Sasha spoke up. “You have two sisters and a female cousin. You’re used to female family around you, and that’s what you found here. You wouldn’t feel comfortable with anything else, so the water brought you what you most desired. But most Aqinas families suffer from too few females. Fritz has no sisters, no female cousins, and no nieces. His parents have one daughter-in-law besides me, and we are the only younger generation females in his family.”
“That’s terrible,” Frieda exclaimed. “What are you going to do about that? How can your people survive without bringing in human females from outside?”
“We can’t,” Trin replied, “but we can’t ask them to leave the Lycaon to come here. That would be....”
“What?” Frieda asked. “Would it be too much for your honor to handle? Holding back only feeds the other factions’ suspicions about you. Showing them you share their vulnerability would go a long way toward bridging the gap between you and the other factions.”
“Nothing can bridge the gap between us and the other factions,” Sasha told her. “They live on land and we live here. No faction would send those women to us, and the women would be crazy to come on their own. You know that.”
Frieda shook her head, but she couldn’t deny the truth. “There must be some way.”
Trin took her hand again. “There is. You’re here, and so is Sasha. Women will come to us. It just might take longer for us to recover.”
Frieda muttered under her breath. “There must be a way.”
Sasha looked away and started talking to someone else. Trin leaned forward. “How did your meeting go with Deek?”
Frieda’s head shot up. “It went fine. He’s very nice.”
Trin didn’t smile. She studied Frieda. “He is Fritz’s second. Did you know that?”
“His second what?” Frieda asked.
“Just his second,” Trin replied.
“I don’t understand you,” Frieda told her.
“He helps Fritz make decisions,” Trin replied. “When Fritz travels to negotiate with the other factions, Deek stands at his side. They’re really joint leaders together. If anything happens to Fritz, Deek will take over.”
Frieda narrowed her eyes. “Why are you telling me this?”
“I just thought you’d like to know,” Trin replied. “You seem to want to understand how things work here.”
“I do.” Frieda shifted in her seat. “No, I didn’t know that.”
“They work together at the convocation,” Trin went on.
“What’s the convocation?” Frieda asked.
“It’s where the Aqinas get together to monitor developments on land,” Trin replied. “We use the water to keep track of what the other factions are doing.”
“Do you mean like spying on them?” Frieda asked. “That sounds exactly like the other factions’ accusations against you.”
“We don’t spy on them,” Trin replied. “The water carries chemical signals all over the planet. The rain falls on the factions and carries their signals into the sea. These signals are available to anyone, but the Aqinas are the only ones who’ve developed the ability to read them.”
Frieda nodded. “I see. So you keep track of them and monitor what they’re doing. I suppose that gives you the ability to make your presence known to them at advantageous times.”
Trin cocked her head to one side. “You don’t like the idea of the convocation, do you?”
“It’s one thing to share thoughts and feelings and impressions and memories among yourselves,” Frieda argued. “You all expect it. You’re used to it. But using the same system to access the thoughts and feelings of unsuspecting people doesn’t sit right with me.”
“You didn’t give us permission to sense you in that stream when you fell off the balcony,” Trin pointed out. “But we did sense you, and we found you there. That’s how we managed to find you.”
“Your mother said you wouldn’t have brought me here if I hadn’t called you to do it,” Frieda countered. “She says I wouldn’t be here now if I hadn’t given my consent.”
“That is true,” Trin replied. “But you didn’t give it consciously, did you? Some part of you must have asked for a way to avoid going back to the Avitras. You might even argue you fell from the balcony as a deliberate strategy to escape.”
“What does that have to do with prying into the psyches of the unsuspecting factions?” Frieda asked. “How do you justify that?”
“We don’t pry into anything,” Trin replied. “We don’t pry into anybody’s thoughts and feelings. We don’t do it to you, and you’re right here in our own country. We are one with the water. We can’t change that. The water brings the same chemical signal to us that it brings to everyone. The same rain falls on us that falls on the other factions. We communicate through those water-borne signals. We couldn’t stop it if we tried.”
Frieda sighed, and her shoulders slumped. This conversation wasn’t going anywhere. A pair of women stood up and wandered out of the house. Frieda had already grown used to the inevitable reality that people came and went when she wanted them to. The rest of the group drifted away in twos and threes until only Jen, Trin, and Sasha remained.
Frieda stood up. “I better get home.”
Sasha nodded. “I’m meeting Fritz here. He’s celebrating Deek’s birthday with his family.”
Frieda’s heart leapt. Then it crashed into the depths of depression. Deek’s family had already been so kind to bring her to their home. She couldn’t expect to encroach on them again, especially for a personal family celebration. Deek was Fritz’s second, so of course Fritz and Sasha would be invited. But she was a stranger. She’d only met Deek once.
She moved toward the door and called over her shoulder. “Wish him a happy birthday for me.”
Chapter 4
Frieda leaned back in the tall grass of the meadow and scanned the surrounding landscape. What a strange country it was! She couldn’t decide if she loved it or wanted to run screaming back to the safety of dry land. Nothing made sense, not even how safe and happy and comfortable the place made her.
She gazed toward the wall. Only adult people walked back and forth in front of it. Why? No matter where she went, she saw only adults. The children remained hidden. Was she really so stuck in the adult world that children remained invisible to her?
A rustle in the grass made her turn around, and Deek stood behind her. He smiled down at her. “What are you doing down there?”
Frieda couldn’t stop herself from smiling back up at him. “I’m just sitting here, relaxing and thinking.”
He sat down on the grass next to her and leaned back on his arms the way she did. “What were you thinking about?”
“I was thinking about the children,” she replied. “And then you showed up.”
He studied her. “And?”
She didn’t say the words out loud. “I met some of your relatives yesterday.”
“I heard,” he replied. “Why didn’t you come to the celebration?”
“Do you mean your birthday celebration?” She snorted. “I wasn’t invited.”
“You don’t need an invitation,” he told her. “They took you to our home, didn’t they? That makes you family.”
“Since when?” she asked. “I just met them for the first time.”
He shook his head and looked away. “You don’t understand how it works here.”
“You’re right,” she replied. “I don’t, and that’s exactly why I didn’t come to your birthday celebration.”
“They would never have been able to take you to the house if you weren’t part of the family,” he told her.
“Why not?” she asked. “What would stop them?”
“The water,” he replied. “They would have taken you somewhere else, but not to our family home. You wouldn’t have been able to find it. It would have been invisible to you, and to them, if the water hadn’t intended you to go there.”
> “There’s a big difference between going there and being part of the family,” she pointed out.
“Not here,” he replied. “Going to the house, sitting around with the family and talking about things—you couldn’t do that if you didn’t belong to that house’s family. That’s the way it works here.”
“Does that mean Sasha and Fritz are part of your family, too?” she asked. “They went to your celebration.”
“Fritz has been my best friend since I was a boy,” he replied. “I’m closer to him than his own brothers.”
“Is that how you became his second?” she asked. “I thought one of his own brothers would be second in line to take the Alpha position after him.”
“We don’t have Alphas,” he replied, “and the leader position isn’t handed down through families. Fritz asked me to be his second. He trusts me more than anyone else, including his brothers.”
“What about Trin?” Frieda asked. “If Fritz is family, why didn’t he mate with your sister? I would think the leader would want an Aqinas mate, rather than a foreigner.”
“Sasha is Aqinas. She’s not a foreigner,” Deek replied. “Besides, Trin is already mated. She has four sons of her own.”
Frieda’s eyes widened. “I’m surprised. She doesn’t look old enough.”
“There are so few females here and so many unattached males that females don’t stay single for long,” he told her. “All females here have mates—except you.”
Her head shot up, but she found him gazing at her with quiet interest. She colored and looked away. “Trin told me the Aqinas have the same population problem the other factions have. I suppose that’s why you were so interested to meet me.”
“I wasn’t interested to meet you,” he replied. “I didn’t even know you were here until I met you in the meadow the other day. The water brought me to meet you, so it must have been you who were interested to meet me.”
“All I did,” Frieda shot back, “was look toward the wall and think about meeting some of the people over there. I met Sasha and Fritz, and I wanted to meet someone else. I didn’t ask for you.”
“But you must have,” he countered. “I wouldn’t have come if you hadn’t asked for me.”
Frieda smacked her lips and turned away. “This is ridiculous.”
“And you must have asked for me now, too,” he went on. “When you were thinking about the children, you must have asked for me. That’s the only reason I’m here.”
She threw up her hands. “This is the craziest system of social interaction I ever heard of. Who could live like this? It’s impossible.”
“Quite a lot of people live like this,” he replied. “From what I’ve seen in the convocations, the Aqinas are the biggest faction on the planet.”
“How is that possible?” she asked.
“It’s simple,” he replied. “We don’t sacrifice large segments of our population in repeated wars the way the others do. We live a peaceful life of family and connection.”
“You’re right,” she murmured. “I don’t know how the other factions can stand it.”
“They can’t stand it,” he told her. “They’re on the brink of collapse from the pressure on their populations. They don’t have enough women to replace the men they keep wasting in these senseless wars. If they keep going the way they are, the Aqinas will be the only faction left on this planet.”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” she asked.
“No, we wouldn’t like it at all,” he countered. “We’ve done everything we can to keep peace with the other factions, but they insist on hating each other. There’s nothing any of us could do to stop them.”
“What will you do if they collapse?” she asked.
He shrugged. “We haven’t discussed it, but I’m sure we would take in the stragglers if they wanted to come. We would certainly welcome any females that wanted to come, but we would require the males to give up their warlike ways. They would have to if they wanted to live underwater.”
Frieda nodded. “That makes sense.”
“What about you?” he asked. “Have you decided whether you want to stay, or will you go back to the land?”
“I haven’t decided,” she replied. “I can see advantages to going back, and I wouldn’t want to give them up by staying here.”
“What are the advantages of going back?” he asked.
“In the first place,” she replied, “I could see my family again and set their minds at ease that I’m alive and well and not dead in a stream somewhere. As generous and kind as your family was, it only made me miss my own family more.”
He nodded. “I can understand that.”
“I might even be able to help the Aqinas by going back,” she went on.
“How could you help us?” he asked. “We don’t need any help.”
“You’re wrong there,” she replied. “Trin said you would never ask the human women to leave the Lycaon to come here to help rebuild your population. A human woman who had been here and went back could explain to them what it’s really like. Some of them might decide to give it a try, once they heard firsthand what it’s like.”
He cocked his head. “Interesting idea.”
“The other factions are suspicious of you because they know nothing about you,” she went on. “No one has ever come back from the Aqinas. Everything they know about you comes from the brief times you’ve stuck your noses out of the water to intervene in their affairs. It makes sense they would impute the worst motives to your actions.”
He listened with sparkling eyes.
“Someone who knew you and could describe in detail how you live and how you think could dispel those myths and prejudices,” she told him. “Someone like that could get the human women to come and live with you. I knew a lot less when I made the decision to go live with the Avitras. If someone told me what I know now, I might have come here instead.”
“Would you, really?” he asked. “Are you sure about that?”
She dropped her eyes to the ground. “Well, maybe not. But it certainly would have helped. Besides, Sasha is here. When they hear there’s another human woman here mated to one of your men, they’ll realize it can’t be all bad. No one knows Sasha is here. They probably think it isn’t possible for a human to live here. They think you’re slugs living in the mud.”
He burst out laughing.
She smiled. “It isn’t so funny when you think the Aqinas could also collapse from some misguided sense of social honor that stops you from sending word to the Lycaon that you’re in just as desperate need of females as the other factions. You should be grateful someone is willing to carry that message for you.”
His laughter died, but his eyes twinkled. He leaned forward and took her hand. “You’re right, and I am grateful. I’m glad to hear the only reasons you could have for leaving are concern for your family and concern for the Aqinas. I’m glad you don’t hate it here enough to want to leave.”
“I don’t hate it here,” she replied. “I love it here.”
His eyes widened. “You do?”
“Sure,” she replied. “What’s not to love? The whole place is geared to be perfect in every way. It’s the most ideal, most beautiful place I can possibly imagine.” She chuckled. “I guess that’s the whole point.”
“Then why don’t you stay?” he asked.
“I haven’t decided if I’m going to stay or not,” she replied. “But whatever I decide to do, it will be permanent. If I leave, I can’t come back, and if I stay, I can’t leave.”
“You can always leave,” he told her. “You’re not a prisoner here.”
She shook her head. “If I decide to stay, I will stay. There’s no going back. I couldn’t live here with the question always nagging at my mind if I should be here or not. I have to decide and stand by my decision. That’s the only way I could live with it.”
He gazed into her eyes. Then he laughed again. “Now I understand
why the water brought me to meet you.”
“Why?” she asked.
“What you just said about making a decision and standing by it,” he replied. “That’s why.”
She narrowed her eyes. “What’s so funny?”
“Nothing. Nothing at all.” He shook his head and chuckled. “Believe me, whatever decision you make, I’m sure it will be the right one.”
“I’m glad you think so,” she replied. “I’m not so sure.”
His laughter died and he became serious again. “You’re a strong woman who knows your own mind. You might not be sure what you will do yet, but your way will become clear to you soon enough. When you make your decision, you will go through with it and never look back.”
She stared at him. “Is that all you have to say?”
“What more do you want me to say?” he asked.
“Aren’t you going to beg me to stay?” she asked.
“Beg?” he repeated. “No, I won’t beg you to do anything.”
She blushed. “I don’t mean beg. I wouldn’t want you to beg, either. I only meant aren’t you going to say you don’t want me to leave?”
“You should know by now I don’t want you to leave,” he replied. “None of us does. We need you too much.”
She smacked her lips. “I know that. I’m not talking about the Aqinas. I’m talking about you.”
He studied her with his head on one side. “What about me?”
She yanked her hand out of his grip. “You’re impossible. Go away.”
But he didn’t go away. He sat there and scrutinized her with his inscrutable expression. The longer he sat there, the more he annoyed her. This was the first time someone hadn’t immediately withdrawn from her presence at her first thought that she might prefer to be alone.
She glared at him. “What are you still doing here?”
He smiled. Then he sighed. “All right. You win.”
“Did we have a contest?” she shot back.
He leaned forward and took her hand, and this time, it wasn’t like all the times Jen and Trin and Sasha took her hand. His was the first human touch she’d felt since she gave her sister Anna a hug the night before she fell out of that tree. Of all the people who took her by the hand in Aqinas territory since then, he was the first to really touch her.
Damen (Dragons of Kratak Book 2) Page 54