Page 21 of Challenged

“It was an important message you had to deliver to Gregar?”

“Very important,” Anghar says. “And now there is work to be done by us.”

I wave Jaskry over, and as we wait for everyone else to take their helping of the food - a hunter’s tradition - we discuss the plan for mapping the rot.

“I walked the perimeter of the hut just now,” Jaskry says. “There’s rot in every direction.”

“Then we strike out evenly,” Anghar says, pointing in the directions as he speaks. “In pairs heading opposite ways away from each other.”

We all nod in agreement.

“First light, then,” Anghar says, then looks at the scant remaining broth. “I would feel better about a day’s running if we had a hearty meal in our bellies.”

“Be grateful the females eat from the Mercenia hut’s stores,” I say as I serve myself a meagre portion. “Otherwise, there would be even less to go round.”

Despite the small size of our meals and the knowledge of the blight weighing down several heartspaces, there is a joyous atmosphere this evening. Vantos is coming tomorrow, and we already have one new sister. My Angie’s absence from the fireside does not dim anyone’s enthusiasm for this news.

“What’s she like?” Olfran asks, leaning close to hear our answers.

“Angry,” my brother says.

“Angry?” Larzon says, and there is a demand for more information in his tone.

“Beyond that, we saw very little of her.”

Maldek says it to deflect Olfran and Larzon’s fervent interest as much as because it is the truth.

“There must be more you can tell us than just that,” Olfran says, undeterred.

He is not as bad as Larzon, not by some distance. But like most of our unmated brothers, when conversation turns to our new sisters, he gets a look in his eyes that is not quite desperation, but more than simple interest. It abrades at the same part of me that wishes to go to my Angie now, to ignore Liv’s words about giving her room to process her thoughts. A growl threatens to build in my chest, coming from some primal part of me. I swallow it down.

“It is dark in thepodroom. The light is strange. I could not tell you the colour of her hair with any certainty,” Maldek says.

Dark brown, I think. Cut to frame her face in an almost sharp way.

“Of course he cannot recall,” Larzon says with a huff. “He has eyes only for his own linasha. Better to ask Rardek. There is a chance he was paying attention.”

Their eyes turn to me. I scratch at the back of my hand.

“The room was no brighter for me because I am unmated,” I say, keeping my tone lazy, unconcerned.

Larzon scoffs. “I thought you claimed a great talent for observation.”

I probably did say that to him once. I say a great many things when I am in the mood for fooling. Rarely are they thrown back at me.

“Well, now that you have prompted me, I do recall that she was small.”

It is an innocent observation. Something they will see for themselves immediately when my Angie decides to emerge from the Mercenia hut. It does not have the intimate quality of some of the other things I noticed about her - like the fire that burned in her eyes.

“You’re as useless as him,” Olfran says, gesturing to Maldek.

I expect further ire from Larzon, but he just huffs, sitting back in his seat.

“I am not so interested in the smaller ones,” he says. “They seem so fragile. I would not wish to have a mate I am afraid to touch.”

It is a change of headspace from his early belief that any of the females would do, as long as he got one of them. The long sunsets of the big rains have given him a chance to observe our sisters, learn a little of their natures. It has shown him that he would not be so pleased to be mated to some of them.

“Do not let Sam hear any talk of her being fragile,” Paskar says with a laugh.

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