Ice Ice Babies Read Online Free

front.
    The cave network that makes up the tribal home is spacious and sprawling, and I take my time, wandering down a rocky hallway to lull my twins back to sleep. I pass by Harlow’s cave and stop to say hi, since her privacy screen isn’t up. Rukh is showing his son Rukhar a carved block made of bone, and Harlow’s got a piece of equipment in her lap, a make-shift pair of magnifying lenses over her eyes. She blinks at me then goes back to work. “Hey, Nora. What’s up?”
    “Just avoiding crying-baby central,” I say in a low voice, smiling as Rukh hides the block in one enormous fist and little Rukhar giggles and reaches for his dad’s hand. Smart kid. Not even six months old and I’m pretty sure he’s ahead of most normal human babies. “How are you guys?”
    “Just working on trying to hitch together this stupid storm tracker. I thought it might be helpful for the upcoming season, but I can’t get it to turn on and I need to ask the computer about it and she’s back at the ancestor ship. Grr.” Harlow shakes a fist at the square, piecemeal machine in her lap.
    “Are you guys going back to the ancestor ship soon?” I know she and Rukh prefer living there, because Rukh’s still not big on tribe life after living in exile for so long.
    She shakes her head and moves a tiny wire with her fingers. “Vektal’s got everyone on lockdown after that whole Lila thing. You know how he gets.”
    I sigh. Yeah, I do. When he feels people are fucking around or the tribe isn’t running like a well-oiled machine, Vektal gets all iron-fist and cracks down on who comes and goes. “Probably doesn’t help that the hunting is bad and the winter’s gonna suck.” I smooth a hand over Anna’s white-blonde hair. “Dagesh has been out twenty-four-seven hunting to try and prep for winter - sorry, the brutal season.”
    “Yup. Add all that together, and we’re gonna be here for now.”
    As Rukh hides the block from Rukhar again, sending the baby into peals of laughter, I frown. My mate’s out every day…and yet here’s Rukh, playing with his son. I try not to feel jealous, but it’s hard. “You going out soon, Rukh?” I can’t help it; I have to ask.
    He shakes his head. “Out two. Back one.”
    Rukh is normally pretty short with words, but that makes no sense to me. I glance over at Harlow to clarify.
    “Just got back from a two-day stint,” Harlow says, casting an affectionate look at her mate. “Today’s his day off. He goes back out again tomorrow.”
    “You mean you guys get days off?” I joke, but I’m not finding it funny. Dagesh never takes a day off.
    “Well, yeah,” Harlow says, looking up at me. The magnifiers make her eyes seem enormous. “Man’s gotta get some rest. R&R and all that.”
    “Of course.” I need to talk to Dagesh, then. Why isn’t he taking a day to relax? And then of course, the worry sets in again. Is it me? Is he avoiding me? That can’t be it. We’re resonance mates.
    But then I think of Asha and Hemalo…and my stomach goes a little sour. “Well, I’m off,” I say, smiling at them despite my worry. “I need to go find Asha and say hello.”
    “You do? Have fun.” Harlow’s tone is absent and she bends back over her machine. “Hey, Rukh, Can you put a finger here on this bracket, babe, while I work?”
    I leave their cave, thinking about Dagesh. Dagesh, who never takes a day of rest. I’m concerned. My mate’s a good man. He’s strong and brave and tireless. He likes to joke that he’s a hunter, not a thinker, but I think he’s plenty smart. And I love him. I love his smile, his scent, the way he gives me that adorably blank stare when I use a human term he doesn’t understand. I love seeing him with the babies. I can’t imagine being with anyone else.
    But there has to be something bothering him.
    An awful stink starts to emanate from one of the babies slung in the chest carrier I’m wearing. Ah, crap. It’s diaper time. I make it to Asha and