He grunted and nodded his head as though he expected her answer.
He sat looking at her. She was a determined looking woman. She had hazel eyes glowing amber and green as her moods and the light changed. Her reddish brown hair was knotted tightly on top of her head. She was dressed in clothing that effectively hid most of her body. She was slim but the details of her figure were otherwise hidden. She was tall for an Earth woman and she looked strong, but feminine.
“What’s your name?” she asked. “No one told me. And where are you from?”
“I suppose I look a bit different to you. I’m not from here. Our people can be compatible. I came a long way across space to meet you. My name is Evan Wolf.”
“What did Uncle promise you?”
“He promised me a wife, I owe him an additional sum if we decide to marry,” he said.
“So he did sell me,” she snarled. “I knew he’d do it some time. It makes me feel like a slave or a domestic animal!”
“I did not buy you although he intended for you to think I did. He did it to hurt you and to make things more difficult for me. Brian knew he would do it, too. It seems to be the kind of thing your uncle enjoys. My intent was to find a partner, not a slave or even a reluctant wife. You have skills my people value and consider important. I…” he hesitated…and then continued, “I didn’t feel right about taking a wife from our society because I have been dreaming of you for most of my life. In our society we dream of people who are supposed to be our perfect match. There will be no one else as right for me as you are.”
“You dream of me,” she said. It intrigued her against her will. “You aren’t lying to me?” she asked her eyes suspicious and squinty. Her dark lashes and eyebrows made her look interesting and revealed her strong personality. Her cheekbones were very high and her lips surprisingly full though her tension pulled them straight and thinner than they should have looked. She was an exotic brunet beauty when she was relaxed and smiling, but she had not smiled in a long time. She had yet to smile at her prospective groom.
He shook his head. “I would not lie to you for any reason. I waited so long to come for you because we had to travel so far and you are not of our society. I had no way to know if you would accept me even if I came here. Recent events here made it more urgent that I come to you and seek your agreement for an alliance between us.”
She believed him. It was an odd thing. She wasn’t given to trusting men. It might be something good. It gave her hope, but only a little.
“I am at least thinking about accepting you,” she said evenly. She felt little emotion or excitement. She had just a vague bit of hope and a desire to stop doing the same old desperate things that never seemed to work.
He stared at her, looking interested, arrested by the implications of what she had told him. He hadn’t expected it to be this easy. He felt more than a small amount of worry. He knew she felt nothing for him yet. He was more involved than she was, although he could sense she was attracted to him, though reluctantly. She did not know him at all…yet…but he could work with what she seemed inclined to offer.
“What made you consider it?” he asked.
She got up and paced in agitation. “You actually act like you have a brain and some morals. I’m not naïve. I know a lot about sex and a lot about men, most of it bad. You seem like you are being open and honest with me. You could have hidden what Uncle did but you told me, and I think you knew I wouldn’t like it, too…but you told me anyway.”
He nodded his agreement with what she had said and waited to see what she would do next.
She continued to stand and look at him as if she couldn’t decide what she wanted and what to do about it. “What makes me the woman you would want?” she asked.
“You have skills like agriculture and medicine. These things, these skills you have are valuable to me, to my people and to anyone with any sense. Obviously your uncle lacks sense, but his loss could be our gain,” he said. “But it’s the dreaming, too. I have wanted you since the first time I saw you in my dreams. I know it’s different for your society. People here seem to have sex for the most specious reasons and then move on to someone else without a backward glance. They barely take the time and effort to please each other. I cannot tell you how relieved I am that you did not act in that way.”
“I suppose you are a virgin,” she said, clearly not believing a bit.
“No,” he said. “I have some experience but I have been selective in my lovers and so have you. Besides you have value to me for other things, too.”
“So you want my skills, not as a brothel keeper, but as something else,” Isabelle said. “What do you want me to do?” she asked.
“Keep doing many of the things you do so well. Few people have all your skills and we want them to be part of what we do…part of what you and I could do together,” he answered. “In our society you would be a important person of value and command much respect, respect you will never find here.”
She was intrigued, worried but still interested in what he had said. “That’s unique and I’m interested, but I don’t want to leave all the people, some few of them children who depend on me. If I go off with you and leave them here their lives could be in danger and I just can’t do that to them.”
“What if I told you there are serious risks for you in staying here?” he asked.
She looked doubtful. “How could you know that?” she asked. “No one knows what the future holds for us.” She said it for the sake of the argument. She knew as well as he did that the likelihood Uncle would turn on her increased every day.
“We see things sometimes,” he sort of growled. He’d known she would have doubts but he thought he could influence her thinking through his mind skills. If he was capable of influencing her he hadn’t seen it yet and he had to have a mind connection to her before they could be married and approved spouses or parents in his society.
“See things how?” she asked.
“With our minds. It’s something that we grow into at puberty. Everyone of us has some skill with it,” he answered.
She started to say it was impossible, but then she remembered her own skill, developing so recently and always so accurate.
“I see stuff sometimes,” she told him and then she watched him to see what kind of reaction he would have.
“I had seen it in my dreams of you,” he said. “We have become concerned about your safety because of your relative. He has fears that could make him wish to hurt you”
“We?” she asked. “Whom are you talking about when you say ‘we’?”
“Advisors or wise folk who help us process our visions or dreams and who train us to be as we should be in our society.”
“So you learn to control your visions and use them in your world?’ she asked.
He nodded in answer.
“So are you free to be what you want?” she asked. She looked suspicious, too.
“Free will is important to us,” he said. “But so is training people to work within our society responsibly.”
“It sounds like Utopia if it’s good and mind control if it’s bad,” she said. “I don’t know if I want to risk being hypnotized into being a good little girl.” It came out sounding sarcastic, just as she intended.
“It’s not mind control and it’s not Utopia. It’s a cooperative society in which men and women have equal rights and influence. We practice being thoughtful. We also practice the best ways to work together in emergencies when we can’t take time for endless reflection and discussion…say if we are under attack.”
“Are you often under attack?” she asked.
“We have enemies on nearby planets that like to fight,” he said. “Still I think you would be safer and happier there than here. I have sensed your unease and worry in my dreams and visions. I am young for marriage in our society, but we felt you could not wait much longer for what I can offer you. There is the radiation problem, but there is also your uncle and his friends and their hab
its.”
“But I still have responsibilities that I can’t walk away from and just go off with you,” she said.
“I understand and admire your sense of responsibility and obligation, but things here are getting worse, and more threatening toward you personally,” he said pointedly.
He was right. She knew it, but it impressed her that he seemed concerned for her. It had been a long time since she had felt such concern from anyone.
“I feel it, too,” she said.
He nodded and grunted.
She thought a moment. “If I had a fighting force, what would you do with it?”
“What does anyone do with a fighting force?” he asked a little impatiently. “You protect what’s important to you and your people. You keep the bad guys at bay and you keep things going the way you want them to go. It’s about having control of your own fate and that of the people who are important to you. In our society we try to avoid armed confrontations unless there is no other alternative, but we are also capable of fighting when we need to do it.”
“I don’t know what to do if we don’t literally get rid of him and his men by beating them in battle,” she said. “So far he ahs always had the strategic advantage since my father died. His men outnumber mine so he rules. Uncle controls his men through playing to their greed. Literally, he pays them well, plus they get lots of sex, more than most men do these days with so few women around who are in relatively good health. In return they keep this place and most of the people here his prisoners. He’s cruel and brutal to everyone and worse still he’s very unpredictable. Everyone is frightened of him and his men,” Isabelle said.
“He seems weak…not like a man who could lead warriors,” he said, looking at her speculatively. “What’s his secret?”
“He’s smarter and tricky about playing both sides against the middle. It’s a mistake to underestimate him,” Isabelle warned him. “Part of what he does is tied up in his ability to lie, deceive and plot against those who would dare oppose him. Think about what he did to us. He told me one thing and you something entirely different, mostly to cause trouble between us and to serve whatever agenda he has.”
He nodded in understanding. It did fit with the old man’s personality. He was hard to read telepathically because he was both deceptive and extremely impulsive. It was hard to get a fix on someone’s intentions when they were so changeable. The old man didn’t have a fixed agenda. He had the impulse to do any harm he could in the shortest amount of time and he loved to hurt people.
“Gossip is a skill he has that would make a room full of old ladies look like amateurs,” she continued. “He’s what they used to call a politician or a spin doctor before the wars. Through his ability to use lies and innuendo he can make anyone look like either a hero or a villain. He can make most people believe nearly anything. He’s even been deadly to people who displeased him. Much of his power comes with his ability to look harmless when he isn’t. I guess it’s my turn now. I should have seen it coming. I feel he’s been reluctant to use too much force against me because people here depend on me, thus this arranged marriage. He gets rid of me, the limitations he feels because of me, and he avoids making people too angry. He wants to be able to make people believe he’s not the bad guy he is. He also may have another plan I know nothing about. You seem to understand more about what he plans than I do.”
“I really don’t understand him. He’s very different and illogical, too. He should value you, but he doesn’t,” Evan said. “It’s a dangerous thing what you’ve been doing, standing his way, in the way of what he wants,” he said. “I feel strongly that he plans to harm you…perhaps even try to kill you. It’s part of the reason I am here.”
“In the past it’s helped that he is lazy. I do a lot of work around here, but I also keep him from having all he wants. The only way I’ve been able to move him is through the fact that I oversee the production of all we eat here. It’s important and necessary to Uncle to eat well and the guests expect it, too. To him it’s a selfish and pragmatic marketing decision to keep me in place,” she said, “or at least it was. Obviously he feels he doesn’t need me anymore.”
She didn’t sound heartbroken over it, just resigned.
“Why do you call him Uncle?” Evan asked. “You obviously don’t treasure the relationship.”
“No, it’s true that I don’t,” Isabelle agreed. “I do it to needle him, not that I think it bothers him. He came here playing on the tenuous relationship so my father would allow him in the walls and then he betrayed us. But it also makes it uncomfortable for him to treat me too badly. People would all stop trusting him. Though there are many who know he can’t be trusted he still cares what people think of him. I guess it’s an ego thing. Power, prestige, respect, money and food all matter a lot to him but in reality he’s really shallow and mean.”
“How many men does your uncle command?” he asked.
“About 60, 40 that he brought with him. My father had about 20 men, most loyal to me as much as they can manage, plus Albert has been training 8 women in secret who wanted fighting skills. Generally they are the ones who have been the most abused by men. It seems to help them recover from whatever has happened to them. They train in the dungeons to which I have the only keys.”
“How good are they?” Evan asked.
“Albert says they are adequate, but he’s a master of understatement,” Isabella said. “I have watched them train and trained with them some. They are as good as many of the men and they are more disciplined about training regularly. We encourage all the women to train some.”
“ I brought 20 men with me and 6 women who wanted the warrior way, too,” he answered.
“You allow it?” she asked. “I’m surprised a man would. Most consider women the weaker sex,” she said sarcastically. “Plus men always cause trouble over women if they want them sexually.”
“We don’t ‘allow’ them to train. They choose what they want to do with their lives. They don’t have to seek permission. No one does. It’s customary in our world for everyone, men, women and children to be trained to fight effectively. We also choose our careers and educational specialties as we wish. We have military and exploration adventures while we are young, before we take on the responsibilities of family. If we get hurt or killed it is not so devastating for so many people. We also get the opportunity to learn from our mistakes. All those who chose to come here with me are well trained. Our society requires strategic input for important decisions from both men and women. The decisions tend to be both more balanced and more successful. Neither sex is more successful statistically without the other’s wisdom. It is our way and integral to our need to find the right mate.”
He continued, “We are not usually celibate before marriage, but private stuff…sexual contact is very private in our culture. That’s why I was so shocked when the priest touched me. No one in our society would touch a stranger sexually. It’s considered rude, even criminal. We have same sex relationships sometimes, just as people do here, but it’s consensual, not exploitive or forced. In a society like ours where people can see things and sense things telepathically privacy has a larger meaning. Normally it would be anyone’s private business if they were discreet. We try hard to keep our minds out of each other’s personal thoughts and opinions unless we are working on a specific community issue.”
“I can see that being able to read minds could be intrusive,” Isabelle said. “I don’t know if I like the idea at all.”
He looked worried and said; “You and I and anyone can block things if we want to. We try to merely care for those we welcome to our families and groups while avoiding being overly intrusive, especially in private matters. It’s a fine line most of us don’t cross.”
“You’re telling me sometimes people cross the line?” she asked.
“Sometimes,” he agreed. “It can lead to criminal prosecution in the worst cases. Generally we know where to draw the line, but it can be as tempting as any other
vice, like prostitution. That’s one we rarely fall into.”
“Your representative had sex with one of our workers and paid for it with precious metals,” she said, smiling ironically.
“Brian has found his mate, the one from his dreams. He thought she was dead. It was a happy thing for him finding her alive. How did you know anyway?”
“Nothing is as private here as Uncle thinks,” she answered. “I saw him and Glory together. They did seem to be having a very good time. My room is the only bedchamber in the castle without opportunities for spying and listening. I do it all the time. I spy to keep up with whatever’s going on here. It’s another necessary part of my life I would wish I didn’t have to do. Most of the time I don’t get much pleasure from it, but watching Brian and Glory was different. It seemed better than the usual in some way I can’t describe.”
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