I did note that every family from the camp seemed to have one or two families that followed them. My assumption was that the men’s education had been delegated to different families. Everyone was going to help.


    The freed ves were in a state when I reached them. Perhaps sixty confused women trembled on several transports. I could see all the different species of “ves” I knew about and two others. The men had managed to wrap them all in some sort of warm clothing, so I knew they’d tried to keep themfortable. The women still shivered in fear.


    The men with them seemed frustrated and exasperated. They were trying to coax them off and the freed ves wouldn’t move.


    “Friends,” I called out to them, “look at me.”


    Every set of eyes raised to me and I saw the shock in their faces.


    “My name is Ciara, I was a ve like you. The men from these mountains have freed you. You are not ves here. No one is going to hurt you. We will never allow you to be enved again.”


    The men that had been with them all disappeared quickly by bounding into the main camp, which irritated me. They had obviously been annoyed with babysitting these women, but Rose and I would need help. Two of us couldn’t tend to them by ourselves; it would take forever.


    The freed ves needed to be calmed down before we went anywhere. I tried to rx them by exining what had happened and where they were now. It didn’t seem that I was making much progress.


    My efforts were cut off when arge Paterian womannded beside me and another behind me. Several of the freed ves screamed and I saw the terror in their faces. I was irritated with the women until I turned and looked at them. I’d never been so d to see Hannah and Ra in my life.


    “Baby Girl!” I cried throwing my arms around Hannah’s waist. “I’m so d to see you! I worried about you both.”


    Hannah looked worse for the wear. Her arms were cut up and she had a deep, healing gash on her side. The smooth, human looking skin on her face was scratched and marked. None of it appeared life threatening, though. Ra stood behind her and I looked her over as well.


    “Your birth Sister, Kennedy, how is she?” I asked anxiously. “Her Sisters, were they hurt?”


    “They fared better than us, Mama,” Ra snorted.


    “Kennedy and her Sisters are thinkers, Mama,” Hannah said grinning. “We thought we’d have to defend our campmate men. Kennedy knew more about their weapons and thought differently. Ra and I took a beating before we learned to trust the men.”


    I couldn’t stop touching Hannah and evaluating her wounds. Sheughed at my concern.


    “Mama, we love you and we just wanted to check in. You don’t need to worry for us. Kennedy and her Sisters will check in soon. They took a patrol on a wider loop. I told her I’d see you and let you know we were all well.”


    I smiled with relief at her and saw one of the former ves step cautiously toward us.


    “This is your… child?” the woman asked hesitantly.


    “My oldest and her Sister, yes, this is my child,” I responded gently, but proudly. Hannah and Ra were a lot to take in.


    “I had a boy,” the woman said as a tear dropped from her eye. “He was taken from me. I have not seen him in four turns of the moon. I do not know if he survived… this.”


    I felt horrible for the woman and didn’t know what to say. Her boy could be anywhere, dead or alive. My heart ached for her loss. I should have known Hannah would know what to do.


    “Can you tell us the name you gave him?” Hannah asked quietly.


    The woman looked terrified of my child, but Hannah was asking about her son. She refused to cower away.


    “Branden, Mistress,” the woman told us.


    Ra had amunication pad strapped to her waist. She pulled it loose and started to slide her fingers over the face of it.Belongs to (N)?vel/Drama.Org.


    “What name did the vers call you?” she asked the woman.


    “Hema, Mistress,” the woman answered wrapping her arms around herself.


    The other former ves watched the interaction with interest. As Ra did whatever she was doing Hannah spoke to Hema. My daughter’s calm, patient tone distracted from her terrifying visage. She asked Hema, the former ve, not to address Paterian women as Mistress now that she was in the camp. She was free and needed to act like a free woman.


    “I am Hannah, born in the T’aran Mountains. This is Ra, my Sister, born in the T’scan Mountains. You are free now and you do not have to be called by the name the vers gave you. Your free name is yours to use. We will call you whatever name you choose. When free people meet we introduce ourselves the way I just did. Can you tell me your name and where you are from?”


    The woman’s body literally shook and I knew it was abination of excitement and fear. What we were telling her seemed too incredible. She was not a weak person, though.


    “I am Molly O’Donnell from Dublin, Irnd,” she said proudly.


    Ra looked up from her work and smiled at Molly.


    “He’s not far from here and he’s well, Molly,” she said lowering the pad she had been working on. “One of the other boys in his family was bred by a free man. Those men took them from thepound and they are caring for the young family now. Give us time and we will talk to the Administrators about moving you to their camp or moving those men and the boys here. You will be reunited with your child if you wish to be.”


    There was a moving picture on the pad and Molly walked right up to Ra to look at it. She covered her mouth and looked at themunicator.


    “Their images were recorded when they entered the other camp a day ago,” Ra told her. “I know it is not a close picture, but the all the boys in his family appear well. I can narrow the focus a little on this screen, but not much. I see no injuries on any of them.”


    Molly trembled as she watched her boy enter the other camp. I knew how she felt. She probably thought she’d never see him again.


    “He won’t know you anymore, Molly,” I said sadly looking at the monitor with her. “When you get to him he’ll have to relearn you. The women of the mountains, the ones that kept the men, they had a way of wiping out the children’s memories. My own boy doesn’t know me.”


    Hannah sighed andid a hand on my arm. “Mama, you mustn’t let that upset you. The hold the ving women have on the men can be broken. Jonathan will remember and you fretting about it won’t do any good. He and his Brothers are tired and very stressed right now. Let them sleep and feel safe in the camp. The truth wille back to them.”


    I smiled at my oldest. Getting upset would lead to disorder and now was not the time for that. We had to deal with the issues at hand.


    Shaking myself out of my gloomy thoughts before they led to depression, I remembered that I was suddenly in charge of all these women and I had no idea what to do with them.


    “Thom left us with them,” I said motioning to the freed ves, “but he didn’t give us any instructions.”