Chapter 83
Eighty-Three
Ayla
" S ave me, Ayla?" Sylis begged, holding his open hands out before him to show he wasn't fighting. He didn't even grasp at his own wound. "Help me?"
"You want my help?" I growled, lifting my krael to show him I was not some helpless woman. "You eat these people, and you think I'll save you?!"
"He doesn't eat meat," Tobias said. "And he's helped me. I asked him to marry Callah if I can't get back because she's not leaving and he won't hurt her."
"Why?" Zasen demanded, speaking right beside the man's ear.
Sylis closed his eyes and whimpered, "I don't want to eat people."
So I put my krael back on my belt, then turned to get the gun Holly had taken from him. She got a rub as praise, but I didn't have time for more. Checking the weapon, I pressed it to my shoulder, then turned back.
"Let him go, Zasen."
"Ayla, please?" Tobias begged. "He doesn't know, but I think he'd help."
"Would you?" I asked.
"I don't want to go back and get married," Sylis said, those pale eyes of his locked on me. "I don't want to be a hunter, but most of us are now. I don't know what's going on, but I wanted to make sure Tobias was safe." He glanced over to the man behind me. "Did they hurt you?" he asked.
Zasen ducked his head and chuckled. "You Moles are fucked," he mumbled.
"And I told Sylis you speak English," Tobias said. "I trust him that much, but I haven't told him the rest."
"What rest?" Sylis asked, keeping his hands high even as blood began to seep from the wound.
"Sit!" I ordered, using the tip of the gun to show him where I wanted him. "You too, Tobias. Zasen? If the new one runs, sting him. "
"Yes, ma'am," Zasen said with a smile.
But the moment Sylis's rump was on the dirt, I moved in. "Talk."
Finally, he dared to clasp his own wound, proving it had to hurt. "I don't know what to say!"
"He doesn't," Tobias promised. "He's been asking about you, but not like he's trying to stop you. Ayla, he's my squad leader, but only because everyone else was dead. He started hunting right around when you got thrown out, and he started with pulling the carts. He's also helped me."
"I've seen the town," Sylis said. "It's a place for people, not animals. There are children! They put them in the carts too, and I don't eat meat anymore. I'd rather be hungry than do that!"
I nodded, lowering the gun a bit. "Then what do you want?"
Sylis looked at Tobias, who simply shook his head. "I'm not helping you," he said. "Sorry, but I can't. I'm helping me and hoping you really are on my side."
"Some of us realize the elders are lying," Sylis said. "We'd be shot if we say anything, but there's like five of us. Well, I'm including myself and Tobias. Men I've been talking to who don't think this is right, and the elders want us dead so they can have the girls, or something! We don't know, but it can't be food, since they don't get it themselves, and I don't know what stuff they don't have, so it has to be the young and beautiful wives."
"The power," Tobias corrected. "Obey them or die."
"The Lord have mercy," Sylis breathed. "That makes sense."
"What will you do?" I snapped, refusing to let this man get too comfortable.
"What? I don't..." His eyes jumped to Tobias desperately.
"She means about me talking to her," Tobias explained, sounding much too calm about this.
Beside me, Zasen lifted a hand to cover his mouth. "Mmm..." he murmured.
"What?" I demanded, aware he saw something I didn't.
So Zasen switched to Vestrian. "I think the little one is in love with the big one."
"They don't do that," I assured him.
"No, Ayla. They aren't allowed to do that, but watch him. He's trying to protect your friend while also hoping he'll be protected by him. He keeps looking, and with soft eyes. Not angry or merely scared, but more like worry and... attraction."
"I don't know those words," Tobias said.
"Don't worry, we're just debating your friend," Zasen said, turning to look at Sylis. "Why did you follow him?"
"I didn't want him to die," Sylis admitted, but his voice came out weak before the Wyvern.
Zasen just glanced at me. "Put the gun down, Ayla, and use this to our advantage."
That was in English, which made Tobias look between the three of us. Yeah, I knew there was a lot of double-talk going on, but I had one more thing to say, and this was what would convince me whether this man should live or not.
So I lowered the weapon and leaned into his face. "If you run, my dog will kill you. If you attack me, the Wyvern will. If you say anything about this, Tobias will. Am I clear?"
Sylis's head snapped over to Tobias. "You weren't caught?"
Tobias just shrugged. "I'm trying to get out."
"Bring me?"
I heard the desperation in this man's voice, so I flicked the safety on the gun and crouched, setting it beside me. "I think he's okay, Zasen. You can help the others."
Then Tobias did the last thing I would've expected. He pulled the knife from the sheath on his leg and held it up toward Sylis. "See this, Sylis? I do know how to use it."
Zasen grumbled at that. "I'm not leaving you here outnumbered."
"She's not outnumbered," Tobias promised. "He is."
Zasen clasped Tobias's shoulder. "Ayla, make sure you have a sign for the ones Tobias trusts. We don't have enough arrows to keep handing them out."
"Yellow," Tobias said. "Callah can get strips of yellow cloth for us to wear as a favor or token. Or maybe put a symbol on them?"
But Zasen looked at me again. "I'm okay," I promised. "Holly's with me. Go! They need you out there."
"And be careful of the grenades!" Tobias said. "They have a ten-foot blast. They will send out bits of metal even further. They explode in seconds, so do not be close!"
"Fuck!" Zasen growled, hurrying off with that information.
Sylis was just staring at Tobias. "What is going on?"
"She got out," he said, pointing at me. "I want to get Callah out, because she was Ayla's roommate. We already got their other friend out."
"You had nothing to do with that," I reminded him.
"I know!" he snapped. "But Meri is out, Callah needs out, and she's worried she won't get banished. It's safer for her to marry me and then try to get banished, but she can't copy what's been done, and with the new marriage rules, the elders are going to be holding on to women."
"She'll go to quarantine," Sylis insisted.
"Will she?" I asked. "Because all of the women there are from up here. Dragon women without tails, like me. Wild women. Stolen women, Sylis, carried back to breed and make more children. That's why they don't let us marry each other. That's why I'm making sure Callah has the list of relations, so she'll be able to make sure you aren't her cousin, Tobias. They aren't just taking the meat. They're taking all of our people for one reason or another!"
"No..." Sylis breathed, looking at Tobias. "How? When?"
"Twenty-eight years ago," I told them. "That's when it started. Before then, the Dragons had a few Moles stumble into Lorsa, but they were always killed. Then, an entire army hit - and kept hitting. They did their best to track when, but their calendar is different from ours. The world warmed, changed, and when that happened about six hundred years ago, some hid from it. The Moles must've been a group of those. Others adapted. The wild men now farm plants. The Dragons make tools. All people hunt, but most of us eat animals like deer or pigs!"
"But they're the Devil's minions," Sylis said, shaking his head to show he was confused.
"They are people who were changed to deal with the ruined world. Science did it, so the Righteous shunned science."
"And we're Moles," Tobias told him. "Pale creatures that burrow underground. A fitting name."
Sylis nodded. "And he spoke. The Wyvern, he can speak now?"
"He's always been able to speak," I promised. "But languages change over time. Ours went one way. Theirs went another. I had to learn it, and I showed him how to speak English like we do underground. Now we can understand your orders. We know what's being yelled." I reached over to pet Holly, making sure she was still paying attention. "And up here we are free to live as real people."
"Men too?" Tobias asked.
I nodded. "If you can prove you aren't like them, I think I can make that happen."
"How?" Sylis asked. "Why would they trust you?"
"Because I told them when you're coming. Because I explained how to defeat you. Because I might be a woman, but I'm not fucking stupid! I just pretended to be, because being meek, submissive, and subservient was the only way to survive, and I want to live ."
"Me too," Sylis said. "So what do we need?"
"To get the women out," Tobias explained. "Not just Callah. She says there are more. Widows who are terrified to be married. Girls who know they will be abused by old men and likely die in childbirth. That's why Meri was cast out. She lied to be banished, and now she's with Ayla."
"Why?" Sylis asked.
Which made me smile. "Because we have medicine up here. Ways to make it stop hurting when an arrow is removed. Things that are a lot more effective than having Tobias hold you down and rinsing your wounds with alcohol that burns like the fires of Hell."
"It really did," he agreed, "but my arm healed the way you said it would. But they won't give me the door code. Ayla, I know it's four digits, but Gideon blocked it."
"Um...." Sylis looked between us. "I have a feeling I'm about to be moved up from squad lead to team lead."
"And?" I pressed.
"Team leaders get the code," Tobias explained.
"And you'll be a squad lead," Sylis said.
"No!" Tobias snapped. "I can’t sneak off if I'm leading a squad!"
Sylis furrowed his brow and glanced down at the leaves he was sitting on. "I can complain that you're too stupid."
"Do it," Tobias said. "I need to be able to get that code to Ayla."
So I reached into my pocket and pulled out a handful of my dog's treats. They'd been broken and crumbled, but I passed them over to Tobias.
"I need to teach her your name and scent," I said. "If she knows that, she'll be able to find you without hitting you or biting you."
"And I follow the beast," he said. "Got it."
"What about me?" Sylis asked. "How do I help?"
"You make sure no one suspects Tobias," I said. "And if this man..." I pointed at Tobias. "...ever hits his wife or makes her cry? You tell me, because I will kill him." I looked at Tobias. "Is that clear enough for you? I might not be able to make Callah leave, but I will protect her. And if I have any reason to think you're part of the problem, I will find a way in there. I will burn the entire place down to take care of her, do you both understand?"
"Friendship," Tobias said. "I understand that very well. It's nice not to be alone, and better not to leave your friends behind."
Sylis looked over at Tobias and nodded, but I finally saw what Zasen was talking about. That was the way Irrik looked at Brielle and Jeera. It was how Rymar sometimes smiled at Kanik. It was the gentleness that made me feel safe around the men I lived with, because that look was filled with more than just concern. More than friendship.
Which meant women weren't the only ones who suffered in marriage. Down there in the compound, everyone was being punished. Many had embraced it, but the lines weren't the ones I'd expected. It wasn't men against women. It was the powerful against the weak. It was privilege against servitude. It was a system meant to make sure the ones at the top never, ever slipped down to the ranks of the common people who had lifted them up.
And somehow, I needed to destroy it.
"Now tell me what I need to know, Tobias," I said. "Tell me everything, because when you stop?" I pointed at the forest where things were still booming, but further away now. "We go out there."
"Soon, the vegetables won't be available," Tobias said. "We never have anything to pick up in December. The farm is empty then. That means we need food, and I have a feeling we won't be bringing any back today. We need to get out before we all starve."
But my lips were curling into a smile at the thought of Reynold Saunders feeling the pangs of hunger. "Good. What else?"
And the men started talking, needing no more encouragement.