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  "Is that…"

  Steel grinned and started to pick out her name on the closest silk strand. When the nine-foot spider rushed at them, she put herself between Wyanic and harm.

  Chapter Six

  "S'sran. This is Wyanic, head of the Oefric colony. He is here to check on our progress and see what ideas he can take back to his town."

  The furious clicking made Steel cough. Isn't he your mate? Are you going to go home with him, or should I eat him to keep any difficulty from arising?

  "That won't be necessary, S'sran. May we tour your farm?"

  Of course. Did you try the butter at the bakery? The new glaze on the crocks is making quite a difference to the cohesion.

  "The bakers are also storing it in icy water. Smart on their part in that heated environment."

  I suppose. Cklaff did a wonderful job on the pots though. Come on in.

  "Thank you. We won't be long." She admired the large arachnid in the daylight. "Your markings are coming in very well. You look lovely."

  The chittering was more random, but a very pleased l'nal scuttled away.

  "Whew. You know how it is. L'nal are very formal creatures. The traditions have to be upheld." She smiled and opened the gate.

  "Did she connect all these fences?"

  "Yes. She takes the safety of her charges seriously while they are with her. She understands the importance they hold as a food source, but while they are with her, they get the best of protection."

  Wyanic snorted and followed her. "I was going to ask about the proximity to the forest and the predators, but I guess that is not a concern."

  "Not particularly. We have also cleared about two kilometres of the woods of predators. We don't yet know what the migratory paths are, but we are prepared for any eventuality. I hope."

  He whistled in surprise. "You really think of everything."

  "No, I just think of a situation and can compile what is needed to overcome it or adapt to it." She sighed and led him over to the goaty things that were the source of the butter. "This is the source of the butter. The six legs are hard to get used to, but once the fourth eye blinks at you with those long lashes, you will be head over heels."

  "Those are amazing. Where did you find them?"

  "There was a flock of them five miles west. We got them all." She grinned. "There is something to be said for having several pregnant female predators on hand when it comes to hunting for new food sources."

  He grinned back after leaning into the pen to stroke the fluffy wool of the passing creature. "The wool sticks to the webbing."

  "And S'sran picks it off and cleans it for spinning. It is a pity that we don't have any carding tools. The one thing we haven't been able to manage is a smithy. Even though we have bog iron on hand, there is no way to smelt it."

  "Perhaps we could arrange an exchange of services for instruction." He leaned on the fencepost and his pose was so casual, it looked forced.

  "If you consider it a worthy idea, I think the people of the village would enjoy a little more stimulation. How are your population levels?"

  "We have slightly more males than females, why?"

  "There were many more breeders than males. Now, we have only three-quarters of our population paired up in one way or another. A few extra males around might make some of the women perk up."

  He cocked his head. "I thought one of our agreements was no comingling."

  "That goes for bakers and tanners. By the way, do you want to see how we make the flour?"

  He gave the goat thing a final pat and offered her his arm.

  "Does this get filed under comingling?" She smirked as she took his arm and led him out of the yard. Watching S'sran milk the goats was not for the faint of heart and the bleating cries coming from the pens told Steel that the time was almost nigh.

  "You know that finding you means I will have to rewrite the villages' agreement. The rush I feel just having your arm on mine is not something that I will let slip away again."

  A happy bubble started to well inside her chest. "I suspected it."

  They walked toward the field and she was quiet for a moment. When he stopped in shock, she started laughing. "Welcome to our grain crop."

  As far as the eye could see, golden grain seedpods covered the ground.

  "How…"

  "Tahsh and Vendu. They are both capable of accelerating growth in vegetation. We found a seedpod that would grow in the meadow, was digestible in one form or another by the vast majority of the villagers and they grew it. Then they grew it again while we lived on random harvest from the foragers."

  "How many foragers did you have?"

  "Everyone did it for a few weeks, those that catalogued the items and locations went out the following week. It was a working rotation. Some were more suited to going out constantly, so they did."

  "I can't believe…you have enough here to last you a whole season."

  "Or enough to trade. Do your people prefer flour or grain?" She grinned again. Pride was in every inch of her body and he could see it.

  "I will talk to our supply manager. He will no doubt rush out here to see for himself."

  "We will use the emergency shelters for grain storage. Most of the couples have already built small cabins and moved in. Oh, and if any of your folk come here, we do have wraps for the males and females. They do not need to pack clothing, simply come to the clinic first. Neeva keeps the extras in the clinic."

  "Need we worry about the hunters?"

  "Not if they come to the clinic first. If one of yours comes straight for the village and goes to the clinic, they won't be attacked. If they sneak in from the woods, it would not be wise."

  "I will inform them. You make an excellent point."

  Smiling, she looked over the field for a moment. "We need to go to the clinic."

  "Are you unwell?"

  "No. Just--Come with me."

  She kept her mouth shut, a fine tension running through her muscles. Steel had no idea what sort of reaction he would have to this. It wasn't like sex with her had been high on his priority list when they were both enslaved.

  Her baby was growing just fine. Neeva wouldn't admit it, but Steel had moved in to the clinic, giving her home up to the furniture makers. It gave her a warm and safe place to be with her daughter.

  As the clinic loomed, she walked faster, trying to pull the bandage off in one sharp jerk.

  A solid tug on her hand stopped her. "Steel, I don't know what you are going to show me, but you are my true mate, nothing can break that bond."

  "Tell me that in five minutes."

  She led him into the clinic, nodded to Neeva and Davol as they were restocking the supply cabinet with items he had smuggled to them from the town.

  "You didn't see anything, Wyanic." She kept hold of his hand and hauled him into what she privately termed the nursery.

  She stopped in front of the tank on a shelf at waist height.

  "Steel, what is this?"

  "Wyanic, this is our daughter."

  Chapter Seven

  "How could you not tell me?" He was on his knees with his hands on the sides of the tank, a posture that made Steel nervous.

  "We didn't know if she would survive. Neeva removed a large chunk of me to build her an artificial womb and the incubator wasn't built for this kind of prolonged usage. She still has six more months in there."

  "Why so long?" There was a thickness to his tone and she noted the tears welling and running down his face.

  "The incubator works slowly."

  "She was the exception to the contract."

  "She was, is."

  "Do you visit her?"

  A low voice spoke to them, "She lives here with her daughter, Wyanic. Every day she comes and reads stories from her home world to her little growing child. The books are under the bunk there."

  "Enough, Neeva. I think I will leave him alone with her for a moment. She seems to enjoy his voice." Steel pressed her hand to Wyanic's shoulder and left
him with his daughter.

  She walked into the lobby of the clinic and breathed deeply.

  "You okay, Estelle?"

  Only Neeva called her that anymore. "Fine. It was just harder than it should have been to share her after all this time. While he is here, can you check Wyanic for some kind of illness? He seems to have a problem with nausea and faintness."

  Neeva gave her a gentle pat on the arm. "I will. He won't leave here until we know what is going on."

  Two hours later, Steel peeked into the room to hear Wyanic reading her favourite story in low tones. "…and then the princess was whisked away to medical by magical fairies and she was brought back to life by a good witch. When the fairy Hska was asked if there was something else, she told the good witch that the princess thought she was pregnant and she would do anything to save her baby. The good witch made a special bubble for the baby and put it into a tiny tower where it could grow and grow until it could be in the arms of the princess as a beloved baby.

  "The prince was far away and under a spell that only the princess could break. She waited for the moment, but she didn't know when to break the spell and she decided to wait until her own tiny princess was in the world and could help her make that choice.

  "So the princess waited and waited and is waiting still…the end." He closed the book that she had written for her daughter and looked up into her eyes. "That is a fascinating story. How does it really end?"

  "I suppose that the cursed prince leaves his people for a day and finds the princess right under his nose. She ends his curse, but has no idea what comes next." She leaned against the doorframe and put her insecurity into her eyes. "This is one situation I can't think of a fix for."

  He put the book down and tucked it back under the bunk. "We need to talk but not today. I have been overwhelmed with information and barely know if I am coming or going. I will be back tomorrow."

  Neeva appeared in the doorway next to Steel. "Not until I have given you a once over. Orders of the headwoman of Steel's Rest."

  "Stop calling it that."

  "Then take a day off."

  "No."

  "Steel's Rest it is." Neeva grinned and ushered the bemused Wyanic into her exam room.

  Fifteen minutes of nail biting later and a sheepish Wyanic emerged with a highly amused Neeva.

  "What, what is it?"

  "I have morning sickness. It comes with pregnancy for some men if their partners don't feel it." He was scowling at her like she was to blame.

  "Hey, I sacrificed an ovary for her. I have done my motherly duty by making her my only child."

  "Neeva told me. She also said that other children are possible once our little piece of joy in a can appears. Your system is holding off on oestrus until you are holding her in your arms."

  Steel grinned. "I know. It has been the most hormonally free I have ever been."

  Davol returned to the clinic from his run to the bakery and butcher shop. "Is everything okay?"

  "More or less. Is that lunch?"

  "Afternoon tea. We have to be going soon, but we don't need to do it on an empty stomach." Davol pulled out an exam table and put the food on it in a lovely display.

  They had a snack in the clinic and Wyanic pressed her against the wall before he left.

  "I will be back tomorrow. Trust me on this. Arrangements need to be made, but I will be back." His kiss ravaged her, elevated her heart rate and sent a full-body ripple of heat through her skin.

  She slid her fingers through his midnight hair and lifted her right leg to wrap it around his hips, pulling him into her.

  He groaned, shaking and pulled back. "Tomorrow. Definitely tomorrow."

  He ripped himself from her grasp and was out the door before Davol could do more than bow to Neeva. He may be seeing the healer as regularly as he could, but he was still bound by the fraternization restriction that held the Oefric on their side of the settlement.

  Exhausted, aroused and feeling oddly alone, she looked to the healer. "That went better than I expected."

  Neeva grinned and came over to give her a hug. "You are working for the greater good here, Estelle. If he repeals the fraternization regulation, I may actually get a date."

  Sighing, she leaned into the support and accepted it gratefully. "Yes, Neeva, I know this is all about you."

  "I am glad you have realized it, Estelle."

  The laughter separated them and Estelle rubbed her neck to relieve the tension. "I am going to go check on her and then head off to check on Hska. She was looking a little pink."

  Neeva hissed in sympathy and tidied up the remains of their tea.

  Her daughter was floating happily in the tank, kicking randomly and sucking her still-webbed hands. "Hey, Junior. How is it going? Did you meet your daddy today?" She sat next to the tank on the bunk, closing her eyes as she breathed in Wyanic's scent.

  She had forgotten just how hard his scent had hit her that eternity ago. Her fingers absently traced the scar on her belly that she had forced Neeva to leave as a reminder of a bond lost and freedom found.

  She tried to keep the hope within her up and bright, but doubts as to her future crept in. When she was no longer of use to the settlers, they may not enjoy her company. She had never been welcomed before once her job was done. The previous towns and cities had not offered her a place to stay after they had sucked her brain dry. Experience was a harsh mistress.

  This was a different situation--very different people and a place that no one was prepared to deal with. She was making things up as she went along and with Junior's decanting looming in the future, she had to start getting herself sorted now that the village was evolving on its own.

  "I think he is a nice and stable fellow. What do you think, Junior?"

  The baby kicked at the sound of her voice.

  "He has morning sickness because of you, you know. He may have thought I was dead, but part of him knew you were not. You have to admire those instincts." The movement continued and Estelle settled in to read a story to her daughter.

  She was halfway through Cinderella when there was a knock on the door. Finailiac stuck his head through the doorway and had the grace to look embarrassed. Not an easy feat for a man nine feet tall and three feet wide. "Yes?"

  "Sorry, Steel. We need your expertise at the mill. The underground stream is a little faster than we anticipated."

  She smiled and closed her book. "I will finish the story tonight, Junior. Play nice with Aunty Neeva."

  The book was placed onto the immaculately folded bedding and she followed Finailiac out to the construction site where the mill was being set up to not only grind grains and corns, but also to create a power source for the lumber mill. Currently, their processes in slicing the boards involved animals on treadmills.

  If they could get the gearing system for the mill working, they could reduce the amount of goat power required as well as improve the processing speed when they needed it. They were currently running on a project-by-project basis, barely keeping up with the building that they were doing. Thankfully, the housing was almost complete. The majority of lumber that was being taken now was for expansions to the farm and the fencing did not require much processing, merely a stripping of the bark.

  The mill project was her pride and joy, the means by which the villagers were fed. The goats on the treadmills were working on their daily duty of steadily plodding and grinding the grain.

  While lovely steel pipes would have been nice, the polished wood of the geared connectors did the job just fine but had to be replaced more than their metal counterparts would have.

  The wheel connected to the waterwheel whirred at an alarming rate. She laid out the plans on a large table, the vellum crackling as she pointed to the source of the problem. "We need to get the big one, right here."

  "Damn. I was hoping we wouldn't need it."

  "We need it. Where is it?"

  He flicked his fingers to the corner. "I'll call in the crew."

  Humming
softly to herself, Steel looked at the wheel. It had upright pegs on a thick wooden base and would take more strength than she possessed to lift. The pegs were nice and tight, nothing had worked loose. She smiled as she remembered the class for her woodworking students where they had asked her why the fit had to be so tight, the placement so exact.

  Now those students were filing in, brawny males and two brawny females who lifted the wheel and started down the narrow steps into the hole that housed their waterwheel and the underground stream.

  Steel kept her mouth shut as she watched them slow and lock the flywheel, lifting it out of the water to make sure it did not accidentally engage. Safety was paramount. While Neeva could heal a lot, getting out of that hole and to the clinic across the way was not a situation that they wanted to go through again.

  With her breath alternately held and gusting out of her, she watched as they switched out the large gears, installed the rotating shaft with another gear on the top and reset the wheel in a slow ballet of trial and error.

  When all six of them exited the maintenance hatch, they surrounded her where she was slumped on the floor and applauded.

  "What is that for?"

  "For keeping your mouth shut and letting us do it ourselves." Finailiac grinned and pulled her to her feet. "We have enjoyed learning, but it means more that we can do it for ourselves."

  One of the ladies shifted to work on connecting the newly connected post to the small grinding stones and as the upper stone started to move another round of applause broke loose.

  "Tell the goats they can have some time off." Steel smiled at the pride and enjoyment that the faces around her held and felt a new sense that she had heirs to parts of her knowledge.

  A low gong was coming from the longhouse, so as one, they all tramped through the fading light and entered their communal feeding centre. The village had had a long day and the people needed to rest.

  She took the position she had been forced to at the head of one of the tables and ate first of every dish, a practice that made her feel more like a poison detector than the headwoman of the village. It had been useful several times when new food preparations had been offered and ever since the first time, Neeva ate with her while the villagers rotated watching Junior.