"I think it's those books you read," Callah teased.

"You can read them too," I reminded her.

She shook her head against the pillow. "I don't want to climb. Too much work. Besides, I'd be terrified someone would know."

"But they don't even know the room exists," I said.

Callah grunted dismissively. "Doesn't matter. I'd quote something I'd learned in one and the men would figure it out. I don't know how you keep it all to yourself."

"She doesn't," Meri said, still sitting cross-legged on her bed. "She tells us."

"And neither of you have gotten in trouble yet," I teased. "Which means you're good at keeping your mouths shut."

"Well, then maybe you should tell us another one of those stories." Meri flashed me a smile before pulling back her covers. "Something happy, Ayla. Something to make me forget seeing those blue feathers in my fiancé's chest."

Which was enough to make Callah sit up in a rush. "Blue?"

"The Wyvern," I said, proving we all knew what it meant. "He put four arrows into Gideon. One just missed his lungs. Three hit his gut. I had to push one out the back so I didn't destroy his liver."

"How do you even know where those are?" Callah insisted.

I chuckled softly. "The books. There are so many with pictures of the insides of people. It shows the lungs, the heart, and all the vital organs."

"Which is why you're so good in the infirmary," Meri said. "Do you think Mrs. Worthington has ever read them?"

"No," I said as I changed into my nightclothes. "I think Mrs. Worthington learned about the vital organs by seeing what wounds killed our hunters. She said she lost many patients before learning how to clamp the blood vessels. That's why she showed me how."

"Maybe they'll let you be a nurse instead of a wife," Callah said.

I murmured at that and then slipped under my blankets. "I'd be happy as a nurse. I wish I could learn as much as a doctor, though."

"Only men were doctors," Meri countered, "and we don't have enough medicine anymore to need them."

"It was different back when people lived on the surface," I told her. "My books say there were both men and women as doctors. Lots of types of doctors too. Back then, people did a lot of things we can't do now."

"Which is why the Devil won," Callah said. "Because women forgot our place is to serve our husbands."

"All men," Meri corrected.

"Mm..." I murmured. "I just wish I knew where the Dragons were back then."

That made Callah lift her head again. "What?"

"The Dragons," I clarified. "Back when people lived on the surface of the Earth - but after we left the Garden of Eden - the world was a busy place. People lived in homes that went up and up and up. Skyscrapers, they were called. And they had science and innovations. Women and men were equal, and people came in so many different colors."

"Fairytales," Meri scoffed.

"There's pictures," I insisted. "Men with skin as pale as ours, but dark black hair and eyes the color of thick tea. Women with skin the color of that tea and hair even darker. All colors."

"Drawings?" Callah asked.

I shook my head. "Actual photographs, like the ones we see of the surface in school."

"But no Dragons?" Meri asked.

"Dragons were things from fantasy," I explained. "I'm not quite sure what that means, but they were. Then again, there are also books of fantasy with drawings of dragons, so I don't know. Still, all the books with actual photographs don't mention them. No Dragons, no Devil, and no demons."

"Maybe the Devil brought the Dragons back?" Meri guessed.

"The Wyvern is his right hand," Callah quoted, doing her best to mimic our schoolteacher's masculine voice.

I chuckled at that. "What I don't understand is that a wyvern isn't a dragon. Dragons have four legs with wings. Wyverns have two legs with wings on their arms. How can the most terrifying Dragon be a wyvern too?"

"Maybe our hunters cut off two legs?" Meri guessed. "Gideon could've."

"Gideon got shot by the Wyvern," Callah reminded her.

"Callah!" I snapped, because the man's wounds had been treated, and it looked like he should live, but that wasn't guaranteed yet.

Callah just made a face. "Sorry, Meri."

"He could've on a good day," Meri said, changing her stance slightly. "Because Gideon is young and strong. He's going to be an excellent husband, and we'll have plenty of babies to refill the empty rooms, right? And he'll keep being strong enough that he will always make it back after hunting."

"He will," I told her, not really believing it. "He's going to be an amazing husband for you, Meri. You'll be so happy. Who knows, maybe you'll even fall in love with him?"

"And maybe he won't hurt me when we breed," Meri mumbled, her words growing softer. "Ayla, do you have any stories about good marriages where the wife makes her man happy?"

"Yeah," I said, lying back so I was looking up at the ceiling. "I read one of those the other day, but I think it's a fantasy."

"Tell it to me anyway?" she begged.

"Well, this was back when people still lived on the surface," I started. "The woman, let's call her Meri, like you? She walked into a place called a coffee shop. Behind the counter, waiting to make her a drink, was a man so beautiful it made her heart speed up."

"What's coffee?" Callah asked.

"A drink," I said, leaning to the side and stretching for the switch to control our room's light. When it was off, I said, "Now hush and listen. See, the man - Gideon - was trying to work hard so he could earn more privileges. Meri smiled at him, and he knew she was perfect for him. Her pale blonde hair and dark blue eyes were more than he could take. Immediately, he fell in love and swore to himself that he would talk to her again."

In the darkness, I could hear the soft, rhythmical breathing of my friends. All they'd needed was a little distraction from the excitement of the night and they'd passed out quickly. Smiling at that, I snuggled back into my bed and curled on my side. In the complete darkness of life underground, I couldn't see anything, but it didn't matter. I could hear them, my only two friends in the world.

"And Meri didn't have to marry him," I whispered. "Instead, she and her two friends ran away to a farm and raised plants to eat. With no men around, they could grow old together, laughing in the sunshine until the day they died."

"Yeah," Callah whispered, proving she wasn't quite asleep. "I like that story best."

"Me too," I agreed, "but Meri has to get married."

"So do we," Callah pointed out. "Sadly, so do we, Ayla."

ThreeAyla