Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 77692 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77692 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
I despise waiting for things.
It makes me restless.
Reckless.
Neither of which I currently need to be given the circumstances.
I do pause in my trek at the sight of a Hallan that reminds me of my brother. Perhaps it’s the way he grins mischievously that makes me think of Bothaki, or it could be the dark-haired human female at his side. Which is far more likely. She beams up at him as they exit the domed tent set up on the sprawling grass. Another of our kind to have—fatefully—found his mate on this troubled planet.
Bothaki was the first.
The Hallan in front of me isn’t the last.
The sight does remind me of what should be important here, next to fulfilling the promise I made to my brother, of course. The ease of knowing that doesn’t change the fleeting happiness from drifting out of me, however.
I do not expect to be one of those Hallans. The mate fated to me mere days after my birth won’t be found on a planet full of women so oppressed that some even seem to enjoy being meek under the boots of the males above them.
A warrior as much as he, a savior she’ll not need him to be.
The Mina who spoke those words into my existence did not mean I would find a mate here. I’m sure of it.
So, while I let the sight of the Hallan and his human mate give me some comfort, I swiftly move on to the more pressing matters at hand. I’m in the belly of the laboratory before long, and the oldest son of my father’s youngest brother meets me where he waits on the other side of a table made of shiny metal.
At least this time, Katur doesn’t fix his stare to the sealed specimen jar I keep on the middle of the table. The black orb, my brother’s eye, sits suspended in the same substance I found other unsightly things preserved in because I put it there. It is yet another reminder for me.
Something else to declare exactly why I am here, and that I won’t even give those who would do us harm the benefit of keeping a single piece of a Hallan. Well, certainly not a piece of my brother.
“How was it?” I ask Katur.
He comes up from his bow, and grins in a way that takes me back to a time when he and I were a great deal younger. An age when we had far less duty and responsibility, and the two of us were playmates testing one another’s skills.
I knew who to send for the latest raid.
Katur never fails.
“A good trip. We’ve taken three males, and already, one has talked.”
Instantly, he has my attention.
All of it.
I extend an arm, the bareness of my forearm other than the familial markings that tie Katur and I open to him to answer me back. He does with the reach of his own arm, and the clasp of our hands around each of our wrists tells the rest.
Then, we no longer need to even speak.
In my mind, I’m transported through the eyes of Katur to somewhere else entirely. A compound not unlike ours in the deep wilderness of the valley between nearby mountain ranges. We knew there had been human activity in the area despite how careful they were to hide it. I’m less enthused that we were right and more interested in where Katur’s mind shifts to next.
From his eyes, I see the human males who waste no time expressing their intentions once Katur and his handful of males make child’s play out of controlling the camp. The Opposition, they call themselves. Males, and apparently a few females, who disagree with The New Order and their control over their people. The camp, a last-minute creation after our initial destruction upon arrival, is where one of their leaders should return to.
“I get the impression he's important,” I say, referring to the one I hear the human males call Frances in Katur’s memories.
“Able to rile himself up an army if you give him a voice loud enough,” Katur returns, shrugging. “If you believe it as they tell it, apparently.”
Hmm.
I know it’s possible for the words of a single being to inspire great masses, but I have yet to be someone who stands like the rest. No, the rest stand for me. Just as Hallalah determined it to be on the day my mother gave me life.
“You didn’t kill them, then? These … Opposition.”
I release Katur’s arm, and he does the same to mine.
“As I said, we took three. One made it clear we would find the leader valuable to our cause of finding where the humans have hidden the general’s wife, but he said we should hear it from the male himself. This … Frances.”
I nod. “And what about the rest of the camp?”