I watch as Gomul and Errol leave, both of their backs and shoulders stiff with tension. I really hope they can work things out, for both their sakes. It's so clear how deeply they both care about each other, even if it may not be clear to them. They're going to have to try to bridge that gap they allowed to form between them when they both knew the other was still alive. A rift that is a real shame now that I see them together.

Seeing them fight side by side, I could see exactly how much of a hand Gomul had in forming who Errol is. Their style of fighting, the way they both throw themselves into danger to protect—even if they didn't have more than a passing physical resemblance, it would have been clear they were at least related.

There's something so oddly full circle about it all. That Gomul would be the one to save me, not once, but twice. First when we crashed and were attacked and then again when he urged me to leave, to go find what else is out there. Then that his own son would save me again, both literally and otherwise.

I find myself waking every morning so much happier than I remember ever being, even on the ship. The fact that I am now the reason why they have a second chance...it's truly humbling.

"Don't think this means you're welcome here, Kate. Why don't you go on and wait in the rover for your mate to get done talking with Gomul? That's as far in as you should ever come from now on."

I turn my attention back at Annabel's sneering voice, sighing internally. The fact that she had to concede defeat with Errol's entrance already bruised her ego. She's bound to be even more difficult now. Not that's it's easy to tell when she's always in some kind of mood. But I have to try. It's not the rest of the group's fault that she's so stubborn and selfish. I need to be able to get through to them, let them know they have more options waiting for them.

"Don't be unreasonable, Annabel—" I start.

"I'm not being unreasonable!" she interrupts, spitting the word out like it disgusts her. Like I just used the most heinous insult, never mind the fact that she just called my mate an animal. "I told you when you decided to take the rover—you would not be allowed back if you went against my orders and left! Was I not clear about that?"

I press my lips together in an attempt not to make this worse, throw more vitriol back at her. It's tempting. Very tempting. But Annabel is letting her emotions do the talking here. And I can't let myself do the same. Not if I want to make any kind of headway.

"Don't you at least want to know what we found out there?" I ask again, appealing not only to Annabel, but the rest of the group. "There's so much you don't know about!"

Annabel's eyes flicker and I see a moment of...panic? I frown. Does she not want the others to hear there's more out there? Maybe she knows she'll lose even more people? Why is she holding on so hard to this setup?

"If you just came to try to convince someone else here to do the same idiotic thing you—"

"I think we should let Kate in."

It takes me a moment to realize someone else has jumped in. To defend me, no less. I turn to the sure voice just as everyone else does too, including Annabel, her gaze narrowed in warning. If she was a cartoon, steam would have been pouring out of her ears at this point.

The athletically built brunette does not wilt under the look.

"Information is never a negative," she continues when she has everyone's attention. "We should at least know what's out there. If it's something better, if it's something we need to defend against. Heck, what if this place isn't habitable in the future or we need help? What will we do?"

Those are some sound points. So, of course, Annabel decides not to address them at all.

"Shut up, Maeve. You don't know what you're talking about here. And last I checked, I was in charge. Not you."

I can see Maeve clench her jaw in response, her dark eyes snapping fire. Uh oh. That is not a look I would want directed at me. But Annabel doesn't even turn to look at the woman she's shot down in front of everyone. Alienated completely. That is clearly a mistake. Does she think she's broken everyone so completely? I should be a clear example of the fact that she didn't.

"I think we should let Kate in," Maeve repeats, unbowed. "Even if only for selfish reasons."

"Did you not hear me the first time?" Annabel grits out of clenched teeth, finally turning to glare at Maeve. "I said no!"

"I heard you," Maeve responds calmly enough, though her eyes still smolder. "But what are you going to do if she comes in? Kill her?"

That sends another ripple of unease through the crowd. The shocked reaction allows me to relax slightly. At least they aren't so far gone that they would follow Annabel in murdering someone. So there's that. Man, the bar has gotten low, huh?

"You—" Annabel starts, taking a step towards the other woman.

I don't know what epithet she planned on using, or if she planned to actually get physical with those fists, but Maeve doesn't let her finish. Though it might have been fun to see her wipe the floor with Annabel. Her arms look a lot harder than Annabel's soft ones. Probably because Annabel is happy to dole out work but not so keen on doing it herself.

"I wouldn't push too hard, Annabel," Maeve says softly. "You definitely have no high horse to ride on here."

Annabel pauses, clearly as confused as the rest of us.

"What?" Maeve asks. "Don't you remember? I saw you. Saw what you did when Kate and the others decided to leave."

Ah. I can see where this is going now. And so does Annabel.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Annabel snaps, drawing herself up. Going with denial. What a surprise. "You should keep your mouth shut about matters that you don't understand. That don't concern you."

"Don't understand?" Maeve repeats, raising a brow. "I don't need to have a high level of comprehension for the shit I saw. It's pretty easy to understand when someone is up to no good." She steps towards Annabel. "Did you think nobody would see you when you tried to mess with the rover? Tried to force Kate and the others to stay by sabotaging their only safe means of transport?" She cocks her head to the side. "Or did you think that if one of us did...we would never say anything?"

You could hear a pin drop in that silence. And I have to say, it's pretty damn satisfying to see Annabel at such a loss for words. I can also see that this particular reveal is news to a lot of the woman assembled. They're not on board with Annabel’s method of trying to keep us here.

After all, none of us would want to feel like actual prisoners, which is exactly what Annabel had tried to do. Unsuccessfully, sure. But what if I hadn't known how to fix the thing? She could have easily accomplished her goal.

Maeve uses Annabel's silence to her advantage, pushing through the group to reach me. I let her take my arm in her hand.

"Come on, Kate. I know I at least want to hear about everything you saw out there."

All right then. Here's my in. I let Maeve pull me along, feeling a surge of hope. Maybe everyone here isn't as under Annabel's thumb as I feared. I sit down in the common area we have set up, watching as the others slowly drift over despite Annabel's continued fuming. What she doesn't understand is that if she's always angry, the anger has less of an impact than it would otherwise.

"Let's start with something fun," Maeve says with a slight smile. "How did you meet Errol?"

I could see how that might be interesting. I certainly didn't think I'd ever have an actual relationship with one of Gomul's race. Probably because Gomul was the only Zmaj I knew before and I saw him as a father figure. Now Errol...I never saw him as a father figure.

"Well," I start, thinking back to when I first saw Errol. And how he gave me instant goosebumps. Maybe I'll just leave that part out. "It wasn't exactly a formal introduction..."

I skim over the beginning of our trip, which went as expected. When I get to the guster following us, I hear gasps. All of them have too much up close and personal experience with them to hear that and react with anything but real fear. Annabel chimes right in to that opening, her satisfaction clear.

"I told you not to leave, didn't I?" she goads, looking around at the others smugly. "It's dangerous out there. Too dangerous for us to survive on our own."

"But we did survive," I counter, irritated at her happiness at our misfortune. Can't she think of anything beyond how it pertains to her? "We outran all but one, which I then rammed with the rover. Killing it."

She doesn't need to know that I busted the rover in the process and needed to be saved by Errol after all. It would only make her crow louder and I'm already irritated.

"Wow!"

"What happened then?"

"What about the other guster?"

Annabel settles back again, that pinched look on her face at the excited questions. I have the urge to warn her face will freeze like that if she isn't careful, but I stop myself from making the snide remark. Plus it hasn't frozen yet, so...

"The other guster didn't follow. They must have given up after we gained some distance, so we took the time to harvest the meat from the one we killed. It was plenty to replenish our food supply. That was when Errol found us and offered to show us the city."

"So you just traipsed along behind this stranger like idiots?" Annabel cuts in. "Real smart."

When she puts it like that, it does sound pretty stupid. If I say I felt like I could trust him from the beginning, it won't sound any better. I decide to let the truth out after all.

"The rover needed repairs after the incident with the guster, and Errol was confident that we'd find what we needed in the city. He also said there were more of us who survived the crash and many of them were there."

Luckily, that last bit about more survivors diverts attention from the fact the rover needed repairs. A ripple of reaction runs through the women assembled, just as I knew it would. I remember that feeling of excitement at the confirmation that our small group wasn't the only one here on Tajss. It made me feel so much less alone. That feeling alone may have been worth the trip, honestly.

"And you believed him?" Annabel shoots back. "What if he was just luring you back to his lair? Did you think about that?"

Lair?

I tried to imagine Errol in a lair and just couldn't.

"Yeah, we thought he was telling the truth," I retort. "And you know what? He was." I shrug. "I'm glad we took the risk. Because it means we found out that there is a city. And another Tribe living in caves with a farm and even another mining settlement." I lean towards her. "More importantly, we found out that there are more survivors from our ship."

And sure, Rosalind is having problems with that mining settlement, but it still exists, so I decided to include it.

"Oh wow," Maeve breathes, propping her chin on her hands. "Who survived? What's the city like? Have you seen the village?" She stops to take a breath. "Sorry, I just have so many questions!"

I laugh at the rapid-fire stream.

"That's okay—I totally understand. The city is amazing—the Zmaj were actually really technologically advanced at one point, before there was a war that threw them back into the Dark Ages." I look around at the tunnel. "I guess there's always been the suggestion of something more even just looking at these tunnels. But seeing the city really underlines exactly how advanced the Zmaj were."

That provokes another round of questions, though most of them are again from Maeve. Annabel hovers, her arms crossed and face stern as she listens. She doesn't sound too thrilled about the fact we found more survivors. Which is so crazy to me. Maybe she thinks it's just another thing that will chip away at the small dictatorship she's built here.

"...then Errol helped me fix the rover and we went back to the city." I skip the part where Errol and I get together in a different way, for obvious reasons. "After spending a good amount of time around him...I knew I wanted to stay with him." It's a little surprising that it was really that simple. I just knew. "So I went back to his Tribe’s home. It's much smaller than the city, but it's also completely adorable. And because there are fewer people, there's a sense of tight-knit community, you know?"

Like there should be here if Annabel wasn't always hanging over everyone like a dark cloud. But I don't say that as I continue. Between recounting everything and fielding questions, time actually passes quickly.

I almost forget that Annabel is glaring at me the entire time, that sour expression on her face. Almost. But I do find myself glancing towards Gomul's tunnel. And hoping everything is going well.