Featherlight (7 page)

After I calmed myself into the realm of normal, Samantha asked, “Are
you alright?”

I wanted to yell,
do I look alright?! I grew wings overnight, my
eyes aren’t even a human shade anymore, I look like a petite supermodel (which
I’m not even sure is a good thing), I was kidnapped, drugged, and I’m on my way
to a planet that I haven’t even heard of before today! Actually, I didn’t even
know you could
live
on another planet until today! Do you think I’m
okay?!

I took a deep breath and told the biggest lie in my short 19 years of
living, “I’m fine.”

Show no weakness. Weakness is helplessness, and I’m not helpless.

She nodded, like she didn’t expect me to say any differently. “Now, I
need your full attention to what I’m about to say. It is very important.”

Like all that other stuff wasn’t important.

“This may come as a shock, seeing as you were raised differently. When
our race separated from humans, we no longer advanced as they did. After we
moved to Auro, humans changed their moral ways, but we did not.”

Oh no. I could see where this was going. There was
no
way I
could live in a purely male dominated society. I would
not
do it. I was
not raised to be a meek, submissive woman.

I wanted to go home and pretend that this was all a bad dream. I wish
I could tap my black rubber shoes together and be sent home.
Stay strong
,
I told myself.
You don’t have to be like the other women on Auro
.

She continued, “It is not extreme, but I felt I needed to warn you
before we landed.” Her eyes shifted, and I saw Auro getting larger in the
window.

“We also handle relationships a bit differently. I believe human men
court the human women on Earth. They give compliments and flirt and then ask
the woman to marry them, yes?”

I nodded.

“Our race is driven more by instincts. That is what has kept us alive
over the years. We are part animal. Never forget that. On Auro, when a man is
interested in a woman, he doesn’t court her. The women here don’t have as much
of a say as what you’re used to, but,” She stopped me before I could protest, “Women
do have a say in the outcome. Let me finish.”

And I stopped and listened.

“When a man spots a woman he likes, he gets her attention and makes
eye contact with her. Eye contact, as you may have noticed, is very important
to us. It shows how dominate someone is, where they lie in the hierarchal
system.”

Oh geez. I’m stuck in the middle of some teen werewolf novel. Somebody
shoot me.

“The man must go through a trial before he can have the woman he
wants. When they make eye contact, and both the man and woman are not attached
to another person, it triggers a flight response that can’t be ignored.” A
faint smile pulled at the corners of her mouth. How she found this humorous,
I’d never know.

 I asked, “What if you don’t want to run?”

“You don’t have a choice,” She answered matter-of-factly.

How could someone not have a choice? “Literally? Because I’m pretty
sure that’s not possible. No one can
make
someone else run.”

Before she could reply, she was interrupted by the speaker, “We will
be landing in 5 minutes, Samantha.”

She sighed and told me, “When we land, do
not
look anyone in
the eye. Keep your head down. I don’t need you running off into the mountains.
I will take you to the room you will be living in and explain everything else there.”
She turned around and strode back through the door.

Now I had more questions than answers. I looked out my window and saw
mountains looming. They were beautiful. One of the suns was distant, which gave
everything a warm, golden glow. I guess it would always look like that, though.

There were tall trees covering the mountain, and I noticed the flash
of a building off to the side. Not a building, a city. The top of the largest
mountain was covered in buildings. I could make out a cleared section that was
leveled off by a huge edifice. The edges were curved and it looked silver from
up here.

I saw large birds flying through the city. No, not birds. Winged
people, like me. I could see that some had wings that glimmered golden and
others had brown. What were they called? I searched my memory. Lullary. That’s
it! I pressed my nose up to the glass. They were so graceful! They mostly
glided on the air, occasionally moving their wings to keep airborne. I suddenly
longed to fly through the mountains with them.

Someone told me, “We are about to land. Would you like to bring
anything with you?”

I looked down at my strange outfit and remembered the ruined clothes I
wore upon entering the ship.

“Nope,” I replied without looking away from the window. We were
landing.

Part VII

John soared through the sky, wondering why his father sent such an
urgent message to meet him in the field. Although the Marshal was an ambitious
and dominating man, he was also very patient. The last time John had received
an imperative summon from his father was when there had a kiren
sighting
on their side of the planet.

John had just left the Tower to meet his dad when he heard the nearly
silent wings of another join him in flight. He glanced to his left and tried
not to show the annoyance at her arrival on his face.

“Hey, John,” Cynthia said, smiling at him demurely.

He kept his voice short and clipped. “Cynthia. I have business to
attend to, so I apologize for not staying to talk.”

Cynthia’s blue eyes widened slightly and her lower lip stuck out in a
pout. She was pretty, even among the lullary
,
but John was not
interested. Nevertheless, his instincts stirred slightly when she suddenly dove
down in an attempt to force him to chase her.

John ignored his body and continued the journey to his father. He was
getting tired at all the ceaseless insisting women and their antics. It had
only gotten worse now that he had turned 21. While all of his childhood friends
were out choosing mates and having the time of their lives, he was training to
one day become Marshal.

For a lullary
,
young adulthood should be filled with spirits,
parties, and pre-chases. After a few weeks, John had grown quite bored with it
all. The main cause of his boredom had been the fact that he had never enjoyed
drinking. Since he was so highly ranked, John had been more susceptible to
losing control and accidentally starting a true chase than his friends.

Another detail that worked against him was the fact that way too many
women would try to entice him into a chase if he got too drunk. Some women
would kill to be the mate of the future Marshal, so he had to be constantly on
guard. Although he envied his friend’s carefree lives, John knew that he had a
duty to his people to choose the right woman.

As for the Chases, John had incited many practices and had a record of
never losing one. John could always catch the women within minutes; therefore,
he had no true competition. If anything else, John wanted a mate who could hold
her own during a chase.

After living for over 200 years, John’s dad learned patience, and it
was slowly rubbing off on his son. Ironically, just before landing on the
field, John swore to himself that he would wait an eternity for a woman worthy
of him. After all, he was going to be the Marshal one day, and he deserved no
less.

Part VIII

Deep breaths, Jacque,
I told myself. We landed on the end of a cleared, flat field. I turned
around as Marie offered me a dark brown trench coat to put over my wings. Since
I didn’t want to attract unwanted attention, I gladly accepted. It tickled as
the material brushed my wings.

The door to the unknown outside world opened, and Samantha jumped out
without hesitation. I ran across the room. Surely the drop was far! I leaned
over to look. The ground loomed below, so how was she just standing there? She
should have a broken leg, at least.

Samantha beckoned me down. “Come on! Gravity doesn’t pull as hard
here!” She grinned and I saw a spark of joy. She was home, where she belonged.
I felt a pang of homesickness but quickly shook it off and focused.

Was she testing my faith? Maybe she knows I won’t survive a jump like
that. It sure would be a convenient way for me to die. Freak fall from a spaceship.
My aunt told me they wouldn’t hurt me, and I trusted my aunt. Besides, everything
else Samantha said had seemed to be the truth. Taking a deep breath, and going
against my rational mind, I jumped off the ship. The two story drop made my
stomach flip. The ground stopped rushing up to greet me, and I was relieved to
notice that I was alive, even if I had landed on my butt. Shutting my eyes and
taking another deep breath, I put my head on my knees to slow my pounding
heart. The cool wind blew on my body softly, a heavenly temperature compared to
the Texas summer heat.

There was a thump, and then a male voice spoke, “Who’d you bring?”

Samantha answered, “Move along.”

It wasn’t a suggestion. Her voice was hard and clipped. The man softly
whistled, ignoring the order. My eye opened a fraction of an inch, but I
figured Samantha didn’t want anyone to know my wing color, so I shut them
again. See? I was not as dumb as I looked.

I dug my fingers into the soft grass, feeling like a blind bird. There
was another thump and a whoosh. My eyelids twitched. What was going on?

“Leave, now,” A man demanded, and I heard a slight whisper of wings
flying away.

“Is this her?” The same man asked.

“Yes, love. She has had a rough day,” Samantha replied, sounding relieved.

“Child? You may look at me.” His voice was gentle, and I found myself
slowly opening my eyes. Samantha seemed to trust him, and that was all I had to
go on right now.

I looked up at a man of about 40, with kindness behind his sharp blue
eyes. Those same eyes widened when he saw mine. I noticed that he was handsome
(in that older man way) and had black hair that was beginning to gray. Wings
the rich color of gold were visible over his shoulders, and it took every ounce
of self-control not to stare at them.

 After holding his gaze a few seconds, I closed my eyes again and
quickly stood up because I did not want to be at a disadvantage.

 He broke the silence, “Welcome to Roya, Jacque.”

The town must have gotten its name from the Royal Mountains Samantha
mentioned earlier.

“Glad to be here,” I said sarcastically without holding out my hand
for him to shake.

Since I had reclosed my eyes because of Samantha’s advice, I decided
that would be a big enough excuse not to shake hands. Regardless of their
kindness, I was still brought here without my consent.

“I am the Marshal of this city, and Samantha is my mate.” Is the
Marshal like a president? Does that make him important? Wait, did he say mate?
It barely snagged my attention. I guess I
have
had a rough day.

“Nice to meetcha,” I replied, reopening my eyes.

“If you’ll come with us, we can show you to your rooms. We live in the
Tower.” His voice was a tad bit strained, almost like he was forcing
casualness. I probably wouldn’t have noticed if my senses hadn’t become
absolutely amazing. Samantha nodded her head towards the largest building in
the city, which looked more like a tall mansion and less like a tower. It was a
light gray and had a plethora of windows.

Now that I finally had a chance to escape, I had nowhere to run. I was
in a foreign place with odd, foreign people. Keeping my eyes down, I saw Samantha’s
feet turn around to start towards the tower, but someone had just landed on the
grass in front of her. I kept my eyes down, only seeing everyone’s shadow, and smothered
the desire to look up at the newcomer.

“I’m here, father. What do you need?” A man asked.

The same young man paused for a second, and then questioned, “Who is
that?”

 Samantha broke the silence, “Marshal, why did you bring John here?”

“Sam, you know as well as I that she won’t last her first chase. She
doesn’t have the skills to help her like the others who are new.”

Samantha seemed to come to a realization, because I saw the shadow of
her head shake, and she told him, “Oh, no! You know I can’t let this happen.”

She took a step toward her husband as her voice turned into an angry
pleading, “She deserves a chance!”

The Marshal’s shadow shook its head while the man named John said, “She
doesn’t smell like a lullary. Could it be?”

His shadow took a step closer. A lovely aroma drifted on the wind, and
I couldn’t stand not looking. I needed to be prepared for whatever was coming
next.

I looked up at the scene in front of me as Samantha yelled, “No!”

Okay, so maybe I’m not so smart.

She was facing her husband with her head turned in my direction. The
Marshal looked triumphant. Samantha glanced at John, helpless, and I followed
her eyes. He was standing ten feet away, on the other side of Samantha and the
Marshal. My gaze locked with his blue eyes.