21. Ryklin

The worldaround me was bright. My slightly damp shirt irritated my skin. And I was happy.

It was a strange sensation, a lightness in my chest that made me want to reach for my mate and kiss her breathless. There was also lingering doubt and worry for what might have happened if she hadn"t accepted our bond.

It should have been irrelevant, but my mind had latched onto it.

Emotions were annoying.

And wonderful.

I took my mate"s hand as we followed our noses to the smell of breakfast. There was a large brick stove set up in the center of the encampment, and several residents were working in practiced unison to put food on plates.

"We work in shifts." Astrid came up beside us as we joined the line. "I"m not such an early riser, so I usually take lunch or dinner. We"re lucky that Nebula is so full of life. Finding food has never been an issue."

"Did you scavenge the bricks from the mine?" Noelle asked. "And how did you make the soap?"

"The thing they never tell you about survival is that it"s all crafting after awhile." Astrid smiled and shook her head slightly. "Soap"s not too hard to make, though luckily we have a few people who knew how. And we made the bricks too. Our quarters back at the mine were all wood and steel. We"re working on cloth, but luckily the quartermaster"s stores were mostly unharmed in the blast. There were supplies for nearly a thousand miners, so we can care for our clothes and use our stocks to resupply as needed."

An infant"s wail cut through her talk. "There are children here?" I asked.

"Some. Most of us had birth control implants, but those fail after awhile." She looked up at the sky. "These kids shouldn"t have to grow up like this."

"We"re going to get back to Nebula Outpost," my mate said with utter determination. "And we"ll tell them about you. If you want off this planet, we"ll get you."

Astrid didn"t look convinced.

We"d barely sat at a table and started to eat when I noticed a sense of unease start to suffuse the crowd. I didn"t stop eating, though Noelle barely touched her food.

A skinny man ran up to Astrid and whispered something in her ear. She cursed and stood. "I"m sorry, I need to go."

My mate watched her leave. "Is something wrong?"

"I think so."

She looked at her plate and tried to push it away. I placed my hand on the edge to keep it in place. "I"m not hungry."

"If things are about to go wrong, we don"t know when we"ll have our next meal. Eat what you can." It was experience learned from years in the Detyen Legion.

She glared at her plate for a moment but picked up the slice of flatbread and took a bite.

Several minutes later, Astrid came back, and villagers gathered around her, Noelle and I included. Whatever was going on, I wanted to know.

Wasn"t curiosity strange?

"Rook and Solara are missing," she announced. There was an outbreak of murmurs, but her voice still carried on top of them. "Has anyone seen them since dawn?"

No one responded until … "Maybe they snuck off together!" That voice was met with recrimination.

"Rook would never cheat on his husband! And Solara wouldn"t try anything; she"s a good woman." There was debate back and forth, but nothing of substance.

"I heard something drive by the edge of my patrol this morning," another voice cut through the crowd, and the rest quieted. "Just after dawn. Rook and Solara would have been gathering food near there. Could have been taken."

Astrid cursed. "Another of the gatherers heard screams. Was this on the western edge?" she asked the man.

"Yes."

"We need a headcount. Everyone report to your census leader. You know the drill." The group scattered, and Astrid turned to stride off.

Noelle and I went right after her. The human didn"t get far. "Astrid—" Noelle tried to talk.

"It"s not the time," Astrid cut her off. "We"re going to have to search the western edge in case Rook and Solara are injured. But chances are, some of those damned smugglers grabbed them. Either we"ll find bodies, or they"ve been taken to work the mines. This isn"t the first time this has happened."

"And if they"ve been taken?" She already sounded defeated.

Her expression turned even darker. "I have one hundred and thirty-seven other people to keep safe. I can"t round up a force of our strongest fighters to storm the mine. They"ll be killed. We"ll see if we can find bodies, and maybe a small scouting group will try and follow the trail of the vehicle Cory heard. But if they"re already in the mine, I can"t help them."

"I want to be in that scouting group."

"Ryklin." Noelle"s hand squeezed mine. A warning.

Astrid didn"t immediately agree. "We"ll discuss it later. Just stay put, either here or in your quarters. We can"t afford to lose anyone else today."