“Can we find out who else is a bright now?”a very tall human with big teeth asks.
“Yes,” Liz says.“Of course.I think they’re about to bond.We’ll do it right after.”
Heedless of the interruption, Norm’s staring right at Phileas, and then Phileas lowers his head and his frill snaps outward, and the light-glow-ball happens again.It’s almost as beautiful the second time, and not only because it means they’ll be able to eat, I hope.
It’s also clear that they’re happy.They have more light together than they had apart.Interestingly, the glow around Karen and Norm has shifted—darkened.Instead of a bright light with a golden tint, it’s now a rich, dark amber color.
It’s like the other bonded humans.
I suppose that’s how we’ll know a bright human’s already ensnared.
With Agrippa and Phileas both smiling and clearly preoccupied, it falls to me to select the humans who are bright.Two steps takes me to the end of the line they’ve formed, and as I look at their faces, I realize that they’re all hopeful.
Desperately hopeful.
For some reason, these humans badly want to become ensnared.Liz’s mother and many of the other humans who were taken before hated the idea.They left their bonds—but these humanswantto be chosen.
Do you know what the bond entails?I look carefully at the dozen humans in front of me.What did Liz tell you?
“You need us,” the tall man with big teeth says.
“We will go with you to Iceland or wherever you travel in pursuit of the heart,” a short, squatty woman with a spiky grey mohawk says.
We don’t know what will happen when we obtain the heart.My father may force us all back home—you’d have to leave your own country, and possibly, your own planet.Our people can’t defy him.He’d kill us for trying.
None of them look shocked.Liz must have been honest, at least.
“I’ve never fit in here,” the tall man with big teeth says.“I was picked on during school, I was mocked at work, but the one place I found friends was playing Dungeons and Dragons.”He looks around.“Most of my friends are here with me.”
“Take me away,” the squatty woman says.“That’s fine with me.”
The man beside her takes her hand.“But if she’s going somewhere, I hope I can come with her.”
You’re wed?
The woman nods.
The man frowns.
He can’t hear me.Because he’s not bright.You can bond.I turn toward the man.But he’s not bright—he can’t.
“How can that be?”the woman asks.
“We don’t know what makes humans bright,” Liz says.
“But could he come with us, even if he can’t be bonded?”she asks.
Liz turns toward me.
Yes.The other humans can come if they promise to obey.If they’ll join us, we’ll protect them as best we can.
“My brother and sisters have been with us this entire time,” Liz says.“They’re not bonded, but Azar protected them anyway.”
The woman nods and squeezes the man’s hand.“I’m a bright,” she says.“We can go with them.”They both look pleased, which is strange to me, but I won’t argue.
The man with the big teeth is also bright.Several others are not.But the seventh human is baffling.He’s...notnotbright.
“What are you saying?”Liz asks.
