“Are they…bigger than you?” The women around her looked awfully tall to Allara. “You are all as tall or taller than the men on my planet,” she explained, when they started laughing again for some reason.
“Well, I’m afraid the Kindred are much taller than we are,” Liv told her.
“You’d have seen some by now if we weren’t taking you the back way to the Sacred Grove,” Sophie added, gesturing to the narrow, winding metal corridor they were walking through.
“But don’t worry—your hubby-to-be is one of the short ones—he’s under seven feet,” Kat added, grinning.
“I…do not know this system of measurement,” Allara said, frowning. “You measure people by the size of their feet?”
“No, not exactly.” Lauren frowned. “It’s kind of like this—a foot is made up of twelve inches which are about this size.” She held up her thumb and finger a small distance apart. “I’m about five foot six or five feet plus six inches—see?”
“I think so,” Allara said, frowning. “You are nearly a head taller than me.”
“Yes, you’re probably around 4 feet eleven inches, I’d say,” Liv said, frowning at her speculatively. “Or maybe five feet at the very most.”
“And how tall is my…my husband-to-be compared with Lauren?” Allara wanted to know. Though she had been warned so many times that the Kindred were twice as big as her own people, she hadn’t really taken the warning literally. After all, how could someone be so tall and still get around? Wouldn’t they be too awkward and clumsy to even move?
Liv was frowning thoughtfully, as though thinking how best to answer her question.
“Well, like Kat told you, Brand—your hubby-to-be—is around six feet, eleven inches. Which is about a foot and a half taller than Lauren. So…around here.”
She lifted her hand well over Lauren’s head and Allara’s stomach twisted in a knot as she looked up.
“So big?” she whispered. “They really are as tall as trees, then.”
“Well, some trees I guess,” Liv said kindly.
“They’re certainly as wide as trees,” Kat remarked. “I have two of them to deal with, since I mated with Twin Kindred, you know. Sometimes I feel like a kid walking in the forest when they’re standing on either side of me.” She laughed.
“But don’t worry about their size—they’re very sweet,” Sophie put in quickly. “A Kindred would never hurt a woman—it’s against their religion.”
“They worship the Goddess—the Mother of All Life,” Lauren said. “One of her priestesses will be presiding over your ceremony at the Sacred Grove.”
“And don’t worry about the height difference making things awkward at the ceremony,” Kat put in. “I already thought of that and I’ve got it covered.”
They made more remarks about the ceremony, but Allara hardly heard them. Her mind was full of giants.
If her Kindred husband really was so tall and huge, how would she be able to kill him? Of course, the blade of her skora unfolded to be three times as long as the ornamental sheathe she wore around her neck, but would it be long enough to pierce his heart?
Be honest, whispered a little voice in her head. That isn’t the piercing that worries you most.
She thought again of how large the Kindred were said to be and what her aunt had told her about the size of a Kindred’s shaft.
“You must expect to bleed,” she said dryly, as though it was of no consequence. “Though we females of the Seven Great houses do not have maiden barriers, as the common women do, you will almost certainly be torn when the evil one forces himself inside you.”
Don’t think about it, she told herself over and over. Just don’t think about it!
But as the four women she had just met rushed her through the long, narrow corridor and her fate drew closer, Allara found that her wedding night was all she could think about.
And though fear was a cowardly emotion, she felt it building relentlessly inside her, making her heart pound in a frantic rhythm that refused to be stilled, no matter how hard she tried.
Four
“This is the Sacred Grove. Oh—you have to take off your shoes here—it’s holy ground,” Liv told her, when they at last exited the tunnel and found themselves in the middle of a wide parkland just on the edge of a forest.
Allara looked around herself in wonder.
“This is…still inside the ship?” she asked hesitantly. The green and purple grasslands stretched as far as the eye could see and there was a pale green sun shining overhead. A balmy breeze stirred the green and purple leaves of the trees and ruffled the gold lace veil that still covered her face.
It felt like being out in the open lands beyond the city where she had been raised. Not that she’d gotten to go there much, but she’d had one governess who believed in the health benefits of fresh air when she was younger. Some of her happiest memories were of running barefoot through a field with the grass tickling her toes, as it was now that she had removed her slippers.
“Oh yes—the Mother Ship is huge,” Liv told her. “It’s about a fourth the size of Earth’s moon, which it orbits.”
“The Sacred Grove is for ceremonies and worshipping the Goddess, of course,” Lauren said, gesturing to the forest they were about to enter. “But the rest of this area is park land. It’s a great place to go on a picnic with your new man.”
“A pic-nic?” Allara frowned.
“Oh, sorry—the translation bacteria must not be able to translate that,” Lauren said.
“A picnic is just a meal you eat outdoors,” Sophie told her. “It can be really nice and romantic—especially around evening time when they dim the sun and make it feel like sunset.”
“Oh, I understand.” Allara nodded. “I had a governess once who took me on picnics in the open lands beyond our city. It was…fun.”
“There—see? Our cultures aren’t that different after all!” Kat exclaimed.
“Be sure to ask Brand to take you on a picnic out here in the park once you’re Joined,” Liv told her. “Okay, are you ready to go into the Sacred Grove?”
Allara’s pulse sped up and her lungs felt tight.
“Is…will my…my husband be there?”
“Yes, he should be waiting at the altar,” Kat said. “But don’t worry, doll, we’ll be with you right up until the last minute. We won’t leave you until the ceremony is about to begin.”
Allara felt an absurd rush of gratitude to the four alien women. Absurd because it was ridiculous to feel any affinity to the enemy at all. But gratitude nonetheless, because they were willing to stand by her.
Aunt should have come to stand by me, whispered a resentful little voice in her head. Instead, she abandoned me to torture and death.
“Now listen, doll, about the ceremony,” Kat said, bringing her out of her thoughts. “I did the best I could when I was planning it, but your people are just really secretive about their customs and rituals—I couldn’t find anything except the fact that music is really important to you. That’s right, isn’t it?” she asked, looking at Allara anxiously.