When she did go and speak to the guards, she found that they were no longer at their posts and the passageway was deserted. Sudden hope flared in Zalla and she thought about the flying craft she’d spotted from the balcony.
It was a pretty primitive looking vessel and she was sure she’d be able to pilot it at least to get to the spaceport. It was too good an opportunity to miss.
Now though, as she made her way through the labyrinthine corridors, she was beginning to regret trying to make a break for it without forming a proper plan. She remembered the look on Draz’s face and a shudder ran through her.
If she got caught now, there was no telling what he’d do to her. She could always stick to her story that she’d gone looking for food, but would that really wash? The cruelty of the Vakrallans was well documented and she’d even covered stories of atrocities they had committed in their many wars with other galactic powers.
Draz might lust after her, but he was no better than the rest of the Warrior Caste. He’d soon get tired of her defiance and then he could kill her, or worse.
It was vital she got away, but a part of her wanted to stay. When Draz had touched her this morning, she had experienced an intensity of feeling she’d never had before.
It might have been the effects of the aphrodisiac making her horny, but he exuded an attraction to her that seemed to be a lot more than artificially induced. Maybe under different circumstances, things could have been different between them.
She came to an archway with a flight of stairs leading downwards. At the bottom of the stairs was a glass door leading out to the courtyard. A thrill of excitement went though her and she hurried down the stairs and tried the sensor pad controlling the door.
Miracle of miracles it was unlocked and the door slid open with a quiet swish. Zalla stood on the threshold and hesitated. As soon as she stepped outside, it would be hard to explain away what she was doing in the courtyard. If she was caught, she could well imagine the consequences, but she couldn’t turn back now.
She pictured Draz’s face when his seduction ploy had failed and that made her mind up for her. She passed through the door and stepped onto the sandy ground of the courtyard.
The full moon limned the landscape a ghostly blue. It was bright enough to see her surroundings and she couldn’t see anyone else around.
There weren’t even any guards on the wall. Sticking close to the palace, she ventured away from the door she’d just used, and hunted for the flying craft.
She was pretty sure she was heading in the right direction and she was relieved when she spotted the craft a few metres away where it had been this morning. Looking round to make sure no one was there, she scampered across the courtyard toward the machine.
It really was nothing more than a metal frame with a rudimentary cockpit, and Zalla seriously doubted it could take her over the wall let alone all the way back to Canx Spaceport even if she did know what direction it lay. Nevertheless, she had come too far to turn back now. She had to give it a go.
Climbing into the single pilot chair, she strapped herself in and examined the controls. After a couple of false starts, she managed to get the thrusters working and grabbing hold of the joystick, she managed to take off.
The craft lurched into the air and she wheeled in round and flew over the wall. She heard someone shout out from behind but she ignored it. Working out how to accelerate, she shot off across the desert.
Casting a look back at the palace, she now saw several lights come on in the structure and heard the sound of an engine roaring into life. They had responded quicker than she thought, and she panicked.
Trying to increase her speed, she lurched forward again but couldn’t keep the craft high enough. Its underside hit a stony ridge that rose up before her and it tumbled to the ground.
“Fuck it!” Zalla swore, as the craft landed on its side. She couldn’t get it aloft again like this, and she would have to get out and push it upright again. The sound of the engine was growing louder, and a searchlight pieced the gloom.
With mounting desperation, she scrabbled to get free of the pilot chair, pulling at the seatbelt until it reluctantly released her. Climbing out of the upturned craft, she tripped and landed hard on the stony ground below. Cursing through her pain, she staggered to her feet and tried to pull the flyer upright.
A low, guttural growl came from behind her, freezing the blood in her veins. She turned slowly and let out a strangled gasp. A huge, hulking creature was watching her. The moonlight bled over its scaly, simian body and it glared at her with glowing, hate-filled eyes.
Zalla stood where she was, staring at the terrifying beast. It roared out at her, baring its fangs and lurched towards the woman. Zalla screamed again and started running.
She barely made it several metres before she stumbled and fell on the barren ground that was too hard and uneven for her bare feet. The monster let out a victorious howl and bore down on her. Zalla twisted round to look up at the horror and saw deadly claws rushing toward her face.
A dazzling gold light suddenly erupted over the desert. The creature paused in its attack, and raised its tree-trunk arms to cover its face. Zalla stared without comprehension as Draz rushed forward out of the gloom, his body glowing with the golden light.
He let out a thunderous roar and lashed out at the monster, punching it hard on the jaw. The force was enough to send the thing several feet into the air before it landed hard on the ground. It mewled in pain and slowly getting to its feet again, loped away into the darkness without looking back.
Heart pounding in her chest, Zalla stared up at Draz. He stood before her like a god, clad only in a leather thong, the golden light shimmering and swirling around his perfect, chiselled body.
He was an erotic dream made flesh, and Zalla quivered in his presence. He looked down at her with his burning eyes and silently reached out to her with his hand.
Zalla felt the world spinning all around her and abruptly passed out.
* * *
Zalla woke from a maelstrom of fervent dreams of savage beasts and golden men to find that she was lying alone in Draz’s bed. She was back in his apartments at the palace.
Last night’s escape attempt and the encounter with the desert monster loomed large in her mind. Draz glowing with supernatural light burned in like a beacon. Had it all been a dream? It felt like that now.
He had been so powerful, so magnificent that it sent a tremor through her, just thinking about him. Surely, she had imagined it?
Sitting up in bed, the protest of her muscles and the scratches on her hands and arms soon told her it hadn’t been a dream. She had tried to escape and something nasty out in the wilderness had almost killed her, and Draz saved her life.
As she tried to make sense of this, she realized Seon was padding silently about the room. He lay out a sand coloured tunic and matching leggings at the end of the huge bed, along with a pair of stout walking boots.
“Get up and get ready,” he said in an unemotional voice. “You will wear these clothes today. You are going on a journey.”
Zalla had a million and one questions, but Seon’s body language told her that she was in deep trouble so it was probably best to keep silent. She had tried to make a break for it last night, and now they were taking her somewhere else.
Whatever they had in mind, it couldn’t be good. Despite not wanting to talk to the cat boy, she had one question that needed answering.
“Is Draz going to kill me?” she asked in a hollow voice.
Seon went into the bathroom to run her a bath. When he returned, he gave her an unreadable look. “Draz isn’t the monster you think,” he said flatly.
“My people, the Kadimi, are natives to this world. We live out in the far wastes in a primitive, tribal society. Life is hard and cruel, especially for those who are different, like me. You know the punishment for deviants among my people? We are castrated and our innards are fed to the wolf-jackals.
That would have been m
y fate if Draz hadn’t happened to pass through our territory when he was out on deep patrol. He took pity on me, saving me from the mob that were going to mutilate me and brought me back to the palace. You might not think the life of a slave is worth much, but it is better than the life I had before.”
Zalla let his words sink in. “I’m sorry you’ve had to face that,” she said at length, “but things are different on my world. We’re all free to do what we want to do.”
“Maybe,” Seon said with a shrug. “Just don’t take everything at face value, that’s all I will say.”
He waited outside as she bathed and got dressed in the outfit that had been provided for her. It felt nice not to be in something suggestive for a change, but her stomach roiled at the prospect of facing Draz again after what had happened last night. Surely, her luck had now fully run out?
When she was ready, Seon took her through the palace and out into the courtyard. The bright daylight hurt her eyes, and sitting accusingly in its corner was the flying craft that she had tried to steal the night before. It certainly was looking worse from wear after its adventure, much like how she felt.
Grimacing, she looked round and saw Draz waiting for her. He was stood next to his prowler lizard, wearing a dark leather tunic and sandals. He was no longer glowing with golden light but he still looked intimidating. Seon drifted away and Zalla was left to walk up to Draz alone.
He pointedly turned his back to her and checked the saddle on the lizard. She stood in awkward silence for a few moments, watching the ripple of his muscles as he worked and then mustered up the courage to speak. “How are you today?”
Without looking at her, Draz gestured to the saddle. “Get up,” he ordered brusquely.
Zalla’s eyes widened. “What? I can’t get up there.”
Turning round, Draz suddenly scooped her up like a doll and deposited her on the lizard, on the end of the saddle. He then climbed up in front of her and pulled at the reigns. “I’d advise you to hold on,” he said.
Zalla was going to resist the urge, but the lizard bounded off across the courtyard at terrifying speed. She clamped her arms around his firm waist and pressed herself against the back of his tunic. He smelled tantalizingly of leather and musk.
Feeling fairly confident that she wasn’t going to fall off now, she peeked out behind him at where they were going. The lizard was eating up the dust toward the open main gate and scampered through it. Pulling at the reigns, Draz urged the lizard westwards toward a range of low foothills.
As they travelled, Zalla soon realized that they were the only ones setting out on this mysterious journey. “You’re not bringing along any guards?” she asked carefully, the faint hope of making another escape blooming in her mind.
“They are not needed,” Draz said flatly. “If you want to escape, I won’t stop you, but bear one thing in mind, the Maulers hunt by day and night. You met a Mauler the previous evening during your unscheduled excursion. If you are attacked again, I won’t come to your rescue this time.”
So it hadn’t been a hallucination. She glanced around warily at the landscape and tightened her hold on Draz’s waist.
They rode on in silence, heading closer to the foothills. Zalla wanted to know where they were going, but Draz’s mood was not given over to conversation. She would just have to wait and see.
As they reached the hills, a dirt track appeared in the desert leading off to the right. Draz followed it, taking them into a narrow canyon at the end of which was an archway carved of white stone set into the hillside. Draz brought the prowler lizard up alongside it and dismounted.
“Come on,” he said to Zalla.
Not with a little difficulty, Zalla managed to clamber down off the creature, while Draz stood with arms folded across his broad chest. When she finally got her feet back on solid ground, he marched off toward the arch.
She watched him go and realized this was the perfect opportunity to climb back on the lizard and escape. Trouble was, she had no idea how to ride such a beast and the terrifying encounter with the Mauler last night made her think twice. Without any other alternative, she followed Draz through the archway.
A cool dark tunnel stretched out beyond the arch, going deep under the hill and a pale blue light shone at the far end of it. The floor was smooth beneath her feet and Zalla caught up with Draz.
He did not acknowledge her as he walked and headed straight for the blue light. Fear began to swirl in the pit of Zalla’s stomach as she tried to figure out what was going on, but she went after him ready to accept whatever he had in store for her.
Another archway of the same colored stone greeted them at the end of the passageway. The light was coming from beyond and as Zalla stepped through after Draz, she let out a gasp of amazement as she took in her surroundings.
She was standing in a large grotto, veined through with glowing blue crystal. Large pools of dark, refreshing looking water dotted the grassy floor and a variety of exotic looking flowers and plants grew at their edges.
Huge phosphorus mushrooms glowing violet and green also sprouted from the lush ground and high above a kind of immense crystal chandelier was suspended from the cavern roof. It glowed with a scintillating blue light, and sleek, angelic looking humanoid creatures flew lazily around it, kept aloft by elegant, diaphanous wings. They were distinctly feminine and glowed with a translucent light.
“You like it?” Draz asked next to her, his deep voice breaking her trance.
Startled, she turned to look at him. He was watching the flying creatures, a smile of innocent joy on his face.
“It’s beautiful,” she said in an awed whisper. “Those creatures, they’re magnificent. What is this place?”
“Come on,” replied Draz in a much friendlier voice. “Let’s sit down.”
They moved deeper into the grotto and sat down at the edge of one of the pools. The grass beneath her was as soft as silk, and it was so tranquil and quiet here, that Zalla relaxed immediately.
A fragrant breeze caressed her skin. She stared out at the chandelier again and one of the flying creatures gave her a brief glance as it drifted by.
“We are at the entrance to the Mating Caverns that stretch deep beneath Vakrall,” said Draz as way of explanation. “These are female Vakrallans.”
Zalla’s eyes widened. “Those are your . . . women?”
Draz shot her an amused glance. “You didn’t know? I thought you were an expert on Vakrallan culture?”
Zalla shrugged. “I know there are three castes of Vakrallan male, I just assumed there were three castes of female too. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Vakrallan woman before.”
“Nobody outside of Vakrallan society has,” Draz said. “Females live here, in these caverns. When they are in season, warriors come here to mate and sire the next generation.
The females lay thousands of eggs from which slaves, traders and warriors are born. We do not form emotional attachments with them, that is why we value off-world females so highly. They provide the ‘comforts’ our own females cannot give us.”
“I see,” Zalla said slowly. “You keep your women underground and use them as breeding stock.”
Draz laughed deeply. “No Zalla, we don’t keep them anywhere. Our females stay down here by choice. They have been here millions of years, virtually immortal and more powerful than you could ever imagine.
In fact, they don’t need to reproduce at all but after an eternity, they started to get lonely, so, they decided to create males. They possess truly amazing knowledge of genetic manipulation. In fact, they can create virtually anything.
They created the three castes, one to service, one to trade and one to fight, the keystones for building the perfect empire. We are born for one role and one role alone.
You remarked yesterday that the Slave Caste has the raw end of the deal, and in many ways, you are right. Some do try and escape their role and go out into the desert but the females implanted a genome virus inside their DNA that trans
forms them into savage monsters. You met one last night.”
“The Mauler? It was a slave?” Zalla asked in an amazed voice.
“Probably, it might have been a trader or in some rare cases a warrior. You see our females make sure we all remain in our allotted roles or we degenerate into mindless beasts. Perhaps, now you have some idea of why my society is the way it is.”
Zalla looked back at the beautiful flying Vakrallans. They had taken on a more sinister aspect. “I think I understand,” she said, “but why bring me here?”
“When I was a youngling, in Earth parlance that would make me a teenager, my father took me on a raid of a Veenan colony on the edge of the Rogue Zone.
We battled the men folk in hand-to-hand combat as was fitting and they fought with a truly admirable ferocity to protect their home and families. I think I killed over thirty of them while the rest of my warrior comrades butchered the rest. The Veenan children were taken back to Vakrall to be sold into slavery.
Because I had distinguished myself well that day, my father gave me the pick of the Veenan women to do with as I wish. That night, I forced myself on women whose husbands I had killed merely hours before, and I took pleasure in their suffering.”
He fell silent and Zalla looked at him utterly appalled. He smiled grimly. “I know what you think, and you’re right. I was born a warrior, conditioned and trained to be ruthless and cruel, to serve my allotted caste to the best of my ability. To do otherwise would mean becoming a mindless beast. It is a bitter choice, and many of us choose to follow lives within the castes decreed by the females. In many ways, we have no choice.”
Zalla swallowed, and processed what he was telling her. Given this new perspective, her opinions began to change. Draz couldn’t help being born a warrior, and he couldn’t help doing what was expected of him. In many ways, he was a prisoner of circumstance.
He looked at her, his eyes raw with pain. “I am not a good man, Zalla,” he said in a husky voice, “but I can be a good man to you, if you let me.”
Sold to the Warlord (Astral Heat Book 2) Page 4
