Page 39 of Taken to Heimo
I don’t trust him.
And to claim him now still feels wrong when the last time I saw him, he looked like he was about to pass on into the grave.
I’ve seen him zapped and slashed by the Niahhorru stunners and swords. I’ve seen his arm broken, his neck shackled, his back lashed, his body speared and poked and cut and bruised, but I’ve never seen him look hurt like he looked when I told him I would not marry him.
“That would explain the hair,” she says slowly, carefully. She is a worshipper of the Tri-God, too, but not so devout as to wear the clothes or practice the rituals.
She reaches up and combs her fingers through her long locks. “I would not be so foolish to try to kill you.”
I exhale and step forward, cautious as I reach the door. She backs away from it and gestures for me to walk down the stairs. She follows close behind and says nothing as we reach the bottom.
Neither do I.
I can’t.
It…it’s magnificent.
Long, rectangular basins are filled with newly formed crops, while lights hang suspended above them, shining down and bringing them to life. There are too many varieties to name. Off to the right stand huge cisterns that seem to be providing either water or fertilizer to the crops through clear, blue, and silver tubes that weave out of them and across the flat white floor.
To the left, there are a dozen additional tanks, most marked with names I can’t read, though one distinctly saysgeeran,a type of meat that’s common in Voraxia. One carcass could feed an entire colony on the family for a dozen solars and, judging by the size of that tank, it looks like Mathilda has hundreds of them.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
My jaw works, but my gaze has locked on the clear chamber at the far end of the room. I start to run towards it. “Deena?” I gasp.
I press my palms to the glass as soon as I reach it, looking for seams. “What has she done to you?”
“You shouldn’t be here,” she says, glancing over my shoulder.
She crosses her arms over her chest. It’s full. Far fuller than any female’s I’ve ever seen on the colony. She’s rounder than any and why shouldn’t she be? She’s trapped in a cell with nothing but food to keep her company.
“Mathilda,” I bark, feeling hot, feeling frantic. “She is your granddaughter! You’re keeping her caged like a rat.”
“But that’s the problem, isn’t it, advisor Svera? Sheisa rat. You see, this one has been snooping around my things for rotations. She knows as much as you do. Maybe even more. That I didn’t kill her outright rotations ago was only a gift to her mother.”
“Who you killed, too,” Deena growls out behind me.
Mathilda’s face doesn’t change. Not even once. Ageless, not a wrinkle to be seen, I wonder if this woman has any emotions at all.
“Yes, my daughter was an unfortunate victim of the first Hunt. I thought she understood my way of thinking but, when the babe came, she tried to keep it and I couldn’t have that. She also threatened to tell the colony about what I’d done should I try to take the kit from her, so I had to take action. Just like I am taking action now.”
I look into Deena’s heart-shaped face. Her locks are twisted just as tightly as her grandmothers, but are a deep brown tinted by red hues. Interestingly, her eyes are a bright, icy blue. They watch me now with pure flame. Even as she takes a step back on her twisted left leg and shakes her head only once.
“You really shouldn’t have come. She’s been planning all this for you for half a rotation. Since the pirates came for you and Miari the first time.”
I turn and meet Mathilda’s gaze with a trembling sort of hate. “You will not get away with this.”
“Unfortunately for you, I will have to. I have no intention of being exiled or relinquishing my position.”
I balk, “You have no position. You report tomeand to Miari and to the Raku. The Council will be disbanded as soon as I send word.”
I flip open my life drive and issue a series of quick commands only…the holographic images are all stuck.
“Jammer,” Deena whispers through the glass at my back.
“Yes, according to your life drive, you never left your parents’ house.” I brace my shoulders as Mathilda smiles.
“You cannot kill me. You said so yourself.”
