Moonbreeze (The Dragonian Series Book 4) (17 page)

“I’m so, so sorry child. That couldn’t have been easy.”

“Thank you,” I said while looking at the grapes and plucking another bunch.

“I noticed another strange thing,” he remarked and my heart raced again. “You don’t carry the barcode.”

Barcode, what barcode?

“How did you manage that?”

“I had one drawn on.” That lie just popped out. “My dragon was quite the artistic type. I know it didn’t suit his personality, but he used to draw ours on every morning, so that I didn’t have to go through all the pain of getting a real one.” I hoped that there was pain involved.

“And you got away with it?”

“It wasn’t easy,” I said even though I had no idea what the procedure was with the barcode. Images of a check-out point were the only things that popped inside my head, and I figured it must be something similar that the people with the barcodes went through every now and then.

“Well, that works for you, here. As none of us have the barcode, well, except Annie. It was part of the treaty they had here, up north. They don’t treat us the way they treat the others as we provide them with food. But they take our women for the pleasures of their men.”

I sucked in breath, silently as he said it. I knew it was why the women all looked like men. Their hair was short and their bodies were rough. The opposite of mine. And he’d just confirmed what I was thinking all this time, the reason why they took their young women.

“So I have to cut my hair too?” I asked.

“You don’t have to,” he said softly. “Tell me how good are you at hiding.”

I smiled. “I’m a master.”

He laughed. “I gathered that much.”

“Why are you asking?”

“We have built an underground facility for our young ones, who are more of your age. There aren’t many, but we protect them like we’ve never protected our people before. When the Council comes, they go into hiding. We’ve had the facility now for five years, and not once have they discovered it.”

“Thank you,” I said.

“No woman should be humiliated like that. They took three of my granddaughters already. I’m not going to lose more.”

“I’m so sorry about that.”

He just smiled. “Not your fault, my dear child.”

I took a deep breath. Charles reminded me a lot of Pappi. I missed him. How didn’t any of them know that this was going on?

I would find out who was responsible for this. That I was the one thing I was certain of.

WE PLUCKED GRAPES until late that afternoon. My fingers felt raw and I had filled what felt like a gazillion baskets. I’d stopped counting at five. We spoke about the ins and outs Marcus had referred to earlier. Once a month the Council came and they would take all the harvest and distribute it to those who needed it. Then if they saw any women that resembled a good time for one of their members, they took them too. They also killed those who got out of hand, even those that they feared. Like August, with his mark. It was the total opposite of what I was used to.

He couldn’t tell me what the other parts were like, as none of them had ever left the farms. Still he spoke about the good. He’d had a dragon too, a Swallow Annex. They’d parted ways a long, long time ago. It was so sad. They talked about death with so much respect.

Annie, whom I assumed was the other pick-up August mentioned this morning that was staying with them, was a Sun-Blast. He’d mentioned that before, but she hadn’t transformed into a dragon for the past ten years. I couldn’t fathom any of this at all.

The time flew and I had to admit, that today hadn’t been so bad. Charles and I reached one of the many wagons and I found August sitting with a dark-haired girl, more or less our age.

“Alphabet,” August said with a smile. “I want to introduce you to my girl, Max.”

The dark-haired girl smiled as she looked at me. “Max, this is Elle.” He spoke to her and she started to laugh as she got why he called me Alphabet.

“You are so funny.” She slapped him playfully. “Hi Elle, don’t worry, I won’t call you Alphabet.”

“It really doesn’t bother me that much.” I plopped down next to her.

“So I take it they’ve already pushed you into the deep end?”

“Plucking grapes is hardly the deep end, August,” Charles said as he took a seat next to August on the back of the wagon.

“I just hope that the Council is going to be happy with this order,” a woman with short red hair said.

“Elle, this is Olivia. She is in control of all the grapes around here.”

“Elle.” I reached out my hand and the woman took it. Her hands didn’t feel like a woman’s hands. Her body was one ball of muscle.

“You should cut that hair, sweetheart. If those men lay their eyes on you, you don’t stand a chance.”

“Now, now, Olive, she is going into hiding with the others when that day comes. The girls sure could do with a couple more hands with the little ones.”

Little ones?
This Council was going to go down. I swore it. Even if it meant that I would get my punishment for killing Blake.
These people…little ones.

The wagon started to move again in the direction we’d come. I couldn’t believe that they were even targeting little girls. It was disgusting.

The wagon didn’t stop for more people. I hardly listened to the ones that were busy chatting away. Olivia sounded like a talkative girl, and everyone seemed to listen to what it was she had to say.

I couldn’t stop thinking about the horrible things that came here once a month. Hiding on those days wasn’t a good sign, as I would probably never find out who was behind all of this, but helping the girls with the little ones sounded like a good plan.

I pulled out of my thoughts as Olivia climbed off the wagon. I didn’t even realize that it had stopped.

“See you tomorrow, Elle.”

“See you.” I smiled.

Olivia met up with two girls, one my age with red hair and another about twelve. She hugged them both and they walked down the passageway to a house that was hidden behind trees.

The carriage moved forward back to Charles’s place.

I didn’t even realize that Maxine had climbed off as we stopped right in front of Charles’s home.

“What goes on in that mind of yours?” August bumped me softly as we walked toward the door.

“Nothing much,” I mumbled.

“Now that is a lie, Alphabet.”

I giggled again. “Fine, just tired, I guess.”

“Understandable. For a girl that hasn’t done a beat of work…” he started to tease me and ran away as I was aiming to slap him playfully.

“I’m not lazy, for your information. I cut like a shit load of grapes today.”

“Hacked, not cut.” He corrected me. “See you don’t even know the term.”

“Whatever,” I said and slapped him.

“Ow, you’ve seriously got a mean punch.” He rubbed the spot where my fist connected with his shoulder and I saw Charles squinting slightly. I looked away, pretending that I didn’t see it. “Should teach you not to mess with girls.”

Charles laughed and gave me a knowing look this time. It was as if he knew that I’d been lying the entire day about everything. I didn’t like the lying part.

We entered the house and the most amazing smell entered my nostrils. I was starving.

“Go wash-up,” Gertrude said, “and come down for supper.” She held out her cheek for August to kiss. “Good evening Elle, how was your first day?”

“It was amazing, I worked hard and tonight I’m going to sleep like a rock.”

“Sleep.” August had that teasing tone in his voice again. “You slept for two days woman.”

“So what?” I snapped playfully back as we ran up the stairs.

“Does he know yet?” I heard Gertrude asking someone.

“No, we haven’t told him yet.”

Told whom what?

“I’m scared that he will want to start experimenting, bombarding her with questions of how all of this works.”

I hated my enhanced hearing, and I tuned out as I reached my room. They were worried sick about August.

I found one of those wash-up bowls with steaming hot water coming out of it, in my room close to the bath.

Dipping my hands into it felt good, and I washed my face. I didn’t feel clean, but I felt refreshed. I was sure that tonight I would get time to bathe again, but then August jumped into my mind, so maybe I wouldn’t.

When I was done, I went back downstairs.

A little girl with curly brown hair and the biggest blue eyes I had ever seen, hid behind Daisy’s leg. She must’ve been around four or five years old.

“Cassy,” Daisy sang and looked in my direction. “Oh I see, you are shy all of a sudden.” She spoke down to the little girl. “Elle, this is Cassy, the light of my life.”

I bent down and was eye level with Cassy. “Hi, I’m Elle.”

“Hi,” she said in a sweet voice.

I winked, got up and went back to the table. Daisy was laughing at something Cassy said but I honestly didn’t catch it.

I found the ethnic mixed girl sitting on one of the chairs, she reminded me of Cheng. Gertrude told me to sit in the one opposite her. She was beautiful, in her own little way but her hair was short, and she tried her best to be unattractive.

She was deep in thought and when she found me staring at her, she looked straight into my eyes. Her eyes were beautiful. She had one hazel eye and one grey eye. It was as if someone hit her iris with a splash of grey ink.

“Hi, I’m Annie.”

“Elle,” I said. “But I’m sure you know that by now,” I said softly and she giggled.

“News sort of spreads real fast around here.”

I smiled.

Gertrude dished up.

Charles said a prayer, one that asked to keep all of us safe and to bless the food and the hands that prepared it.

Then we all dug in and ate. I couldn’t remember a time when I’d been this hungry. Everyone was starting to speak at the same time.

They spoke about today, about the barn and the repairs that were done today. Steve had plenty to say. He had blond hair like August, was lean and tall. But every time I found his eyes looking at me, he would look away. It was as if he had this fear of women. It made me smile.

Another one of Marcus’s sons, the oldest I presumed, was called Tom. He was the total opposite of Steve and August. He was masculine like Marcus and had dark brown hair like Daisy and his father.

He carried on about how they needed more equipment for repairs and it was evident that a guy named Luke was going to have to go into town with a small group of men to go and get it.

“No,” Marcus said. “You are not going, Tom. We need you here.”

“Dad all the other men have had their turns. You can’t do this to me.” The vibe was getting thick and it was starting to scare me a bit.

“I would let you go if I knew that was all you were planning to do in town. I know why you want to go and my answer is no.”

Tom grunted, pushing the chair away hard, and walked out of the room with huge strides.

“Marcus,” Gertrude said.

“I can’t lose him too. I’ve lost too many children already.”

“She was his wife.”

“And for all we know, she is someone else’s now.”

The table went super silent. Tom’s wife had been taken. He wanted to find her and that was why Marcus refused to let him out of his sight. It was bad.

We finished our supper in awkward silence.

“August,” Charles said. “When you guys are finished helping in the kitchen, you and Elle need to visit me in the study.”

Gertrude froze and Marcus just stared at his father who sat on the other end of the table. “Dad,” Marcus said as he wiped his mouth clean with a napkin. “May I ask what this is about?”

“The sooner the boy knows the better, Marcus.”

“Boy knows what, Grandfather?” August asked.

“Patience hasn’t been kind on you, my boy.”

Everyone giggled except Gertrude and Marcus. Still they obliged and didn’t speak of it anymore.

All the younger people helped clean the kitchen with Gertrude and Daisy.