Do Or Die [Nuworld 4] (34 page)

“He won’t ever hurt you again, I promise,” Ana whispered.

Andru looked up at Meah and she looked at Ana quickly.

Ana put her hands on the woman’s arms. “I promise you that.

“Now tell us what your report says,” Ana said and moved to sit down next to her

brother. She leaned into him to look at her baby and then up at Meah.

Meah simply stared from one of them to the other for a minute. Andru wrapped an

arm around Ana and then looked up at Meah. She raised an eyebrow at the intimate

gesture, but then turned away quickly and printed a couple of copies of what she’d

compiled so far. As they read, she moved over to the table and sat down, suddenly

feeling incredibly exhausted. Everything she wanted out of life stemmed on the quality

of this report. They were offering to help her and she should be grateful. Meah watched

the two of them read, their heads together, every now and then glancing at each other

or the baby. She’d never seen two people look more alike. It was almost unnerving how

they seemed to communicate without talking. But she was in the company of the heirs

of the two largest, most powerful nations in Nuworld. They would take her with them

in their glory of ruling if she played her cards right. Andru looked up at her at one

point and smiled a crooked smile at her. Ana looked up too as if she knew his thoughts.

They were like one person, and she would have to work closely with both of them. She

looked down at her hands quickly when Andru’s dark gray eyes met hers. She felt

nauseous. How could she forget the cruel things he’d done to her?

“You obviously need some extensive lessons on the thinking of Gothman,” Andru

commented after he’d finished.

“I think Mama will like what you point out about the Runners but I’d have to agree

with Andru,” Ana said. “You look thoroughly exhausted, though. We’ll leave you alone

now. You should take a break. We’re leaving in a few weeks for the Norther country

again and we need to get this report done quickly so we can focus on the maneuvers

Mama wants us to learn.”

Meah nodded, quite honestly too tired to comment on anything.

“Another part of the report is a physical,” Andru added, and Ana turned to look at

him. “Mama told me to tell you to stop in to see Dr. Digo. You can go today or first

thing in the morning. It’s up to you.”

“Why do I have to take a physical?” Meah looked confused.

“Mama wants to make sure you’re in good physical condition before you fly with

the troops.” Andru shrugged then handed Darien to Ana.

“I never heard anything about a physical,” Ana said to Andru once they were

outside the trailer. He helped her put Darien into his back carrier and then pulled the

straps over her shoulder.

“She told me about it earlier,” he said indifferently, before assuring she was on her

glider and then leaned over to kiss Darien affectionately.

He pulled his comm over his ear once he was on his own glider. “Mama, I need you

to do something for me.”

“What is it?”

“I want you to call Dr. Digo and tell him to expect Meah to come in for a physical.

She will think that you requested her to visit. I want him to do a thorough physical but

make sure he does a pregnancy test. If she’s pregnant, I want Dr. Digo to do a paternity

test to determine if the child is mine. If it is, I don’t want her told of the pregnancy but I

want to know immediately. If the child isn’t mine then he can tell her she’s pregnant

and encourage an abortion if she wants to ride with the troops.”

Tara understood exactly what her son was saying. “You know, clan laws make her

exempt from being claimed when she’s on clan land.”

“Don’t worry about that part. You know I respect Runner law. Besides, she visits

Ana from time to time. Will you do this for me?”

“Yes, son. I’ll take care of it.” Tara signed off and Andru pulled the comm from his

ear before mounting his glider.

* * * * *

Meah walked across the field toward Dr. Digo’s trailer with a determined stride.

She basked in the warm morning sunlight and enjoyed feeling well rested and

clearheaded. She was ready to take her new life on again this morning. She’d already

been given a second chance and she knew there would be no third chance.

She knew something else, too. She needed to address the gut feeling she had that

told her some sort of foul play was at work here. Ever since yesterday afternoon when

Andru and Ana were at her trailer, she’d had a knot in her stomach that demanded

attention. Her instincts seldom betrayed her, although she didn’t always listen to them.

It was something about the way Andru told her about the physical, as if it were an

afterthought. But why would it slip his mind if every soldier was required to have one?

And there was no mention of any physical in all the reading she’d done on Gothman

and the Blood Circle Clan. She’d focused her life on learning everything she could learn

about these people since her tenth winter and hadn’t read about it once. Now all she

had to figure out was how to test her theory.

Dr. Digo looked up through thick glasses when she entered the trailer. The living

room of the trailer was his examination room with a portable wooden wall blocking the

view to the examination table. He studied her as if forming words in his head that

would describe her when he created her file. She studied him back. There were several

good stories printed on one of the sites of the Runner transmission. He’d discovered

several antidotes for diseases that had plagued Nuworld for hundreds of winters.

Most stories written on the Runner transmission were just like the stories told

around the fires. They grew and blossomed each time they were told. She focused on

the facts, though, and that was plain and simple—Dr. Digo was an outstanding doctor.

He was probably incredibly loyal to Tara as well. But what were his feelings on

Gothman…primarily the Gothman men in Tara’s family?

“How many active warriors are there in the Blood Circle Clan?” Meah asked out of

the blue as she sat on the examination table and Dr. Digo listened to her heartbeat.

“Well, let’s see. I guess they’re somewhere over a thousand warriors. I’m not quite

sure, why do you ask?”

“I need to learn about them and I figured you’d have an exact count since you have

to give each one of them a physical.” She watched Dr. Digo shoot her a side-glance over

his glasses before straightening and walking over to his counter. He didn’t say anything

but instead picked up a syringe and a small glass tube. She watched him as he prepared

to take blood from her.

“What is this test?” she asked, when it was obvious he wasn’t going to comment on

the practice of giving the soldiers physicals.

“Oh, various things,” he said pleasantly. “We want to make sure you’re not

carrying some deadly disease.”

“If I’m carrying something, I don’t know how deadly it is.” Again she watched for

his reaction and this time she got one. He cleared his voice and frowned at her.

“Meah, if there’s something you’d like to talk about, I’m a pretty good listener.”

“There is, Doctor, oh yes, I want to talk to you. I’ve read some of your stories, and I

know you’re a fair man. I don’t know who to talk to about all of this. I haven’t been here

long enough. I mean, I can guess how the loyalties fall but I’m not positive, of course.”

She spoke in one breath and when she gasped for air, Dr. Digo laughed and sat down

behind his desk.

“I’m impressed that you’ve read some of my stories. You’re mighty young.”

“You were part of this clan.” Meah shrugged.

“Why don’t you start at the beginning and tell me what’s on your mind.” Dr. Digo

sat down and gave her his attention.

“Well, I guess I should start with my tenth winter. That’s when Lord Darius and

Lady Tara came to visit our clan. They brought their twins. That was the first time I saw

him.” Meah adjusted her clothes, smoothing them, and then forced herself to continue.

“A bunch of us were chasing wild boars—we weren’t allowed to do this, of course, but I

think that’s what made it so much fun. Anyway, I was always so small and had a hard

time keeping up. I guess he was watching because before I noticed him he’d scooped

me up onto his glider and we caught one together. From that point on, I was

determined to learn everything I could about him, his sister, his family, everything. I

guess it became an obsession after a while. There wasn’t much for me to look forward to

in our clan in comparison. The Red Star Clan has developed a larger database on Crator

and the translations than any other clan. More Runners attend our temple than any

other clan. But somehow that didn’t seem as exciting as the incredible warrior

reputation that the Gothman and the Blood Circle Clan possessed. I wanted the thrill of

the fight and I became the best warrior the Red Star Clan ever saw. But that didn’t draw

any attention from anyone in this clan. I would never lead our clan, I have two older

brothers, although one of them has become a priest for Crator.”

“When Ana came to our clan, I couldn’t believe I was meeting her for the first time.

I felt like I already knew her—everything that’s been written about the twin who would

lead the Runners someday. If you read all the stories that are printed on our

transmission carefully you can find the comparisons and determine what the facts are. I

learned that Andru controlled Ana and that they were very close. Ana and I seemed to

connect right away, we had so much in common…and I already knew so much about

her. I knew Andru would show up soon and I couldn’t wait.”

Meah sighed and looked down at her hands. She had clasped her fingers together

until her knuckles were white. She shook her hands and then nervously twisted her

braid.

“Are you trying to tell me that you fell in love with Andru?” the doctor asked

quietly.

“Yes, I did. I fell in love with my idea of who he was. He was the only man I ever

thought about and no one in my clan had a chance of even comparing as a close

second.” She looked up and Dr. Digo saw her expression grow hard. She chewed on her

lip and worked up her nerve to finish the end of her tragic story.

“He came to the clan site looking for Ana, just as I suspected. And, of course, he

didn’t remember me or have any idea who I was. But he wasn’t the same boy who so

carefree and cheerfully pulled me onto his glider so many winters ago. This was a man

who was hard and cruel.” Her voice cracked as she forced herself to say the final words

of her gruesome tale. “Then, I stayed here one night just a little over a cycle ago and I