Page 1 of Night's Bride

Chapter

One

Emily Duert stared at the heavy shroud of snow-laden trees surrounding the transport and hugged her heavy cloak around her. It had stopped snowing early in the morning, but after several days of nonstop snow the accumulation was severe enough that the transport was moving sluggishly through it along the only clear route this far north. What was worse, gray skies hinted at more to come.

“We never should have agreed to come,” Trish whispered from where she was huddled beneath a blanket, her green eyes looking huge in her pale face with the smudges of exhaustion ringing them.

“You speak as if there was much of a choice,” Emily responded, her gaze shifting back to the deep shadows of the forest. “We were selected by lottery.”

“We could have run away,” the other woman protested as she shrank lower into her blanket. “I should have. I have family out west that would have hidden me. I know they would have.”

Emily snorted quietly with grim amusement. As if it were that easy. The High Council would have seen to it that they were hunted down and dragged back for transport. Therepresentatives that were sent to her had been clear. There was no turning down the results of the lottery. Those chosen would go willingly in comfort, or in chains with no comforts or courtesy extended to them. It was easier to simply capitulate to fate.

Besides, it was not like life in the capital offered her much. Trish, from what she gathered, came from a well-off family. Not wealthy by any stretch of imagination, nor influential, but her mother was a professor and scholar of some repute and her father a well-known administrator of the Holy Temple, which had afforded her a privileged life of comforts that Emily could only imagine. But that was the lot of the common workers and their families. Luxuries were few and life was harder. Truthfully, the thick fur cloaks that had been sent from the north for the brides practically bordered on extravagant as far as she was concerned. So much so that, though two cloaks had been left in the transport for them, she had not entirely believed that one was for her or dared to wear it until the transport had started moving.

She ran a finger along the fur against her neck although it caused the cloak’s heavy sleeve to slip down to her elbow. It was the warmest and most comfortable thing that she had ever owned. While Trish was railing against the unfairness of their situation, Emily couldn’t help but wonder if the fur cloak hinted at what sort of care could be expected as a bride for the Ragoru. The male birth rate was declining enough that the chances of marriage for someone as plain and ordinary as her among the commoners was getting less likely by the year.

“I hate this. I can’t believe my family abandoned me to this with no comfort except a bunch of empty promises,” Trish muttered miserably. Her lip quivered and suddenly she kicked out, her foot upsetting a serving tray that had been set up for their meal. “They are treating us as nothing more than cattle. I’m not a cow!”

Emily watched as the empty dishes clattered to the floor.

“It is not a death sentence,” Emily quietly rebuked as she bent down and picked up the bowl that had rolled over to her feet. She set it on the table and frowned at the other woman. “Is it fair to not give us the choice? No, of course not. But if you are unwilling to give this a chance, then you are just going to make it harder on yourself. And on them when they’ve done nothing to deserve your contempt.”

Trish’s upper lip curled in a sneer. “Nothing to deserve my contempt? How about expecting us to go through with this in the first place? The aliens who bartered the agreement didn’t even stick around to see if anyone would be willing to do this. And yet these…Ragoru… sent for us as if they have a right to us.”

“That’s not fair,” Emily protested with a tired sigh. “They did not have any part in how the High Council decided to select candidates.”

“That is beside the point. They shouldn’t have sent for us at all! Who in their right mind would want to mate with them? The High Council knew that and that is why they devised the lottery, claiming that it is out of fairness. They knew that no matter how much they tried to spin it as an honor, no one was going to volunteer. It’s sick! They are practically animals!”

“Obviously they are not animals if they had the thought to make you a cloak and send it along with fur blankets to keep us warm,” Emily muttered as she turned back to her window.

She didn’t know why she felt so offended on behalf of an alien species she had never met, but she did. They hadn’t needed to provide anything for their comfort, but they had seen to it that they not only had the furs but, according to what she overheard from chatter among their escorts, they had also supplied much of the food being used on their journey north. Dried meat and fruit and plenty of nuts kept them comfortably fed over the long days.

“You do realize that this road only goes so far north, right?” Trish snapped. “They say that we are nearing the drop off point at the end of the route and that we should be there before sunset. A drop-off point! Don’t you understand what that means? We are not going to just be left in the woods with these monsters, but we are expected to travel on foot through the snow, likely for days on end until we reach our destination. Through the snow! In winter!”

“That is usually when it snows,” Emily agreed, then bit back a small smile at the infuriated look Trish gave her. “Okay, I get why it sounds unpleasant, but the northern woods are a dangerous place during much of the year. They aren’t especially safe this time of the year either but at least some of the carnivorous plant life and larger predators will be hibernating. It’s actually the most logical choice.”

She almost expected the other woman to explode furiously at her, but instead, Trish sat back in her seat and regarded her with a thoughtful expression.

“If I didn’t know better, I would think that you are actually looking forward to this,” Trish grumbled.

Emily didn’t deign to reply. She was, in fact, relieved when silence once more fell between them. Hours passed and the forest seemed almost eternal in the way that it stretched on and on without little change. Only the angle of the sun shifting among the trees and catching on the snow made her aware of the passage of time, and even that disappeared entirely when it began to snow once more. The entire forest became gray and dark as fat snowflakes drifted down from the heavens, falling faster and thicker until the trees took on an indistinct appearance beyond their white veil.

At long last the transport jerked to a stop, and a flurry of activity just outside let her know that they had arrived at their destination as the sound of luggage being dragged out and thecrunch of snow as it was quickly unloaded filled the air. Trish immediately cringed in response and drew up close to the wall opposite the transport door as if that would somehow save her. Emily eyed her as she gathered up her lone bag and looped it over her shoulder.

“Just how much did you bring?” she asked. “We were instructed to take no more than can be reasonably carried.”

“Two trunks are more than reasonable considering what I had to leave behind,” Trish protested. “Besides, those monsters are huge. If they insist on dragging me from this transport, they will have to do it with the luggage also in tow.”

Emily grunted noncommittally but stood when the transport door suddenly swung open. A woman from the escort stood framed in the entrance, her hood and coat heavily covered in snow and her face ruddy with the cold, smiling up at her.

“Come on down—they’re waiting for you,” she added with a whisper.

Clutching her cloak tighter around her, Emily nodded and descended without a backward glance. Trish wasn’t her problem; that was for the escort service to figure out. Instead, her gaze fastened on the woods, eyes drifting searchingly among the trees for some sign of the males who had come to fetch her.

“Where…” she murmured to herself.

A movement caught her eye, and she froze as a pair of males suddenly drifted out from the trees, their gray fur nearly white with the snow and ice clinging to them, but the Ragoru were distinct and couldn’t be mistaken for any casual predator with their far larger build. It was only made all the more distinct by the fact that they each had two sets of arms and eyes—that gave them a more powerful and dangerous appearance. Their ears pricked toward her, and she frowned in confusion. Wait, just two males? Weren’t there supposed to be three?

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