by Roxie Ray
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about, though. She called you…well, she called you a slut.” I gave her a stern look. “You’re not a slut.”
“I know.” Eve closed her eyes and smiled gently. “It’s okay.”
“Is it?” This time when I raised my eyebrow, it arched all the way up to my hairline. “Because it wasn’t okay with me, her talking to you like that.”
“You know where we came from, right, Gallix?”
“Sector Five, you said. Some kind of…work camp? Abusive kind of place. You mentioned.”
“I was born there. But Marisa…she was taken there after she was arrested. Prostitution,” Eve explained. “Which means…”
“She doesn’t have much of a right to be going around making judgments about who other people, ah…spend time with.” I nodded. “Got it. Right.”
“No. It means she’s had a hard life. People with hard lives, they lash out. Marisa’s struggling. We need to help her, not hate her. But… spending time, huh? Is that what that was last night?” Eve smiled deviously up at me. “Spending time?”
“Oh, you’re bad.” I couldn’t help but smile back. Even when she was insulted, wronged, Eve was compassionate. It was hard not to smile in the presence of someone so good-hearted and pure like that. “Jungle looks like it’s thinning out a little, don’t you think?”
“It is, yeah. We must be close to—” Eve stopped suddenly and jerked on my hand. “Gallix. Did you see that?”
I did. A figure was moving just beyond the tree line. I saw it too.
“Get behind me.” I kept my voice low as I placed my body in front of Eve’s and drew my blaster.
“Wait.” Eve grabbed my wrist, keeping the blaster pointed toward the ground. “What if it’s Marisa?”
“Too tall.” The figure was moving closer now. If I could just brush the leaves away, I could clock the color of the figure’s skin, its sex, its species—but then there was every likelihood that they would see us, too.
“Pax, maybe?”
“I don’t think so. He was supposed to stay back at the camp with Ora.”
“But if it’s not one of us, who could it be?”
I clenched my jaw. I had a theory, but not one that I wanted to remind Eve of right now.
The other survivors from the other ships. Ships from all across the galaxies, ships big and small. There was no telling who the survivors might be, or even what species they were.
Friend or foe, we wouldn’t know for sure—not until it was too late to turn back.
“We should go,” I said through gritted teeth. “Now.”
“But Marisa—”
“Eve. I told you about following my orders, didn’t I?”
“Well, yes, but—”
“Then listen to me, dammit. We have to—”
“Gallix?” Four orange hands shot through the branches on the tree line and pulled them aside. “And…Eve. What are the two of you doing here?”
“Ronan.” I breathed a sigh of relief. “Nine moons, soldier. You had us scared for a moment there.”
“We’re looking for Marisa,” Eve explained. “She ran off into the jungle and—”
“Is that blood on you?” Ronan nodded down to a black stain on my shirt. The red-furred beast must have bled on me a little. “Gallix…”
“Edon has some unruly wildlife, is all. It’s not Rutharian. Don’t worry.”
“I see.” Ronan nodded sagely, then waved us toward him. “Come. I have been exploring. There is something I would like you to see.”
Ronan led us beyond the tree line, where a rocky outcrop jutted from the ground and reached high towards the sky. At the base of it was the mouth of a natural cave. When Ronan guided us into it, we were bathed not in darkness, but in a pale purple light.
“Huh. Well, that’s…something.” I raised my gaze to the cave’s ceiling, which was made of purple crystal thin enough to let in the sunlight.
“Just like the sacred caves at home.” Ronan turned to Eve. “On Lunaria, places like this are holy.”
“Were holy,” I corrected. “Still are, if you’re a little old-fashioned or one of Ronan’s people.”
“My family cares for these caves on Lunaria and leads Lunaria’s religious sect.” Ronan touched his fingers to his forehead, then to his lips as he stared at the crystal overhead. “Though, as Gallix said, with the advent of technological advancements, religion is waning on Lunaria. Few worship as my people do anymore.”
“It’s…beautiful.” Eve glanced up at the ceiling for a moment but was quick to turn her gaze to the walls of the cave itself. They were as smooth as the rock behind the waterfall had been last night. “Are these in your caves on Lunaria too?”
“No.” Ronan crossed all four of his arms over his chest and gave me a look. “No, they are not.”
“What are they?” I took a couple of steps closer, over to where Eve was standing.
Her fingertips were hovering over the cave’s wall, where I could just barely make out some…drawings. Scribblings might’ve been a better word. They were crude and primitive, bipedal figures wielding bows and spears. The ones beneath Eve’s fingers looked like they were hunting something—something unfortunately familiar.
“The beasts.” I turned to Ronan and pointed at the drawings. “That looks an awful lot like those things I just fought off in the jungle.”
“Interesting,” Ronan said—and it was.
That wasn’t the most interesting part about these paintings, though.
No, the most interesting part was—
“They all have four arms.” Eve turned to look at Ronan. “Like you.”
“Orange skin as well. Though, that could have simply been the only paint they could make.” Ronan stroked his chin as he moved closer. “The beasts you fought—they were orange-furred as well?”
“Nah. One green, one yellow, one red. All bled different colors of blood too, for that matter.”
“Strange. Very strange.” Ronan clapped me on the shoulder then moved deeper into the cave. “Come, though. There is more.”
As we followed Ronan through the cave, Eve kept pausing to study more of the drawings.
“Gallix! Look at this one.” She grabbed my hand and pulled me toward yet another patch of pictographs. In this one, all of the four-armed figures were bowing down to another, who was being crowned with golden leaves. The paint on the crown glittered like it was made of real gold. “I think it’s a coronation.”
“Do you now?” I smirked toward Ronan. “Fancy being a king?”
“I would rather swallow my own sword,” Ronan grumbled.
“Who do you reckon did all these? They look like baby Kali’s scribblings to me.” I laughed as I glimpsed another set of drawings. These ones depicted a four-armed warrior with an absurdly long…ahem. Phallus. The drawings showed him in the various stages of mating with a pale, two-armed female with hair as red as Eve’s. “Although, Kali hasn’t done anything quite so, er…mature as of yet.”
“Who’s Kali?” Eve asked.
“Daughter of our beloved General Kloran. She’s half human.” I nudged Eve with my elbow. “Her mother is from your planet.”
“From Earth?” Eve looked stunned. “How long have humans been brought to Lunaria for your breeding program? We were told we were the first.”
“The first legal ones. Bria was…taken. Tricked.”
“By Lunarians?”
“Jeorkanians. They’re, ah…red-haired, like you, but with yellow skin.” I plucked at Eve’s curls, which were looking even more full than usual after our dip in the pool last night. “Others have been taken by Rutharians—the ones who got us stranded here to begin with.”
“And you force them to become breeding slaves anyway?”
“No,” I said firmly. “We did not. Bria and Kloran are mates by choice. Married. Lots of the abducted humans we’ve rescued have chosen Lunarian mates.”
“That’s…possible? Humans and Lunarians living as—w
hat? Husband and wife?”
“It was before. Not now.” Ronan shot me a glare that said, stop trying to give Eve ideas. I shot him one back that said, get off my dick. I’m not giving her ideas. She’s the one who asked!
At the back of the cave, Ronan stopped and waved us forward. He was staring at something on the ground, but the crystal on the ceiling was thicker here. The light was dimmer. Just barely, I could make out the shapes of bones.
“Skeletons. All four-armed…like Ronan. Look—that one’s wearing the crown.” Eve pointed to a glimmer of gold atop one of the skeleton’s skulls. “They must have used this cave as some kind of…sacred burial place. For their kings.”
“Is that so?” I chuckled and threw my arm around Eve’s shoulders. “And how do you know so much about all of this?”
“My mother was a professor of ancient history and archeology before…well.” Eve rubbed her arm, looking uncomfortable. “My parents protested the arrests of some religious dissidents before I was born. People like Ora’s family, who didn’t want to worship in the Sectorist church—that’s the only approved religion back on Earth.”
“I’m sorry, Eve.” I hugged her a little closer to me. “Your mother must’ve been brilliant, though. She taught you how to process all of this?”
“She told me stories, that’s all.” Eve shrugged my arm away from her. “My parents killed themselves in the camp when I was really young. But…that doesn’t matter.” She looked to Ronan. “Can we leave? This place is starting to give me the creeps.”
“Creeps?” I lifted her hair away from her shoulders, searching for any crawling insects on her skin. “Where are they? Let me get them off of you.”
“No—the creeps aren’t…” Eve groaned and pushed my hands away. “I just feel a little uneasy here all of a sudden.”
“As do I.” Ronan rubbed the side of his neck and ushered us back toward the mouth of the cave. “Though I am not sure why. Eve is correct, though. We should leave.”
“You okay?” I asked Eve quietly as we followed Ronan out.
“I’m fine. Just…I don’t know. With Marisa still missing, and those creepy bones… I just started to get the feeling that something wasn’t right.”
“Sorry for…I mean, about your parents.” I shook my head. “Can’t imagine being blessed with a cub, then just…killing yourself like that. Must’ve been hard for you, growing up without them.”
“If you’d been in Sector Five, you’d understand.” Eve hugged herself. “I don’t blame them for what they did.”
“Still. If I had a cub…” I glanced at Eve, then shut my mouth. Abandoned by her own parents—and still, she showed compassion for them.
Probably for the best I didn’t go running my mouth right now.
If I had a cub, I’d been about to say, I’d never leave its side. I’d protect it with everything I had. Blaster, sword and dying breath.
Up ahead at the mouth of the cave, Ronan let out a swear.
“Ship. Incoming.” He pointed to the sky, and I rushed to his side. “It seems our creeps were warranted.”
“Is it Lunarian? Is someone here to rescue us?” I searched for a hint of excitement in Eve’s voice but heard only worry.
Nine damned moons. Did she…did she not want to return to Lunaria anymore? Because of last night, maybe? Because of me?
My heart leapt a little at the thought but plummeted immediately all over again when I caught sight of the ship Ronan was pointing at. It was small and looked cobbled together, poorly welded from the hulls of other ships. From behind it, a cloud of thick black smoke marred the sky.
Blood.
“That’s no rescue,” I growled as I tracked the ship’s path through the sky.
“Are they okay? All that smoke…they look like they’re crashing,” said Eve.
“No. Not crashing,” Ronan said.
“Landing.” I turned and swept Eve into my arms in a single, fluid motion. We needed to move fast, and we didn’t have time for her slower, human pace. “That’s a Rutharian ship.”
Ronan looked pale. “We need to get back to camp.”
11
Eve
I would’ve liked to talk over the cave paintings with Gallix and Ronan a little more. I might not have had my mother’s education, but I’d obviously inherited her interest on the subject. Some of my favorite bedtime stories from her had been the ones about the indigenous people who had left their marks on the caves just south of the sectors, or in the mountains in countries across the sea.
I would’ve liked to go find Marisa, too, and once she was safely back at camp, I would have really liked to discuss these human-Lunarian marriages that Gallix and Ronan had been talking about.
But before we could set about doing any of that, the Rutharians showed up. I didn’t know much about this evil alien race, aside from the fact that they were enemies of the Lunarians and had a fondness for abducting humans from Earth, but already I was coming to hate them just as much as Gallix and Ronan did.
They certainly had a special way of showing up at the worst possible moment, at any rate.
“You didn’t have to carry me,” I complained as Gallix placed me back on my feet at camp. I was feeling a little queasy from our return trip. I knew that Lunarians could move fast, but I’d never realized exactly how fast.
“I did and you know it.” Gallix forced a smile that I assumed was meant to look charming, but it was so strained that it missed the mark. “Besides. It was nice, wasn’t it, being in my arms?”
“It was—sort of.” I rubbed my stomach and moved to the pool of water for a drink. “But now my stomach is all screwed up.”
“No,” Ronan called out to me. He was over by the wreckage of our ship—Bessie—talking to Pax and Ora. “Come to the ship. There is no time.”
“Go,” Gallix said. “I’ll take care of you.”
I went over to the burned-out cargo hold of the ship and stood close to Ora. It wasn’t easy. Where she had once clung so close to my side, now she was hanging off Pax like she was drowning and he was the only thing keeping her afloat. The scent of fried electronics and smoke damage was only making my stomach feel worse. But true to his word, Gallix moved in an orange blur to the pool and back. When he reappeared at my side, he was holding a handful of water in his cupped palms.
“There,” he said as he raised the water to my lips. “Drink.”
It was such an intimate thing, pressing my lips to Gallix’s palms like this and drinking water from his hands. I’d never had anyone do anything like this for me before—though, I guessed there’d never been any need. Back in Sector Five, I was always the strong one, the one who took care of others. But here on Edon…
“Thank you,” I told Gallix after I’d drained his palms.
Here on Edon, I was a little more helpless than I would have liked.
“You’ve gotta stop thanking me, Eve,” Gallix said with a smile. Every time he looked at me, it seemed that he found some way to grin.
I’d never had anyone look at me like that before either—but if we stuck around here on Edon for much longer, I guessed I was just going to have to get used to it.
“We have three major concerns now.” Ronan stood just beyond Bessie’s wreckage, looking grim. “Firstly, we must find Marisa. She is not safe here alone. I will take that duty upon myself. Secondly, we must evade the Rutharians. Even if that means moving camp. So. No more fires, and no more night swims, either.” Ronan gave Gallix and me a firm look. Apparently, Marisa hadn’t been the only one who’d heard us last night. “Thirdly, we must fix this ship or find another, and quickly. This planet is dangerous, and I need not remind you all that this is our second day here. By tomorrow morning, two years will have passed on Lunaria and Earth. The longer we are away, the less certain we can be about the state our home worlds will be in when we return.”
“If we return.” Ora clung even tighter to Pax. “I mean, is it really worth leaving now? We have food here, plenty of fresh water�
�Protection.” Tentatively, she smiled up at Pax. “But on Lunaria, we don’t have any idea what we’ll be going back to at all.”
“We have food here for now. Water, for now. Protection. For now.” Ronan shook his head. “There are Rutharians here now. Other problems, too. Gallix and Eve came upon dangers in the jungle. Beasts hungry for our flesh—and judging by how sandy they both are, other issues as well.”
Nervously, I combed some of that sand from my hair. Beside me, Gallix clapped a hand over the wound on his shoulder. Ronan was right. I’d almost suffocated to death in the quicksand. And if Gallix hadn’t fought so well, he could have easily been eaten trying to save me.
“But Eve and Gallix survived the jungle,” Ora argued. “And we can stay away from the Rutharians. You three—you can protect us.”
“And we will do our best,” said Ronan. “But if this place is truly the paradise you believe it to be, Ora… tell me, why have we not come upon any of the survivors of the other crashed ships? Why has life not blossomed here, if Edon is such a perfect place to live?”
Ronan didn’t mention the drawings he’d shown us in the cave—or the bones, for that matter. He’d obviously had just as bad of a reaction to them as I had, though I still couldn’t figure out why.
“But on Lunaria…you all know that they wanted Eve and me as virgins. Doesn’t that seem…sketchy to you?”
“I know nothing of any sketches,” Ronan said, a little too quickly.
Yeah. The markings in the caves had gotten to him. I could tell.
“What I mean is…why did they want us to be virgins to begin with?” Ora glanced up at Pax nervously. “And. Um. What if we aren’t virgins anymore when we arrive?”
I raised my eyebrows but said nothing. With how close Ora and Pax had become so quickly, it only made sense that they’d had sex. And while that hadn’t quite happened between Gallix and me yet…
Pax wrapped an arm around Ora’s slender shoulders. At my side, Gallix’s fingers brushed against mine.
Everything Ora was wondering, I’d been thinking about too. Before, when Gallix and I were closer to strangers than anything else, the bizarre chemistry I felt with him hadn’t seemed important. But after the waterfall, the kissing—after last night—now, it was becoming harder and harder to imagine becoming anything for a Lunarian lord I’d never met. Not a surrogate, and certainly not anything more.