Page 2 of Selected By the Dragon Alien
“Protection from the overseer himself,” added the other Riest. “It means you won’t be troubled by pests who would come to bother your crops.”
Her father stared at the Riests in disbelief. “Protection? Why would he bestow such an honor upon us?”
The first Riest closed the book and held it against his fine white robes. “Only the overseer knows why.” But he turned his gaze to Turi. “Are you sure you saw nothing unusual last night, girl?”
She shook her head. “I saw the overseer fly overhead, but that was all.”
The Riests stared at her hard. “He didn’t speak to you? He didn’t come down from the sky and…dally with you?”
Turi knew what the Riest was implying and her entire being shook at the thought. “No,” she replied with force. “He flew overhead. That was all.”
“Funny you didn’t mention that when Seggiat asked you if anything happened last night,” her father said. “Makes me wonder what else you’re not being honest about.”
Her body began to shake—from frustration, exhaustion, hunger, and outrage. “The overseer didn’t speak to me. He didn’t do anything to me,” she all but shouted. “I don’t know why he put that mark on the door.”
“That’s that, then,” said her mother, whose hand closed around Turi’s wrist. “The girl needs a meal and sleep after a long night.”
Tregit’s face darkened with anger. “Female, know your place.”
“Instead of interrogating her, perhaps we should be thanking her for making a good impression on the overseer. Perhaps he saw her work through the night and is rewarding the hard work of this family to keep the farm running well for the glory of the Axis.”
Her father let out a snort, but nodded grudgingly. “Perhaps.”
“Thanks to Turi, we need not worry aboutcibrats,filbatsorirgs,”her mother said. “Now, we let the girl rest.”
Her father didn’t say anything as her mother guided her through the knot of males and into the house, but his face made it clear how much he disliked being spoken to like that by a female. Turi knew exactly where she’d gotten her tenacity from. It never served her well. It hadn’t served her mother well, either. “He’ll punish you for standing up for me,” she said quietly when they were inside.
Her mother shrugged. “I know my life,” she said, guiding Turi to the table and pushing a bowl of mashedknogrotin front of her. “I know the male I’m bound to.”
Turi winced and devoured the food. “It’s not right that they treat us like spoiledsogfrut. We deserve to be treated as well as the males and not just as…breeders.”
The weariness in her mother’s eyes was always there, but so was a sharpness that Turi always saw as hopeful. Her father had not squashed her mother’s spirit. It burned as bright as ever, but just then, there was a particular intensity to the pale gold gaze that focused on her. “My daughter, be very careful with the overseer. There is no more dangerous game than gaining the attention of the Axis.”
Turi sighed and closed her eyes. “I had no interaction with the overseer. I am telling you the truth, Mother. He flew overhead. Didn’t stop or even pause. I crouched in fear until he left. That is all that happened.”
The expression on her mother’s face turned sad. She ran a hand gently down Turi’s black hair. “You made an impression on him, somehow. Let us hope the blessing he bestowed on our home does not turn into a tragedy for you, Turi.”
Turi ate the rest of her meal and went to bed, but sleep came slow and unsteadily. The worry and foreboding in hermother’s voice haunted her. The overseerhadseen her spare thecibrats. She had no doubt about that, now. But instead of punishing her for it, he’d rewarded her. It made her wonder if perhaps the overseer was not as coldhearted as he seemed. She dreamed about a dark, winged male flying overhead, but instead of cowering in fear, she lifted her arms and was pulled up into the sky.
TWO
Four years later
“I’m sure he’ll be nice to her,” said Turi’s ever-optimistic friend, Fivra.
Sevas shook her dark head. “They’re never nice to us. Sorry, but it’s true. They just want us for working and breeding.”
Fivra pursed her lips. “There must besomenice ones left. My brother is kind.”
“Perhaps he is, but the males I’ve encountered have been cold at best,” Sevas said in a flat voice. “Kindness has been beaten out of them. Us, too.”
Turi sat quietly as she and her five friends plucked dead grass from an abandoned field on the outskirts of her family’s farm plot. They wove the dry grasses into long strands that would then be twisted into a crunchy circle and placed on her head. It was a mockery of a tradition that was almost forgotten—crowning a bride with a lush headdress of artfully arranged blooms, but there were no flowers left in Settlement 112-1 fora fragrant headpiece. There would be no feast, no music, and no dancing. There would be no joy at all, as no one—neither the bride nor the groom—saw the bondmate ritual as a joyous occasion. It was a responsibility. An obligation.
Turi’s mate was picked by her father from a list of applicants she’d never met and she was allowed no say in the process. She was being given to the chosen bondmate that evening in a brief ceremony, after which they would immediately depart for his settlement. Never to return home.
“That’s not true,” said Nena, who had arrived at the settlement two seasons prior, having been given to a male from a neighboring farm in the bondmate ritual. She was the oldest of the women and her current bondmate was her second, as the first male had died. The other women didn’t know how he died and Nena never mentioned him. Her hair was long and silvery green, gold spots gleamed on her forehead and into her hairline, and her chin was always high, even when it held the shadow of bruises. She didn’t say much, but when she did, her words held weight. “Weare still kind. And we will stay kind.”
Lilas, who was due to be given to a bondmate soon herself, shrugged. Her hair had turned deep purple and her father sent out notices to males in the three other settlements to apply for her. Her days in Settlement 112-1 were numbered and she knew it. “What difference does it make?” she drawled. “We’re allfekkingdoomed. The Axis is going to squeeze and squeeze until we can’t survive.” She flicked a piece of dried grass that refused to be woven and snorted. “Would be a relief, in ways.”