by Luna Voss
As though I'm committing to it.
I think of Drokal, and I picture the adorably possessive, protective look he gets on his face whenever he looks at me. I think of the time I spent with him last night, and the burning passion that filled every moment between us. I think of Tilda, and I remember the love I saw in her eyes when she spoke of her relationship with Drokal's father.
I can commit to this. For now, at least.
Besides, for all I know, I could be carrying Drokal's child.
* * *
Just as it begins to get dark, I hear a knock on my door.
I open it, and see Tilda on the other side. She's carrying a fuzzy tusk-bear fur cloak. She smiles at me warmly.
"Are you ready for your mating ceremony?" she asks, beaming.
I smile at her. "I'm a little nervous, but yes. I'm ready."
She hands me the cloak. "Then go put this on, and come back out when you’re ready. I will take you to the ceremony." Her wrinkled face breaks into an expression that I can only interpret as suggestive. "Oh, and Cleo? You’re not supposed to wear anything under the fur. Not a stitch."
Blushing, I take the cloak from her and close the door. I strip down and put it on, and it feels soft and warm against my naked body. What kind of ritual demands that I wear a cloak with nothing on underneath? Even with the thick garment protecting me, my nudity makes me feel vulnerable.
Taking a deep breath, I step out of my chamber and follow Tilda to the turbo-lift.
"What is a Kyrzon wedding ceremony like?" I ask her. "You must have gone through this yourself."
"I believe it varies in each clan," she says.
"Well, what is the wedding ceremony like in this clan?"
She shoots me a grin. "Oh, I won't spoil the surprise. You'll find out soon enough."
Tilda leads me out of Castle Drok and away from the city. We walk through trees until we enter a wide open field. There, it seems that the whole tribe is assembled, or at least, much of it. They all stand together, facing the front of the field, where I see Drokal's silhouette standing in front of a large bonfire.
"Go to him," Tilda whispers, nudging me.
I walk to the front of the field, feeling many sets of eyes following me, very aware of how naked I am under my fur cloak. As I get close to Drokal, I can see that he is completely nude, his chiseled body illuminated in the firelight. Every inch of him, from head to toe, is painted red with intricate designs. Even his face is covered in paint.
He holds out his hands as I approach, and I take them. From the crowd, an elderly Kyrzon man steps forward, his own face marked with a similar set of designs. A priest, perhaps?
"We gather here on this night to witness the union of Drokal and Cleopatra," says the priest, the words coming out with practiced ease.
"May their children be many," the crowd murmurs in unison.
The priest steps up to Drokal. "Chief Drokal, protector of our clan, I have but one question to ask you. Is Cleopatra your woman?"
"She is," says Drokal, puffing out his chest. His face is proud.
The priest stands now before me. "Cleopatra, representative of humankind, new mother to this clan. I have but one question. Is Drokal your man?"
"He is," I affirm.
"Then it is time for your mate to carry you through the fire," says the priest, and he turns his back to me. "Cleopatra, you may disrobe."
As if on cue, every single Kyrzon in the crowd turns their backs. I look to Drokal, and he nods.
Hoping very much that this next part of the ceremony doesn't actually involve Drokal carrying me through that huge bonfire, I take a deep breath, and allow my fur cloak to fall to the ground.
Drokal steps forward and lifts me up in his arms. I feel the texture of the paint on his bare skin as he holds me. He begins to carry me in the direction of the fire, and I squeeze his arm in terror. He knows that humans aren't fireproof, right?
"Trust me," Drokal whispers into my ear.
Next to the fire, glowing through the darkness, is a bed of coals. I relax slightly upon seeing this.
A coal-walk definitely beats a fire-walk.
Drokal gives me a squeeze, and then without a moment's hesitation, he strides confidently across the bed of coals. I cling to him, feeling the heat radiating onto my naked body from below.
After stepping off the coals, Drokal puts me down, and we walk back to where we were standing before. He pulls the tusk-bear fur cloak off the ground, shakes it off, and places delicately it over my shoulders.
"Clan Drokal, you may now gaze upon my mate," he announces.
The assembled Kyrzons turn around to face us, and they begin to applaud. The priest steps up to us and throws a handful of red dust in the air.
"You are mated," declares the priest.
Drokal beams at me, love in his eyes. He leans in to kiss me, and every warrior in the field hurries to avert their gaze.
Chapter Twenty-Three
I wake up the next morning with warm, fuzzy memories of the night before still flashing through my mind. I turn over in bed, wanting to cuddle up against Drokal, but I’m unable to reach him. I open my eyes, and see that I’m alone in bed.
My mate is gone.
I get out of bed feeling confused. Where could he be? Surely he wouldn’t leave me again, the day after our mating ceremony.
I had really been looking forward to waking up next to him.
Dejected, I head down to breakfast, thinking that perhaps Drokal is already eating.
He’s not. When I enter the great hall, his chair is empty, just as it has been since I arrived. I take my seat next to Kalish, disappointed.
“Where is Drokal?” I ask Kalish, dishing up.
“Out,” he tells me. “On a mission. I’m in charge until he returns.”
Resentment washes over me. I can’t believe that Drokal would abandon me like this again. He didn’t even bother to say goodbye, or tell me where he was going. What kind of start to a marriage is that?
Maybe I am just Drokal’s breeder. It sure doesn’t seem like he takes me seriously. He wouldn’t even listen to me the day before our ceremony, when I was making some very valid points about the prisoners.
The prisoners.
Shit. Have they been locked in a cell this entire time?
“What of the human woman and the warrior she was captured with?” I say, feeling suddenly guilty for forgetting about them. “Are they still in captivity?”
“I ordered them to be released,” says Kalish. “I do not believe they mean us harm.”
“And Drokal is okay with this?” I ask incredulously. After how resistant he was to the idea of letting them go, this is hard for me to believe.
Kalish nods. “Drokal left the issue to my judgment. He trusts me to make correct decisions in his absence.”
I stew in anger and frustration. Drokal didn’t listen to a word I had to say about letting the prisoners free. Now his brother says the exact same thing, and that’s all it takes to change his mind?
That is some serious disrespect, and I do not appreciate it.
“Where are they now?” I ask Kalish. “The prisoners, I mean.”
“I believe they are being released this very moment,” he says. “Why?”
I don’t bother to answer his question. “Where is the jail cell?”
“Uh, it’s on the level below us, in the portion of the ship that is underground.”
I get up from the table, not bothering to finish my food. I want to talk to the woman from New Sutter, to find out if she’s okay.
“Where you going?” I hear Kalish’s voice calling after me as I speed-walk to the turbo-lift.
I take the lift down a level, which I’ve never actually done before. My understanding was that the lower decks of Castle Drok were mostly just used for storage. I exit the lift and move forward, looking for the jail cell, when I see the blond human and her Kyrzon mate walking down the corridor toward me, flanked by two Clan Drokal guards. I approach them, and t
he woman’s eyes light up as she recognizes me.
“How are you?” I ask, falling into pace with them as they walk back to the turbo-lift.
“Better than I was last night,” she scowls. “I never thought I would see you again after our Auction Day.”
“Me, neither,” I say, feeling instant relief at having another human to talk to. “My name is Cleo, by the way.”
“I’m Lily,” she tells me. She indicates the warrior next to her, his hand placed protectively on her back. “And this is Ragga.”
I glance at him, and he nods a terse greeting.
“Ragga purchased you at the auction?” I ask Lily.
“No,” she says. “It’s… a long story.”
“But you travel together?”
“Yes,” she says, nuzzling him affectionately. “We’re… well, it’s complicated. He saved my life.”
We all pile into the turbo-lift and ride it up to the ground level. Drokal’s soldiers insist on accompanying us all the way until we leave Castle Drok.
“Will you be living here with us?” I ask. “I’m mated to the chief. I’m sure I could convince him to allow you to stay.”
Even as I say this, doubt creeps into my mind. Do I really have any good reason to believe that I have the ability to influence Chief Drokal?
The warrior Ragga snorts in contempt. “No, we will not be staying here in Drokal territory. We will be making our home elsewhere, where your mate will not be able to throw us into a cell whenever he pleases.”
I open my mouth to answer, but I can think of nothing to say. I can’t blame him for being angry. I look to Lily, hoping she’ll jump in.
“I’m glad to see that you’re safe and well,” she says. “And I hope we get to see each other again someday. But you have to understand why we don’t want to stay here.”
I walk with them to the outskirts, and then watch as the two of them disappear into the forest. Ragga still has his arm around Lily, as though he’d rather have it torn off then let her go. I can tell by the way they’re interacting that the two of them are in love, and I feel a twinge of sadness as I remember that my own mate has left me here alone.
I spend the rest of the day feeling lonely and frustrated. Is this, then, to be my life as Drokal’s mate? To have him not take my opinions seriously, leave me alone whenever he pleases, and basically treat me as though my only purpose is to give him babies?
None of the other Kyrzons engage with me at dinner. Without Drokal there to include me in the conversation, I might as well be eating alone. I catch one of the Kyrzon women glaring at me again, and I shrink in my seat, overcome with angst and unhappiness.
I am painfully alone.
I go back up to my chamber after dinner and open my bag of personal effects, desperate for something that reminds me of home. Out of the bag falls a radio communicator, the one that Julia gave me before I left.
I stare at it, thinking. An idea occurs to me.
I think there might be a way for me to get in touch with Julia after all.
Chapter Twenty-Four
I wait until it’s late enough that I’m confident everyone else in Castle Drok will be asleep, and then I creep out of my chamber and head for the weapons room. As I walk in, I see what I had been hoping for: unlike Fort Sutter, the weapons room here has a long-range targeting system.
Clutching the radio communicator Julia gave me, I step up to the targeting console, which occupies its own island at the center of the room, separate from the laser cannons. I power the system on, and to my relief, it boots up without error.
My fingers tap the keyboard as I search through the menu, trying to access its advanced features. Finally, I come across an admin-only part of the menu, which I’m able to break into using an access code I know from the Ship back home.
“I can’t believe that worked,” I mutter to myself, scanning through the list of advanced features. If I needed any further confirmation that this ship is related to the one in New Sutter, that was it.
My eyes land on the feature I had been looking for: advanced manual target-finding, with an option to feed my own signal into the system. I engage manual target-finding mode, and it asks me to use the jack underneath the console to input my own signal for targeting.
I check the jack under the console, and am relieved to see that it matches the connection on my communicator. I plug the communicator into the targeting system, and the screen flickers for a moment before the words “signal acquired” appear.
Perfect.
I aim the targeting system in the direction of New Sutter, and hit the button to start broadcasting my signal.
“Julia? This is Cleo, broadcasting from Drokal Territory. Julia, do you read me?”
My communicator returns nothing but static. I wait a minute, and then try again.
“Julia? Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3. This is Cleopatra of New Sutter, broadcasting from Drokal Territory. Julia, do you read me?”
Still nothing. My shoulders slump, disappointed. I suppose it was too much to hope that Julia would still be checking her communicator every night. Besides, it’s late. For all I know, she could be sleeping.
Still, I can hold out hope that maybe she has her device set on low-power mode, waiting for a broadcast. Maybe she’ll detect that I tried to signal her, and be ready for me to try again tomorrow.
I decide to give it one last go. “Julia, I know you’re probably not near your communicator right now, but I really hope you get this message. I miss you. I miss you so much. I’m going to try and contact you again tomorrow at the same time, and I really hope you hear me.” I pause for a moment, waiting. Nothing but static. “Okay, Cleopatra out,” I say sadly. “I hope I can talk to you soon, Julia.”
I’m about to disconnect my communicator, when suddenly, Julia’s voice crackles through the tiny speaker: “Cleo! Cleo, I’m here! I came so close to missing your message. I can’t believe you were able to contact me!”
My heart soars. “Julia! It’s so good to hear your voice. I wasn’t sure that this would work. How are things in New Sutter?”
“Same old, same old,” says my friend. “How is it that you’re able to reach me? Are you near Human Territory?”
“No, I’m in Drokal Territory,” I tell her. “It’s a long story how I was able to boost the signal. I don’t know how long it will last.”
Julia falls silent for a moment. “I heard you were purchased by Chief Drokal,” she says nervously. “I’ve been so worried about you. How are you doing?”
I shrug, even though I know she can’t see me. “I’m doing okay. Mostly, I’m just really lonely here. I don’t feel like anyone accepts me.”
“And what about Drokal? How is he treating you? Has he hurt you?”
“No, no,” I assure her hurriedly. “He’s… he’s actually more considerate than you would expect.” I pause, trying to figure out how to communicate the complicated relationship I have with him, and the intimate moments we’ve shared. “He can actually be pretty sweet sometimes… you know, for a Kyrzon,” I finish lamely.
I don’t know how to describe my relationship with Drokal to her. I don’t know how she could begin to understand, having never left Human Territory or experienced the Kyrzon world.
“That’s… good,” Julia replies. “Are you happy?”
The lengthy pause before I answer says enough.
“I don’t fit in here at all,” I admit finally. “In some ways, I really like being Drokal’s mate, but even that doesn’t matter when he spends all his time away on missions rather than with me. And it’s like he doesn’t take me seriously at all, like he thinks I’m just some puny human whose only use is for breeding. He doesn’t listen to my ideas. I feel like I’m his pet.” I’m really starting to rant now, just spilling all of my angst and frustration from the last few days. “And the other Kyrzons treat me the same way. Worse, actually. Most of them won’t even make the effort to talk to me, and you should see the awful glares I get from the Kyrzon women.�
�
“Kyrzon women?” Julia interrupts me, sounding amazed. “I guess they really do exist.”
“Yeah, and they’re bitches,” I snort. “I think they’re jealous of me for being mated to the chief or something. They keep giving me these evil looks during meals. It’s fucking intimidating.”
My friend’s voice is gentle when she replies. “It sounds like you really aren’t happy there.”
“I’m not,” I say. “Maybe if… I don’t even know. I hate this. I want to go home.”
“Maybe you should come home,” Julia suggests. “There has to be a way.”
I think about it, and suddenly remember overhearing a conversation at dinner about how a group of warriors would be leaving for New Sutter the next day to attend the auction.
“I have an idea,” I tell her. “Some warriors from Clan Drokal are leaving for the New Sutter auction house tomorrow. I might be able to join them.”
“You should do it!” she says excitedly. “It would be so good to see you again. How many Brides have the chance to come back home? You’d be one of the rare few.”
“I’ll try,” I agree. “I can’t guarantee it will work. But you’re right. I need to try to get out of here while I still have the chance.”
Julia squeals in delight, creating a terrible crackling noise through the low-quality speaker.
“Julia, I should go. I need to be well-rested for tomorrow. But hopefully I’ll see you soon!”
“I can’t wait!” my friend exclaims. “Cleo, be safe!”
“Promise,” I tell her. “Oh, and Julia? Tell Thomas that I’m okay. Tell him I’m safe, and that I’m coming home to New Sutter.”
Julia agrees. I disconnect the communicator, power down the targeting system, and head back to Drokal’s chamber to sleep, my heart pounding with excitement.
Tomorrow, I’m going home.
Chapter Twenty-Five
The next morning, I wake up feeling surprisingly calm. There’s no point in being nervous. Today, I have a mission.