199
The General’s hot breath brushed my cheeks as he spoke. His voice had risen and I saw the fire burning in his eyes.
“No other slave would dare to raise an arm to my Warriors,” he continued. “The sentence would be death or removal.”
I trembled in fear watching him.
A voice from behind the General broke our staring contest.
“I am curious,” the voice of the General’s Brother spoke, “did Damien and his Brothers train the slave?”
“Answer him!” the General barked and I jumped back bumping the door.
“Yes, sir, they trained me,” finally came out.
The General stood staring at me for a moment and then left. I trembled in the anteroom waiting for my fate. The General joined his Brothers across the room looking out the wide window.
They must have seen everything. The General was obviously observing Damien’s punishment. How stupid of me to give into that primal reaction. I stood watching the General, mentally berating myself, as the General watched my men and conversed internally with his family.
My knees were bleeding. I felt the slow tickle and it flowed down my legs. It pooled over the cuffs on my ankles and dripped down to my feet. I didn’t want to get it on the floor, but it wasn’t really my choice at this point.
“Why did they train you?” the same voice called over to me.
I didn’t really know why. “It amused them,” I said remembering Evan and Damien, “and they just thought I should know. It was disgraceful I was so untrained.”
Now that was an interesting answer. The General’s family looked at me questioningly. This situation was unique and new. Evidently, Damien had wanted me to fight.
“Slave,” the General finally addressed me, “did you know not to raise your hand to my Warriors?”
“Damien told me not to hit him or his Brothers,” I said remembering the one time in the bathhouse.
Finally the General asked one of the Brothers to fix my legs. The man walked me into their bathroom and he scrubbed the debris out of my knees and applied healing cream. They started to bleed again, so he wrapped them both with cloth.
When I came back out, Basin and his Brothers were standing around. The General told them he would not put me up for the compound to punish. Damien didn’t want it and I was merely too well trained for my own good.
I would throw my own life away to protect my owners. He didn’t see the purpose of punishing such blind devotion. I was too stupid to know any better.
“When Damien and his Brothers are punished,” the General said, “I put you all in charge of restraining and monitoring this slave.”
Basin took the task politely and motioned me to follow him.
We walked down the steps and several Warriors were waiting around outside. They seemed very disappointed and irritated when Basin told them what the General had said. My punishment, and especially my death, would have been entertaining.
As soon as we made it into their dwelling and the door closed, Basin lit into me.
“You have no sense of forethought!” he roared.
For the second time that night I backed into the door.This content © Nôv/elDr(a)m/a.Org.
Damien and his Brothers would have been upset if something happened to me. Basin knew I was smart enough to understand the probable consequences of my actions. I was reckless. His friends were what mattered and they would have felt pain because of me.
Since my owners were not available to reprimand me properly he took me to task. He lectured me until my ears felt numb. When he was finally done, he seemed to be no less upset.
I was ordered to kneel on my still tender knees and they fed me. A cup of the health drink was there and I took it without hesitation.
“Our slave only takes a drink in the morning,” one of Basin’s Brothers commented.
They started to talk about the extra health drink. I was just relieved the conversation was no longer on what an idiot I was.
One of them picked up the cup and sniffed it curiously. It was different from what Rose got. The man dipped a finger into the leftover dregs and tasted it. It was very different.
Basin looked hard at me. I saw him appraising my form. His critical eyes judged me from head to toe.
I didn’t look ill or malnourished anymore. Just like when I first came to this planet I was lush and full. The evidence of my starvation had disappeared some time before.
“I see no reason for this,” he stated simply.
“And the liquid is different,” the other Brother said.
Lucky for me they dropped the subject and went to their sitting room. Rose pulled me to kneel beside her as the men played a game. She shook her head and squeezed my hand.
Damien and his Brothers stayed in bondage on the platform overnight. I stayed with Basin and his family. Since Basin felt I should be disciplined, I spent the night in their box.
The box was dark and it should have been creepy. I had slept in one for months though. Inside the box I fell quickly to sleep and dreamed of my family.
It was a normal dream. Memories of Hannah flying in the mountains, as Damien and I watched, predominated my sleeping thoughts. In the distance I felt like I saw my other children, the ones I was slated to have, soaring in the wind. Unlike real life, in the dream I anticipated meeting them.
The next morning Damien and his Brothers were let off the platform. Basin did not take me to see them, he took me to the Keepers. My owners would have enough to do without contending with me, he believed. They would have to get themselves ready and go to work, despite their injures.
The morning drink was again a topic of conversation on the transport pad. Basin and his Brothers knew it was different from what Rose took. It smelled, tasted, and looked different. Lucky for me, they never thought to ask me if I knew what it was.
I was relieved to be at the Keepers, until they tethered me with a short cord to a pole in the main room. They knew humans and when we became suicidal we may stay that way. Until Damien assured them I was no longer a threat to myself, my movement would be restricted.
Fuji and Rose sat with me. We played card games and other “safe” things the Keepers allowed them to get close to me. Being tied to a pole and after the stress the day before, I couldn’t really concentrate. Fuji won most of the hands.
The lunch bell rang and I sat quietly waiting on my kneeling place. The room around me was quiet, which was unusual. Without the flurry of the other girls you could have heard a pin drop.
One of the Keepers stood inside the empty room with me and then suddenly he was gone. In the doorway was Damien.
With the light behind him, Damien looked like an angel. When he stepped further into the room I realized angel was the wrong term. Avenging angel would be more accurate.
I’d never seen Damien in a battle with other men, but this is how I imagined he’d look. Focused and furious were the only two terms that came readily to mind. It was a strange juxtaposition and he handled the look of contained chaos well.
“I don’t want to die,” I said as he moved closer. “It was a a stupid thing to say… Master Damien,” the last of the statement came out in a whisper.
He continued to pace slowly forward and didn’t say a word. I scooted back off my kneeling place. When I hit the pole I was tied to I slid up it and stood facing him.
“Attacking the man was a mistake, too, Master Damien,” I said gripping the pole and steeling my resolve. “I heard Christof and he was in pain. I had to help him. You would have done the same thing…”
I saw the bruising on Damien’s face as he drew closer. The lightening marks of his punishment gave his visage a savage appearance. The pain and fatigue must be overwhelming.
Giving into my instincts I reached forward and brushed a hand along the rough stubble on his cheek and into his hair. My other hand made the same trip on the other side of his face. Damien drew closer allowing me to massage the tense muscles in the back of his neck.
For a moment his eyes drifted closed and the lines on his face relaxed. He loved to be touched and rubbed. I smiled to myself thinking I had distracted him. Damien’s eyes were open in an instant watching me.
“Look me in the eye and tell me if you wish to die,” he commanded grabbing my hands and pulling them down to rest on his chest.
I met his steely grey gaze. “No, I do not wish to die.”
The cord on my neck was cut. Damien leaned in until I felt his breath in my ear.