Page 38 of Barbarian Brothers

“Good.”

I’m uneasy, naturally. I don’t trust him. But getting Umok to agree to this may yield the desired results. All I need to do is make sure the deal is followed through at a different location. Somewhere supposedly neutral where I can ambush his ass and take his starship without handing over a single woman. He may be prepared for that possibility, but I will also be ready. I’m banking on his desperation to get as many “breeders” as he can, and this is a deal too sweet to refuse, given the circumstances.

Prior to entering his house, I heard enough about Umok to understand that the patience of his superiors is already wearing thin, considering the Cloud Mountains crash and the loss of the four human women they worked so hard to bring back from Earth. Umok is not in a comfortable position, nor can he rely on the full backing of his leaders to mount a successful campaign against us.

All I need to do is get him to show up with a ship and take my chances.

Worst-case scenario, the deal will fall through.

But I owe it to Amber to at least try.

16

Amber

Izzo has been gone for two days now, and tension is running high along the river plateau. The Fire Tribe work relentlessly to build their defenses. They fill sacks with red sand to mount around the towns. They carve and sharpen obsidian blades of all shapes and sizes for weapons. They melt and polish metals for their shields and helmets, chest plates, and shin guards. In their culture, the Fire Tribe warriors need to be as light as possible when they’re fighting, focusing on speed and strength in attacking rather than defensive strategies. They always aim to kill.

Jewel is constantly working with the Hadana clan miners to extract the necessary minerals and process them into explosive material, and Kai has the younglings in his town weaving fuses for the bombs, which they will douse in burning oil and ignite when they see the Sky Tribe mercenaries approaching. The bombs, buried in the ground so they won’t immediately spot them, will be our first line of defense.

Maur is feeling better, walking, and talking as much as usual, but Cynthia has remained by his side if only to make sure hereally is okay and not simply putting on a tough act. I know she cares about him, but she’s still just as determined to leave. I haven’t seen much of Binzen over the past couple of days. He keeps coming and going at odd hours, and every time I see him, he takes me in his arms and kisses me like there’s no tomorrow. Like he doesn’t think we’ll survive this—or maybe that’s just the paranoia in my head.

My period is still late. I’m still praying it’s just the stress; otherwise, the increasing bouts of morning sickness will push me to accept the unacceptable. There’s a pretty high chance I’m pregnant. I’d say I have mixed feelings about it, but frankly, I’m scared and happy at the same time. It’s making my decision to leave even harder to act upon, yet I forge ahead with an exit strategy, just in case the battle ahead sees the Fire Tribe losing and my mates dying. The thought of it horrifies me, but not as much as the idea of being passed around for breeding among the Sky Tribe goons.

I leave Valen in his bed for an hour while I sneak down to the river to meet with the girls. There are many people milling about and I trust that Valen will be safe in the house. The guards stay close as usual, but they know to keep a courteous distance while they watch us. I can tell our dynamic is changing, however. Alicia seems quieter than usual. Jewel doesn’t sleep much, which makes her cranky and jumpy. Cynthia, in the meantime, keeps looking for excuses to stay with Maur and Kai. And me, well… I’m a fucking mess. Yet here we are, sticking true to our promise to one another.

“We’ve got enough supplies for the road,” Alicia says, drawing circles in the rough red sand on the riverbank while Jewel gathers pebbles to throw into the steaming water.

Cynthia lays back on a wide, flat rock to soak in some of the suns’ radiant light. “I nabbed some dried meats from the Hadana kitchens, as well. Stashed them in a sack under my bed.”

“That’s good. We’ll sneak them out tonight when everybody is sleeping,” Jewel replies. “The guards won’t notice. I overheard them agreeing to drink some mead tonight. Tomorrow might be their last day.”

“Izzo is coming back tomorrow,” I say. “With Binzen mostly out, I’ve had a bit more luck gathering stuff for us. Blankets, bags, even a few obsidian blades. The townspeople and the guards are watching me like hawks, but even they can’t have eyes on us all the time. Everybody is busy preparing for the impending attack, so we do have a little bit of wiggle room.”

“How are you feeling?” Alicia asks me.

I let a troubled sigh roll from my chest. “As well as the circumstances allow. It’s not easy, but I still hope it’ll get better. I don’t think I’m ready to face more violence here.”

“We could leave tonight,” she suggests.

“No,” I say, shaking my head. “We can’t do the same thing again and expect different results, Alicia. And it’s not my bond with Binzen and Izzo talking. It’s just common sense. We agreed to run away only if the Fire Tribe loses. That’s it. Otherwise, we’ll stick through and bide our time. We’ll convince them to let us go.”

Cynthia nods in agreement. “It’s a more sensible approach,” she says. “I’ve been doing more studies on Lorra’s blood, as well. I think I might be able to put some form of medication together to at least slow down the progression of the disease. But I would need to understand more about the properties of some ofthese plants and powders the Sunnaites use for their treatments. There’s so much I still don’t know about Sunna biology.”

“How is Lorra feeling?” I ask.

“Not well. She may die before the next full Essa moon,” she replies. “But the way her illness is advancing does give me new insights, particularly in the bloodwork. Gosh, I’d kill for a fully equipped Earth lab at this point. I bet you I’d have this virus identified and neutralized before the year is over.”

“We could grab some blood samples if we do manage to convince Binzen and Izzo to let us go when the war ends,” I say. “You could do some studies back home.”

“I think the first thing we’ll need to do is alert our authorities that there are fundamentalists preparing to steal more human women from Earth,” Alicia interjects.

Not that long ago, I would’ve been just as anxious about it. But our options don’t seem that bright anymore, at least where a flight back home is concerned. The more I ponder the issue, the crazier and harder it sounds. Light years’ worth of shooting through space in a vessel we know little to nothing about, even with a Sky Tribe tech assisting us. Something could go wrong. And then we’d all perish in the cold vacuum of space. My unborn baby included. Shaking the thought away, I try to focus on our hushed conversation instead.

“We will definitely do that,” I say to Alicia. “Our people need to know so they can be better prepared. The Sunnaites may have some technology that allows them to travel so far across space, but they clearly don’t have enough to mount a full-scale attack on our planet. We could probably increase our orbital defenses and call it a day.”

“At the same time, we should make sure we don’t go banging on the Sunnaites’ door later down the road either,” Jewel says. “You know how greedy we could get as a whole species, right?”

“Oh, that’s easily fixed. We just need to emphasize that there aren’t any resources for us to take from Sunna,” Alicia replies.

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