Chapter One #2
Aubrey paused. “If a woman comes in with a vine tattoo or a wide scar down the left side of her face, put her into that same healing unit. You will be surprised by the results.”
The medic paused and made a note. “Vine tattoo or wide scar. Or wound?”
“Yes. Her family hates the mark, but they were moving on foot. They believe that their pilgrimage should take them to the end of the world, but they are heading this way.”
“This woman is a believer?”
“No, she is their martyr, but I was kept from rescuing her by my own people. They thought it was funny. I really, really wish to make sure that she is all right.” Aubrey exhaled.
“It’s important. She’s important. I could see it before, but now it is flaring and bright in my sight.
Her partner looks like a stone wall, with a serious face and focused gaze.
His pattern looks like this.” She drew the mark in the air, and the medics recorded her movements.
She smiled. “Her pattern will look like this.” Her fingers moved in the twisted vine and surrounding marks.
Her medic said, “How do you know this?”
She shrugged. “I can see it.”
“Have you always seen things?”
“Not enough to save my fingernail, but enough that I knew how to fix my vehicle.”
“I see. This is very exciting. I will notify the station.”
“Okay. May I eat now?”
Eyes widened. “Of course.”
The guards surrounded her, and they walked together, one of them saying, “We will escort you to a seat, give you a tablet and learning unit to start you off, and one of us will get you food and drink. Do not leave the table, and do not engage with the other survivors. They will come at you. We will handle it.”
She nodded, and they opened a door, escorting her through to a room where about one hundred fifty humans were laughing and enjoying a meal. She didn’t look for Avery. She focused on the table set aside for her and settled in the chair as the room went quiet.
One of the guards left as promised, and she was handed a tablet and started to read a language she had no business knowing. “That was one efficient machine.” Her words were in Hmrain common.
They chuckled around her.
She read up on etiquette, bond procedures, and the right of refusal before the auction began, and then she read the addendum.
The Hmrain Ra had renewed his claim to their world and paid the bonds immediately on all children of Geb.
Humans began free and could continue their education with a bond, but that was their business.
Her food arrived, and a variety of items were set out in front of her. She looked the items up and started eating.
She ate in the quiet room and sipped at her water. She ate slowly.
“Aubrey!” Avery walked up to the table. “Share some of that.”
Her guard answered for her. “Our scanners indicate that she has not had food in her system in several days. She requires food to recover her strength. You have no claim on it.”
Avery’s cronies paused behind her. Desmond said, “She ate all of our rations the day before yesterday.”
“There has been nothing in her system for days. These foods are all easy for her to digest. Her health is in the balance.”
She continued eating. She gestured to a guard, and he checked his tablet and nodded.
Avery looked wary. “What was that?”
“She has been ordered not to speak with you, so she asked me what your own initial scans indicated. It seems you had your last meal twelve hours before arriving at this pickup point.”
Desmond’s and Paris’s eyes filled with horror. They looked at Avery, and she was stammering. She started to cry. “I was hungry.”
Aubrey murmured to another guard. He grinned and said, “Take the shit show to another table. You are ruining her appetite.”
She ate a small spoonful of vegetable stew and watched the trio drag themselves outside to have a nice screaming fight.
“Will they hurt her?”
“No, they never do. She isn’t full companion strength, but she is enough for a fourth-generation Hmrain, and she will leave the guys the moment that wealth makes an appearance.”
“Do you see her match?”
She shrugged. “I do. She is bonded by a male who is good but serious and no-nonsense.”
“Do you see your match?”
“Yes. Very serious face, very silver, wings that have metal feathers.” She continued eating slowly and carefully. “Body is very graceful but tremendously strong. Hair is the red of dried human blood. Eyes are currently solid black.”
“That is precise.”
“I can see it now. I have always felt it, but now I can see it.” She smiled. “It’s rather nice.”
She continued eating, and when she finished the food that had been brought for her, including fresh fruit, she drank water and sighed. “I will be hungry again in another hour. The height has done a number on my appetite.”
The guards nodded and watched over her while she was reading. The survivors were called to start loading into the shuttle, and Aubrey smiled. They were going to be in that confined space for a while.
The guard to her left said, “The private shuttle has arrived.”
“Oh, excellent. May I keep the tablet?”
He chuckled. “No, but there is one for you on board.”
“Okay.” She handed him the tablet, and he put it in a holder. She got up, and they walked her out a different door and over to the sleek ship waiting for her. The guards walked her toward the pilot, who had orange sherbet skin and a lime-green crest that flopped to one side.
“Lady Aubrey, I am your escort to the station. Please come on board, and we will get you settled before the others even lift off.”
“Thank you. Your designation?”
“Flight Commander Aberen.”
“I am pleased to meet you. Do you have a tablet I can use?”
Aberen nodded. “I will get it for you the moment we settle you.”
“Thank you.”
Aubrey turned to her guards and saw the medics watching. She bowed to them both. “Thank you for your help and your awareness. It was wonderful to be seen.”
She straightened, and the staff at the station bowed to her. She smiled and nodded when they straightened. With that, Aubrey walked into the shuttle, got settled with a beverage and a tablet, and the ship closed up and headed to the Education Station.
It was finally time for her life to start.