"A Dragon did," Jeshiah breathed.
Elijah nodded. "One who speaks English when he wants to."
"But," Timon tried, "they say demons can do that. They tempt and lure. They manipulate us. The Devil will use all tricks to confuse us."
I listened. I also said nothing, letting these men work it out on their own. Back and forth, they discussed the lessons we'dall been given, but Elijah eventually asked the question that shocked me the most.
"Does it matter?" he asked.
That was enough to make me speak up. "What? Which part?"
"Any of it," he said. "Everyone spends all their time saying what evil, horrible things Dragons and wild men can do. They warn us of how easy it is to be corrupted by them. You know what no one talks about?" He looked at the rest of the guys. "The Bible has a very clear list of what we're supposed to do. Killing demons before they kill us isn't in there."
"It's not," I agreed. "But the elders say - "
"Damn the elders!" he snapped. "Damn them straight to the Hell they're so worried about! We are out here, blinded by thedaylight, and for what? We're hunters who aren't hunting. We've been told to bring women back when we're throwing ours away."
"What?" Uriah asked. "How are we throwing women away?"
"Ayla Ross," I said, "Merienne Kobrick."
Elijah gestured at me, showing that was who he'd meant. "We eject the women who cause a problem, bring in ones who are locked away forever, and why?" He grunted in annoyance. "Mymotherwas in quarantine! She wasn't possessed. She wasn't confused. She told stories of a better place, and that place?" He stabbed a finger down at the ground. "It's up here. It's where we were headed. It's a town with a gate and houses. I know all those words, and I'd told myself the similarities were just coincidence - until the Wyvern spoke."
"What did he say?" I asked.
Elijah looked at me. "When?"
"Before he dropped you in our camp and said to eat deer."
Elijah chuckled once. "He said my mother was a Dragon. She wasn't, though. She looked like the rest of us. Like all the women I know."
"Mine had hair as black as the night sky." And I lifted a brow. "Her eyes were as brown as the dirt under our feet. Maybe darker. She didn't look like us, but some of those wild women looked a lot like her, and they went to quarantine."
"Wait?" Jeshiah begged. "You mean we came here... Abiel died because we need more wives?"
"Bloodlines," Uriah guessed. "I don't know if you boys have checked the list of women you can consider, but mine isn't a long one."
"Mine either," Jeshiah agreed.
Timon kicked at the ground. "My mother was in quarantine too. She was brown. Her skin, her hair, and her eyes. Not like the trees, though. Just..." He grunted. "Like the dust on a shelf. Tan, maybe? Close enough to everyone else that I always wondered what happened to her. My father said it was a sign of the Devil's influence on her."
Three men from quarantine, and two who weren't. I was doing the math in my head, and that wasn't the breakdown of this group I'd expected. I also wasn't sure how the other squads compared. Had I been assigned all the men like myself as a test? As a reward? Did they even realize what they'd done?
"There's more of us than I expected," I said when things fell into a lull again. "I always thought having a mother in quarantine was pretty rare."
"Was for us," Elijah said. "Not the same for them." And he tipped his head at the younger men.
"And yet they put us all together," I said. "Makes me wonder if this is some kind of loyalty test or something."
"Are you loyal, Tobias?" Elijah asked.
I gave him a long, cold look. "About as loyal as you are, Elijah. I'm here to do as I'm bid."
Ayla and Callah were the ones doing the bidding, but they didn't need to know that. It was also just vague enough theycould take it however they wanted. If someone tried to turn me in, I'd make it clear they'd been the ones talking and expose them. I simply hadn't had enough to bring a complaint. I'd say I was the squad leader, so I would handle it on the next hunt. I had a million reasons to cover myself all lined up and ready to use.
But if they said nothing? That meant there were more people upset about the way things were in the compound than I'd realized - and that gave me hope.
Sixty-Seven
