The Druid Gene

by Jennifer Foehner Wells

  He came around in front of her and supported her leg with a hand as he pushed her center of gravity back through the slow kick. “Like this,” he said. Then quietly, “We will not speak of this. We must use caution or they’ll separate us. They must think we only endeavor to keep our minds and bodies healthy. They already observe my own exercise regime daily and do not question it. Do you accept my offer, Leebska?”

  She frowned. She wondered what he might expect in return for this training. He’d mentioned charity, but she couldn’t be sure what that meant to him. She also was unclear about how he could possibly teach her to fight when Hain and the hymenoptera were surely watching them.

  Right now she was hating Raub more than a little for baiting her to continue well past the point where she’d wanted to quit. But the idea of being more physically fit, the chance to learn to defend herself, the possibility of escaping, to control her own destiny—all of that was worthy of some effort, some risk.

  Except he wasn’t answering her question. That galled. She turned her face slowly until it was near the tan tufts of hair covering the place where she assumed his ears would be. “What do you have to gain from helping me?”

  His expression stayed blank. He adjusted her posture again. “An ally who is prepared to act should an opportunity present itself.”

  What does that mean?

  A muscle in her leg trembled. She gritted her teeth and continued the movement at the excruciating pace he set. She was pretty sure it was more than that. There was too much calculation lurking behind those freaky dark-blue eyes. But what else did she have to do?

  “Yes, I accept,” she whispered.

  14

  The days began to speed by. Raub kept her busy. Upon waking there was a short stretching routine and Raub’s daily ritual of drinking a large amount of water. That was followed by bathing and a small meal to break the fast. Then she checked on the hymenoptera eggs while he left their rooms for an hour or two. She’d asked what he did during those outings, but he only raised an eyebrow in response. To say he was taciturn would be an understatement.

  The afternoons were filled with longer exercise sessions when he taught her lengthier movement sequences, then another short break for a bigger meal. The evening was for meditation and reflection. She was familiar with that sort of stuff, but he wouldn’t let her doze off like her mother had.

  She mastered several sequences of movements and committed them to muscle memory through sheer repetition. She employed the same kind of diligence while learning the exercise that she’d always applied to studying. If she was going to learn something, she was going to do it properly. She felt herself growing stronger and he increased the difficulty to match that. She was always challenged and always stubbornly pushing herself to meet those challenges no matter how impossible it felt.

  It was important to be practical at this point. If she was stronger and more resilient, she was more likely to survive and find Adam. Once she’d done that, they could work together to get home somehow. She wasn’t going to be a damsel in distress waiting for him to rescue her. And if he managed to, she didn’t want to be dead weight.

  She had to be proactive. She had to be ready for anything. Getting stronger was part of that.

  She was shocked the first time she woke to the feeling of Raub’s hand on her foot in the middle of the night. She kicked it away and scrambled deeper into the sleeping cell, stifling a scream.

  He whispered hoarsely, “Calmly, Leebska. We’re going to practice now. Come down.”

  It was completely black, not a jot of light. Her heart started to slow and she remembered his cryptic remark earlier in the evening when she’d climbed up into her bunk. He’d actually said something when he normally just nodded in reply to her well-wishes for a good night’s sleep.

  He’d murmured, “I’ll wake you soon.” She’d thought he meant for morning exercises, because she was always fatigued from all the exercise, slept hard, and had to be woken. It usually felt like no time had passed. But no—he’d meant what he’d said, quite literally.

  She was groggy but awake enough to realize that she didn’t dare speak in the case they were being monitored, so she scooted to the edge of the cell, turned over on her stomach, and climbed down, her feet finding purchase in the cells below hers.

  He was close. She could feel his subtle warmth as her bare feet set down on the floor, though he didn’t touch her.

  “We’ll train here at night. They’ve stopped watching us now, assuming we’re having a sleep cycle. We won’t open another door. That would alert them that we’re awake.”

  She rubbed her face like a small child. “Raub—we just trained all day long. I want to sleep.”

  “You may sleep all you desire when you’re dead. Will that be sooner or later, Leebska?”

  She sighed.

  “Now the real training begins.”

  Her brain was starting to work again. She felt a surge of grumpiness and disbelief. Up until now she’d been too sleepy to argue. She kept her voice low. “What? In the dark?”

  He put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her toward the center of the long, narrow room. “Enough talk. Begin the Sahventahl to warm up.”

  It was pointless to argue with him. He always won, usually by getting mean and reminding her of her situation and everything she had to lose by not being prepared for any possible type of slave master. That was all it took to rev her up and get her going. She began the sequence, sleepily. Her limbs were still stiff and sore from the previous day’s work.

  Raub growled, a low rumble in his chest, and she adjusted her stance so that it was less sloppy.

  “Can you see me?” she whispered. She neared completion of the sequence. She sensed him hovering nearby, but couldn’t make out anything in the dark.

  “Double the speed of execution. Maintain proper form.”

  She frowned, but complied. As she finished, he murmured, “Double that, now.”

  Her heart pounded. This felt more like aerobic exercise. Each time she came to the closing move, he prodded her faster yet, until she flew through the forms in seconds and she began to see what he was after. She was executing a series of punches, kicks and blocking movements—this was a martial art, hidden in the guise of meditative exercise. She channeled her anger, putting more force into each punch and kick. The fatigue disappeared. There was a feeling of exhilaration in performing the sequences at a faster rate and with purpose.

  “Maintain this rate and move into the Minestra sequence.” He had to be able to see her. Every so often he smoothly darted in and tapped her arm, her hip—to remind her to maintain form whenever she sagged a bit.

  He pushed her through every sequence until she begged off for a break just to breathe, hands on knees, gasping for air. Her hair was saturated with sweat. Luckily the garment she wore was made to shed moisture, so she still felt comfortable wherever it touched her skin. As her breathing slowed, she sat down with her back against the wall. Raub slid down next to her and handed her a cup of water.

  “Your eyesight is remarkable,” she breathed after gulping down most of the contents of the cup.

  “Yours is lacking. You’re blind unless it’s midday.” He sounded disapproving.

  “You must see more than the standard light spectrum—into ultraviolet and maybe even infrared.”

  “That is the standard light spectrum,” he said dryly.

  She huffed, smiling. “Yes. I suppose that would depend on your point of view.”

  “It’s remarkable that your species survived. There must not be many large predators on your world.”

  It was an interesting point. “I don’t have any idea how Earth compares to other worlds.”

  “Obviously.”

  After that he let her cool down and get some rest, but woke her at the usual time the next morning, presumably so that those watching wouldn’t note any change in routine. She was accustomed to getting by on less sleep than most because of medical school, so she didn’t
complain.

  Weeks went by. She began to marvel at the muscles rippling under her skin, how effortless movement began to seem, how she didn’t feel like she’d begun her day until she broke a sweat. It cleared out the cobwebs and sharpened her thoughts. She felt like she was building toward a goal. She frequently wished Adam could see her. He’d always told her exercise could do this for her and she’d always resisted, not really believing it was worth the sacrifice of study time. Now she wished she could go back and let him show her.

  The nighttime sessions grew more intense each. Raub began by feinting jabs at her and blocking her punches and kicks softly. Because she couldn’t see him, she had to learn to react instantaneously and be excruciatingly aware of every other sense—the slight wind of his oncoming punch or kick, his breath, every subtle sound he made moving over the floor.

  She began to see what some of the more unusual moves were intended to do. If she didn’t understand immediately, he’d whisper a quick instruction and it would click into place. Some of the sequences were more like wrestling moves, once she knew their purpose. He taught her various choke holds and how to get her opponent to the floor and pin him, using his momentum as leverage since her body was smaller. He taught her that being smart and quick was just as important as being strong.

  These sessions gradually escalated until they were outright sparring. He began to land light blows when her defenses weren’t fast enough. They rarely left bruises, but they stung—mostly her pride. That made her work even harder.

  The only noises that broke these silent sessions were her soft grunts of effort and the subtle sound of skin slapping skin as she began to mix up the forms instinctively, instead of following a predictable sequence. That kept him more at arm’s length and less likely to get in close to strike. He always broke through her defenses eventually, but she took some pride in the fact that she was gradually extending the time that took.

  Her tendency toward competitiveness pushed her to do more than just learn to block his blows or thwart his efforts at pinning her. She strove to catch him off guard, to push him back, to get in a few stinging blows of her own. He would always be bigger, stronger, more experienced, and she took that as a challenge. She worked hard at being unpredictable, at trying new ideas, at using her medical knowledge to her advantage as much as she could—a punch to his nose, kidney, or throat, a kick to his outer thigh or abdomen—all the places that she knew were vulnerable on a human. She was gratified when some of it even seemed to work.

  She wanted to win.

  One thing bothered her, though. Raub was looking at her differently now. He was pleased with her progress, that was clear, but sometimes…it almost seemed like there was a watchful, predatory evaluation in his eye, or even a lustfulness that she didn’t like. It was unnerving and made her feel self-conscious and uncomfortable. He didn’t try to hide it, which made her think she had to be misinterpreting it.

  They were from different planets, so she could never be sure she was deciphering his expressions accurately. But, still, something in the back of her mind reminded her to be wary. He was a prisoner too. He was ruthless. He’d admitted to being a murderer. She decided to stay out of his way as much as possible when they weren’t training, though that would be hard.

  15

  Two hymenoptera waited for Raub on the other side of the door. The girl hung back with watchful eyes as it closed behind him. She was intensely curious—always asking questions, always watching, always noting differences. He’d never spent such a vast amount of time with someone so inquisitive. She was like an eager child, completely undeterred by his reticence.

  One of the bugs took the lead, and the other came up behind, as they moved without a word toward Hain’s lab. He didn’t acknowledge their presence and they didn’t expect him to. It was routine. They believed what they were told—that he was a dangerous prisoner like the druid girl. The life-span of the bugs was so short, turnover so great, that none of them had even glimpsed him before now. It suited his purpose well. They wouldn’t tip the girl off.

  Hain stood at a bench, studying something in a tube before placing it inside one of her analytic instruments. She raised her eyes from her work briefly to acknowledge his arrival. The bugs left the room to wait outside and he relaxed a little bit. Now he could be fully himself for the first time in days. He cleared a spot and perched on one of her workbenches.

  “Judging by the infrared surveillance, the training is progressing as planned,” she said as she picked up another sample, eyed it carefully, and loaded it.

  “It’s proceeding on schedule, yes. The girl learns quickly. The diet you’ve formulated is working well. She’s building muscle and strength.”

  The truth was she was exceeding his initial estimation of her potential. She had a natural acuity for this fighting style and it showed in her enthusiastic execution. Her body was responding well to the activity. It was refining itself. She didn’t seem to be fully conscious of the change, but she had begun to move with a new power and grace. Yes, she was coming along nicely.

  “Excellent,” Hain murmured. Her voice was reedy as usual, but had slightly more modulation.

  He raised a brow. “And on your end?”

  “The engineers have almost completed the modifications to the tern. Being from such an isolated planet, she should have no notion of the fail-safes that would be in place to prevent the plan from working. From her point of view, it will appear to be good luck that everything falls into place.”

  He’d come to the same conclusion. “I agree.” Her naiveté about the universe at large continued to surprise him. She had no idea how things were normally done, so any deviation from that wouldn’t be remarkable to her. She didn’t even try to pretend to understand what was going on around her. She was unashamed simply to ask. He wasn’t sure if that was a wise strategy or a liability. Regardless, she was open and honest and some part of him found that disturbingly refreshing.

  “And psychologically? What is her state? Will she take the bait? Will she perform as hoped?”

  He nodded. “I’ve no doubt she will. She’s well adjusted to her situation, but eager to be free. I believe she’ll take advantage of any opportunity that presents itself.”

  “She trusts you. You’ve grown close. Does that change anything for you?” Hain raised a culture to eye level, but her focus was on him.

  He tensed a little. He was sure Hain knew he would find that question insulting, that he didn’t like being queried like that. He was not getting attached to the girl. “No,” he said coldly. “Don’t start getting haughty. This is just a play. You are not in charge here.”

  Hain had misunderstood his strategy in humoring the girl to create a sense of camaraderie. That strategy was working well. The girl did trust him and was working hard to please him. He wasn’t going to change tactics now.

  Hain’s expression didn’t change. She moved to another bench and picked up a tablet processor. She absently tapped it, then handed it to him. “This is the proposed timetable and route through the ship. All safety and security measures on this route will be neutralized at that time to make your passage smooth and simple.”

  He took it without a word and looked it over, quickly committing it to memory. “This looks adequate. You’ve selected a planet?”

  She took the processor from him and tapped it some more before handing it back. “We’re en route now.”

  The door opened behind him. He stiffened. A hymenoptera stood outside, clacking nervously. “Mistress? Please forgive the interruption, but…a word, please?”

  Hain’s eyes flashed, but otherwise she looked outwardly calm. “Enter. State your business quickly and be gone.”

  “Of course, mistress.”

  Raub sensed the bug coming up behind him uneasily.

  “Sensors have detected a spike of genoflaphan hormone in the egg-incubation chamber. The newest batch of young may hatch at any moment and must be tended to promptly.”

  Hain’s hand sque
ezed her pipette a bit tighter. She didn’t look up. “This does not concern me.”

  He could hear the hymenoptera skitter back a few steps. “No. No. Quite right, mistress. But the female prisoner seems to be aware of the impending emergence and is handling the eggs. I’m sure you understand that this could create many problems with these individuals in the future.”

  Raub smelled the sharp scent of ozone.

  “Retrieve the eggs, then, and bring them within my proximity.”

  Raub smiled as it dawned on him what the insect actually wanted. She had to imprint on the newborns for them to recognize her as queen. Apparently it was not a chore she relished.

  “Yes, mistress, of course. I would have done this already, except for…” The clacking trailed off softly.

  Hain’s slash of a mouth tilted down. “Oh, the girl. You’re afraid of her.” She clicked the pipette angrily.

  It must be so hard being queen. He held back, just barely, from sniggering at her reaction to their sniveling requests for assistance.

  The insect didn’t argue with her. They were afraid of the girl. And rightly so. She was growing more lethal by the day. It was a pleasure to watch this unfold.

  He didn’t understand the girl’s preoccupation with the eggs. She felt guilt over her first kills, which wasn’t entirely out of the realm of normalcy. There was value to life. It shouldn’t be taken indiscriminately. But focusing on these new individuals wouldn’t bring back the dead. Perhaps her culture was one that believed souls were recycled. He wasn’t curious enough to ask. It did highlight her obsessive nature, however, which he considered a positive character trait. She was stubborn and persistent, attributes that would serve her well in the days to come. And him.

  He looked up. Hain had turned to him expectantly.

  Raub raised his eyebrows, pretending to be ignorant of her wishes. He was relishing this. Yes, he was going to make her ask.