The expression on the female’s face was contemptuous so it didn’t take a lot of brain power to grasp that, whatever a neetar was, likening the barbarians to it was intended as an insult. What she couldn’t decide was why the bitch had decided to insult her! She didn’t recognize the female so she was reasonably certain she hadn’t done or said anything directly to make an enemy out of her.

She debated, briefly, whether to simply ignore her provocative statement or not—maybe pretend she didn’t understand their damned language like they’d been pretending! But it was just too provoking to ignore considering what she’d endured at the hands of the alien females. “I can’t say I’m thrilled. On the other hand, I didn’t appreciate being taken prisoner by the barbarians in your village either.”

Actually, although the long term situation was yet to be revealed, she rather thought she had been treated better by this group of barbarians.

And there was no doubt in her mind that she liked the way he looked at her far better than she’d liked the way that she-male from the village had. She couldn’t have said why she felt that way—or wouldn’t acknowledge it, at any rate. But she knew that it wasn’t just because she wasn’t sure of whether the other was male or female!

She rather thought it might be because the Prince was a damn fine specimen of male pulchritude, but she didn’t want to examine that any further. She thought it was sufficient to acknowledge that she preferred to be admired by males that she could and did admire. Lust in the eyes of a person that did not appeal was just plain scary!

The woman gaped at her. “You are as stupid as these barbarian neetars! We freed you!”

It was Noelle’s turn to gape, to feel a rush of outrage. “Freed? You call locking me and my friend in a cage freeing us?”

The female flicked a look at the man holding her, seemed to debate with herself and then continued. “You are brainwashed,” she muttered. “We were only holding you and the other until you had time to realize you were not with the males of your free will. It seems they have made you believe that you must stay, that you belong to them, but you do not need to on K’naiper. You have free will. You need not belong to any male!”

Noelle blinked at the female, digesting the statements slowly—trying to free her mind of her own personal prejudices so that she could see what the alien woman believed she was seeing. It wasn’t entirely impossible to do, but she had her own preconceived notions to deal with. “You don’t know us! And you couldn’t be more wrong about the situation! Not only were we there because we wanted to be there, we were there because we worked damned hard to be chosen to come! I guess you were judging us by your own circumstances—a common mistake, believe me! But our circumstances are nothing at all like yours!”

Drak terminated the conversation by urging the beast to move faster and they left the other female and her captor behind—left everyone else behind.

Noelle was relieved. If they hadn’t had their captors as an audience, she would gladly have pursued the conversation to discover what she could about the people while she had the opportunity. But she hadn’t been comfortable discussing the ‘barbarians’ as if they were deaf when she already knew they spoke the same language!

She didn’t try to strike up a conversation with her captor despite the fact that she seemed to recall something in the manual about hostage situations suggesting that it could be very important to establish oneself as an individual and not allow the captor to distance themselves. She didn’t think yelling at him would promote peace or help her case. And the gallop of the beast jarred every bone in her body and rattled her voice box until she could barely force sounds, other than grunts, out of it. The wind was a horror, as well, snatching her words away as if they were bits of debris and tossing them into the sky. She was surprised the warrior woman had heard her well enough to understand.

But then again, maybe she hadn’t? Maybe her mind had filled in ‘blanks’ she hadn’t actually heard, and vice versa?

She was pretty sure she hadn’t misunderstood the woman, but that wasn’t an absolute. She’d reacted to the tone and the woman’s expression, she was certain. It was possible that she and the woman had simply screamed at one another and imagined there was more to the conversation that there had been.

Unwilling to allow her mind to wander to frightening possibilities of what she was about to have to face, she focused on observing.

There was more to see than a layman might have thought. Granted, the blustery wind made it pretty difficult to see a lot, but she could see New Earth in the sky. Low on the horizon now and swathed in the snow and ice churned up by the wind, it was still visible and recognizable. She’d gotten a similar view when they were approaching their new home and she recognized it.

Actually, she’d seen this world, as well, since they’d been approaching the closest alignment of their separate cycles.

Snow drifts had piled high enough to blanket most everything, but here and there she saw rocks exposed and when she looked around she saw they were following a trail along a mountain.

She was sorry she’d checked that out! She didn’t really like the idea of hanging off the side of a mountain on top of an unpredictable animal that might or might not be surefooted!

She turned her attention to the animal in question.

Actually, it seemed surprisingly tame. Maybe subdued by the frigid temperatures?

It seemed unlikely the added weight of carrying her would overwhelm such a burly creature.

It had fur. If she wasn’t mistaken, the same fur on the skin she was wearing!

So this beast must be a primary sustainer? Beast of burden, food, clothing?

She was sorry Monica wasn’t there to analyze everything and give her feedback—for about two seconds. Then she realized that was an awful thing to wish upon her friend!

Then she began to worry about her own situation again and to worry and wonder if Monica had managed to make it back to the colony.

It was a useless exercise and just plain scary besides.

It might have taken a supreme effort to tear her mind away, however, except that they were hailed from somewhere above them and that brought her attention instantly back to her surroundings.

She discovered that they were nearing a gate of some kind. It looked like a gate that had simply been set in an opening between two towering stones—part of the mountain pass they were on. Then she realized that there was a wooden bridge in front of it and that the stones were too regular to be natural.

They were nearing a constructed structure of some kind.

It looked a lot like the ancient stone Earth fortresses that had been built during the dark ages.

Her belly instantly knotted with fear.

Apparently, her tension immediately communicated itself to her captor. His arm tightened around her. “My intent is not to cause harm,” he said in a low, rumbling voice.

It was almost reassuring, but there was a voice in the back of her mind screaming, ‘Don’t believe him! He captured you, didn’t he?’

Drak was thoughtful after he had heard the conversation between his captive, Noelle, and the village woman. Primarily, he was struggling to envision the sort of world she had come from. He kept picturing scenes from his childhood when his mother had been alive, but she had never been completely resigned to staying on Aiper with his father, let alone glad to. She certainly had not wanted to be chosen by his father!

His father had taken a sort of perverse satisfaction in that fact and spoken often and fondly of how hard she had fought him. She had been a warrior and had damned near skewered him. It had taken considerable skill on his part to subdue her even enough to bestow the mating kiss needed to claim her.