“Let me speak! Let me speak!” Violet raised her arm high into the air as she got the attention of the crowd.
“Violet, I won't stay here,” she took a step back, blocking me from the crowd and pulled me to her body with her thin, dainty hand.
“I claim this child as a daughter of my house. She is the wife of our first son Ezekiel. She is known to him. They have courted alone, outside the boundaries of the camp. She is his wife in the eyes of God.” The crowd yelled out indistinguishable words and sounds that morphed into gasps and the sharp edges of protest. Her statement was not well received.
I wasn't sure precisely what Violet was proclaiming, but it seemed she was telling everyone that I had sex with her son, so she owned me.
“I told you to choose me. I would have let you go.” Zeke growled into my neck.
“Let me go. I don't need you to let me do a damned thing. You, arrogant son of...”, a dark cover dropped over my head, and my feet were off the ground.
Zeke and his father were transporting me out of the crowd. I didn't fight them. Zeke's father stood proudly next to him in the crowd earlier. He was a white-haired older man, a much older man than I had seen in some time. He reminded me of my grandfather, and I couldn't bring myself to hate him.
We struggled through the crowd of angry spectators before I was finally placed on a wooden chair in a quiet room. The hood was pulled off my head, taking my painted hair clips with it.
“So, Ezekiel, what is the issue we are being charged with settling today?” Four people stood at the front of the tall tent, two men and two women. I recognized one man from the coffee tent and one woman from Blue's new family of cheerful women.
Zeke put his hand on my shoulder and pushed down hard. His warning squelched my words but could do nothing about my facial expressions.
“Council this woman was brought to us by the old custom of abduction. She did not join us willingly. I have courted this woman, but she is not known to me as my mother believes. She wishes to leave and refused to claim a family. I claim her now.”
“Does the head of your family agree, Ezekiel?”
“I support my son's claim only if the girl agrees to marry him, Councilmen. I see no reason to give her my family protection otherwise.” Zeke's no-nonsense father was a man of few words.
“The Council heard the facts as presented. Are there any other facts to consider?”
“If I can add a fact to the record.” Noah stood at the back of the room. An older woman and a middle-aged looking man stood by encouraging him. “If the Council would permit me?”
“I selected this beautiful woman from a crowded gathering. I fought those that would have kept her topside to die when the comet hits, and I brought her here where she is safe. I have the strongest claim to her. I formally claim her now.”
“The Council heard the facts as presented and recognize your possible claim to this woman as valid. Are there any other facts to present in this matter?”
“May I speak on my behalf?” I lightly brushed Zeke's hand off my shoulder and stood up from my chair.
“Yes, my dear, we are just getting to the part where you may make a statement.” I considered many ways to begin but I choose to start with the hard and difficult truth.
“I want to go home to my family and my fiancé even if I will die when the comet strikes.” There were murmurs and quick discussions between council members.
“We have a saying, better dead than with the Reds. This slogan isn't just propaganda. My people believe it the way your people believe in your God's wrath.
“I belong to the house of Fuller, and they will not leave me here alive. Noah murdered several people the night he abducted me and the other girls. I saw the murders with my own eyes. According to my society's laws, once I turn 17, I am within my rights to kill him. I plan to deliver the justice my fallen citizens deserve, and my society demands.” Once I was done speaking, I could hear the weeping and sobbing coming from Noah's mother. This was not a hard or cold woman. It was the first bit of shame I felt in days.
“Council, please, I beg you. Give me this woman to me as my wife, and I will convince her to stay or send her back home.” Zeke pleaded.
“Noah, do you have any closing remarks?” The Councilman asked. “I wanted to save them. I didn't go to that site intending to kill anyone. I couldn't leave those women there to die. I wanted to add to our clan. Once they saw our home, I knew they would be happy with their new lives.”
“Karine, do you have anything else to add?”
“I need to be sent home tomorrow with a video file from Blue Bell Tilley to her parents. The man I'm betrothed to is the son of a dead Coleman boy and a dead Fuller girl. He was named the sole heir of the Fuller house, and he controls all their military holdings. He is good and kind, but if he were made up of a thousand blocks of light, you would find one block of pure, unrelenting darkness. He will live in that one dark box for all his days if I am not returned to him.
“My family thinks that we are children with a wild idea to marry. But I know him. He's just like me. We don't have God's and commandments to fear we have rules and rights. At the end of seven days, he will use his considerable military influence
