Emma's Heart (Brides of Theron 3) (27 page)

Lars
watched for Zirlo’s reaction to Carel’s statement. He could tell that Zirlo didn’t catch on at first to what the other man had revealed, but when the commander did, the look on his face was priceless.

“What did you just say, Carel?”

Carel came back to stand near him. “About what?”

“You just said something about my people finding mates on a planet. What do you mean?” Zirlo had pushed away from the wall he had been leaning on the entire time the two had been talking.

“We received word that one of your fellow warriors had approached the Emperor with the knowledge of a planet that your warriors had actually found suitable mates on. This warrior had managed to get away from the mother ship and bring one of the females to UV-49 where the Emperor had been restoring his base. But something went very wrong, and the Therons found out what he had done and chased him to the planet.” This news was a total shock to Zirlo and the other two men who had moved in closer to hear the news. Lars was the only one who had stayed behind, pretending to be taking a leak on one of the walls.

“I know that I have been gone for an extremely long time
, but why would my people seek out mates from another planet? Where are the Theron females?” Zirlo was totally confused now by Carel’s revelation.

“When the
Emperor first invaded Theron, his first intentions were to either capture or kill the females, this way your race would eventually die out on its own, thus eliminating a future threat to the Emperor. The next item on his agenda was to strip Theron of all of its natural resources. So, since most of your females are either here in the prison camp or dead, your men had no other choice, but to seek out new mates on other planets. “

“Does he know where this planet is?” Danuwee aske
d.

Carel shrugged, “I don’t know. I want to say that he has a
n idea of where the planet is located, but he has not expressed any plan as of yet to go find it. At least as far as I know, he has no plans. But, with the Emperor that could all change at a moment’s notice.”

“Now
, there is all the more reason to try and…,” Danuwee almost had a major slip of the tongue that could have possibly landed them all in a permanent cell. But Carel’s laughter caused the group to immediately stop talking.

“Oh
, come on Zirlo. Since I have been here, I have gotten to know you and your group quite well, and I know exactly what you are up too.” He was doubled over with laughter now as he watched the expressions on the men’s faces. “Don’t worry my friends. Your secret is safe with me. We need to get moving again, or we will draw unwanted attention. We will have more time to talk again tomorrow.” Carel motioned for the men to take up their positions again on the cart.

Outside the cavern, the men went about the business of dumping the cart. Off to the side near the landing pads, a new group of prisoners was being unload and directed towards the entrance of the cavern. It wasn’t often that the prison received new prisoners, especially in such a large quantity.

Zirlo and the others watched th
e progression of the group as they made their way closer to where they were working. He couldn’t see the faces of the new comers, but he could see that there was a mixture of both men and women, something he found even more unusual.

The sounds of the chains that bound them together echoed through the air as their feet sh
uffled to keep pace with the individual in front of them. As they approached his work area, Zirlo could see that most of the prisoners were either Pernmock or Gastweeds, a race that was highly secretive and very rarely left their home planet.

There was one prisoner that drew Zirlo’s attention away from his work as she walked past. Her hair was long and dirty, and blew over her face as a gust of wind captured it and twisted it above her head, letting it fall haphazardly after releasing it. A dirty, bloody hand moved the long s
trands out of the way of her eyes as she looked up. A sudden sensation overcame Zirlo that he hadn’t felt in a very long time. He knew this female.

Without trying to make it too obvious, he moved over to where Carel was steadily watching the group walk by. His eyes were also trained on the group as a guard’s eyes should be. But, what was different
about Carel eyes was that they were only focused on one prisoner, the same one that had peaked Zirlo’s interest.

“Carel, may I approach?” Zirlo called to the guard as he had been instructed to do when on the outside of the cavern.

Carel’s eyes never left the female for an instant as he responded back, “Yes, you may approach. What is it?”

Zirlo walked up to the guard and stood as close as he was allowed to before speaking in a hushed tone, “I wanted to get closer to the prisoners.”

“Why?”

“The female that’
s in the orange and white suit,” Zirlo nodded with his head in her direction.

“I see her. What about her?”

Zirlo watched stunned, as Carel’s eyes followed every little movement the woman made. He even jerked forward when the woman stumbled and fell to her knees. “What of her, Zirlo?”

“I
think I know her, but I am not quite sure who she is. I need a better look at her eyes.”

Carel tore his eyes off the new woman, who he was praying would be assigned to his quadrant. “Come with me.”

The two of them walked towards the line of prisoners as they halted. The poor woman was struggling to get to her feet without any help. The guards that stood near her just laughed and made jokes as she tried to regain her footing.

“You are a bunch of fools. The prisoner needs help getting back up, or do you wish to bring down the wrath of the
Emperor upon your entire stupid group? The Emperor values his prisoners highly, and you should know this.” Carel chastised the group of guards as he and Zirlo approached. The woman was still down on her knees, but had become tangled in the numerous chains. He reached down to help untangle her foot when she had stopped struggling to watch the scene before her. “Just keep still and I will help you.” His breath caught in his throat as her eyes made contact with his.

At that same moment Zirlo caught sight of the same eyes, and he automatically knew who they belonged too. Only one family on all of Theron had those color eyes,
Arden’s aqua eyes. There was no question in his mind about who this young female was, and he hadn’t seen her since she was a very young girl. Jenaya had been half his son’s and Zane’s age when the war had started, but now he saw a grown woman before him. Many times this beautiful young woman had come running to him as a girl when the boys were being mean to her or to tattle on them when they wouldn’t let her tag along. Arden’s youngest child could at times make a pest of herself to the boys, but he loved her all the same and would protect her with his life if need be.

“What is your name?” Carel asked as his han
ds lingered longer than needed. Her skin was so soft under his rough, calloused fingers, and that one small touch was enough to know that he wanted this woman.

“I am Jenaya.”

****

Lars and the rest of the group had watched as Zirlo and Carel walked over to t
he group of prisoners being led by them. He didn’t have a clue about what had interested Zirlo to the group, but he would find out once they were back in the cavern.

He
breathed a sigh of relief when Carel motioned for them to start moving the cart again, as soon as they returned from helping the woman on the prison chain to her feet. He had been waiting to see if one of the stupid Drylon soldiers that they had encountered would announce to his group that he had been the one Carel had indicated was responsible for the attack on the Theron mother ship. Everything that he and Zirlo had been planning since he first arrived in the prison camp would have been for nothing.

It was important that
Zirlo could never find out that he had harmed his son’s mate, Avery. He would have to try and get Carel alone and find out if he knew who he really was. If he did, he just might have to take the guard out.

A couple days after she experienced her first storm on Theron, Emma decided she was tired of staying in the tree house all day.  She was bored out of her mind. She made up her mind to go out and explore the yard around the tree house. She dressed for the day in a pair of blue jean capris and a thin t-shirt. As she put on her socks and tennis shoes, her three mischievous rewas came running into the bedroom at full speed. Panna immediately latched on to one of her shoes strings and began to tug on it in order to get her attention.

“What is up with you three? You guys must have cabin fever too.” S
he spoke to them as if they were going to answer her in a language that she would be able to understand. Hanna zoomed over and tackled Panna causing both the rewas to go tumbling across the floor. “Hanna, that wasn’t very nice.” Nana jumped up on the bed and sat next to her as she fussed at the two other rewas for being so rambunctious. “Hey, you guys want to go for a walk with me?” The two rewas that were rolling around on the floor immediately stopped what they were doing and ran over to Emma, jumping up on the bed near to where Nana was sitting. “I swear, I think that you guys can understand every word that I say when you want to.” She finished putting on her shoes and got up to leave the room. The three rewas hadn’t moved off the bed and were staring at her with their large pleading eyes.

“Well, come on if you’re coming
with me!” She could hear them squeal and the sound of their tiny feet as they scurried across the floor. Emma distinctly told them to follow her, but it didn’t take long until she was the one who was the following them. It sounded like a small herd of animals going down the stairs, as the group ran for the door to go outside. Once outside, the rewas ran and tumbled over each other as they played in the lavender grass that covered the ground. It was so amazing to see that the grass here was a pale purple instead of the green she was so used to on Earth. Everything here on Theron was so different than anything she was used to at home.

Emma walked over to where the
stream meandered its way through the yard. The water was so crystal clear that she could see all the tumbled round stones lining the bottom. Along the edge of the stream the water wasn’t very deep, and she could see the small fish, plants, and rocks that lined the edge. There were a couple of very large rocks that protruded out of the water that were large enough for her to stand on.  She carefully climbed on top of them and looked straight down into the water. Small purple and blue fish, resembling minnows darted through the water searching between the rocks for food. Something that looked just like a crab moved along the bottom of the stream over the algae covered stones, but she wasn’t brave enough to stick her hand into the water to find out.

The rock Emma was standing on was large enough for her to
sit Indian style on. The sound of the moving water was so relaxing that she could have fallen asleep if she had just been able to lie down. She looked to her left and caught a glimpse of her little pets splashing in water near the edge, further down the stream. She laughed as she watched them play in the water and behave similar to small children on earth, as they swam and splashed about.

Emma looked all around her, taking it all in
. She didn’t know the names of any of the plants that grew here, but nevertheless she was impressed by the sizes and colors that they were presenting. The trees alone were so huge, that she had to lean as back as far as she could in order to try and find the very top. Flowers grew along the stream in clusters with buds that must have been the size of a large a dinner plate. One cluster of flowers in particular had petals that were every shade of the rainbow. The colors would alternate as they worked themselves inward to the center. She saw some insects, which Emma assumed were a kind of bee, buzzed around the centers of the large flowers. The signs of life before her weren’t much different from what she would find on Earth. Everything depended on something to find a way to survive, no matter what planet it might be on. The nature of the creatures here worked the same.

Up above her head
, an animal jumped from one branch to another. She got a quick look at the animal, and what she saw took her by surprise. At first glance, the animal looked like a monkey, but as it made its way close to where she sat she could tell that it didn’t look anything like any animal that she had ever seen. The animal had taken an interest in her too while she sat on the rock.  When it came closer to her, she could see that it was watching her as well. It made its way to a branch that hung low over the stream, but still maintained enough distance so that it could get away easily if it sensed any potential danger.

The small creature’s
fur was a baby blue color, and it had two tails that were a couple of shades darker blue. It had two legs and four arms which were now all clinging to a higher branch slightly above its head. The animal was close enough so that Emma could see its face clearly. Its head was shaped like that of a chimp, but it only had one large eye that was in the center of its face, just above the large flat nose, that blinked occasionally at her. Two cupped ears sat high on the side of its head, and pivoted around as if he was listening to the sounds forest. As the animal opened its mouth to make a loud screeching sound, she could see the rows of sharp teeth.