ran after her, tackling her to the ground when she wouldn’t stop.
“Rowan!” he called out, pinning her to the ground with his hands on her shoulders, his weight over her hips.
It was as though she couldn’t see him though because she screamed and fought like the hellcat he’d named her until Silas caught her wrists and tightened his legs around hers, immobilizing her.
“Don’t touch me! Get it off me!” she yelled, shaking her head from side to side, still trying to fight him, stronger now with adrenaline pumping through her.
“The snake is dead, Rowan. It’s me, it’s Silas,” he said, but she wouldn’t listen, couldn’t hear him.
Silas picked her up and threw her over his shoulder, taking her little fists against his back, the kicks she managed against his belly. He walked her toward the water allowing her to scream and fight, wanting her to wear herself out. By the time he reached the water and walked into it, she began to tire. He set her in the water and held her, dunking her fully beneath the surface and dragging her up as she gasped and when her hands stopped beating but searched to find him, to find his strength, and her screams turned into sobs, he pulled her to him, cradling her head as she wept into his shoulder.
“Shh, it’s ok, you’re ok.”
She seemed to be trying to get closer to him, trying to climb into him.
“Shh. I’ve got you, you’re ok.” Silas felt her body begin to shiver, a sign of the shock leaving her system he hoped. He carried her slowly out of the water and to the shore. She didn’t fight him anymore. Instead, she turned her face into his chest and curled up into a small ball when he laid her down, her hands like claws gripping him until finally, she slept. While Silas watched her, she slowly settled, a shudder disrupting her still form now and again. Her knees remained close to her chest but her hands relaxed. He stayed as he was, holding her tight to him, fully aware of how close he had come to losing her. It was in that moment that his pity turned to something else.
Given to the Savage Page 16