James, Luke said, had acted in self-defense and the ranch held him blameless.
As a precaution, the Cyclers requested the group stick to their own quarters and avoid the canteen. At this pronouncement, Daniel looked around the room and laughed. “Anyone here been to the canteen after the first night?” he asked. They all shook their heads no. Mark and Patrick were the only two big drinkers anymore anyway.
“Where’s Patrick?” Kurt asked.
“I sent him to his room,” Luke said. “As far as I am concerned, until we get home he is under arrest. What Amos Deaton will do is up to him. I just don’t want any more problems.”
“You’ll have none on our account, sir.” Shawn said.
Amy looked up, startled. She had never heard anyone, least of all Shawn, refer to Luke as “sir.”
“Thank you, Shawn,” Luke replied. “I think I can trust the rest of you on that score.”
The next couple of days passed quickly. Mark died quietly in his sleep the first night. The men took the afternoon off from working to bury him in the Cycler’s cemetery. Amy surprised herself by feeling more grief than she expected over his death. She’d hated him for years, but she never wished him to die.
They returned to work the next day. Their order was mostly full, and they would be heading back soon. Amy and Lexa passed the evenings with Jake; they watched movies, listened to music, and talked.
On the way home after the second evening, Amy commented, “You know the worst thing about this time of the month?”
Lexa shrugged, “What?”
“For the first time in my life I really want to, and I can’t.”
“Horn dog,” Lexa teased. “You’re getting as bad as me.”
“Not that bad,” Amy laughed. “So you are really not upset? About me and Jake?”
“No,” Lexa replied. “I am way over that. Jake’s a goofball, but I got eyes, girl. He’s a beau hunk.”
Amy laughed and let the matter drop.
The next day, they started loading the trucks. Shawn arrived for work with Lily. They walked up to Luke hand in hand.
“She wants to come back with us,” Shawn declared defiantly, as though daring someone to disagree. Lily nodded.
Luke paused, considering the two of them. Then he extended his hand to Shawn. “Congratulations,” he said. He shook Lily’s hand as well. “Welcome aboard.”
They all stopped to greet their newest member. While Daniel and Kurt were busy slapping the grinning Shawn on the back, Jake strolled up.
“I’d still like to come too,” he said lightly, but there was nothing light between him and Luke.
After several long, hard moments, Luke said, “I said you could come, and I won’t go back on my word. Heaven knows, we could use another mechanic.”
So it was settled. They had lost one but gained two. They would leave at daybreak the next morning.
Chapter 16
THE CHOICE
In the morning, Lorn came to them, a look of puzzled concern on his face. “The Cyclers have received a message from the village of Bullhaven, asking about your location. They want to know how soon you can be back.”
“Is there a problem?” Luke asked.
“Apparently,” Lorn answered, “but it’s not something they want to discuss over the computer.”
“We are headed back now anyway,” Spider shrugged. They’ll get there when they get there. There wasn’t anything else to say.
The trip back to the Stewards was uneventful. Several of the men had discovered Amy’s newfound interest in Aikido and, to her surprise, asked if they could start too. Soon the whole camp was working out every morning.
It provided a break from the monotony. Between the message from Bullhaven and the need to return to the mountains before fall, they were hurrying as much as possible. They drove long, hard stretches every day.
Amy’s love affair with Jake went unfulfilled. There wasn’t enough privacy, and they were pushing so hard during the day. Besides, now that the first rush of puppy love was over, she was having second thoughts. He was gorgeous and fun to be around, but he seemed perpetually immature.
Luke, on the other hand, was maturing rapidly. The men now treated him with respect. He talked frequently about the future, how they would start building new houses, open trade and relations with others. He even spoke of finding the other communities in their group, what happened to them.
He had told Amy shortly before they left the Cyclers that she would have to choose: him or Jake. He would leave it in her hands and hope she made the right choice. The pained look in his eyes told her that he knew which choice he felt was the right one. She alternated between terrible guilt and bitter anger.
True, they had been friends for a long time. True, he had shown her respect when no one else had. Did that give him the right to expect her love? Despite his new maturity, she could not imagine a future with him.
Now that she had admitted to wanting sex, Lexa teased her constantly. One night as they lay in the tent, Lexa described her one encounter with Jake in graphic, awkward detail.
“Knock it off,” Amy groaned. “I’m trying to sleep.”
“Go right ahead, I’m not stopping you,” Lexa replied innocently.
That night Amy dreamed of Jake. In her dream, she and Jake made love while Lexa lay on her stomach next to Amy, chatting casually about her day. Amy woke tired and vaguely disturbed.
They reached the Stewards’s hideout and found it empty. “I assume this is a good sign,” Lorn said.
“We’ll find out tomorrow night,” Luke replied. They intended to rise early and make the trip in one big push.
“We will find out right now,” Lexa called, waving a note she had found. It told them that everything was okay. The scavengers had come and gone quickly. The Stewards had returned to their monastery and were busy rebuilding.
When they reached the monastery the next night, they were greeted by an enthusiastic crowd and a late feast.
“Everything went perfectly according to plan,” Joseph told them. “With Owl’s help, it took less than a week to track them and retrieve the gold.”
“And Jes?” Amy asked.
Joseph looked away. “We buried her in the gardens, like she wanted. I’ll show you in the morning, if you want.”
She took his hand and squeezed it. “Yes, I would like that very much.”
They stayed with the Stewards for one day. They all would have loved to linger, but the message drew them on.
When they departed the next day, Lexa offered to keep Jake company in his electric buggy. That left Amy riding with an increasingly thoughtful Daniel.
“It is sure one strange world we’ve stumbled into,” he said, obviously wanting to talk.
“Yes, it is,” Amy replied. “I would have never thought about coming, but I am glad I did. What about you?”
“It has given me a lot to think about. Did you hear Joseph yesterday? He was going on about the tanks and how they purify the water. Fascinating stuff.”
“I missed it, but I remember some from our first trip through.”
“And the way they talk about Permaculture?” he went on. “Everyone at the ranch talks about gardening like it’s boring. These people make it so much more. They’re incredible, really. They have some weird social customs, though. I guess to each his own.”
Amy had things she wanted to talk about too. She wasn’t sure who to talk to, but suddenly she saw her opportunity. “About their customs, what do you make of it?”
Daniel shrugged. “Some of it’s weird, but they’re okay people. That’s the odd thing. Back at the ranch, they would tell you that behaving like that is evil. But these people don’t seem evil.”
“Have you caught that they talk a lot about fertility?” Amy asked.
“How can you miss that?” Daniel said. “That first night at the Greenbowes, this woman gave me this whole speech about how it was her fertile time and what an honor it would be.” He shook his head.
“Did you?”
Daniel blushed. That was all the answer she needed.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be nosy. I don’t really care.”
“Not since Jake came along,” he snorted. He gave her a sideways glance. “Did you?”
It was Amy’s turn to blush. “No. All right, maybe I wanted to, but . . .”
“So who’s it going to be?” Daniel asked. “Luke or Jake?”
“Does everyone know?”
“It’s a small group,” he replied, “and pretty obvious.”
“I don’t know. I can’t decide. Okay, if we are going to get personal . . . the lady at the Greenbowes, did you love her?”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“Just a fling?”
“Yeah, I guess. Not like Shawn and Lily.”
“Do you think they are really in love?”
Daniel rolled his eyes. “Have you seen them lately? At every stop, he’s picking flowers. Shawn. Picking flowers.” They both laughed.
“Okay, but back to the point. Fertility. Do you really think it’s that important?”
“For me, yes,” Daniel replied with a sudden vehemence. “I’ll find out when I get back to the Greenbowes, see if that woman is pregnant or not. There was a woman at the Cyclers too. She said she’d send word. I have to know.”
“If you’re fertile? Why?” Amy felt a little betrayed by his vehemence. She had spent so long trying to argue that it didn’t matter. But he thought it did.
“Just between us?”
“Okay.”
“It was Joseph’s idea.” That startled her. What did Joseph have to do with this? “It was his condition.”
“Condition on what?”
“Coming back, joining the Stewards. They don’t take anyone who is fertile.”
Amy’s head spun with the shock. “You’re going to join the Stewards? Not go back to the ranch?”
“The ranch is a failure,” Daniel griped. “We all talk about freedom, democracy, and the American way. But this is where it really is, down here. We turned our backs on the problem and tried to pretend we were better than the people who did this. We
are
the people who did this. I want to be part of the solution. I don’t want to go back and hide from it for another thirty years.”
Amy looked at him in stunned silence. He shuffled uncomfortably and blushed. “I suppose you think I am being silly.”
“No,” she replied. “In fact, I think that’s most noble thing I have ever heard. I am impressed.
He smiled shyly. “Besides, Kurt says he’s staying.”
“Really?”
“With the Greenbowes,” Daniel said. “Though he won’t explain why.”
“I am not surprised.”
“No?” Daniel replied. “It’s all he talks about, when he talks at all. We used to talk a lot, but now he mostly talks to Lorn. I’m not really mad or anything. I just want to know what’s going on.”
Amy was uncomfortable. She knew why Kurt wanted to stay, or at least assumed she did. What would Daniel think? Did she even have the right to say?
In the end, she decided that she didn’t have the right to say anything. Kurt had never told her directly. Truthfully, it was just gossip, even if she believed it to be true.
That night, she told Lexa about their conversation. “I am not surprised about Kurt,” Lexa said. “But Daniel is a bit of a shock. Do you think Luke will let him stay?”
“I don’t think he’ll have a choice when it comes right down to it,” Amy answered.
“What about you?” Lexa asked.
“I haven’t decided yet.” Amy groaned as she rolled over. “They both stare at me. I can sense their pleading. The longer it goes on, the harder it is.”
“I know,” Lexa said. “When we get back to Tir-Na-Nog, we will set up a test. Rowan is about Luke’s size, and Luther can stand in for Jake. That way you can try both and see which you like better.” She laughed.
“Why do you always throw your husbands at me?” Amy asked, exasperated.
“I am just teasing.” Lexa said. Amy looked at her, really looked at her as she hadn’t since before the Cyclers.
She reached out and hesitantly brushed Lexa’s cheek. “What is it?”
Lexa’s eyes filled with tears. “Damn, you weren’t supposed notice,” she muttered. She took a deep breath. “Well, I thought maybe . . . well . . . you know Kurt’s staying. Now Daniel is staying. Why can’t you?”
“Me?”
“And if you won’t stay for me, maybe you would for one of my husbands. I know you aren’t comfortable with . . . well, it’s really not about sex anyway. You’ve become like the best friend I ever had. I’ve never cared so much about someone, and I don’t want you to go.” She was rapidly dissolving into a sea of tears.
Amy wrapped her arms around Lexa. “I’m so sorry. I really am dense.”
“Yes, you are,” Lexa said in a tiny voice.
After a time, Amy laughed. “What?” Lexa asked, drying her eyes.
“Are you seriously suggesting I could join your family?”
“Daisy practically said as much before we left. They’d all have to decide, of course. Everyone thought you were great. Nobody would object, I am sure.”
“I can’t marry six people at once. What would they think back at the ranch?”
“Since when do you care what they think?”
She had Amy there. Amy was forced to admit it was an excuse. What would
she
think, being married to six people at once? She wasn’t sure she could contemplate such a thing.
As the journey went on, Amy began to feel out of sync with everyone else. Everyone was ready to be home again. Shawn and Luke talked constantly about building new homes at the ranch. Spider moaned for a real bed again. Patrick, when he talked at all, hissed how glad he would be to be away from these strange people.
Only Amy seemed to want the trip to go on. She dreaded the decision she had to make. As if it weren’t hard enough already, now she had images of herself and Lexa traveling up and down these dusty roads in an old electric truck, fixing windmills, going from village to village, arguing, laughing, and talking the whole way.
Just when you want time to stop,
Amy thought darkly,
it goes faster.
They were already pulling into Tir-Na-Nog. She had barely gotten out of the cab when Daisy bear-hugged her. After that, she didn’t have time for anymore foul thoughts.
“Oh my Goddess, but what an adventure you two have had. It’s amazing that you survived at all. We heard most of it over the satellite, of course. A run-in with scavengers; a bold rescue of the Stewards . . .”