Chapter 14
Fourteen
Callah
Somehow, I sat through the entire ordeal. Twice more, men lashed out at the women they were about to promise to care for. Once, a girl tried to run, but she didn't even make it a step before she was pulled back into place.
Before all of us, the words were said. Without shame, the punishment was given. What had previously been hidden behind closed doors was now on full display, and my stomach was twisting with dread.
The moment everything was over, Tobias stood. "Callah, I'm done. Take our plates back?"
"Yes, husband," I said, gathering up his. Then I turned to Sylis. "Are you finished, sir?"
"Yeah..." he said, sliding his empty plate toward me as if confused.
"That," Tobias told him as I walked away, "is the purpose of a wife."
I didn't hear more, but I didn't want to. I simply put our plates in the wash area, then made my way back, checking the girls again. They were now at the wedding table, being served their celebratory meal, and all of them had their eyes locked on their plates. Few were eating.
"Mrs. Warren?" someone said. I kept walking, trying to think of some way to make this right, but the woman tried a different way. "Callah?"
That caught my attention. Stopping in place, I turned to see Felicity, one of the widows I'd befriended recently. "I'm sorry," I told her. "I'm not used to my name yet."
"It's only been a week," she assured me. "It gets easier, but I was wondering if you could help me this evening?"
"I believe so," I said. "With what?"
"I have a fray that's giving me problems," she said. "Maybe you can help me when you do laundry?"
"Gladly," I assured her, knowing she wasn't talking about mending any of her clothes. "I should be starting that in half an hour."
"Then I'll make sure to be available then," she said with a smile.
So I hurried back to Tobias, not surprised to see Sylis still standing with him.
Like he had on the way here, Tobias offered me his arm, Sylis moved to his other side, and the three of us left the dining hall.
The men kept talking, acting as if I wasn't even there, but as we got closer to our room, Tobias sighed.
"We need to talk," he said.
"Who?" Sylis asked.
"All three of us," Tobias told him. "Now?"
"Uh..." I didn't want to interrupt, but I had to. "One of the widows asked if I could help her with a fray she can't mend. I need to do laundry, Tobias."
He ducked his head and murmured, clearly thinking. "Okay. You do that. Sylis, find a reason to come to my place soon."
"I can check on you in a few days," Sylis offered. "I'm reviewing the team, and I'll have to assess you as well."
"That works," Tobias said, pausing before our door. "And I might be in the lounge shortly."
"Then I'll head that way," Sylis said. "Mrs. Warren, it's a pleasure."
He turned, making no attempt to enter our suite. Tobias opened the door, letting me enter first, then sighed when he closed it behind us.
"That was not good," he grumbled, and I was pretty sure he meant the weddings, not his talk with Sylis.
"No, and I think it's why Felicity wants to speak to me," I admitted. "I'm sorry I couldn't entertain your friend - "
"You're fine," he promised. "Sylis needs a wife, Callah. He doesn't want to get married, and he has no interest in rushing to get children. He wants a wife because it's the only way he can get promoted enough to get the door code."
"Oh."
He nodded. "Yeah, and it's easier for him in other ways to be married, but that's his goal. So we need to see if there are any women you can trust who might be a prospect."
"I..." I paused, thinking about it. "I'll see. At worst, I'll be able to find someone who won't cause problems. She might not be brave enough to help, but there are plenty who won't get in his way."
"Which is good enough," he said, moving closer. "And I hate that you do my laundry for me."
"I don't mind," I promised. "But maybe you can help me gather what needs to be washed? All your clothes look alike."
"Because they are," he said, heading into the bedroom. "But Callah? I don't remember that happening before."
I followed after him. "Ayla stabbed her husband."
"No, the punishment," he clarified.
"Gideon punished Ayla and Meri in the dining hall once," I reminded him.
"And it was shocking to many," he said, tossing crumpled clothes into the basket I used to carry our laundry. "I want to see if more than the marriage age has changed. I... Callah..."
"What?" I begged.
He dropped in a shirt and turned to face me. "I don't like this. It feels wrong."
"The marriages?" I asked, waiting for him to nod before I kept going. "Because they are wrong! Those girls aren't ready, and we're kept so isolated, few of us have people we can really call friends. We have no one to turn to, and that has to change!"
"So change it," he said.
I nodded. "Which is why I'm going to do laundry. You men can hide in lounges, but we women have to make our plans around work."
"I know," he said, lifting the basket and carrying it to me. "But I will help. I don't know how I can, but I will."
I accepted the basket, shifted it to my hip, then caught two of his large fingers in my hand, holding him before me. "I don't understand Sylis. I feel like I need to be a proper wife before him."
"No," he promised. "Callah, he knows about Ayla, and he didn't tell anyone. He wants out, but she made it very clear he isn't welcome with her until she knows you're free."
"Oh."
"And I think he can help too," Tobias went on. "I've made it clear to him that the way to have a good wife is to not hurt her. We haven't been able to talk freely, but I truly believe he's with us."
"And if he's not?" I asked.
He glanced away. "Then I'll shoot him the next time we're hunting."
For a little too long, I stood there, taking that in. My giant husband, who everyone assumed would hurt me, didn't want to kill. He wasn't made for killing, and yet he would to help the women down here. No - to help me.
"Okay," I said, giving in. "But I don't want to miss Felicity."
"Go," he said, tilting his head at the door. "And Callah? Please be safe with them too? Not all women can be trusted."
"No, but there's strength in numbers," I assured him as I left.
But that was the thing, wasn't it? There was strength in numbers. I'd realized that when Rebekka had threatened to get me in trouble. I'd made it clear we'd all say she was simply a jealous shrew. She was, but we'd found a sort of power in standing up.
And we all needed that power now.
I was thinking about how to use that when I dumped our clothing into the wash basin. Slowly, the water sank into the cloth, but I simply watched it, trying to find a way to make our numbers help the girls who were about to wed these men.
A set of hands reached across me and began wringing the fabric in the water. "Is your husband a disappointment?" Felicity asked, proving she'd caught me lost in my thoughts.
"Oh, I've got it," I assured her, joining in.
"And you didn't answer the question," she teased. "Seriously, Callah. How are you adjusting to being a wife?"
"I do not think my situation is the same as most," I told her. "My husband is fine."
"And the breeding?"
My hands stilled. "It's..."
"Horrific," she finished for me. "You can say it." Then she moved the soap closer. "But I don't have a fray. I just hoped you'd have some way to help these girls."
"The girls?" someone asked from another basin. "The ones who just got married?"
"And the ones about to get married," Felicity said.
So the woman grabbed her things and dragged them dripping to drop them before us. It took her two trips, but she spoke the entire time. "I'm not sure there's anything we can do. Did you see the way those men punished them right in front of us?"
"Abused," I grumbled.
She dropped her last armful and stared at me. "What was that?"
"Abused," I said, stronger this time. Then I lifted my head, daring her to say I was wrong.
"Which one are you?" she asked.
"Callah Warren," I told her.
"Juness Chatham," she replied.
"And she's right," Felicity said as the outer door opened, making us all pause.
But the person who wandered in was a face I was pleased to see. Ms. Lawton. Like me, she had a basket of laundry. She was also watching the floor, clearly as lost in her thoughts as I'd been in mine.
"Ms. Lawton," I greeted her.
She paused, her head snapping up. Then, slowly, a smile began to appear. "It's Miriam, Mrs. Warren."
"Still Callah," I reminded her. "And we were just talking about today's ceremony."
"A pile of manure and rot!" she snapped, tossing her laundry into the bin just a bit further down than mine. "Stoning?"
"Do you think they made that up on the spot?" Juness asked.
"Wouldn't shock me," Felicity said. "The rate the rules are changing? How are we supposed to keep up?"
"And all of them to benefit the men!" I grumbled.
"Speak up, child," Juness chided.
"Men!" I said, lifting my voice. "They lowered the age. They've ignored the covenant that founded this place. And now? Now they're not even holding their hands before the entire community! This is abuse!"
"It is," Felicity agreed.
"But what do we do about it, Callah?" Ms. Lawton - Miriam - asked.
"I don't know," I admitted.
"Not good enough," she said, turning to give me her full attention. "You had big plans before you were married. Don't tell me that husband of yours has already broken your spirit."
"Tobias?" I shook my head. "No." Then I realized I couldn't say too much about him.
"He's manageable. It's just..." I paused, pressing my lips together as my mind spun.
"We are not the Righteous anymore. I don't know if we ever were, but we certainly aren't now.
This place? It's Hell for all women, and we have to do something about it! "
"But what?" Felicity asked. "A few of us hoped the banishment of your friends might be our chance to escape. That doesn't seem to be working anymore."
"We knew it wouldn't for long," Ms. Lawton said.
"We need to remind them how helpless they are without us!
" I said, slapping my hand down into the water.
"They don't know how to cook. They can't clean.
They certainly don't mend! Without their wives, none of these men would be able to survive, but they use us up and discard us as if we're worthless! "
"No," Ms. Lawton said. "As if we're replaceable."
And my blood ran cold. "No." I didn't know why I hadn't seen it before, but suddenly it all made sense. "The problem is we're not." And I looked between them. "When was the last time a child was born in quarantine?"
"There've been a few," Ms. Lawton said, sounding confused.
And I snarled under my breath, because I knew this answer, but I couldn't figure out how to explain it without exposing too much about Tobias. "But what if those numbers are down? What if…" And I let the words trail off, realizing most people didn't know the things I did.
"What?" Juness pressed, watching both of us.
"Tell them," Ms. Lawton encouraged.
"I shouldn't know," I reminded her.
"No, you shouldn't," she agreed, "but you do, and she should too. If the knowledge comes from somewhere other than you, you're less likely to pay for it."
I nodded, giving in. "The women in quarantine weren't born here," I said, looking first at Felicity, then over to Juness.
"They were born above, on the surface. Hunters bring them back - or did.
They produced children like me. New bloodlines to add to the compound, and there are plenty of women up there. "
"No," Juness huffed, waving that away. "That's impossible. We all know the surface is burning and only the Devil's minions survive."
"It's a lie," I said.
"Callah," Felicity chided, "how can you be sure?"
"Because both of my roommates were chained to a tree," I told them, repeating the reason I'd used with Felicity when I'd first tried to tell someone about this.
"My husband mentioned it, and other hunters have said similar things when I was healing them.
The men aren't always careful about what they say, and if you listen, the pieces start to add up.
Trees burn in fire, but they grow in sunlight.
I know that because my mother was in quarantine, and she told me stories.
I remember the women in there, and they were not like us.
My mother's hair was the color of the cooking coils! "
"And," Ms. Lawton said, "I don't remember the mothers' names. I've raised generations of girls, and too many mothers are ones who never attended sermon with us."
"So what do we do?" Felicity said. "If they have other women, then the threat to stone us to death is more likely than we want to admit. How can we help these girls if they'll just replace us with wild women?"
I laughed once. "But they aren't getting those women anymore," I said.
"That's why the age went down. For years, the Wyvern has been fighting us off, but now they have the Phoenix too, and she is the reason the hunts have been so bad.
" I paused, choosing my words carefully.
"I think she's protecting their women. If she is, they aren't getting more, so they need as many children as we can produce, and none of them care what it does to us in the process.
By the time all of these girls are gone, the Phoenix should be too. "
"Who?" Juness asked.
"One of the Dragons," Ms. Lawton said before I could mention Ayla's name. "One the men started talking about the same time we started losing so many hunters."
"So what can we do to stop this?" Felicity wanted to know.
"We talk to these girls. We listen to them. We women make our own council, and we do not tell the men about it. If they're going to keep their own secrets, then we keep ours. Most of all, we believe each other, because until we're all safe, none of us are."
"We make a sisterhood," Ms. Lawton realized. "Callah, that's a very, very good idea, and I think it's a good place to start."
"But not end," Juness added. "If they will beat those girls on their wedding day, I can't imagine what our husbands will do to us if they even suspect we're pushing back." She glanced at Felicity and cocked her head, acknowledging she was a widow. "You know what I mean."
"I do," Felicity agreed, "but these new rules mean I'll have to marry again much sooner than I'd planned. So I think Callah's right. We have to do something, and a sisterhood is the perfect place to start. Maybe we can even convince these girls that everything is not as we're told."
"The world is green," I said. "We'd be safe up there. I know we would."
"But we have to get out of here first," Juness said, turning the mood sullen all over again. "And that means we have to live long enough to make it happen."