The Choosing (The Pruxnae Book 1) (16 page)

“That I am. You
have one?”

“Selling one, if
you’re interested. He’s young and randy. Might be a handful, but you’re welcome
to take a look.”

“I’d appreciate
it.” Ryn jerked his chin toward the back room. “I’ll be in there when you and
Ziri are finished.”

Enel nodded and
resumed his seat. Ziri’s gaze skittered away from Ryn’s, and the happiness that
had accompanied him home and back faded into resignation. So that was the way
of it, then. She’d figured out she could do better than an orphaned slave with
a small holding on the outskirts of Myunad Province. Enel’s holdings were at
least three times larger. With his close connection to Sigun, he was by far the
better match, and he wouldn’t be the last man on Abyw to press his suit. There
were sure to be others, men who for whatever reason couldn’t venture off Abyw
to search for their own wife, or wouldn’t. It wasn’t unusual for a candidate to
choose a man other than the one that had stolen her. It was simply something
Ryn hadn’t considered having to face.

He stalked into
the kitchen and wished for a rug to block out the quiet sounds of Enel and
Ziri’s conversation. Alna was at the sink washing molnog wool. She glanced over
her shoulder and her expression hardened into a stern mask. Ryn rolled his
shoulders, shrugging off his discomfort, and propped against the counter next
to her.

“You didn’t tell
Ziri what she was facing,” she said.

“I told her
enough. She could’ve guessed the rest, if she’d wanted to.”

“You had a duty
to explain all of it.”

“So she could
run the first time she had a chance?” He glanced toward the opening between the
kitchen and the outer room. Ziri’s laughter rang out, light and happy, and he
scowled. What nonsense was Enel filling her head with? “I did what I had to do
to keep her with me.”

“She won’t
appreciate that, especially now that you’ve had her.”

He swung his
gaze around and met Alna’s disapproving stare. “She could’ve said no.”

“Could she?”

“I gave her
plenty of chances. She wanted to be with me.”

“Hmm.”

He ground his
teeth together. “Why is it so hard to believe a woman could want me?”

“There was never
any doubt in my mind that many would, Ryn. You’re a handsome man, charming when
you wish to be, and kind in your heart of hearts. I thought you’d be long
married by now, giving me the grandchildren I’ve yearned to hold all these many
years.”

“I wanted to
give you those grandchildren with a woman like Ziri.”

“And did you
think to give her no say in it?”

Would you have
gone with me willingly?
he’d asked. Ziri’s softly spoken
I don’t know
rang through his mind, taunting him. He hardened his resolution and muttered,
“She’ll have her say during the Choosing.”

“Easy enough for
you to say. She’s the one forced to choose between you and a handful of
strangers, when all she really wants is the freedom and time to choose in her
own way. She may never forgive you for putting her in that position.”

“Her heart’s too
tender to cling to resentment for long.”

Alna swished the
wool through the water, squeezing it gently. “What if she chooses another?”

“She won’t.” She
couldn’t, not after everything they’d been through. “I’ll talk to her.”

“You’ll do that
down here, not in her bed after night has fallen.”

“Alna…”

Her gaze fell to
the sink full of soggy wool. “Will you never call me mother, Ryn? It’s been
more than seventeen years since Gared found you on that junker, and not once
have you ever called me what I am.”

The slump of her
shoulders plucked at his heart. He draped an arm around those shoulders and
hugged her tight. She’d been his strength for so long. When nightmares had
jarred him into wakefulness and he’d been unable to contain his terror, her
hands had soothed him, her back had born the weight of his fists, her shoulders
had dried his tears. How could she not know how grateful he was for the way
she’d taken him in?

“Your sons
deserve that honor,” Ryn said. “Not me.”

“If they were
here, they’d insist you call me the same.”

If they’d
survived the Sweeper raid that had claimed their lives, Gared would never have
been away from Abyw searching for vengeance. He never would’ve found Ryn, and
Ryn would’ve died at the onset of puberty, killed by the savage aliens in their
unwavering belief that his burgeoning manhood was competition for the
affections of the female Sweepers Ryn had been given to as a slave. It wasn’t
just or honorable for him to assume the place Alna’s sons rightly deserved, a
place they’d been deprived of by the same beings that had destroyed Ryn’s
family and set him adrift in the wide universe.

“My children
will call you grandmother, mine and Ziri’s,” he said. “They’ll climb all over
your lap and demand treats and hugs, and you’ll spoil them mercilessly before
sending them home, where we’ll have to undo all your mischief.”

Alna laughed and
rested her head on Ryn’s chest. “Sweet Ryn. How blessed we were the day you
entered our lives.”

“How blessed I
was the day Gared found me.” A blessing Ryn would never forget. “When will you
and Ziri continue her training?”

“This afternoon,
foul weather or no. The moons’ conjunction is in less than two weeks and Tyelu
seems determined to shunt Ziri aside.”

“She won’t, not
unless she wants to live out her days alone,” Ryn warned. “I’m not above
fending off the man she chooses to sponsor.”

“She’d deserve
no less.”

A scuff along
the hardwood floor interrupted their conversation. Ryn glanced around. Ziri was
standing in the doorway, her hands twisted into a white-knuckled knot at her
waist. Enel stood behind her, towering over her smaller frame, a small smile
lifting his normally solemn expression. Ryn released Alna and bit back a sigh.
Molnog breeding waited for no man and had no respect for rivals over a woman’s affections,
no matter how desperately they each wanted her.

Ziri sank
gratefully into Gared’s chair with a ceramic bowl full of the stew Alna had
heated for her. Ryn sat down on her left, Enel her right, and the two of them
promptly began discussing the intricacies of molnog breeding, seemingly
ignoring Ziri.

She spooned up a
chunk of a bright red vegetable and sniffed it cautiously. Being ignored wasn’t
such a bad thing with this bunch. Enel’s persistent questions during his
interview had been a hair shy of nosey. Understandable, given the serious
nature of the Choosing, but it had made her feel more like the interviewee than
the interviewer.

Alna walked by
and patted Ziri’s back. “Eat. There’s another suitor here.”

Ziri rolled her
eyes and stuck the spoon in her mouth. It was bad enough having Ryn and Enel
jockeying for her favor with their descriptions of the size and quality of
their molnog flocks and their land holdings and their connections to people she
had no idea who were, and now Alna wanted to add another man to the mix?

Ryn and Enel’s
conversation turned to wool colors. Enel sat back in his chair, his gaze
steady. “The ram I’m offering was bred from a ewe with wool the same color as
Lady Ziri’s eyes.”

Ryn nodded and
crossed his heavily muscled arms over his broad chest. “Gared’s been
experimenting with his own flock, trying to cross for the lighter colors.”

“A worthwhile
pursuit. I haven’t the patience for such.” Enel’s gaze drifted to Ziri. “Though
I might try, if my wife thought it a suitable endeavor.”

Ziri poked a
portion of meat under the surface of her stew with the tip of her spoon and
ignored the not-so-subtle reference to her fate after the Choosing. She’d been
on Abyw less than a day and already she was tired of hearing about molnog. The
Pruxnæ in and around Hrelum seemed to live and breathe for the docile
creatures. Why didn’t anybody talk about the trees? There were scads of them
growing all around the peaceful village. Meanwhile, Tersi did without and her
people paid the price in dryer weather and a scarcity of resources.

She leaned back
in her chair, stretching around Enel’s bulk in search of Ryn’s mother. “Alna, does
the man waiting have assets other than molnog?”

Alna shot a grin
over her shoulder. “I believe he does, Ziri. Is that a factor you’re
considering in suitors?”

“It is. What
about the meat in this stew? Is it molnog?”

Ryn and Enel’s
conversation halted abruptly. They swiveled toward her wearing twin expressions
of horror.

Alna pursed her
lips. “The molnog on Abyw aren’t bred for their meat. It’s too stringy and
their wool’s too valuable off-world to slaughter them for food. What you’re
eating there is from a bovi, a Terran strain of cattle.”

“Hmm. It’s
tasty. I might be interested in a man with a…” She waited for her brain to
supply the Pruxnæ word and drew a blank. Well. Seemed the autolearner wasn’t
perfect after all. “What do you call a group of bovi?”

“A herd.” Enel
grinned, showing straight, white teeth. “I have two herds, one on my holdings
here, another on my holdings near the capital city.”

Ryn eyebrows
veed over a hot glare. “The ram?”

Alna waggled her
eyebrows at Ziri, then returned to her work at the sink. Ziri hid her
satisfaction behind a spoonful of Alna’s delicious bovi stew. Served Ryn right.
It wouldn’t hurt him to believe she was seriously considering other men. She’d
given in to him entirely too easily so far,
had
given in on the idea of
escape.

She poked at her
stew as she considered it. Escape wasn’t beyond possible. She knew where the
Yarinska
was and she knew how to pilot it. What she didn’t know was how to plot coordinates.
Would the new AI Ryn had installed be able to do that if she could point it in
the right direction? Was she really ready to leave Abyw and the people she was
coming to know? And what if she jumped into a nest of Sweepers? She shuddered
and dropped her spoon into the nearly empty bowl. She’d never survive that
alone, wouldn’t have the first time if Ryn hadn’t dragged himself across the
ship and rescued her.

A heavy rap hit
the front door. Ziri sighed. Probably another suitor. After that would come
training and the evening meal spent across the table from a scowling Tyelu, and
after that, Ryn would undoubtedly want to sneak into her bed. One thing at a
time. She pushed her empty bowl away and went to answer the front door.

* * *

Ryn slipped
through the curtain blocking the entrance to Ziri’s bedroom and set the totes
containing her clothing on the floor. The room was dark, lit by the light of
Abyw’s moons shining through the unshuttered window and the dying flames of the
fire flickering through the opening on the cast iron stove. He chose a stick of
wood and stuffed it into the stove, then shuttered the window against the cold.

“Ryn?” Ziri
asked softly.

He groped his
way around the bed and sat down beside her. “I’m here.”

“How was Enel’s
ram?”

“I thought you
weren’t interested in molnog.”

“It seemed the
safest topic.”

Ryn stifled a
sigh. “It’s healthy, its dam, too. Her wool is as Enel described, the exact
shade of your eyes. Would you like a flock of molnog with that color wool?”

“It’s not my
decision.”

“It could be.”
He risked reaching out in the darkness and found the curve of her hip. “Gared
asked me to ferry him two systems over tomorrow. He has some business there and
some trading to do. We’ll be gone a few days.”

“Be safe.”

He rubbed his
hand over her flank. “Will you miss me?”

“I don’t know.”
She shifted under his hand, curling closer to him. “I may not have time. Alna
seems determined to train me into the ground, Tyelu insists I need to learn the
breeding process while Gared’s ewes are in heat, and apparently word’s gotten
out that I came to Abyw in possession of my own wealth. How did that even
happen?”

“I told Gared.
He told everybody else.”

“You said I
needed to be careful with my credits, not flash them around.”

“That was on other
worlds, around people less trustworthy than the Pruxnæ.”

Ziri snorted and
muttered under her breath.

Ryn lifted his
gaze to the darkened ceiling. “The status and wealth of candidates reflects
well on their sponsors and the men they choose. It doesn’t matter what that
status is. A few years ago, a sponsor captured a young woman with no outward beauty,
no wealth, no social standing among her people, but she was a kind woman and
had a way with children. They flocked to her wherever she went. As soon as word
got around, she had suitors lined up so thick, she could barely train. Her
status was raised, her sponsor earned prestige, and the woman ended up happily
married to the man who’d stolen her.”

“Is that a true
story?”

Ryn laughed
softly. Such skepticism from such a trusting woman. “Every word. Would you like
to meet her?”

“I’ve met enough
people, thank you. Did you tell Gared I was a princess?”

“He came up with
that one on his own.”

“Couldn’t he
have created a better tale? I mean, I hardly look like a princess, let alone
act like one, and think of how disappointed everybody will be when they find
out I’m as common as a gullet stone in a sand leech’s belly.”

“Humor him,
Ziri. His own sons died a long time ago. I’m the only hope he has of gaining
another daughter.”

“Maybe you
should’ve found him another one,” she said in a small voice. “I’m not exactly
suited to life here.”

“You are, more
than you know. Alna said you turned away an umlek of men without them ever
knowing you were rejecting them. Not many women could be so kind-hearted.”

“I just…couldn’t
hurt them. Maybe Tyelu’s right. Maybe I’m too soft for Abyw.”

“Never think
that.” He stretched out beside her on top of the blankets and drew her close.
“You must be tired.”

She tucked her
head under his chin. “Mostly.”

“Too tired for
me to please you?”

The fire popped
in the stove. The wood shifted and settled, scraping against the coals, and a
hard breeze rattled the shutters. The longer Ziri waited to answer, the more
tightly the muscles of his shoulders bunched into knots. He was on the verge of
asking again when she said, “I don’t think that’s a good idea, not right now.”

He buried his
face in her hair, rubbing his nose through the silky strands. His heart, so
happy when he’d left her that morning, withered and crumbled under the weight
of her words.

“I thought
really hard about this today, about everything you’ve told me since you took me
from Tersi, and everything Alna said about the Choosing, and I can’t find a
single time you lied to me, not one. I still feel betrayed, Ryn, like you were
holding out a promise you never intended to keep, and it…” Her voice grew thin
and strained. “I really want to go home.”

“I’m taking you
home, once the Choosing’s done. After that, we can go back anytime you want as
long as we can cover the travel costs.”

“That’s not what
I wanted. You know that.” She sniffed and snuggled closer. “Why did it have to
be me?”

“It was your
smile.”

Her breath
feathered over the skin of his neck, warming him. “What about it?”

“One day not
long after we entered your star system, I was scanning vids looking for a suitable
candidate. There was a woman kneeling in her yard, her face tilted to the sun.
She was smiling, as if the simple warmth of her star was enough to light her
heart. Her hands were dirty and her dress was old and patched, but her smile
was so beautiful, it took my breath.”

Her fingers
crept out from under the covers and smoothed his shirt down over his heart.
“That’s how you see me?”

“It is.” He
pressed a soft kiss to her forehead, savoring the feel of her skin under his
mouth. “Everything I learned about you after that day reinforced my decision.
Your red-gold hair, loose in the morning air. The way you seemed to know how to
fix anything.”

She laughed. “I
knew there was a reason you kidnapped me. I just thought it was for sex.”

“That came later,
after I watched you walk down the streets with that smile on your face, raining
happiness on the people around you. Even the grumpiest soul walked away from
you smiling. How could I turn away from a woman like that, when my own heart
was so dark? I need your light, Ziri, crave it, and I hope someday you’ll find
something in me to answer a need within you.”

“Molnog,” she
choked out, the laughter so heavy in her voice she could barely speak the word.
“It’s definitely the molnog.”

His mouth
quirked into a grin. “Let me sleep beside you. Sleep only, I swear. You’re
shivering, and I have a need to share my warmth.”

Her laughter
died slowly. “Just for tonight. After that, we renegotiate.”

“When I come
back,” he promised.

“When you come
back,” she said. “Hurry, please. It’s really cold under here.”

He rolled away
from her and stripped down, then crawled into the bed beside her and cradled
her smaller body in the shelter of his warmth.

She clutched the
arm he wrapped around her waist to her chest and yawned. “Ryn?”

“Yes, Ziri?”

“I like your
smile, too.”

The tiniest ray
of hope blossomed inside him. He buried his face in her hair and closed his
eyes, content to hold her through the long night.