Bride of Midnight Read Online Free Page B

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