ALIEN ABDUCTION (Captured by Aliens) by Jaide Fox Page B

are men, aliens or not.  Not one of you guys has a clue how to
treat a woman—that much is obvious.”
     
    “You are
needed, Ebony.  All these women are.  You have your part to play, as we all
do.”
     
    “So--we’re
just bargaining chips for you to use in some master plan to take over the
kingdom?”
     
    No
answer.
     
    “Damned
meatheads,” she muttered, and continued down the trail.
     

 
     
     
     
    CHAPTER EIGHT
     
     
    After
what seemed like hours of walking, with Fallon and Damon and everyone else
refusing to talk to her to pass the time, Ebony lost herself in her own
thoughts.  She had to keep putting one foot in front of the other through what
seemed like endless miles of forest.  When the woods petered out and the
foothills began, she thought she just might die of exhaustion.
     
    Her fine
red silk gown, edged with golden ribbon, was filthy and shredded from walking
for miles over sandy beach and through deep pine forest and then sleeping on a
dirt floor.  The fragile, gossamer fabric was practically falling apart.  Her
feet were bruised and swollen, even though the leather straps were better than
nothing.  And she could certainly see that all the other women were equally
tattered and exhausted and sore to the bone.
     
    Ebony had
almost gotten to the point of collapsing on the ground, and throwing a massive
temper tantrum to get a moment’s rest, when Fallon decided to give them a break. 
“Stop here,” he called.  Ebony kept stumbling on when the others quickly halted
at the sound of his voice, and she almost ran into the woman in front of her--which
turned out to be Cassie.  “Eat.  Drink.  Rest,” Fallon ordered.  “We’ll be
moving out again soon.”
     
    Ebony
accepted the food she was given--more jerky and, this time, some kind of dried
fruit that looked like leathery tomatoes and tasted like apricots--but as soon
as she had eaten, and caught her breath a little, she walked right up to Fallon
where he sat beside Damon on the ground beneath a lone pine tree.
     
    She put
her hands on her hips and looked Fallon straight in the eye.  “I’ve had some
questions ever since I got to this world, and I’m tired of waiting for answers. 
Just being a pawn doesn’t sit well with me.  I want you to tell me a few things
and I want you to tell them to me now .”
     
    Slowly
the two men looked up at her, and stared as though she were simply an annoying
insect.  “And if we do not tell you?” asked Damon.
     
    “Then--then--I
will go right on doing my best to escape at every opportunity, and you will
either have to tie me up and carry me or spend your nights wondering about
whether I really did get back to the palace.”
     
    The men
glanced at each other, and then Fallon looked back at Ebony.  “What do you want
to know?”
     
    Without
being invited, Ebony sat down on the soft earth right in front of them.  “First
of all,” she began, “I might have been abducted by aliens, but I’m still no
fool.  I have eyes.  I can see that you, Fallon, claim to be the king’s
brother, and look like you are the king’s brother.  I do think you must
be the king’s brother, but not just any brother.  I think you’re the king’s twin brother.”
     
    The two
men stopped chewing for a moment, and looked at each other.  “Go on,” said
Fallon. 
     
    “Well.  If
we accept that as fact, the next logical conclusion is that you, Fallon, are
the leader of the rebels--the rebels which have caused so much trouble in the
kingdom.”
     
    He stared
up at her with those cold blue eyes.  “And if I tell you that I am the leader
of the rebels?”
     
    “Then
I’ll ask you the next question:  What happened to all the women on this planet?
 We were told when we got here that they all died in a plague.  Now, genetic
engineering wasn’t exactly my best subject in school, but I don’t see how any
natural bug could come along and kill only women and not men.  What happened?