Bride of Midnight Read online

  “Nope. There isn’t a lot to spare, so it is with the weapons supplies in Shadow City.”

  “If we don’t have exactly what you are after, we can locate something, I am sure.”

  With her meal cleaned up, they left together and began their day.

  The city was well laid out and mostly empty. The few Shadow Bringers that they saw smiled in greeting and came over for introductions. It was a relaxed atmosphere, but everyone knew their job and did it with an effortless grace that made Sobi feel like a gambolling sand runner.

  “Our next stop is the broadcast centre. It will show you how we do what we do.”

  “How you hold the shadows?”

  “Precisely.”

  She was walking arm in arm with him, and it felt completely normal. His casual shirt did a good job of hiding his physique, but she could feel the muscle quite clearly, tucked to his side as she was.

  Sobi went from the street and into a room that resembled the observatory from the ship. There was a large dome and six Shadow Bringers sitting with their eyes open and solid black streaming upward in a cloud.

  “What the hell is that?” She whispered it as quietly as she could, but a nearby Anvin grinned at her.

  Aloss pointed. “The first man is using his mind to determine the edges of the city. He is the control. Our bodies create a chemical, which is excreted through our eyes. It does not hurt, but it forms a gaseous layer around our target area. The larger the area, the more Shadow Bringers are required. The city can be sheltered with three, but we use six to keep from overtaxing our protection.”

  “Smart. Wow. Your eyes?”

  “The shadow can also be exhaled but that is harder on our systems. Once it is deployed, it can easily be topped up by even the youngest member of our gathering.”

  She stood and absorbed the process by which life on Ikar was allowed to live. The Shadow Bringers didn’t resent their lot in life; in fact, they accepted it as purely natural.

  She looked at her companion. “So, you do this?”

  “When necessary. Some of us are able to both assess the space and express the shadow no matter how large the surface area. The ideal situation is that we have enough Shadow Bringers to make cities all over the planet habitable.”

  “So, you are confident that your species will breed true?”

  “No. But we are confident that if we do not try, there will be no result.”

  Sobi blinked. “That is true, so why are the Shadow Bringers here if there are no other Anvin to defend?”

  “Because Ikar will eventually be an Anvin colony. We were sent here to prepare the way.”

  He led her out of the broadcast centre.

  “When will the others get here?”

  “Fifty years after we tell them that we have a suitable environment for the Life Bringers to thrive.”

  Sobi had heard mention of the Life Bringers before but never really got a good mental image. “What is so special about those women?”

  “They can bear. The Anvin have been struggling with massive fertility issues for generations. Females are brought into the world less and less, and many of those are sterile themselves.”

  “Ouch.” She had no basis for comparison there. The Protheans filled their own world and had to send citizens to other worlds in search of new land.

  It had been one of those great ships that had carried Sobi and her family to Ikar. Another Prothean ship had met with the Anvin, and when the first mating proved fertile, the Anvin had offered to share worlds with the colonists.

  The crash on landing had been unexpected. Sobi had been unaware of being trapped in the ship for years while the Shadow Bringers and colonists slowly excavated the deep embedding of the hull into the soil. Hundreds of feet below the surface, Sobi had slept until the day that Aloss came and hauled her out of the ship, carrying her out ahead of the explosion that killed those in the tubes beyond hers. She hoped that they never woke up.

  “Would you like to see the gardens?”

  His words jostled her out of her reverie.

  “Oh. Please. I had no idea it was even possible to grow things on the surface.”

  “We have been working since long before we even heard of your incoming ship. It was a bit of a distraction for a few years, but we were able to return to our project a year ago.”

  They walked back toward their home but turned and walked behind the building into the gardens that she had spied just that morning.

  She extended her hand and looked at the bright light that was touching it. A quick look up showed that the barrier between sun and the city was thinner above the garden.

  “Where did you get the soil?”

  “It is mainly dug from the northwest mountains. There are caches of soil underground.”

  A hedge of berry bushes bordered the edge of the garden. Vegetables she couldn’t identify were in early stages of growth and a few even had flowers blooming, begging for pollination.

  “How are they watered?” She stepped closer, careful not to crush any of the delicate new growth.

  “Under-soil systems. They are carefully monitored every few hours.”

  “It looks like you will soon have a viable gardening system.”

  “This is our test case. It takes precision to work on a filter for the local zone above the garden.”

  “I am guessing that is the responsibility of the sixth man or, perhaps, the controller?”

  He grinned and kept walking down the narrow pathways with her. “Both.”

  “At least it varies the duties. I imagine that crafting shadows would be tiring after a while.”

  “It is actually all-consuming. When you are on duty for fifty hours, all you can do is summon the shadow. After your shift, you eat, drink and meditate for a few hours before you go on to another task. We rotate our Shadow Bringers.”

  Sobi smiled. It felt slightly more comfortable to be in a society that rotated duties.

  The light dimmed.

  “And that is time for dinner. Would you like to eat in the commissary or in our quarters?”

  “Quarters, please. I am still absorbing details of your society. I don’t think I can handle eating in a public hall today.”

  Aloss smiled. “I was hoping you would say that. Our food is not up to the level of Shadow City, but the bots have been slaving all day.”

  “Our people had the advantage of having the very large hole in the ground to start our hydroponic systems. The crash was good for something.”

  They entered the building and today—with no skirt to hamper her--she took the stairs up to their floor with him right beside her.

  The bots were blank and metallic, but they hummed a tune as they chopped and sautéed dinner. “Hello, sir, hello, madam.” The singsong was amusing.

  Aloss greeted them in return. “Good afternoon, thirty-six and twenty-four.”

  He looked at Sobi to do it herself. “Uh, good afternoon, thirty-six and twenty-four.”

  They chirped in acknowledgement. “Dinner will be ready in fifteen minutes. Please, enjoy drinks on the balcony.”

  Aloss extended his arm, and she preceded him to the balcony where a small table was waiting with an iced pitcher and two glasses.

  She poured out two glasses and sipped at a sweet-tart fruit juice. “It is very good.”

  “I am glad you think so. We traded with Shadow City for it.” He laughed.

  She examined her glass and shrugged. “I didn’t know what I was missing.”

  “We have a tree with this fruit growing in the garden. It had those deep green waxy leaves.”

  Sobi smiled. “I hope it survives.”

  “As do we. Our survival here is a grand experiment.”

  They sat and watched over the garden until the bots chimed the dinner bell.

  Dinner was delightful and had a lot more fresh vegetables than Sobi had thought possible. After they had dinner, they sat in the living area and watc
hed a vid as the light faded completely outside.

  “I can’t believe that you have a clear division between day and night here.” She sat next to him on the couch and when he curled his arm around her shoulders, she scooted closer until she was leaning on him, her head resting on his shoulder.

  “It was a goal that we achieved a few weeks ago. That was when I decided to come and look for my mate.”

  “Because the city was ready?”

  He smiled and leaned in to brush a soft kiss across her lips. “Because I was ready.”

  Sobi leaned up into his kiss. Her pulse thundered in her body and she felt the electricity that seemed to always spark when they touched.

  She got to her feet, took his hand and hauled him to the bedroom. She wasn’t about to have her first sexual experience on a couch, no matter how comfortable.

  He reached out and opened the closure of her suit, easing it off her shoulders and down to her hips. The strong shiver that ran through her entire body when he began to taste it sent her senses spinning.

  When she came to herself again, he was moving between her thighs, joining them with slow precision. Her reflexes took over and they moved together, shifting and twisting until she lost control of her actions and he shuddered violently in her arms.

  “Why did you not come to me when you went into season?” Aloss was lying next to her, stroking her skin with absent attention.

  She blushed. “How do you know about that?”

  “It is in your medical files. They arrived with your transfer of occupation. Why didn’t you come to me?”

  “Um, you were busy and here at Midnight City?” She sighed.

  “Not the right answer.”

  “Fine. I liked running around in the sands, tagging animals for study. It let me be alone and as my family went on without me, I need to be alone a lot.”

  “You do realise that being alone is no longer possible.”

  She exhaled a grunt. “I know. I will deal with the change in my status and life stuck here in the city.”

  He blinked, his dark eyes astonished. “That is not what I meant. You will still be able to leave the city for the sands, I will just be with you. My status here changed the moment that I agreed to take a mate.”

  “Wait. What?”

  “If you wish to explore the territory around the city, we can do that. Together.”

  She smiled and lunged toward him for a kiss. That was the best news she had had in quite a while.

  They celebrated her joy deep into the night.

  The gear that the Anvin provided was different; she was completely covered from head to toe, but her suit still felt comfortable and her face didn’t feel the hot kiss of the sunlight.

  Aloss was simply wearing shadows over his clothing once again.

  The dart gun was a miniature version of her normal crossbow and she had tested it to the weapons’ master’s satisfaction. She felt almost normal heading out across the sands.

  “Aloss, are we looking for anything or just touring?”

  “We are looking for a site suitable for a larger garden or a farm, if you will.”

  Sobi lifted the lenses to her face and looked from left to right. The rating of pitch was handy.

  “Do you have that map of the water tables?”

  “Back at the transport.”

  She wrinkled her nose. Men and maps were a universal repellent combination.

  She turned completely around, looking at the cities in the distance. Midnight City was a pale grey in the day and on the far edge of her vision, the dark spot of Shadow City squatted. “You are using the Prothean city to train your younger recruits, aren’t you?”

  Her shadow laughed. “You have excellent instincts, Sobi.”

  She snorted. “Well, since I am in the city that has the closest thing to natural daylight I have seen in years, I am going to keep my mouth shut.”

  The shadows wrapped around her and she felt a kiss on her neck. Being stuck in darkness while he engaged in foreplay brought her an image of being blindfolded.

  She heard a sound from across the sand and she quickly stepped out of Aloss’s arms. With her arm raised, she shot the dart gun and hit the sand runner right behind the scaly head in the fatty layer.

  The animal yelped, twisted in the air and landed before taking off in a new direction.

  With the tag in place, she stepped back into her mate’s shadow.

  He was shaking with laughter. “I can’t believe you did that.”

  “Why not?”

  She hitched the dart gun to her belt, turned in his arms and felt her way to his face. With his head located, she kissed him. “For better or worse, I am the bride of Midnight and you are stuck with me.”

  He wrapped his arms around her waist. “Well, let the adventure begin.”

  “Oh, Aloss, it started years ago. We are just getting to the good part.” She grinned and kissed him, her laughter finally giving rise to something else, something that qualified as the good part.

  Author’s Note

  Bride of Midnight was written during the most tumultuous time of the year. The deadly time between Dec 15th and Jan 1st. This is the last Anvin-Prothean tale, for now. Who knows, there may yet be another round of Sci-Fi Fairy Tales.

  Only four more to go.

  Thanks for reading,

  Viola Grace

  www.violagrace.com

  [email protected]

  About the Author

  Viola Grace was born in Manitoba, Canada where she still resides today. She really likes it there. She has no pets and can barely keep sea monkeys alive for a reasonable amount of time. Her line of day job tends to be analytical which leaves her mind hopping to weave stories. No co-worker is safe from her character analysis. In keeping with busy hands are happy hands, her hobbies have included cross-stitch, needlepoint, quilting, costuming, cake decorating, baking, cooking, metal work, beading, sculpting, painting, doll making, henna tattoos, chain mail, and a few others that have been forgotten. It is quite often that these hobbies make their way into her tales.

  Viola’s fetishes include boots and corsetry, and her greatest weakness is her uncontrollable blush. Her writing actively pursues the Happily Ever After that so rarely occurs in nature. It is an admirable thing and something that we should all strive for. To find one that we truly like, as well as love.