Chapter 60
Sixty
Callah
It felt like it took forever for the alarms to be silenced.
I managed to get up and get dressed before I could hear myself think - and my mind kept jumping back to the size of Tobias's chest. We'd never changed in the same room before.
He always gave me privacy, so I'd done the same to him, but when he'd yanked his shirt over his head like that?
I'd looked.
Something about the size of that man made me both terrified and excited.
No, that had to be the excitement of the intruder alarm waking us both from a sound sleep.
But the compound was secure, right? Who would want to get in?
Ayla was the only person who sprang to mind, and she didn't have the code yet.
So to keep my idle hands busy, I straightened up our home while I waited for news.
For a bit, the halls were quiet, but when sounds started out there, I dared to stick my head out.
People were making their way back home. No one was screaming or trying to hide, so I could only hope that meant it was nothing.
Just when I was ready to go find him, Tobias finally returned. The man stepped into our suite like he was exhausted, then kicked off his shoes and left them laying in the middle of the floor. That was enough to make me pause, waiting to hear what was wrong.
"Are you okay?" I asked when he said nothing for a little too long.
He ran a hand through his dusty blonde hair. "Callah, there was meat."
"What?" His words made no sense.
"Someone tried to get in, used the wrong code, and woke everyone," he explained as he bent to collect his boots and set them where they belonged. "My squad was the first out - "
"No!" I gasped.
He lifted a hand. "And there was no one there. It takes a bit to arm everyone, then to turn off the alarms. And from the size of the pile of dead animals they left, this was well-planned. Callah, there's enough meat there to feed the entire compound for a month."
"Oh."
"And if it's from who I think it's from, they gathered it up in a handful of days."
Yeah, I had to sit. What he was saying made my head spin. "How? Tobias, how is that even possible?"
"Because the world is not ruined," he said, making his way over to crouch before the chair I'd dropped into. "It's lush and happy. Sadly, this isn't good news."
"But we have food now," I said. "That means you won't need to go out there and risk your life. You can make sure you're going to get that promotion first!"
He murmured. "I'm not sure that's how this will work," he said.
"Callah, we're not supposed to say anything.
It was a false alarm, nothing more and nothing less.
I had to check who didn't make it to the armory and report them.
According to Gideon, the elders will be told about the meat, and it's being brought inside, but we're not supposed to mention it to anyone else. "
"Why not?" I asked.
"Because we all know where it came from," he said, "and demons should not help us. That makes them a lot less evil."
Okay, he had a point. I had another. "So maybe we need someone to give them a better line to use? Some way to make sure the women down here aren't constantly starving?"
He shifted onto his knees and bent to press his brow against my legs. "Not yet, and I don't want you eating it either."
"Why?" I asked.
He sighed heavily. "Because Dragons are poisonous, Callah. They have tails with stingers on them, and fangs. If they bite or sting a man, we die. Always. None of their victims ever make it back to be treated. Most don't survive long enough to even be evacuated from the area."
"The Wyvern?" I asked, nudging his shoulder. "Why didn't you tell me that?"
"Because the man is terrifying enough on his own.
He stands even taller than me, and he's not the biggest among them!
He's huge, black with white stripes, and a bright blue tail!
There are green ones and red ones. All the colors, Callah.
Dragons are nothing like us, and that makes it easy to believe they're demons. "
"But they aren't?" I had to ask, because I could hear the concern in his voice.
"They're poisonous," he said again. "And I can't be sure they didn't poison that meat. Would Ayla assume I'd know, so she'd think it was a safe way to free us? Would the others do it without her knowing?"
"But I thought the Dragons listened to her!"
He made a noise. "They do, but that's not the same as obeying.
When Sylis was hurt, I talked to them, and many weren't happy about it.
I can't understand their words - not all of them.
Some speak English, though. But their tone?
The yelling and pointing and gestures? They were angry, Callah. At me. At everyone down here."
I nodded, believing him completely. "So what do we do?"
"We do not eat this meat," he said. "We keep doing what we're supposed to and see what the elders are going to do next. I mean, I don't know what else to do!"
"You," I told him, "need to come back to bed, Tobias. It's too early for anyone to be up. The lights will probably dim again soon, and you need your sleep." I stood, taking his hands, and did my best to guide him up.
"Are you sleeping?" he asked.
I nodded. "Yeah. I was too worried to even try, but now that you're safe?" I clasped his smallest three fingers, aware they were all I could get my hand around. "And I don't really mind if you put your arm over me."
"I..." He stopped. "I don't mean to."
"No, it's okay," I assured him. "I actually like it. It reminds me that I'm not alone." I tugged again. "And I trust you, Tobias."
"So, maybe hugging is okay?" he asked.
To answer, I turned in place, released his hand, and threw my arms around his waist. "You, husband, may hug me any time you want. It's what friends are meant to do."
Slowly, almost as if he was being careful, this giant of a man bent to fold his arms around my back, and then he simply held me. Tilting his head, he pressed his cheek against my hair, and while he gripped a bit, it was not enough to crush me at all.
"I don't know when we'll hunt again. I don't know what Ayla's doing. I'm worried they're taking action without us because the wild men - er, Reapers - want revenge. Callah, I'm scared we're going to get caught in the middle."
"But you said she made them look at you," I reminded him.
"Doesn't mean they'll care," he said, finally releasing me. "It only means they'll know I took their wives from them. They'll be sure I'm the enemy - because I am."
"No," I said. "We're simply surviving, Tobias."
"And killing them in the process."
We were almost in bed when the lights dimmed, warning they'd go out soon. When Tobias turned toward me, I pressed closer, hugging him while we were lying on our sides. That was how we fell asleep - and how we woke when the real morning came.
But the lack of sleep took its toll. Both of us were moving slowly, so when he suggested getting breakfast in the dining hall, I agreed readily. Only part of it was because I wanted to hear what others thought had happened.
Linked on his arm, we were halfway there when a girl called my name. I paused, looking back to see who'd recognized me, and found Zuriah running toward me.
"Mrs. Warren!" she called again, slowing only when she was close enough to merely walk fast. "I'm sorry, Mr. Warren, but Mrs. Worthington wanted me to give a message to your wife." Then she looked at me. "Juness Chatham was lost last night."
Juness? I'd met her in the laundry, like so many other wives. She'd been worried about surviving long enough to escape, and now she was gone? Dead? There was no way Zuriah meant that, did she?
Before I could ask, Tobias did. "Lost?" He sounded confused.
I could feel my head turning from side to side as if I could somehow negate this. "Not Juness. Zuriah, how did she pass?"
"Her..." Zuriah glanced at Tobias nervously, then lowered her voice even more.
"Her husband took too long responding. He was demoted.
He punished her for delaying him, but when she didn't get up.
.." Her eyes jumped to Tobias again, then back to me.
"He called for assistance, but Mrs. Worthington said her pupils were not responding. "
"Brain damage," I said, mostly for Tobias. "He beat her to death?"
"Callah!" Zuriah hissed, looking at Tobias one more time, but this time was as if she was reminding me he was there.
"Go," Tobias told me. "The women need you, Callah. I'll bring something back so you'll have a meal."
"Thank you," I said, clasping his arm before I caught Zuriah's arm and turned her away. "Does everyone know?"
"We're telling as many as we can," she assured me. "Ms. Lawton has all the younger wives collecting the rest. Most are asking for a knitting needle or crochet hook because we know what that means now. I just... You said your husband..."
"Respects me," I told her. "A husband's place is to care for his wife. A woman's place is to care for all. He understands that and is proud I can help. Now, when did this happen?"
"I don't know," Zuriah admitted. "It was sometime after the alarm, but I don't know when.
I do know Mrs. Worthington treated her in the infirmary.
She just..." The girl's lower lip slipped into her mouth as if she was ready to choke up.
"Callah, she didn't make it! It wasn't a child that killed her. It was her husband's own fault."
"I know," I said just as we reached the women's facilities.
My anger was rising. Juness hadn't been a friend to me, but she'd been kind. She'd cared. She'd also been worried, and that made something hot and hard burn in my chest. This was more than anger.
I didn't have a word for it, but I had a feeling this was what had driven Ayla. This fire was impossible to ignore. It demanded I do something, but what? I couldn't save the woman, not now that she was already dead, and I refused to cry. That accomplished nothing.
So I kept my tone civil and told Zuriah, "This is why I help, okay? It's why you come to me any time you're injured, and - "
I stopped hard just inside the door - because there wasn't room to move!
Normally, there were a handful of women in here at a time.
I always saw faces I couldn't put a name to, but right now, the entire room was packed.
Some women had laundry with them. Others made no effort to pretend they were here to work.
All of them were facing inward, riveted by what was going on near the sinks.
"Let Callah in," Mrs. Worthington called, lifting her hand to wave me forward.
"I just heard," I said as I wove through the people. "What's going on?"
But it was Miriam Lawton who answered. "As of today, we are done. They cannot claim we are so necessary that they must wed us younger than ever before, then claim we're so worthless that our lives do not matter!"
"Yeah!" women grumbled all around me.
"And from now on," Mrs. Worthington said, "I will treat any women who need assistance in the infirmary."
"I will treat anyone who needs it in my suite," I said. "Until such time as I have need of it, my nursery is serving as a healing area for women - with my husband's consent."
"What?" someone gasped.
"My husband," I said, moving to one of the folding tables and hopping up so I could sit on it, "believes my healing is a gift from God.
" Then I shifted onto my knees and carefully stood so they could all see me.
"And if God gives a gift to a woman, then it is meant to be used.
For a man to say otherwise is to deny the power of our Lord.
That is why we've been reminding the men of the verses in our Bible.
That is why we must push back, because the Devil will try to corrupt them as much as us, but only God's words can correct them. "
"It's not fair!" someone yelled.
"No, it's not," I agreed, feeling my own rage taking over.
"But what other options do we have? We cannot beat them with a rod.
They're stronger than us! It would be pointless to even try.
We do not want to be cruel, so we can't leave them to suffer, but we are women!
Not beasts. Not lesser. We are God's creatures, and we deserve more than they are giving us!
No more women should die at the hands of a man for his own mistakes! "
And a cheer rose up. Women were nodding. Plenty looked angry. Beside me, but still on the ground, Mrs. Worthington clasped my leg so I'd look at her. "Callah, was that a drill this morning?"
"No," I said, realizing this might get Tobias in trouble, but these women deserved to know, and I was done with keeping the men's secrets for them.
"Tobias was the first one outside to secure our compound.
Him and his team. What they found?" I turned, making sure everyone was listening.
"It was meat. A pile of it. More food than our hunters can bring back on their own, gifted to us.
He said he does not know if it was from the Dragons we call our enemies, or delivered to us by God, but it was there. "
"No more rations?" someone asked.
"I do not know," I said, "because I'm not supposed to tell you this.
He was not supposed to tell me, so if the men hear that he did, I will be the one punished for this.
But now we know. Now we can make our own decisions.
Now we will know if the elders 'forget' to mention it.
Now we will know enough to be treated fairly!
" And I slashed my hand down. "The compound has food.
We have the ability to heal each other. We know more than our husbands give us credit for.
Why should we suffer constantly simply because we're women?
We are the ones who create the Righteous in the first place?
Every person here was born because of a woman's suffering, not a man's! It's time to remind them of that."
And all around me, the packed room of women roared. This wasn't approval. It was something more. Something angry that needed a direction.
Something that had been waiting far too long to finally be released.