Chapter 6

The farther the group walked, the more convinced Sheena became that Rex wanted to imitate Fawks. He never looked back at his comrades, not even at Jasmine, his supposed sweetheart. He matched Fawks' pace and copied his way of scanning the forest in front of him and on both sides. He rested his hand on his gun and swelled out his shoulders, but he couldn't make himself as big as Fawks.

The company stopped to rest at noon. Ron checked over Sophia and shook his head. “She's hanging on by a hair. I'm amazed she lasted this long, but I don't like her chances.”

“There must be something we can do,” Jasmine muttered. “We can't just stand around and watch her die.”

“What do you suggest?”

“Maybe Fawks knows something.”

Ron got to his feet. Fawks sat apart from the rest. The sun glittered on his pale hair. The light shone through his translucent skin. From that distance, Sheena thought she could see the mysterious movement under his skin, but it vanished as soon as it appeared. It must be a trick of the light.

Ron shrugged. “I don't think he would help us.”

“It can't hurt to ask.”

Fawks didn't look up when Ron appeared in front of him. He untied the food bundle and took out a piece of meat. Ron frowned at him while he tore a chunk off with his pearly white teeth and chewed it. Fawks gazed into the distance and pretended not to see Ron.

Ron cleared his throat. “What leaves did you use to preserve that meat?”

Fawks swallowed and took another bite. “Just the leaves of a tree that grows around here. The meat would rot if I didn't use something.”

“You know a lot about the native plants around here, don't you?”

“Not a lot. Just a few. I'm not from this country. We don't have the same plants where I come from.”

“Maybe you know some medicinal plants that could help Sophia.”

Fawks turned his blazing eyes on Ron. “Do you use medicinal plants to heal the sick and injured in your country?”

His direct gaze made Ron shift from one foot to the other. “We don't use medicinal plants. We have synthetic medicines for that, but I don't have any here. That's why I'm asking for your help.”

“I can't help you.”

“How do your people treat wounds?”

Fawks stood up and slung his bundle over his shoulder. “We should go. We've rested long enough.”

Ron didn't move. “I asked you a question.”

“We have a long way to travel before we get to Assan Keep. The longer we stay out here, the greater the danger.”

He pushed past Ron, heading for the mountain again. Ron stared after him before storming back to the others. “I knew he wouldn't help us. He's a cold-blooded hound.”

“What did he say?” Jasmine asked.

“Nothing. He didn't say anything. He wouldn't answer my questions. He pretended he didn't even hear me. He doesn't care if Sophia lives or dies.”

“How can someone be that heartless?”

Ron flicked his finger at Rex. “Come on, Rex. You take the other end. We'll carry Sophia for a while.”

They picked up the stretcher, and the company fell in line behind Fawks. They grumbled about Fawks, but no one would approach him again. They let him lead them through this wilderness and ate the food he gave them, but they never let him in. They never made him one of them.

For some reason, Sheena understood his behavior as the others didn't—at least, she thought she understood it. These aliens were just as strange to him as he was to them. How could they expect to understand each other?

She waited an hour or so before she made her way to the front of the line. Fawks kept walking at the same steady pace. Rex wasn't there to throw his weight around, so Sheena took the position right behind Fawks. She waited for her chance, and when their way came into a part of the forest where the trees didn't grow so thickly, she pressed forward to walk shoulder to shoulder with him.

He didn't say anything or look in her direction at first, but after a while, he acknowledged her with a brief nod. Walking side by side with Fawks gave Sheena a more comfortable feeling about him. She could be his only friend in this string of hangers-on.

He still didn't say anything, so Sheena broke the long silence. “You said there were quite a few dangerous animals around this part of the planet. Have you seen any dragons?”

His head whipped around. A smile touched his lips, but he turned away before she could get a good look at his face. “Dragons, huh?”

“One of them attacked our shuttle. That's why we crashed. It chased us, and then it collided with us and tore off one wing. If you were in the woods near us, maybe you saw it flying around. Maybe there are others around.”

“Maybe there are.”

“So... have you seen them or not?”

“I haven't seen any dragons around here, but that doesn't mean there aren't any.”

“For someone who isn't from around here, you seem to know a lot about the place. You knew about that leaf that preserves the meat, and you knew where to stab the morlock to kill it in its tracks. I guess those leaves don't grow in the remote deserts near the equator, so I would say you've spent a lot of time around here. Maybe you really are one of the Assans, and you're out here to keep an eye on us and make sure we end up in the Keep. How am I doing so far?”

He laughed, and his eyes twinkled in genuine delight. “Very impressive, but sadly wrong. I'm not one of the Assans. I'm sure they would be insulted to hear you suggest it.”

“If they're so hostile toward you and your Clan, what are you doing here, around their Keep? How did you get to know so much about the place if you don't come here on a regular basis?”

He stopped walking and faced her. The others followed far enough behind that no one could overhear their conversation. “I don't come here very much, Sheena. I'm a stranger here, just like you.”

“Then why won't you answer any of our questions? You deliberately snubbed Ron when he asked you about medicinal plants to help Sophia.”

Fawks started walking again. “I don't know any medicinal plants.”

“He asked you how your people treat wounds. I heard him, and you refused to answer. Now you're refusing to answer my questions about the dragon who attacked us. Don't you believe me about the dragon? Do you think I made the whole thing up or something?”

“I don't think you made it up.”

“Then answer my question. Are there other dragons around these woods?”

“You have nothing more to fear from that dragon or any other. A morlock or a wild pig—maybe.”

“How do you know that? How do you know that dragon won't come back and attack us again?”

“Have you always been this forthright and confrontational, Sheena, or are you only this way around me?”

Her anger blazed. “Forthright and confrontational? Is that what you call it? Well, I call you a bombastic ass. I should have known better than to come up here and try to talk to you. Fine. If that's the way you want it, you can walk up here alone. I'll go back with my friends, and I won't try to talk to you again.”

She spun away, but he surprised her by grabbing her arm and spinning her back around to face him. “Wait, Sheena. Don't walk way like that.”

She yanked her arm out of his grasp. “Leave me alone. You're just as barbaric and primitive as we've heard all Kratak men are. I should have expected that from a backward culture that relegates women to second-class citizenship.”

Now he really did smile—a brilliant, glorious smile of true understanding. That smile broached every obstacle between them and blotted out every hostility. “I'm sorry I didn't answer your questions, and I appreciate you coming up here to talk to me. I was beginning to think the same things about you and your people.”

Sheena cooled her jets. Her friends wouldn't dare treat him with this cold rudeness back home. They could only get away with it on a remote planet in the back end of nowhere where nobody could see them behave so badly.

He pointed down the path with his head. “I told you about my home country and my people, so why don't you tell me about yours while we walk? How did you wind up becoming a pilot?”

“I always enjoyed flying. I learned to fly when I was young. My father is a Commander of one of the Air Combat Wings of the Allies Command, so I've been around pilots and space craft all my life. On domestic runs, he used to let me sit on his lap and work the controls. I went to flight school while I was still a teenager. I never wanted to be anything else.”

“So, what brings you out to this planet, besides piloting the shuttle?”

“Nothing brings me here. I wouldn't be here if we hadn't crashed. I would be back home with my family and my fiancé.”

“Fiancé? I don't know that word.”

“It means someone I'm intended to marry.”

“Intended to marry? Why haven't you married him yet?”

“We've both been busy with our careers. He's another pilot, and we've been posted on opposite sides of the galaxy, so we don't see each other as often as we'd like to. I usually only see him when he comes to our Command Headquarters to report to me and receive orders for his next assignment.”

Fawks cocked his head to one side. “He reports to you and receives orders from you?”

“Yes. I'm his Commanding Officer.”

“How does that work for your relationship?”

“It works fine so far.”

“I heard a lot about your people, too, before you came here. The whole planet is talking about the female-dominated military that wishes to establish a presence here.”

“What do they say about us?”

“They say the same things you just said about me, that you're bombastic and barbaric, and that you relegate men to second-class citizenship.”

The mischievous expression on his face made Sheena smile in spite of herself. Now that he put it in those terms, it sounded too ridiculous to take seriously. “Well, we can't both be right. One of us must be benevolent and egalitarian.”

“Not necessarily. We could both be bombastic and barbaric. We are definitely not benevolent and egalitarian.”

“You couldn't be with one of your genders inferior to the other.”

“You hold your men inferior to women. That must make relationships difficult.”

“They aren't difficult—at least, they don't have to be. My relationship with Rollo has never been difficult.”

“But you said you don't see him much. If you saw him more often, the difficulties might suddenly appear.”

“I suppose that's possible. The problems between.... What am I doing talking to you about this? You wouldn't understand.”

“Try me. I might understand more than you think.”

“It's just Jasmine, our Commander...Rex is her sweetheart. However well it worked between them before, they started having problems the moment we landed here. Their romance is causing problems for the rest of the team, and they're supposed to stay here and work together in close proximity for the rest of the year.”

“You see what I mean?”

“No, I don't see what you mean. What do you mean?”

“It wouldn't work to have a woman in command of a man while they're in a relationship with each other. Men are naturally dominant. They don't function in subservient roles to women.”

“They function just fine among the Allies. They prefer it that way. I can understand why it might not be a good idea for a superior officer to get involved with one of her subordinates, but besides that, the Allies function pretty well this way. They certainly haven't suffered from any lack of military effectiveness.” Sheena found Fawks studying her. “What's wrong?”

“Nothing. I'm just listening to you.”

“So how does it work in your world? What do the women do all day while the men run things?”

“They live their own lives. They raise their children and handle their family relationships. Some of them communicate with other family groups to negotiate issues within our cities. They do whatever they want to do that they find meaningful, but it's men who run things. The patriarchs make the big decisions on behalf of the whole Clan, and it's definitely men who dominate in private life.”

“I suppose that sounds stupid to you, but women have always controlled things among the Allies. We occupy the higher command positions and make the decisions for the whole Alliance. The men don't want those jobs. They stick with the professions most suited to their talents and tendencies.”

“I could never live like that. I'm a man. My role is a dominant one. I see what I want and I take it. I could never live under the thumb of a bunch of controlling women.”

Sheena rounded on him. “It's not like that. No one holds anyone under anyone's thumb. I just said the men want it that way.”

“Are you sure? Are you sure your fiancé wants it that way? Maybe he would like to dominate you for a change.”

“He wouldn't dare.” Fawks laughed in her face, but that only made her angrier. “And you wouldn't dare cross me, either, if you knew what I was capable of. You think women are weak and helpless. You'll find your mistaken.”

His eyes flashed, and his lips curled back to reveal his strong, sharp teeth. “I never thought you were weak and helpless, Sheena. Others, maybe. You—never.”

Only if she'd been blind could Sheena mistake his meaning. His tongue flickered behind those teeth, and his lips twitched. “I suppose you like a woman helpless and weak so you can dominate her.”

His eyes slid down to her mouth, and a surge of adrenaline coursed down her chest into her guts. “I don't like weak women. I like strong women—the stronger, the better. All the women on this planet are strong and fierce. No man would want a woman any other way.”

“Why—so you can fight her?”

“I don't fight women.”

“What do you do?”

As soon as the words left her mouth, Sheena regretted them. Fawks didn't look down at her body, but he might as well have. He took one quick step toward her and murmured in her ear. “Would you like to find out?”