I nodded. "Girls who look like us. Most people up there don't. They have dark skin and darker hair, but they wanted the ones who look likeus."
"Like our mothers," she breathed.
I nodded. "And my fear is that if our men are dying this fast, and they're bringing back more women, they must have a plan, right?"
"Or they don't," she said. "Breed more, that's always been what we do."
"And it takes a husband to make a child," I reminded her. "As amazing as you women are, you can't do it on your own, but they are sending us men out to die."
"But it doesn't make sense," she said.
"I know. So what does? Think, Callah, because you're good at that. What about this makes sense? They sent us to the wild mento bring back women. We brought back people as meat. Both people like us and the Dragon kind. We got the plants too."
"Could it just be that it's now one trip instead of two?" she asked.
"But if we kill the ones who grow the plants, then how will we get more?"
Before me, she began to chew on her full lower lip. That made it even more pink, and I liked how it looked on her, matching the color of her hair. When her pretty green eyes darted across the pattern on our blanket, I was completely entranced.
Then she sucked in a breath. "Could they know we're pushing back? Felicity was punished for being rude. Could someone have told them how many women are complaining over our laundry now?"
"Maybe?" I had no idea.
"No!" she gasped, sitting up. "It's the girls trying to harm their husbands!"
"What? Which ones?"
"At the weddings," she said. "The ones who want to be banished like Ayla and Meri! If they have replacements, then they don't need us - or so they think."
"Okay?"
She groaned. "Tobias, you men are convinced we're only good for making children. You forget about all the other things we do."
"Like bringing me water?"
"And cooking, sewing, washing?" she offered. "Most men don't have a clue how to repair their clothing. Without us - the wives - you'd all be naked! The women in quarantine can't mend. They certainly wouldn't be allowed to cook! That involves knives."
Yeah, she had a point. "But I'm still not keeping up," I admitted.
"Because you didn't sleep well," she said, rubbing my hand in sympathy. "But think about it. At least a dozen brides tried to be banished to the surface. If they bring back a dozen more, then they can get rid of a rebellion before it even starts. Those who want out go. The rest of us are forced to behave or risk death, and that's the thing. Most of us don't have a man willing to say their friend is alive. They're just gone, and from the stories we're told, there's no way they could survive."
"So remove the problems and the rest behave," I realized. "Without a friend to talk to, we all feel alone, so we just keep working to avoid punishment, never realizing we're perpetuating the system."
"Exactly," she agreed. "So is that why they needed the women now?"
"I don't know," I admitted, "but it's better than any theories I have."
"Like?"
I had to glance away. "Um, most husbands enjoy making children."
"Ah." She nodded, understanding completely. "But enough to risk the lives of our hunters? How do they think we'd eat if there's no one to bring it back?"
"Or no one to flirt with the beautiful girls," I said. "You said it yourself. Most girls don't want to marry an old man, but the old men control everything. They think they deserve it all because they're the eldest, so why doesn't that apply to the prettiest of the girls too?"
"But they're just children compared to those men," she countered. "Tobias, do women really lose their appeal that fast?"
"No," I said. "You die giving birth. You're married to someone else, lost on the birthing bed, and forgotten in only a few years."
