Page 30 of Taken
“Only if you want to.”
I don’t have a choice, I know that, but I also know that even if I did, I’d make this same choice. I smile and step up to him, giving him a kiss on the cheek, and say, “I do. I really do.”
He kisses me back and heads to the ladder, wanting to be the first out onto the Barrens, to make sure it’s safe for me to go out and for us to make our journey back to the tribe. Once he gives the go ahead, I grip the rungs in sweaty palms, but before I start to venture up, I speak aloud into the Chamber one final time.
“Pam?”
“Yes…Rhen?”
“If you had a body, I’d definitely have fucked you.”
Pam doesn’t respond right away. “I would remind you that I am not a sexual being…Rhen, but I believe, based on my understanding of your humor, that you may be making a joke. Ha. Haha.”
I laugh loudly with her. “I love you, Pam.”
She doesn’t respond, but as I grip the rungs of the ladder and start to climb, I hear her voice echoing up the dark shaft behind me. “Goodbye…Rhen. And good luck.”
ChapterEighteen
Lacchus
The sail takes flight, and Rhen gasps in wonder. The sails, made from treated frex-frex hide, are massive in scale and glitter pink and blue and gold. They move lazily through the increasingly violent wind as Skall, another Mpo, shouts the orders to guide those of us at the ropes attached to the largest platform.
The platform is made of wood, the world’s scarcest resource. This platform in particular has been treated and cared for since my mother’s mother’s mother’s generation. It is logical that I, the strongest Mpo, would be at one of its ropes, but it has never felt like an honor before now, with Rhen looking up at me with her small mouth hanging open.
“Sothat’show you move camp?” She watches from a few feet back and jumps in her new boots, stolen from the underground cavern she left forme.
It has been three days since our return. There were injuries among the Vironai that prevented us from taking advantage of the afternoon winds yesterday. We were lucky that they picked back up this morning. We roused early, Rhen confused as she pulled on her boots instead of the sandals most Vironai females wear, but opting for the clothing I provided her instead of her thicker gray garment.
It pleases me to see her with her belly exposed, covered in small brown dots, like stars, as well as her legs peeking out from between the strips of her skirt. She has strong legs. She is stronger than even she knows.
“Come. Help me pull.”
“Me?” she says comically, her head dropping forward, her eyes bugging large.
I lift my chin, lips twitching when she stares at me like I’ve gone insane, but she comes toward me anyway and takes the length of rope that I offer her. Trusting me, as she’s done so many times before.
“When he gives the order,” I say, pointing to my right at the Mpo at the rope on the other forward corner, “run as fast as you can.”
“Run?” she says, voice so high-pitched that the female at the rope behind mine smirks.
“You think she can run with us?” the female asks loudly.
I look over my shoulder at her and make a cawing sound, three times from the back of my throat. She and the other twenty-three Vironai positioned at ropes around the edge of this platform, laden with the camp’s most precious supplies, chuckle. I tip my chin at her, and she gives me a surprised look, but grins. I know it must come as a surprise to my fellow warriors to see me like this. Havingfun.
“What does that mean?” my female asks me. “The translator told me what she said, but not your screeching.” She pouts up at me, the brat. But like all brats, she’ll get what’s coming to her…in just a few moments…
I shake my head and try to curb my grin. “It was a dismissal,” I lie. I glance at Skall and see his fanged smile.
He shouts again and we move as a unit. Standing on the left corner, I move first, scooping Rhen up as I go because, yes, she may be strong, but she is not Vironai, and she is certainly not Mpo. Her legs are not long enough to keep up. I keep the rope over my right shoulder, Rhen wrapped around my left side.
“Grab the rope,” I tell her, grunting as the resistance of the platform abrades my scaled shoulder. She does as she’s told, holding on for dear life and, as we pull, the sail catches wind to help us in our work. The platform lifts from the ground and, as we continue to pull, sprinting twenty paces and then fifty, the resistance of the rope releases more and more and the platform takes flight.
“Are you holding on?” I ask her.
“Yyyyeeeesssss,” she says, voice rattling as she rides my shoulder.
“Hook your leg around the rope. Step on it so that you can keep your whole body on the rope.” She obeys my commands, and the moment she’s securely fixed to the rope, I give the clicking command and the entire tribe releases the ropes they’re holding and together we watch the platform lift rapidly ten feet into the air, taking Rhen with it toward the sky.
