Kulle frowned, glanced around uneasily, and moved a little closer to where Drak stood in the window embrasure. “I am not concerned that it will hold together for the voyage,” he muttered in a growling whisper. “It is the speed—or lack of it—that concerns me. If it will not make the trip there and back swiftly, it will not make it at all and then you would be trapped in that dread, dark sea forever! For you would not catch our world or its sister before you ran out of supplies.”

Drak shrugged. “There is always that risk. There has always been that risk. But they will not come to us and if we do not go while the two worlds are closest there is no chance of catching our prey.”

They had always been inclined, in point of fact, to consider that the gods favored their voyage/endeavor. For the one time of year that the sister worlds were closest was in the dead of winter when the weather was far too foul for hunting or warring, making it the perfect time to turn their attentions to mating. And the second closest approach was just before spring thaw. This circumstance made it just possible to take them back to the more benign of the two sisters for their delicate term of gestation and return in time to prepare for war.

Not that there was always a war to return to. Historically speaking, war was actually fairly rare. There was likely to be a skirmish or two between rival clans over some dispute, however—which made it absolutely necessary to make and repair weapons and polish their fighting skills—but they had not had all out war with another clan since he’d been a boy.

That war had broken out when his mother had tried to escape with him and his sister to prevent his father, Drak the Dark, from separating her from her son.

He had made treaty with their enemies after the death of his father in battle. It had not been a popular decision since their enemies had killed the ruling Prince in battle—earning him the sobriquet of Drak the Fair—but he had considered his father as responsible for his mother’s death as he had the man who’d captured her—or more. After ten years of war and the death of all parties initially involved in the dispute, he had figured it was time to make peace between their two clans.

“Well I am too old for such things, Lord. I am happy enough to wait here by the fire,” Kulle commented with a touch of amusement, “while you strapping young lads pursue the vixens.”

Drak uttered a derisive snort. “You do not have enough anums on me to consider yourself old,” he retorted. “And I am beyond the thrill of capture myself, if it comes to that. I would not be going if it was not my duty to the men and to the realm.”

Kulle’s amusement waned. “Will you be taking young Prince Terl on this raid?”

Drak’s own humor vanished. “I have said that I will not,” he responded tightly. “When he is old enough to lead a raid he may do so with my blessing. Until then, he is my heir and will do his duty to the realm and stay here.”

Kulle nodded quickly and backed away. “I will tell the men to prepare themselves quickly for the voyage. You will be leaving at first light?”

“Aye. Make certain my sons are there to bid me farewell.”

“Well that didn’t work worth a damn!” Monica said irritably.

She had hatched an escape plan after their third miserable night in the wooden cage where they were being held prisoner by the alien women they’d dubbed the Amazon warrior women because their society seemed strongly reminiscent of those mythological warrior women of Earth. She’d talked Noelle into helping her ‘jump’ the elderly woman that usually brought their food in the evenings and then they were going to lock the woman in the cage, sneak out of the village with the help of the cover of darkness, and find their way back to the colony—a half a day’s walk roughly South East of their current position.

As simple as the plan had seemed, the execution hadn’t gone down quite the way they’d envisioned it would. And the problem hadn’t been the one that Noelle had been most worried about—facing the darkness and their new home world’s night predators on the long walk back to the colony.

As planned, Monica had leapt onto the woman’s back as soon as she’d leaned over to set the pot she’d brought down. On cue, Noelle dove at the woman’s legs, trying to knock her off balance so that the two of them could quickly overcome her. Despite doubts she’d harbored but not voiced, she had actually succeeded in that goal.

And then everything had gone completely wrong! Both Monica and the older woman had landed on top of her, pinning her at the bottom of the pile where she was unable to lend Monica a hand in subduing the alien woman. Before they could scramble to their feet and make another attempt to overcome the old woman, three more Amazon women had piled into the cage—because the old woman was screaming her head off—and they’d been subdued in a matter of moments and tied hand and foot.

As if they hadn’t been miserable enough before the damn women had decided to tie them up!

“No!” Noelle said sarcastically, glaring at her companion. “I thought it went well.”

Monica met her indignant gaze for a long moment and finally shrugged. “It was worth a try.”

“Says who?” Noelle snapped. “I didn’t think it was worth a try. I didn’t want to do it at all!”

“Hey! Don’t blame me! I didn’t make you do it.”

“You talked me in to it!”

“Exactly! Your decision. I just made a suggestion. It isn’t my fault it didn’t work! Everything went just as I’d planned until you sprawled out instead of leaping up and helping me subdue the bitch!”

Noelle was convinced there was something wrong with Monica’s logic, but she was too upset over their most recent confrontation with the damned amazons to think it through—at the moment.

“Back to the drawing board.”

“Oh, I don’t f’ing think so! If you come up with any more bright ideas for escape you can damn well think up something that doesn’t include me! I’m going to just wait here for them to come rescue me! At least I won’t get trampled!”

“Them who?” Monica demanded. “The assholes that got us here? Those damn cowards ran past us and into the colony and locked the fucking gates! We’ve been here three freaking days! You honestly think any of them have the balls to launch a rescue mission? We’ll be dead with old age before they even get up the nerve to try to negotiate a release!”

Noelle eyed her friend with disfavor. “I wish you wouldn’t use the ‘f’ word.”

Monica gaped at her. “The f … You say f’ing all the time!”

“Exactly! I don’t use the f word. I say f’ing!”

Monica looked as outraged as she felt. “You think that’s … better? Like nobody knows you mean fucking?”

“Of course that’s what I mean, but I don’t say it! Anyway, I really don’t think it’s a good idea to talk about the people back at the colony like that. You know they’ll be launching an all out attempt to get us back. They need us. We’re very important colonists! They might even declare war on these bitches for daring to take us,” she finished, trying to silently message Monica via her twitching expression to go along with her fabrication.

Monica gaped at her with her mouth open. Finally, she glanced around, saw that none of the Amazon women were within several yards of the primitive prison where they were being kept caged and whispered, “You think they’re just pretending they don’t understand us?”

“Mmmhmm.”

“God! Noelle! They don’t even understand us when we speak their fuc … f’ing language!”

Noelle was disconcerted, briefly. “I think they’re just pretending they don’t understand us when we speak their language. The computer broke it down. I don’t believe for a minute that it didn’t translate their language correctly!”

“And these people have been sneaking up to the colony and listening in and they’ve figured out our language even though they’ve barely figured out how to make fucking fire?”