Page 143 of Planet Zero
“It depends on what they found when they got there. They would stop some distance away, concealing their presence. Scouts would scope out the area. Stealth is important, and it’s a tricky job - marauders have their own scouts, although they are never as well organized as the tribes. A day could pass as the warriors await the information. Maybe two, maybe more. They need to learn the landscape, to figure out what’s going on at the enemy camp.”
“And then?”
“Then they’ll make their move.”
“There are many marauders.”
“Our men are strong, Addie. Believe. They will come back to us.”
Addie believed. Theywouldbeat the marauders. Zoarkwouldcome back to her.
He just wouldn't come back in time.
By the end of the second day, fatigue had set in. Addie could feel her feet and lower legs swell from blood pooling there according to the laws of physics. Flexing her extremities helped, but the tight bindings severely restricted the range of motion available to her. They cut into her body, pinching the pliant veins and slowing the normal blood circulation. She was becoming more and more lightheaded and dizzy, the condition augmented by the lack of sleep.
Addie could bear hunger as well as Qalae, but unlike Qalae, her human physiology was based on water. She needed to drink to survive. Without liquid, her days were numbered at about one more.
At different times, Vircea and Melmie attempted to approach the post, but their efforts got rebuked first by a scout who caught them hanging around and then by Illied who appointed herself their jailer. She had brought out her weaving supplies and settled to work in plain view of the post, making Addie wonder, without much engagement, if she planned on sitting here all night.
“That awful rotten bitch,” Qalae fumed under her breath. “She knows her daughter will try to help you. Melmie loves you more than she loves her.”
“Melmie would have loved her better if Illied hadn’t always made a rival out of her own daughter.” It was too much effort to maintain a conversation.
“I will kill her once I’m out of these bounds.”
Addie’s chest hurt from not being able to expand fully. Her oxygen levels were running low. “You can’t kill a pregnant woman, Qalae,” she had to whisper to save energy.
She only wished the High COunselor was as conscientious.
In the world that had become hazy around her, only one thing mattered: feeling the faint, ticklish flutters of the unformed infant inside. More than the beating of her own heart, Addie longed to hear her baby’s.
Chapter 40
Her head lolled. It was so quiet. Was there a baby? She thought she heard a small cry. Someone was crying.
“Addie! Addie, wake up! Talk to me!”
With an inhuman effort, Addie lifted her head. Qalae was wriggling at her back and calling her name.
“What…”
“Hold on, I beg you. I think they’re coming.”
“Who… where…” Her head stubbornly flopped back down, her vision darkening.
“The men! Our men are coming.”
Qalae’s words triggered a rush of warmth inside her chest, but their meaning was harder to grasp. Addie fought to concentrate but the noise was distracting her. What was that noise?
She managed to lift her head again and blink, dispelling darkness. The cries were the Yuux chirping from above, flying low in agitation. The cries were also the shouts coming from a scout as he was running toward the chief’s teepee.
Not the scout that stayed at the settlement.This scout was one that had marched with the men.
“Qalae,” Addie croaked, wanting the queen to confirm that what she was seeing wasn’t a hallucination.
“Yes, yes.” The queen craned her limber neck to better see what was happening.
Women dropped their chores and rushed in the scout’s wake. The chief emerged from his teepee just as the scout reached it, asking, talking. Chemmusaayl appeared, and someone else, and another someone, but Addie quit watching them. Instead, she worked her bleary eyes to zoom in on the man who burst from behind the rocks at a full run, red hair flying, a spear tied at his back and an axe resting on his shoulder.
