Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 91775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Rem’eb. A shiver of delight runs through my body, my senses awakening.
I’m dimly aware that I’m cradled in someone’s arms, my head resting against a warm, broad chest. Other than my bladder, I’m not at all uncomfortable, and I could drift back to sleep again. In fact, I just might…
“She is going under again, Rem’eb. Use the leaf.” A different voice.
Something wafts under my nose and then an acrid stink makes me recoil. I cough, only to have the headache stab harder.
“Wake up, Tia,” Rem’eb cajoles. “We must go soon.”
Go?
It’s that word that bounces around in my mind, echoing and enabling me to shake the last of the sleepiness off. I force my eyes open, pushing against Rem’eb’s gentle grasp. The lighting is dim in the room, but it still hurts my eyes. I’m dimly aware that there’s a blanket over me, but as my eyes focus, I realize this isn’t my cell.
I’ve been moved.
“Easy,” Rem’eb says, his hand skimming down my arm.
I push out of his grasp, panic replacing the sweet, burgeoning feeling of anticipation I get when Rem’eb touches me. “Where the fuck am I?”
“Move slowly, Tia the Stranger,” Rem’eb says in that easy voice. He hands what looks like a burned mushroom cap to someone else. “She is fully awake now.”
I look over to see another alien—another one of the four-armed ground-dwellers—watching me. He looks older than Rem’eb, his expression more resigned than anything. He’s dressed the same, but his body fur seems to be a deep gray instead of Rem’eb’s reddish one. He wears a couple of the beads fitted at the base of his horns, and one pulling his bushy hair back from his face. The look he gives me is more fatigue than anything else.
Even so, I scoot a little closer to Rem’eb, because I don’t know who this is.
“Easy,” Rem’eb tells me in a soothing voice. “Cas’zor the Loyal is helping us. It is risky, but I do not think you will resonate to him.”
Resonate? I’m more worried this guy is going to rape or kill me than resonate to me…but now I have a new fear. Great. I glance between the two of them, and wet my lips with my tongue. “I have to pee.”
Luckily Rem’eb recognizes that word. He glances up at the stranger—Cas’zor—and nods. “We must leave her alone for a moment.”
“Is that wise, Chief’s Fist?” Cas’zor looks suspicious of my request.
“Of course.” Rem’eb’s expression is slightly puzzled even as he gets to his feet. “I trust Tia. Come.”
They both exit, and I find the facilities in the room, along with a pitcher of water and a bowl for hand washing. After I relieve myself, I search the quarters looking for a weapon of some kind. Or I try to. My hands feel numb and tingly from whatever they’d given me in my sleep. When I knock over a stoneware bowl by mistake, the door opens again and Rem’eb looks in.
I pretend to collapse on the ground with a weak smile to distract him.
“Tia!” Rem’eb rushes to my side, pulling me back up to my feet and supporting me with a strong arm around my waist. “Are you not well enough to walk? Shall I carry you? We do not have much time.”
“Time? Time for what?” I cling to him a little more than I probably should, and it’s not only because my legs are wobbly and slow to respond. It feels good to let him hold me. It feels right. Like my chest could start resonating at any moment.
And I don’t know if I’m scared for that to happen or if I’m excited about the prospect.
“We are escaping my village,” Rem’eb says in a low voice. “I am taking you back to the garden above.”
The garden above? “The fruit cave?”
He nods, even though I know he doesn’t know what I’m asking. “Where we found you. And we will retrieve your suitor as well.”
I make a happy sound and bounce in place. The urge to kiss his cheek happily—or kiss more—rushes through me and I force myself not to. If I kiss him, I might never stop, and the realization feels more weighty with every moment that passes.
If I’m here another week, I know without a shadow of a doubt that I’ll resonate to him. It’s a gut reaction I have, an instinctive feeling. Something is going on with my khui. It’s not ready to resonate, not yet, but it feels as if it’s waiting for something. I’m alert to its presence in a way I never was before.
“Can you walk?” he asks me again, and I nod.
He seems pleased with this response, and the color of his skin shifts to something muted and dark, matching the shadows around us. The only thing that remains the same color are the garishly golden loincloth, the necklace with the claw around his neck, and his bright reddish mane. But at a glance? It might be enough for him to slip away unnoticed.