The Pearl Savage (26 page)

The Band stood as she came into the
room and she fought not to react to the sheer size of them. They
were so huge, their stature filling the room. Instead, she bit the
inside of her lip to a point of pain which filled her with the
wakefulness necessary to be sharp-witted. She repeated to herself if
they had meant to harm her they had ample opportunity and she could
have done naught to defend herself against them.

She took a deep breath. “Good
evening.”

“Princess,” they nodded at her.
The guard smiled in a way that would have made a lesser woman squirm.

Lillian came in and relief took
residence in her breast like a welcome friend.

“Oh! Clara, you are awake.”

“Yes, I feel much more myself.”
she smiled gratefully.

Lillian said, “Please, let us find
the community dining area and we will have some food. I am sure you
are starving.”

Actually, Clara was.

“That would be wonderful,” she
answered.

Joseph smiled at her and another
woman came in, her simple clothing the same for all the females of
the clan. But it was her demeanor that was so unique; she had a
caution that was completely absent in Lillian, and she looked a bit
different than the people of this clan.

The
other two guards, Matthew and Stephen followed her out. She could
feel one of their eyes boring into her back and wished that Bracus
was here so she could but mention her feeling about the
guard.
that he had
visited
her while she stood at her window inside her chamber when she lived
therein. Clara felt a trifle foolish…after all, had she been of
such
sound
mind prior, would she now be in this emergent situation? Her
shoulders slumped a little thinking of her future. A future unknown.

When they had all exited the
cottage, Joseph turned and introduced the woman to Clara, her name
was Anna.

She looked at Clara with ancient
eyes in a young face, a mirror of her own.

“Anna is from a sea clan, far east
of here,” Joseph said.

Clara looked at her with interest,
her large brown eyes regarded Clara in an intense way, equal parts
caution and curiosity.

“It is very good to make your
acquaintance,” Clara said.

To which Anna replied, “And I,
yours.” She gave a small curtsey.

Clara knew not how long she would
remain here but it would be very good to have a bit of female
companionship amongst all the males.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a
most fragrant smell.

“What is that?” she asked.

“What?” Lillian responded over
her shoulder.

Clara opened her mouth to elaborate
when the
guard
stepped up beside her and said, “Meat.”

She
was so engrossed by his nearness that she did not watch where she
walked, stumbling
.
She
would have fallen if it had not been for him grabbing her elbow and
it was as it had been with Philip, but more
.
A
charge of intense heat climbed up her arm at the point of contact,
surging into her head and making the small hairs on her nape stand on
end. She saw his eyes widen in shock and he snatched his hand away,
rubbing it where it had touched her. But she knew although he acted
as if shocked by lightning, it had felt good
.

They stood facing each other and the
group stopped, staring at the two of them. “What has happened?”
Lillian asked.

Clara shook her head, she did not
know. However, this reaction seemed to be something between her and
the Band. But not all she noticed. Why did it not occur with all of
them?

Joseph walked over, looking down at
her. She explained as best she could, “I stumbled and he caught my
elbow to arrest my fall,” she said, pointing to the guard, “and I
felt a heat…”

“Akin to a burn?” Joseph asked.

Clara nodded. “Not precisely,
there was no pain… but a…”

Stephen said, “We do not need to
discuss the possibilities of all this right now.” His face and
stance gruff, legs apart and planted on the ground, his arms crossed
on his chest.

Joseph’s
cheeks colored and he turned to the first and second in command. “I
will address this potential
with
Clara later this evening.”

Matthew said, “Let us do it before
much longer as she and Lillian wish to bathe at the springs.”

“Yes, a critical plan, that,”
Joseph said, walking toward the building where they would dine on
meat for the first time in Clara’s life. She should have been
sickened by the prospect of something that had been butchered and
cooked for her. But hunger is a strange thing, a needy thing that
does not have a conscience.

Her interaction with the guard
obviously meant something to them that she was not aware of. She had
certainly never felt that with the males of the sphere. This was a
new thing entirely. Clara walked toward the dining hall.

Holding her elbow as if it were on
fire.

****

Bracus slowed Briar Rose about one
half mile away from the area where Evelyn’s father had met his end,
signaling with his high-pitched call to the Band.

They dismounted, Bracus leading his
steed to the creek and letting her drink her fill, using an
additional tether so she could reach the water should she thirst
while he was gone and tied to one of the stout trees that stood near.

Jack approached sure-footed down the
steep ravine to find Bracus tying secure knots.

Bracus looked at the big man, his
massive arms stretched out, maintaining his balance as he reached him
“Captain…”

Bracus raised his brows. There, a
perfect knot, she would not escape it. He looked up. “Yes?”

“I cannot shake a feeling of
unease about leaving the clan…”

Bracus frowned, it was usually not
Jack Blythe that had intuitive leaps, it was he. However, his mate
was with child, it was surely that which caused a greater need to be
back at her side.

He told him so.

Jack shook his head stubbornly. “It
is more than that. And, I must say, that I feel I have erred greatly
in not telling you. I felt I could not share those things which I had
been told in confidence.”

Bracus
studied Jack, this was not helping his focus. It was bad enough that
thoughts of Clara crowded his mind. He hoped there was not some
other
calamity that would wrest attention away from the coming turmoil of
rescuing Evelyn from the
fragment.

Bracus turned slowly to Jack, his
face full of puzzlement. “And you tell me this now?

Jack sighed as Jacob and James
joined them. “What say you, Jack?”

Jack looked back at the tall
warriors, their expressions serious. For once, James was not making a
joke at someone’s expense. “It is Matthew. I fear that he is not of
sound mind.”

Bracus’ disquiet increased, his
puzzlement deepening. Many things plagued his mind but that which
stood out was the absolute absence of lack of propensity. When had
Matthew ever given him pause?

“You remember when Matthew came to
us?”

Bracus
nodded, he would never forget. He had been rescued; starved and
mistreated far from their clan by the
fragment
.
It was only the clan’s hunting such a distance away that allowed them
to stumble upon him.

James steadied himself on the rough
trunk of an evergreen. “What of it? He was ten and two years, it
has been a decade since,” he said, shrugging it off.

“He is Band, that was clear when
he was found,” Jacob said, indicating his throat slits with a
casual wave of his hand, his bicep bunching with the movement.

“Out with it,” Bracus said,
silencing the others with a look.

Bracus was acutely aware of the
rushing stream at his right. Sunlight filtered through the canopy of
the trees, the breeze rustling the branches.

He waited in the silence that was
the forest.

“He does not like females,” Jack
said quietly.

“What did you say?” Bracus
stepped forward into Jack’s space and he held his ground.

“We were reconnaissance for the
acquisition of the Princess, you do remember?”

Bracus nodded.

“
And
he fell away from me, leaving to go closer to the sphere… to get a
look at
her.”

Bracus said low and with feeling,
“And you did not tell me this?”

“I thought nothing of it. I stayed
behind and he said he was just curious about what the importance of
the female was.”

“That is ridiculous! Of course the
importance is because we don’t have enough females!” James said,
stomping off to another tree.

Bracus looked after him for a moment
then swung his gaze back to Jack.

“
He
went to the sphere and showed himself to Clara, saying nothing to the
rest of us,” Bracus looked at James and Jacob, who shook their
heads, they had known nothing. “He returns to your mutual post and
he says…” Bracus held out his arms away from his body,
what?

“
That
you did not deserve to have her. That all females needed to be
brought to heel.”

“
And
we have left him at the clan with your
mate
and Clara?”

Jack
shook his head. “I make too much of this, he meant it as a joke, I
am certain. But his background, his mistreatment by the
fragment
…”

“
He
has never spoken of his time with the
fragment,
”
Bracus said.

James, Jacob and Jack shook their
heads.

“How do you know of his time
there, he has not divulged it to us.”

“You but need to watch how he
behaves around females,” Jack said.

A thousand kaleidoscope pieces came
together at that moment. For all Matthew’s skill in battle, he had
shown nary an ounce of interest in the few females of the clan,
making a wide berth.

Far more disturbing was the
incidences of Clara looking frightened of the Band. But it had not
been all the Band but Matthew.

He must return to her. If Matthew
had ill intent she was but a lamb being led to slaughter.

His guts churned with it, he had
left her and there was no protection. His first in command was
compromised and he had been unaware. But he must ask:

“Why does he think I am deserving
or not?”

“We all know that you have
feelings for the Princess, Captain. Whether or not it will come to
pass… we do not know, but they are there.”

Philip exited the shadows, badly
startling Bracus. That he would be so unaware of his surroundings
spoke of how badly he had been shaken. “Yes, my brother, we all
knew. But, we have bigger problems than his possible treason of the
Band,” Phillip said.

“What could possibly be worse?”
Bracus asked. His mind turned the facts and different reactions of a
thousand days spent in the company of Matthew and found disturbing
images start to connect like magnets to one another.

“
I
think that she is a
select.”

The other Band member’s faces fell
and Bracus’ throat slits opened fully when he gulped in a lungful of
air and roared out, “No!” his bellow causing the birds to
evacuate the tree cover in a noisy rush.

He wanted to collapse on his knees
but that would not get him to her sooner.

“How do you know?” Bracus asked,
his voice fierce, his mind in turmoil.

“She pricked her finger on the
rose that grows outside Jack’s dwelling. I went to assist her… I
touched her hand…” he looked down, almost ashamed.

“Did you feel it?” Bracus asked.

He looked up suddenly, his eyes a
glittering intensity in the darkness. “I did.”

A
select
.
Only rumored about during his lifetime, the hope that a Band member
would have a chance with a
select
.
They had given up hope. There had been females which possessed the
trait that appealed so much to the Band and was the promised freedom
from the dwindling population. But if that were the case, Clara alone
was much more than just a female. She was The Female.

“Why did you not tell me?”
Bracus asked incredulously.

“I thought there time enough after
we get the girl to explore this,” Philip said.

He walked toward Bracus and put his
hand on his shoulder. “It does no good to talk of it. It is but a
feeling on Jack’s part. That Matthew would harm a female… is
unthinkable. We have known our brother how long, ten years?”

“
Besides,
you know what the history of the Evil Ones say. That if a Band member
chooses from the
select
…
it is a biological imperative. There is no choice. The male would not
harm her. He would be unable to,” Jacob said, lifting his hands up
in placation.

But
nothing said could make Bracus feel safer but having her near him.
Maybe it was nothing but Jack felt it odd enough to mention and
Matthew had revealed himself to her. And now she was a
select.

It
was a horrible set of circumstances. He was honor-bound to rescue
Evelyn. Of course he wished to, but a rare female of the
select
lay in possible danger and he could do nothing. His teeth clenched in
frustration.