Page 57 of Alien's Eternal Mate

“They did nothing to me other than hurt my pride, beloved. You don’t have to worry about me. I, however, must worry about you. Clearly you have not slept in some time.”

Her hands felt cool and soothing against my face. I let my eyes close and sighed, feeling as if someone had cut my power cable.

“I suppose I have not slept since you were taken.”

“Then come to bed, my lifemate. Sleep, and regain your strength for another day.”

Her eyes grew distant and hard.

“I have a feeling we will all need it soon enough.”

FOURTEEN

CARTER

Iremained in bed for most of the next day, though not all of that time was spent in slumber. My lifemate showed me exactly how happy she was to be back home. I relished the time we had together, though I knew my presence would soon be required for the siege efforts.

I joined Pageus shortly before sunset, when red-gold beams of light pierced the effusive white clouds with the brilliance of their hues. Our shadows stretched long down the hill, covering a good portion of the village square.

He gestured to the half-assembled siege engines, a team of Engineers and Sages working together to make them come to fruition.

“The work goes well. I’ve never seen the castes work together with so much harmony before.”

“As I said to Chief Zey, we’re going to have to look at new ways of doing things if we want to survive. We need to stop discriminating against our own people based on their caste, or lack thereof for that matter.”

We turned toward the west, where a group of Shunned worked with veteran warriors to learn fighting techniques.

“The Shunned pick up on the ways of the warrior well,” Pageus agreed. We watched as Lo overextended his spear thrust and flopped onto his belly. “Some of them, anyway. Are you sure the boy would not be better amongst the Sages?”

“I am certain that he would be better off. However, I am also certain you’d be better off asking a mountain not to be tall than asking Lo to change his mind.”

“You’re right about that. The stripling is as stubborn as they come.”

“He’s determined to prove he can hold his own amongst the warriors. All we can do is let him try.”

“What if he fails?” Pageus asks.

“What if he succeeds?’

Pageus laughed.

“Point taken. However, I just don’t want the boy to be disappointed.”

“Sympathy for a Shunned, Pageus?”

He arched a brow and shrugged.

“Sympathy for someone who intends to bleed, possibly die in defense of Starlost village.”

Pageus strode away from me, his voice pitched low enough only I could hear.

“Just be certain that you do not drag us too quickly into the future, Gro. Many of us oldsters will be left behind.”

I open my mouth, closed it, and then sighed. I wished that Masari culture could be a place where no one had to be left behind. Not the old, nor the infirm, or the casteless…or women, for that matter.

But Pageus was right. One thing at a time, starting with the defense of Starlost village.

As the days wore on, we saw our siege engines take shape. The catapults worked astonishingly well, especially when combined with load-lightening skybreaker harness technology.

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