The Saga Begins [Nuworld 1] (37 page)

“I know. And they would look the other way when it happened again and again. I can’t do that, Reena. I would kill him.”

“I believe you.” Reena smiled, but it didn’t cover the sadness in her eyes. “I think what Patha wants you to see, and what I want you to see as well, is that you started something in Gothman. It was you who brought Runners and Gothman together, it was. You’re the one who insisted women should have rights. You’ve started something and have walked away without finishing it, you have.”

“That’s not fair.” Tara sounded wounded. “I was willing to walk with Darius and lead his country with him. He said things to me, made promises. He lied to me. I can’t make those changes without him, and he can’t be trusted. He’s the one who quit without finishing, not me.”

Reena looked down without saying anything.

Tara watched her. For some reason it dawned on her how much she wanted Reena’s support. She sat at the table across from Reena and waited for the older woman to say something, anything.

Reena opened her mouth to speak and then shut it again. Finally, she spoke. “Tara, I’m Gothman, I am. I always will be. I have no choice but to be loyal to his lordship.” She lowered her voice and continued. “I can’t help but say that I feel you’re more of a man than he is, so to speak. You might just have to make the first move, I fear.”

“I don’t know that I could ever trust him again.” Tara felt defeated.

“How long will you be gone?”

“I don’t know.” Tara got up and moved to the door. “Patha said he’d let Torgo sleep in the spare room tonight. I’ll fetch the boy so he can go to bed.” She paused in the doorway. “You know, that child has been loyal to me. He would make a great lord. But I doubt he’ll ever have the opportunity to prove that.” She sighed. “I’m leaving tomorrow, Reena. Tonight, I look forward to lying under the stars. It’s beautiful out there, and I think sleeping in the night air might help my outlook. Good night, Reena.”

“Goodnight Tara-girl.” Reena hugged her daughter. “Don’t you worry yourself none about those babies. If they wake in the night, I’ll be tending to them, I will.”

A short time later, Tara threw her bedroll on the ground next to the fire by Patha’s trailer. The stars glowed larger than usual and filled the sky. She didn’t have a chance to enjoy them, though. Sleep overcame her the second her head hit the pillow.

It was barely light when Tara opened her eyes. A good night’s sleep was just what she’d needed. She was anxious to get herself organized and hit the road.

The trailer was still quiet when she entered. Tara was gazing at her sleeping beauties when Patha came out of his room.

“Good morning, Tara-girl.” The old man looked over her shoulder at the two babies. “You’ve sure done a good job with those two.”

“Thanks. They’ll be great warriors, Patha. I promise.”

“How could they not be? Look at their bloodline.” Patha gently took Tara’s arm. “Come with me. I’ve something to show you.”

Tara followed Patha out the trailer and across the meadow to another trailer. He unlocked the door and the two of them went inside.

“This is for you.”

“What do you mean?” Tara looked around at a place larger than Patha’s trailer. A kitchenette, table, and small couch furnished the living room. An extensive landlink system caught Tara’s eye, and she walked over to it.

“This trailer. It’s for you.” The old man grinned.

“It’s mine?”

“Can’t have my grandchildren running around without a roof over their heads.” Patha walked to the door. “I’ll see that your belongings are brought to you.”

Tara was left alone in the living room. She walked down the hallway and opened the first bedroom door. A nice sized bed and a tall dresser furnished the room. There were shelves in the closet as well as a bar on which to hang clothes. The second bedroom contained a small bed and another dresser. She gasped when she opened the third bedroom. Inside were the babies’ cradles from the house. She walked up to them in disbelief. Who had brought them here? Their dressers lined the wall; all their clothes were in them.

Tara stood in the little room, stunned by what she was seeing. What could all this mean? If Darius was giving her all of the baby things, did that mean he didn’t want them to come back? A wave of panic ran through Tara’s body. It had never occurred to her that he might decide he didn’t want them to come home. She ran her fingers over a cradle, and her eyes welled with tears.

He wasn’t willing to change for her. He’d made the decision and sent her these things. Tara imagined that the empty nursery had been more than he could bear. The man had no use for baby articles with no babies in the house. And maybe he thought sending her the items would make her react just the way she had. Darius could have sent her everything to scare her into thinking he didn’t want her—a bluff to lure her home.

Tara wouldn’t put an act like that past the man. But on the other hand, she
had
left to teach him a lesson. She
wanted
Darius to know she had zero tolerance for his behavior. Tara would not live with a man, continuously wondering where he was, and with whom.

As her finger traced the cribs’ carvings, she suddenly realized that was exactly what she was doing right now. Oh, how she missed him. Maybe she should have stayed and battled it out.

She shook herself, trying to get her thoughts back to reality. She never could have lived with a man who did not respect her. Tara quickly walked out of the room.

The landlink in the living room was logged on. She hadn’t noticed that a second ago. The screen indicated there was a message waiting for her response. Someone had taken the time to program this landlink to use her pass code. She tapped the screen and realized the message was indeed for her. She thought for a moment, trying to figure out who would know her pass code. Darius? She tried to remember if she’d shown it to him, but she wasn’t sure. Curiosity got the best of her, and she opened the message.

“Hello, Tara. This is my third attempt to contact you, it is. I hope you’ll not delete this message. It’s not possible for me to right a wrong when you’ll not return to allow me to do so. I hope this trailer will show you that my intentions toward you are genuine. I’ve made every attempt to bring you back. I am now made to understand that you still do not plan to return, and instead will enter Southland. Tara, your place is here. We’ve united two nations, and it is your duty to rule over them with me, it is. You, too, are failing your duty, just as you say I have. Return within one week, or I’ll sever all relations with the Runners, disowning all of you. I don’t want to do this. My love for you is strong, it is. Return to me now. Darius.”

Tara read the message twice. Her blood boiled, and she wondered if Patha knew of this threat. She slammed her fist on the table and turned to leave the trailer. As she opened the door, Syra greeted her.

“Have you heard the news?” Syra was grinning. She had a bag in each hand as she entered the trailer. “I get to go with you. My papa said it would keep me away from Torgo. What an adventure. Which one is my room?”

Tara stood there speechless. She quickly regrouped her thoughts. No one must know about the message from Darius. She walked back to the landlink and deleted it. She would not bother to acknowledge such an insult. He didn’t control everybody’s life.

“You want me to go with you, don’t you?” Syra apparently misread Tara’s silence and looked worried. “I could be a big help with the babies.”

“Of course, you can go with me.” Tara smiled, quickly forcing her thoughts to the future.

Just then a jeep pulled up to the trailer. Patha and Balbo entered and began to bring Tara’s things into the room. They spent the next hour organizing clothes and saying goodbyes.

Tara watched Patha closely. If her papa knew of Darius’ threat, he gave no indication. He spoke only of his concern that Tara stay in touch with him and let him know what the people of Southland were like.

“Let me know when you are safely in Semore.” Patha hugged his daughter soundly. His eyes looked moist when he pulled away.

“And take care of my daughter,” Balbo added.

“I will.” Tara held her hands out to both of them. She hugged Reena and Torgo then climbed into the driver’s seat.

The rocky road led down a cliff and took a long time to navigate. The attached trailer with the bike on it swerved from side to side, and Tara crawled along, fearing it would fall off the edge of the road. She was glad when they finally came to the road at the bottom, and she was able to gain speed.

The town of Semore was unlike anything Tara had ever seen. It had been built around ruins from the Oldworld. There weren’t many ruins like these in Trueland. Small flat buildings made out of white bricks lined each side of the road. People walked along sidewalks. Tara saw more cars than she’d ever seen at any one time. After trial and error, she figured out that the tall poles with lights at intersections, indicated to drivers where they could stop or go depending upon the color light displayed at any given time. What a concept.

Her attention was drawn to oil pumps slowly moving up and down at the edge of town. Oil was something Runners and Gothman needed.

Ahead on the right, Tara spied a sign saying, “
Rooms Available.
” She pulled the trailer into a parking area covered with small red gravel.

A dark-skinned, white-haired older man with black eyes and bushy white eyebrows told her about a small boarding house at the edge of town where she might be able to park her trailer. He gave her such an odd look; she decided not to ask him if she could pay with gold pieces.

She drove to the place he’d specified—an older house set back off the road. It had a flat-roofed porch covering the front of the white clay building. The structure was longer than it was wide. Beyond it, the land stretched endlessly.

“Hello,” she said to a young woman leaning against a counter just inside the house. “I need a place to park my trailer for a short time.”

The young lady looked past Tara out the window at the trailer. She studied it for a minute and then looked back at Tara and studied her. The woman’s hair was black as coal. She had it twisted in the back in several braids. Her skin was also as dark as night and her inky black eyes looked curiously at Tara. “Where are you from?”

“North of here.”

“North? There isn’t much north of here. You live in that trailer?”

The girl’s dialect was not like anything Tara had heard before. She liked it. The girl’s words ran together, sounding almost melodic. Tara listened carefully to understand what the girl said.

“I do for right now.” Tara smiled, knowing her voice must sound very foreign to the young girl as well. “I have a couple of babies. We’re looking for a new life, so to speak.”

“So, you come to Semore?” This seemed to surprise the girl. “Things aren’t good around here right now. I mean, if you’re looking for work, I don’t know if you’ll find any.”

“I’d like to try. Could I park the trailer for just a few days?”

“I guess we can’t turn away a mama with babies. Pull it around back and I’ll bring out the paperwork.”

Tara thanked her and parked the trailer in the indicated spot. The young girl came out the back door within minutes. She handed the paperwork to Tara and peeked past the open door of the trailer at Syra and the babies inside.

“I’ve never seen such blond curly hair before,” the girl commented. “Where did you say you were from?”

Tara was saved from answering by two men who appeared in the building’s doorway. Both were tall, with dark skin and hair. One of the men, however, caught her off guard. He had long black hair falling to his waist. He was thin with broad shoulders and his black eyes glistened as he looked at her. The other man gestured for the girl to come to him, and the three disappeared into the building, leaving Tara alone to fill out the papers.

The young girl appeared again before long and smiled shyly as she walked toward Tara. “My husband wants to know if someone is going to come after you?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Do you have money?”

“I have gold. I’ll exchange it if you tell me where I can do that.”

She shook her head. “That won’t be necessary.”

The girl took three gold pieces and told her it would cost her the same amount for each day she was there. “You’re welcome to join us for a midday meal shortly. You’ll hear the bell ring when it’s ready.” The girl took the papers and disappeared into the building.

Tara watched her walk away and couldn’t help but wonder which of the two men was her husband. She thought of Darius, then the dark man, and then she pushed both images out of her head and went to her children.

The food was not identifiable, but it was good. The couple served the meals, but didn’t eat with them. In fact, over the next several days, Tara and Syra were not sought out by any of the town folk. Nor did anyone pay much attention to them, although their fair skin and sandy brown hair made them conspicuous among the dark-skinned Neurians. Even Tara’s attempts at conversation in the food market went unheeded.

The landlink system in the community was quite elaborate. Semore was connected to nearby towns, and Tara studied everything she could about them and their residents. She discovered that a number identified every citizen on the landlink system. Everything in the town was on the landlink. She was able to obtain a guest number and visit many of the local merchants through their networking system. Her frustration grew, however, when a message continually appeared on the screen saying her “guest status” did not allow her to view her selection. She was prevented from viewing anything about their government.