Dark Warriors: A Dark Lands Anthology (Darklands) (5 page)

Not trusting herself to say anything civil, Vana acknowledged him with a curt nod. The blond head at his side caught her eye, making her eyes widen. Now there was someone she needed to speak to.

“I’m sorry if I scared you earlier,” she said quietly to the petite woman. “I didn’t want us to get hurt in a war between…them,” she concluded, her voice dropping an angry octave on the last word.

With a stiff nod, the woman showed her agreement. “My name is Jennifer…Jen.” That seemed to be all she had to say.

The high table was served. Reluctantly, Vana chose from the array of dishes being passed around and stared at her plate. The four basic food groups, in an unfamiliar but tantalizingly scented array, stared back at her. It looked good. Her mouth watered.

“Is there a problem?” Dagon inquired.

“I’m trying to decide if this is going to agree with me. I’ve never had alien food before.”

A small smile curved his lips as he watched her working up the nerve to try a bite.

Swallowing hard, she speared a quail-sized stuffed egg with what looked like a long, skinny hair pick and nibbled a cautious bite. It was…odd. It reminded her of pickled herring and egg yolk.

Still hungry, she scraped the thing off her pick and stabbed a cube of green vegetable. Bewildered, she moved the pick away and examined the nibbled cube as she chewed. It tasted like honey-mustard potatoes, heavy on the mustard. Her eyes watered. A sip of the water helped, fortifying her for the rest of the dinner.

Fortunately, she found some items she liked. The meats were all very good; tender and perfectly spiced. Most of the vegetables were exceptional, as well as the grain dishes and breads.

The only sticky point came during dessert. The servers cleared away the remains of the meal, then brought out platters of enticing layered desserts, confections and sweets. A plate was placed between each pair of diners.

“It is customary for the man and woman to feed each other,” Dagon said with a faintly challenging smile.

Vana eyed the plate, then him.

“And it’s grossly rude not to at least try the desserts,” he added in warning. “Our chefs are temperamental. They’ve been known to poison those who scorn their cooking.”

She raised a skeptical brow, but reluctantly allowed him to feed her a bite of a brown, creamy dessert.

Her eyes widened in surprise. It was as rich as cream, complex as roasted hazelnut and as addictive as chocolate. Her eyes drooped shut, and she actually purred.

Fascinated, Dagon watched her intently. Chills broke out on his skin as she moaned low in her throat. Her tongue darted out to lick her lips, and suddenly the room ran short of oxygen.

Glazed eyes looked at him in apparent ecstasy. “What…is this?” she whispered.

“Adoc. It’s made from a local nut.” His voice came out a hoarse scratch. Her eyes dipped to the dessert and he hastily offered her another bite.

“Ooo,” she moaned.

He broke out in a sweat. Dagon quickly handed her the tiny stone dish and the ivory dessertspoon, unable to take more without disgracing himself.

A quick glance showed similar scenes being enacted all over the room. Apparently adoc was heady stuff for Earth women.

Ser leaned close. Never taking his eyes off of Jen, he murmured, “I’d like to be painted with that stuff and locked in a room with her.”

A vision of him and a far different woman flashed before Dagon’s eyes and his temperature went up a hundred degrees. “Ser!” he growled.

Ser laughed without mirth, understanding the frustration in Dagon’s voice.

The liquor-drenched, layered wafer-and-fruit tortes were nearly as dangerous, the candies only slightly less so. Vana finished the desserts before Dagon realized he’d had none, but he didn’t care. Just watching her eat had been dessert.

In fact, his sweet tooth was aching.

No matter how luscious the desserts had been, they still weren’t enough to completely distract Vana from her situation. While eating, she’d cataloged the room around her, sifting through the visual impressions to get a better grasp of what kind of place it was. The servers, she noted, were mostly youths between the ages of eight and twelve. Some of the older ones had grown quite tall for their age (these guys were not small men) but the boyishness had not faded from their faces. Besides, they looked at her a little differently than the older men, with a mixture of curiosity and wistfulness. It unnerved her enough to ask Dagon, “So where are all your women? Surely you have some left.”

“Very few.” He hesitated. “Those who are left…did not care to attend the banquet.”

Vana considered his guarded expression. “They don’t like us being here.”

He seemed to choose his words carefully. “You are an unwelcome reminder of what they perceive as their failings. They can not have daughters, and you will have nothing but.”

Her eyes widened. “What!”

“We will ensure that you have nothing but daughters,” he repeated earnestly, leaning forward a little as if trying to reassure her. “We have the science to do this.”

His gall astounded her. He stole women and informed them that they would chose husbands, then refused to allow them any say in the child’s sex? “And what if I want to have a boy? Did it ever occur to you that we might want to have sons?”

Silence descended over the table at her forceful question.

Dagon looked as if he couldn’t believe his ears. “But we need daughters; many of them. More men would only complicate our situation.”

She stood up, breathing hard. He rose, too. Angry enough to ignore the way he dwarfed her, she said in a low, biting tone that nonetheless carried, “I have been kidnapped. Informed that I will choose a husband. And now you have the gall to stand there and tell me that I can’t even choose the sex of my child?” her voice rose to a shout. “If I want a son, I will have a son. But you don’t have to worry, Dagon, because it definitely won’t be yours.” She turned on her heel and walked out, leaving him speechless.

She was still boiling when she slammed the door of the women’s chamber behind her, leaving her escorts outside. It was unbearable that they were guarded even inside this place. Where did they think she would go?

She kicked a pillow, sending it flying. Then she grabbed it and used it to whack a stone column, beating out her fear and rage. It was a large pillow, and held out longer than her short spurt of fury. She paced the room, still angry, but not destructively so, looking for a way out. Other than a locked set of double doors, there were none.

Somehow, someway, she had to get out.

The banquet lost some of its triumph for Dagon after Vana stalked out. Her angry words made him consider some of the difficulties he faced in integrating the women into his culture. It could and would be done. It was unfortunate that women like her would make the task so much more difficult.

He considered what he might be feeling in her situation. Since he could do little about the darker emotions, he settled on loss of direction as something to focus on. She would be without a purpose and would need something to keep her active mind busy. And he definitely wanted that one occupied. She may even have given him the key to structuring the men and women’s time together.

Satisfied with his decisions, he leaned back, considering the alien women. Already they displayed less fear, which was good. He would have to see which men were qualified to be instructors. If it meant spending time around the women, he suspected that there would be a large number of volunteers eager to help.

His smile returned, and he resolved to put Vana from his mind. After all, thanks to the recent hunt, there were many more women to choose from.

Vana submitted to the physical the next morning because she had no choice. Besides, the medic performed some very painless and long overdue dental work. Considering how much she’d been dreading having her teeth capped, it was a relief to have him coat her teeth with something guaranteed not to chip or wear. They made her go first, possibly on the conclusion that it would be easier to do the most difficult woman at the start.

Her genetic work-up was done and they took a tiny amount of blood.

“I’ll have your specific supplements finished by tomorrow,” the medic informed her, his attention on an e-reader. He held up a tiny pellet for her examination. “This is birth control. It’s activated by your personal cycle, and goes into effect during that time. It’s programmed to ensure that you do not conceive male children.” He popped it into a handheld device.

“No!” she shouted as he reached toward her, and she jumped off the table. The guards stirred warily.

The medic regarded her with unruffled calm. “It’s painless, has no side effects, and is required.” When she didn’t move, he said, “You will be restrained if necessary.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You might lose some body parts if you try.”

Ellyn came up beside her, sympathy in her eyes. The examination was taking place in the common area, and she’d been on hand to help. “Very well. Walk with me and I will try to change your mind.”

Vana looked at her suspiciously, but submitted to Ellyn linking their arms as they strolled through the women’s room and down a few corridors. The sound of rhythmic shouts and the clash of metal grew louder until they stood on a balcony over a huge inner courtyard. Boys aged five to eighteen trained in blocks, separated by age. All wore black, loose pants and nothing else. Some of the older blocks wore sashes of varying colors. All of the instructors wore red sashes.

Dagon was there, teaching a class of five through seven year olds. He walked among the boys, patiently correcting their stances and moves. There were at least several hundred males there, and not a female in sight.

Expressionless, Ellyn watched the group in silence for a moment before saying, “This is our next generation.”

Foreboding knocked on Vana’s heart. “Where do the women train?”

Ellyn’s smile didn’t reach her eyes. “Our women are never permitted such a thing, even if they desired it. There are far too few of us, and we are watched over carefully to ensure that no harm comes to us. Our presence here is a true indication of the ratio of male to female in our race.”

Horror made Vana’s mouth open. “A true…you’re serious!”

“Deadly.” Ellyn looked at the men again.

“But…where are all their mothers? They didn’t come from thin air.” She still couldn’t believe it.

“I myself had fifteen children in an attempt to have a daughter,” Ellyn said, infinite sorrow in her eyes. “Some women have birthed even more, trying every way our doctors could think of to conceive. Nothing worked, or worked consistently.

“We are a tired, bitter sex, and more than happy to turn the birthing of daughters to someone else, but jealous that you can do what we cannot. Don’t expect sympathy from us over your desire to have a son. You are free to choose any of ours.” Her jaded expression seemed at odds with the woman she’d seemed to be.

Vana frowned. “I would love my children no matter what gender they were.”

“Say that after fifteen male babes and three miscarriages, all daughters,” Ellyn said dryly, “and I might believe you. At least I still look in on my children from time to time. Some women cannot even bear the sight of them and send them into the care of whoever will take them. A number of the boys below are such children.”

Anger made Vana’s jaw lock. She wanted to demand which children, but didn’t. What could she do, go down there and adopt them all?

“Come,” Ellyn said firmly. “You have an implant to get.”

Resentment made Vana’s steps slow, but she didn’t try to bolt. It would have been a futile move, considering that any one of her four armored guards was twice her size. The gun on the hip of the left guard caught her eye.

He noticed her glance and sent her a stern look, almost daring her to try it.

Once again Vana found herself with the medic. “Can this be reversed?” she asked grimly as he reloaded his tool.

“It won’t be.”

“But it can be. What if someone found a way to make your women conceive and girls started popping up everywhere?”

“It won’t happen. I know everything there is to know about female fertility. If there was a way to make that happen, I would have found it.”

“If you knew everything there was to know, they’d all be having girl babies,” Vana said sweetly.

His eyes narrowed and he pressed the tool to her skin, delivering a slight sting along with the pellet.

But Vana had an idea now, and she was loath to let it go. “I’d like to see your research on the matter.”

He looked at her as if she were mad. “You don’t read our language.”

“So? You must have translators somewhere. You guys managed to get along in our world. Besides, I’m sure the ladies here would like a chance to read some of your books if you provide translators. I’m sure Dagon would approve. After all, think how it would help us to learn about your culture.” Sarcasm laced her voice.

The medic glanced at Ellyn. “You’ll have to ask Tzar Dagon about it.”

“Tzar?” The word didn’t seem to translate well.

“It is like a king, but he is checked by a high council. Their offices are hereditary, but the Tzar is elected in a battle of arms, wit and character.”