Chapter 1
One
Ayla
" T his," Kanik said, holding up the tuber, "is a potato. The regular type. This orange one is a sweet potato."
I stared intently at the exterior, trying to determine what made each one unique. Naturally, they were shaped differently, but every tuber was. Besides that, it was hard to tell them apart, although Kanik was doing his best to teach me how to recognize all the different foods available on the surface.
For twenty years, I'd thought my only options were meat, tubers, vegetables, and fungus. Not types of those things. Our food had only been called by the most generic name. Now that I knew why, I was desperate to learn the real choices.
"Wait until we get to onions," Jeera teased. "Ayla, there are a lot more types of tubers than just potatoes."
"Of course there are," I grumbled.
And the food the Dragons ate proved it. In the handful of weeks I'd been above ground, I'd sampled so many flavors. I couldn't say I loved them all, but I enjoyed the sensations they created in my mouth. Back in the compound, our food had been nutrition and nothing more.
Then again, everything down there had been wrong. Women shouldn't eat too much because it took from the men. Meat was a luxury, something to be served on holidays only. Fungus was plentiful, and many of our vegetables had been either beans or grains, but I hadn't known that back then. All I'd known was desperation.
Because in the compound, women were supposed to be meek, dutiful, and subservient. Clearly, I wasn't. I had no interest in wedding a man old enough to be my father. I didn't want to die giving birth to his children and caring for his home. I hadn't been able to accept I was good for nothing more, so I'd done the unthinkable.
And now, I was here: Heaven - or as close as I'd ever been able to imagine.
In Lorsa, people weren't only blonde-haired and blue-eyed. Instead, they came in so many variations. We had the tailed, like Kanik. His brown skin was covered in black polka dots along his back that became freckles on his face, hands, and even his feet. His belly was a pale, creamy lavender. Dark purple marks ran behind his ears. I also knew the stinger on his tail matched, but he tried hard to never show it in public.
Jeera, being female, wasn't nearly as brilliant. Her skin, hair, and even eyes were grey. It was a soft color that verged on blue, but wasn't. Having now seen a rainstorm, it reminded me of those clouds. The medium ones, not the dark ones that had scared me so badly.
But none of that helped me learn the food I'd been eating. "So how do I know which tuber to choose?" I asked, looking between Kanik and Jeera.
"Depends on what you like," Jeera said. "It's just preference. No different than venison or pork."
"We choose that based on what Zasen hunts," I countered.
Which made Jeera smile at me. "Yes, and he hunts what he's in the mood for. Trust me, my brother knows where the pigs and deer tend to be out there in the forest."
"Some foods also taste good together," Kanik explained. "I like fish and sweet potatoes together. Rymar likes regular potatoes with venison."
I barely heard the second half of that. "Fish? How do you eat fish?"
Jeera turned away, trying to smother a laugh. "You go fishing and catch it."
I replayed those words in my head. I knew most of them. All except "fishing." That should've been a noun, yet she used it like a verb. Had I translated the word wrong? Was this another thing I hadn't experienced?
"Fishing?" I asked, looking at Kanik in confusion.
"We use a pole with a string," he explained. "At the end is a hook. That goes in the water, and if there's something on the hook, a fish will bite it, get caught on the hook, and we can pull it out of the water."
"And eat it?" I asked.
He nodded. "Yeah. It's actually fun."
"Relaxing," Jeera countered. "And there are many types of fish. Not all of them taste good."
I leaned my head back and groaned. "How will I ever learn all of this?"
"One step at a time," Kanik assured me, reaching up to gently rub my shoulder. "And I will help - "
"Ayla!"
The snap of my name made Kanik stop mid-sentence. The voice made all of us turn to see Zasen storming through the market, clearly in a hurry. His nearly-black and pale-striped skin stood out in the crowd. Few Dragons - either the tailed or the tailless - were as striking as him. I didn't even need to see his bright blue tail to pick him out easily, but he looked annoyed. Or maybe it was worry?
"Ayla," he said again, not yelling this time. "There's a - "
The sound of a woman's scream pierced the air .
In Lorsa, the market was always bustling, but that? It killed the murmur of conversation instantly. Bodies turned - mine included. Everyone looked to find the source of that sound - only for it to come again. Fear. Pain. Anguish. They were all wrapped up in that cry, and it was clearly from a woman.
" - Mole," Zasen finished, pushing in to catch my arm. "She was hung out for the Dragons."
"What?" I gasped.
He nodded, towing me towards the sound. "The Reapers brought her. Tamin saw. He told me and I ran over here, but they're unloading her. Rymar should be - "
Another scream drowned out whatever Zasen was trying to tell me, but this time it had words. "Do not touch me!"
English. I knew those words. I'd grown up hearing nothing else. I'd learned Vestrian since I'd gotten here; the language was so close to English that it wasn't hard to switch over, but the sounds were changed, altered, and morphed from time. It was also the common language here. English wasn't.
I swore I recognized the voice too.
Without waiting for Zasen, Kanik, or anyone else, I ran. There was no way. It had been months, but some things were seared into my memories, and that voice was one of them. I pushed past canopy-covered stalls, ducked between bodies, and wove my way towards the edge of the market. There, I shoved through the ornate bushes that lined the edge of the road.
Once my feet were on the hard-packed clay, I ran with all I had. These leather pants were warm in the oppressive heat of summer. I could feel sweat already trickling down the short hairs along the back of my neck, but my boots gripped and made me even faster. That was why Dragons wore clothing like this. It was functional, even if revealing, and I'd stopped caring about things like modesty.
Up ahead, a crowd was already gathering near the stage. Something was making a loud, sharp, and repetitive noise. I could see a strange vehicle with a shaggy beast attached to it and a smaller black one sitting on it. That was where both the sharp sound and the screaming came from.
As I got closer, two terrifying tailless men were struggling to pull a girl down from the back. Her body was almost completely obscured by the much larger men - but her hair was pale. Silver, almost. Clearly, she was a Mole, and she was fighting as hard as she could.
Then Jerlis, the mayor of Lorsa, reached out to grab her. No, her chains, because she was bound the same way I'd been. Large manacles were attached to her wrists. A long chain linked them together, made from a very heavy metal. When the mayor's hand closed on the center of it, the girl pulled, twisted, and screamed again, but I was still too far away to help her.
Without shame, I pushed through people, ducking and dodging if I had to. Most jumped back, but enough looked behind me to prove I wasn't alone. Zasen must be back there. Kanik too. Maybe even Jeera? I didn't know and didn't care, because that girl was being dragged to the stage.
She kept her body hunched over. The posture was defensive, and one I knew much too well. Punishment was often aimed at our stomachs, heads, or anything sensitive enough to leave a lasting impression. Curling up was a trick we girls learned when we were young. It proved this woman had to be scared out of her mind.
"Move!" I roared, clipping someone's shoulder as I charged up the stairs.
The mayor paused, letting the woman finally crumple to the ground, screaming again. The pitch of it made my ears ring even as the girl flailed. That wasn't defiance. It was pure fear. This was her fight or flight instinct, and I'd experienced it myself. I knew how blinding it was. I understood the horror this woman was going through. It was enough to make me forget about everything else.
Pushing the mayor aside, I forced my body in front of his and dropped to my knees, just as someone snarled, "Shadow, silence!" in Vestrian.
I didn't care what that meant. I was reaching for the girl's hands. She flailed again, the chain on her wrists smacking me in the process, but she was too weak to make it hurt.
"Hey, hey, hey," I breathed, the words in English. "It's okay. I got you. They're not going to hurt you."
The girl paused. Then, slowly, she looked up. Matted and filthy hair shifted back to reveal pale blue eyes. Eyes I knew.
"Ayla?" she breathed.
"Meri!" Without thinking, I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and pulled her close. "I've got you. It's going to be okay now. I promise I've got you."
As my words sank in, she relaxed into me, and the first sob broke free. "Ayla? Is it really you?"
"It's me," I swore. "How are you here?"
But the mayor couldn't understand our words. "What's she saying?" he demanded in Vestrian.
The sound made Meri look up at him. The man was gigantic, taller than even Zasen. His skin was red and black. His eyes had no white to them. His shoulders were twice as wide as mine, and the tail lashing behind him proved he was flustered.
One look was all it took and Meri screamed again, pushing herself back. I was sure she was about to crawl her way off this shallow stage in an attempt to escape. His words made no sense to her. Hers made none to him. Even worse, we'd both been taught that Dragons were the Devil's minions.
"Step back!" I roared in Vestrian, surging to my feet to shove a hand out at the mayor while looking around at everyone pushing in to see. "All of you! Get back!"
"Ayla?" Meri whined, sounding like she was sure I'd just done the dumbest thing ever.
"Move back, Mayor," I said again, but nicer this time. "She's terrified. She thinks you'll eat her."
"But - "
"They don't know, " I told him. "The women aren't told what happens here. They have no idea what they're being fed! The Moles lie to us. They do it to keep us too scared to fight back - and you are terrifying. Please, Mr. Mayor? You're huge. Please step back?"
The man's tail hit the ground and he lifted both hands. Slowly, predictably, he moved away, giving Meri and me some space.
"Ayla?" Meri asked again. "He'll kill you."
"He won't," I assured her, starting to get confused with all the language switching. "It's okay, Meri. It's all going to be okay. I'm going to take care of you, and I won't let anyone hurt you, okay?"
"Okay," she said, finally sitting straight enough for me to realize it wasn't only excess cloth in front of her. No, that was her belly. A very round, very pregnant one.
"Oh, Meri! Are you...?"
"Yes," she said, her eyes flicking over to the mayor again. "And he'll eat me. Ayla, I can't run."
"No..." I breathed, bending down so I could look at the clasp on the manacles. "You're going to be okay. Let me get these off, okay?"
Meri's eyes were too big. Her skin looked so very pale, but I couldn't be sure if that was her natural color or from fear. The bigger problem was the pin holding her manacles on. Yet just as I was about to give up, a metal tool was shoved towards me by one of the strange men.
"To open her cuffs," he said in Vestrian with an odd accent.
I didn't stop long enough to think about that. I merely accepted the tool, nodded in appreciation, then got to work removing the pin on the shackles. Once they were free, I slid the tool along the surface of the stage, hoping it would get close enough to the man to count as returning it.
The guy didn't reach for it, though. His eyes were on me. His brow was creased in confusion or thought - I couldn't tell which. Then there were his clothes. Everything was leather, much like my own attire, but the cut was very different. I'd never seen anyone like him in Lorsa, which meant he was likely a Reaper, but I didn't have time right now to worry about him.
I turned my eyes back to Meri. "If you can stand up, we're going to walk right out of here, and I will explain everything, okay?"
"Okay," she breathed, clearly still terrified.
Meri still trusted me, enough that she let me pull her up. Then, I wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Hers went around my waist and she huddled close. Tears lined the girl's cheeks, but the sun was just starting to set, which meant her eyes had likely been weeping from both the brightness and her fear.
The fear I could help with. The sun? Hopefully, she wasn't completely blind anymore. She'd clearly been able to see the mayor, after all, but I would guide her out of this either way.
"We're going to the stairs," I explained, leading her down them.
The mayor couldn't hold his tongue any longer. "Where are you taking her?" he demanded.
"Home," I said .
"What?" Meri asked, unable to understand.
"It's okay," I promised. "It's going to be okay, Meri." And I helped her make her way down.
For a moment, I thought this was actually going to work. Enough people in Lorsa now understood the sound of English that a path had been made down the middle of the walkway. Some pulled others back. Many got the hint and moved on their own. Step by step, I guided Meri forward, thinking that if I could just get her home, out of the too-bright sunlight, then I could explain everything.
We made it only a few steps when Zasen stepped into the street, his brilliantly blue tail lashing behind him. "Do you know her?" His words were in Vestrian.
"No!" Meri screamed before I could even answer. Spinning, she tried to pull free, choosing to run back towards the mayor rather than face Zasen. "The Wyvern! It's him! "
I tried to grab her arm, but my fingers slipped on her slick skin. The next attempt was better. I caught her wrist on the other side, pulling her around and halting her panicked flight.
"It's okay. He won't hurt you."
"How can you be sure?" she whimpered.
Zasen huffed something almost like a laugh. "Because I'm the reason she's here." This time, his words were in English. "What are you doing with her, Ayla?"
"I'm taking her home," I told him.
He nodded. "Do you know her?"
"This," I said, pulling her to my side even though she was trembling, "is Merienne. She's my friend, and I will not let anyone hurt her." The words were more for Meri than Zasen, but a corner of his lip lifted as if he knew that.
"Then she's my friend too," Zasen said, lifting his voice so everyone in the area could hear, even if it wasn't their native language. "Welcome to Lorsa, Merienne. I've heard a lot about you."
Meri's response was a soft whimper of fear.