Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 76857 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76857 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Agnes tapped the floor so we might give her our attention. “What if there isn’t any mistake? If you fornicate, it changes your song. If your song no longer calls to a mate, you are free. That is what they are trying to prevent.”
What if she was right? “It can’t be that simple.”
Smiling, Agnes offered another angle to her point. “Then think of it this way. Wild vorec males fight one another for a female—that we do know. The victor claims the prize. What if hybrid males designed this concept of the list to keep the men from infighting? Highest rank gets first pick should he hear her song?”
I hated the idea of that more than I could say. “Then we would all potentially have more than one mate. What if we like another man better?”
Pleased with our consideration of her concept, Agnes patted herself on the shoulder. “Which is why I think the boys are murdered if they pursue a girl for her song. If they mate her before a ranked man has his chance to see if they are compatible, the older generations have to wait for more rare female babies to be created. We are already outnumbered by the men five to one.”
“Ladies—” Maeve raised her eyes from her notes. “—this is a lot of conjecture.”
I could not help myself; there might be something to it. “But it's sound, isn’t it?”
“It has potential.” Maeve smirked and put down her stylus. “If sex with a male who does not hear your song could free you from the list, you could have the fog. You’d be ruined in the sense that they might have no other use for you.”
And that would be lovely. What else could the general possibly do with me but assign me to the position of surveyor?
I’d never be a proper mate. I would not bear children.
But, in a voice heavy with warning, Maeve added, “We need to do some more research before we make dangerous assumptions.”
An assumption I would not have considered while moping in my room alone. Looking at my sister, I offered my humblest appreciation. “Thank you.”
Teasing, Maeve threw a cushion at me. “Just make your way into the fog before testing ruins our rank.”
Three days later, I was back in classes, my confinement ended, routine restored. I didn’t see him, but I knew General Cyderial lurked. That instructors were reporting on me, that my every movement was monitored.
I didn’t have the freedom to explore the libraries for answers about vorec mating habits, hybrid sex, or the song. But my sisters did.
Yet they found nothing.
There were no texts on the subject. No way to ask female instructors that would not be massively problematic.
All my answers had to come from more unusual means: Humans.
I’d been assigned to guard a team of female farmers, and over the course of passing years, I’d grown to like them a great deal. They’d been kind, and in return, not one of them had been majorly harmed under my care.
There was trust between us. Even a few secrets.
Such as my love for sweets and my willingness to risk a beating for a bite of fudge.
My time with them was my favorite part of my routine. Outdoors, where massive filters worked to keep fog out of the farmlands, a place where my boots could touch red soil and the air smelled fresh and sweet. My horizon nothing but tantalizing mist, fog rolling back like a churning wave. Almost as high as the tallest buildings in the city.
A large blanket around my little world, held back by whirring machines.
The smell of it, the sounds it made… I was absolutely in love.
Even the shrill screams and deep booming thumps of the vorec on the other side just waiting for me to ease closer were a pleasure.
However, I didn’t enjoy killing the beasts. I understood why it was done, but I hated it all the same.
As I stood guard in midday sun, edged weapon drawn and ready, I watched an immature female vorec emerge from the fog. Staggering, she hissed, showing all the textbook signs of a beast at their most deadly as she moved with an unsightly gait. Pink scales glittering in the sun afforded a better look at the sickly thing—I understood at once why she dared approach.
Her back leg was twisted.
Badly deformed, it dragged behind her. Even so, the slight thing was moving as fast as she could, fleeing from the savagery of territorial vorec who would not tolerate weakness. Forcing her to risk approaching the human settlement and the point of my blade or be killed by her own kind.
It was a reminder from the universe, a warning that I should never underestimate my sisters again. They were my family, and they did not devolve to their animal instincts when I was weak. They were working with me, the damaged female, to help me. Not abandoning me to my fate.