Page 102 of Phoenix's Fire

"So was his father," Ayla explained. "Lessa can't have babies because she has a tail. Women like Naomi can, so all Dragons have a mom like us."

"Will mine be a Dragon?" I asked, terrified being above ground might change it.

"No..." Lessa said, clearly understanding me. Then she rambled something at Ayla.

"She says Dragon babies have to have Dragon fathers," Ayla explained. "Well, mostly. She was a little more graphic."

"About what?" I asked.

Ayla's cheeks began to get pink. "How the babies are made."

"Oh."

For a moment, Ayla and I were both quiet, but I couldn't help myself. I had to look at her to make sure I truly understood. Yes, her cheeks were pink, but when she met my eyes, it didn't matter. Both of us immediately burst into giggles.

"They just talk about it in front of everyone?" I asked.

Ayla nodded. "A lot, actually. Since I've been here, they've all told me about how it doesn't hurt, and how to prevent babies, and how it has nothing to do with marriage." Then she rocked her head from side to side. "Mostly because I was worried about the men and what they'd think."

"Because you live with three!" I hissed.

"Is okay," Lessa said. "Three be good or..." She mimed holding something and chopping at it with her other hand. "Use without asking, women cut away. Gone. No more man part."

So Ayla said something to Lessa. Lessa replied, and with a grin, Ayla looked back at me. "She's trying to say that if a man has sex with a woman who doesn't want it, the other women will cut off his penis."

I gasped. "No!"

"It's not allowed," Ayla insisted. "Or hitting women. Not even as punishment."

"I'm glad you found this place," I told her. "I wish Callah was here, though."

"I want to get her out before November," Ayla admitted. "Zasen is trying to figure out how to get in, though. Did Gideon ever say anything about that?"

I shook my head. "No. He told me when he'd be gone and what he expected when he came back. I liked those days, because I wasn't forced to stay in our rooms. The other hunters' wives would eat meals with me and we'd talk. But he never told me anything about his duties, except when he got hurt."

"Hurt?" she asked.

"The arrow before we were married," I explained. "The one you fixed."

"I should've let him die," she grumbled

"But then I'd have been married to someone else!" I shot back.

"And Gideon hurt you!" she all but growled, sounding more powerful than any woman I'd ever heard before.

It was enough to make me look at her all over again. Ayla had changed a lot. The girl I'd known months ago had been as pale as me. Her hair was the same, but that was about it. Her skin was now darker, her body was thicker with both flesh and muscles. The biggest difference was the way she'd stopped hiding her disobedience and had embraced it.

"What if I'm not strong enough to survive up here?" I asked.

"You are," Ayla promised.

"But..." My hands went to my belly, feeling the thing inside me moving on its own. "What if he comes for me, Ayla? What if he wants to take his child back?"

"You told him it's not his, remember?"

"What?" Lessa asked.

So Ayla explained what we were talking about in that other language. Lessa nodded, glanced at me a few times, and nodded some more. When it was all done, she reached over to rub my shoulder, then lifted her tail.

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