“Sire?” He frowned. What Basteer failed to understand was that he needed to leave so as not to be reminded of what he could not have.
“This. The. One. Thing.” He’d pounded the bench with his fist in time with the words. “Your Slave Twelve committed definite sedition. Absolute sedition! You have ignored it. She coaxes other slaves to speak insults to the House Master. To you!”
Basteer had leaned forward. He’d never seen the man this angry.
“But, I excuse you. Her, I must punish. In deference to your...inappropriate affection for her, I too will not involve lawgivers...”
What would this punishment be? Basteer was able to do anything to her, as her owner. No limits. He had to speak. “Humans are unlike us or Scavs, sire. They –”
“Silence! I have instructed Nik and Weln to take her to the prow and expose her for a time that has been already decided, by me. Do not question me. This one thing I require is that you do nothing. Obey, and all will be back to normal. You will be House Master of all except her. Dismissed.” He picked up the tablet and began to tap.
The air in the garden seemed sparser than it should be. His head spun with possibilities. He didn’t trust Nik or Weln, or even Basteer, to judge the time they left her on the spear safely. She’d possibly die. The temperature outside was dropping daily.
If he spoke, defended her, nothing would happen. Basteer was set on this.
“Thank you, sire.”
He walked out, shut the door.
For once the rumble of the ship beneath his boots was an ominous sound. The ice sheets were out there, within sight and they were hanging Emery out on the spear. The winds would be fierce and of a temperature that might stop a heart if the person were frail.
Emery might last an hour.
It occurred to him then that Basteer comprehended the risks. If she died, he’d buy another. This wasn’t just for Emery; this was a punishment for him too.
Chapter 27
She knew. Nik had told her nothing, but she knew. The corridors, the people, then the thinning of the crowds, she knew they took her to the prow.
Nik sat beside her. Weln sat before her on the rear-facing seat – his face unreadable, his dark hair curling at his shoulders, broad shouldered though young. Both these men were capable of handling her with ease. With her hands at her back, she might as well be a marshmallow.
What could she do? Pray?
Maybe it wouldn’t be what she thought. Maybe they meant to scare her?
When they opened that familiar metal door and hustled her through, her legs wobbled.
When Nik wound back the glass then used another control to bring the spear upright until it snuggled against the metal stairs, her knees gave way.
Three crossbars were attached to the spear by Weln, locking on with bolts and clicks, and with the clang of heavy metal banging against other metal. “Those are for strapping you to,” Nik told her, leaning down to sneer. “Wouldn’t want you to fall. It’s a looong way to the ground.”
As they dragged her to it, she shook as if seizuring, partly from the cold already penetrating her flesh, mostly due to fear.
“No. No. Please. Please don’t.”
They ignored her, binding her to the spear and the crossbars with broad straps at chest and forehead, at knees, waist and ankles. Her dress whipped at her legs.
“These’ll keep you warm.” Nik plucked at the straps. He eyed her chest. “Those...need to be out where I can see them. With only his hands, he ripped holes in her dress at breast level. “Nice.”
She shut her eyes as his hands grasped her breasts and squeezed.
“Say goodbye to them. They’ll be frozen solid before we get you down.”
Though Weln stayed in the background, passionless, Nik grinned as he lowered the spear.
“Bye, sweet slave. I can see why Mako wants to stick his big cock in you. The man is in as much trouble with our lord as you. Well, maybe not quite as much.”
As it was lowered, the spear rocked, rotated, until she faced the ground hundreds of feet below – the trees tiny, the few fleeing animals the size of bugs. Tears poured from her eyes from the dryness of the wind ripping across her face.
Already she grew cold – so cold her fingers were losing feeling. The dress was thin and only beneath the straps did she feel warm. She dared not wriggle, scared something would snap or undo, and she’d fall to the earth, screaming.
Coldest of all was the massive spear at her back.
Below, the ship crunched forward, rattling the spear, shaking her, eating the terrain with massive clawlike scoops.
Mistress?
Mistress? A last joke – the mechling she’d ordered here was trapped somewhere, in a duct perhaps, from what she could gather from its thoughts. It must be coming back daily. It couldn’t have been here forever since its power cells wouldn’t have lasted. Useless to her now.
A bird flew by, surfing the wind, eyeing her as if it saw a meal, beak gaping and showing teeth.
Birds should not have teeth.
Mustn’t cry, mustn’t cry. Forgetting she’d already cried oceans.
Chapter 28
He wasn’t a man for indecision. By the time the door clicked shut, he knew what he was doing next.
Mako called a hopper and set out for the prow. They couldn’t be more than a half hour ahead of him. Even that could be too much time.
The door to the prow was shut and no one guarded it. Nik and Weln had likely been ordered back to the house, only to return at some allotted time.
He flung open the door then slammed it. Too late, too late.
Outside, beyond the closed glass, a woman hung from the spear, tied with straps, exposed to the wind that could stop a man’s breath.
Still, he paused. He didn’t know for sure how long this had been. Taking her down too soon would mean Basteer would order worse punishment.
Too late, and she’d be dead.
He ran to the glass, and wound it back, trying to assess her condition from what he could see. It was impossible. Were her feet blue? They were closest. Maybe, maybe not. No ice on her, but the air wasn’t quite that cold yet.
He should wait. Too soon and they’d put her back out here. She’d never survive this twice.
He wanted to feel her heart, to hug warmth back into her. This was the most agonizing decision ever.
He waited, counting down.
When a bird landed on the spear and reached down to peck at her shoulder, he changed his mind and screamed. “Get away! Get away!”
Winding in the spear took far too long.
Once she was freed, he had an icicle girl in his arms. He ripped off the heavy coat he’d worn here and wrapped it over Emery. The hopper would be warmer for her and he carried her to the door, all the while trying to hear her heart with his ear to her chest.
When he heard her whisper, “Mako?” he had to stop and reset his mind, teetering in place in the doorway.
Alive. Thank Arrak.
Chapter 29
Funny how logical her mind was when she surfaced into consciousness. This man had just saved her, she guessed, sure that he wasn’t supposed to be the one to take her down from the spear.
Then she shivered through a whole row of irrelevant thoughts, before settling on another.
This was wrong. Mako wasn’t supposed to even touch her.
If ever there was a time to record him doing something wrong, it was now.
The mechling was still above somewhere, watching.
Wouldn’t help her if no one saw this. The mechling would return to his owner and they’d likely think the feed meant nothing. JI-mech had said he could monitor the system. If she could reach him...
Mako brought her to a hopper, gently set her inside, with that concerned expression on his face. He tucked the coat around her. She couldn’t stop watching him past the furs around her face, never having seen a man look at her like that.
He’d tucked her in like some favored child, and she was
shaking so hard her teeth chattered. She’d always wondered if you could indeed be that cold. Her feet and fingers prickled as feeling came back. Almost frostbite, she imagined. Almost dead.
The spear was a Mekker device. She couldn’t separate him from them.
“You’re safe now, Emery. I will return you to the house. It’s over.”
Back there. So that was all this rescue entailed – taking her back to where some new master would do unspeakable things to her.
Mako was leaving the house in weeks.
This here, now, was her last chance to stick that spanner in the works, twist it, and snap it off.
The mechling chattered to her from wherever it hid.
Being gentle was of no use to her if he abandoned her afterward. It was surface care. Yet she wavered. Mako was being kind, and this action of hers would hurt him.
This was harder to do than she thought. At the last, as the hopper began to roll, she sighed.
She must be strong because no one else was going to do this for her.
Find a place to connect into the ship’s system but do not upload until JI-mech talks to you.
Then she reached upward, outward, striving to connect to JI-mech. A long way up to him but she’d often brushed the thoughts of mechlings that’d seemed miles away before. She couldn’t be sure he heard but she told JI-mech where to find the feed needed to free her from this ship.
It was done.
Fuck all Mekkers.
* * * * *
Mako stood in the doorway of the slave room, shaking his head and cursing quietly, before he left her in the care of a doctor-programmed mechling. It fed her hot soup, decided her limbs were fine, though her face was going to peel, checked her lungs and said she had some inflammation from breathing the cold air, then told her she had permission to rest a day.
One day, after being on the spear.
The room was deserted, the house quiet. The others, she realized, slaves as well as Nik and Weln, would be gone for bloodletting.
The house was in disarray and she was almost...if not quite, certain Mako was not functioning well, or as House Master, even if he was here.
Should she wait for the night? Or was now an opportunity? Many people were out and about at this time. All the better to go unnoticed while taking mechlings to the roof.
Her legs might not even hold her.
The heating was turned up to the max and blankets piled on her. Mammoth found her and burrowed under the blanket to her side. He was her unwavering friend, apart from JI-mech.
Be strong, and wait.
But waiting meant they’d return. There was no guarantee tonight would be easier.
She agonized and finally sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed, staring down at them. They were fine, right?
The stores would have clothes. She could find food. Find some mechlings to take for JI-mech to scavenge.
Mammoth blerted at her in that weird noise he’d been gifted when they made him.
“Not you.” Did he know she planned to escape? She pulled him into her lap, stroked his head, his ears, down his furred trunk. “I’m going to miss you. Stay.”
If she did this and it succeeded, she’d be free. If not, if they caught her... No. That was too black a concept. She couldn’t handle imagining that so soon after what had happened on the spear. Keep going – that’s what she had to do.
She dropped to the floor, rose to her full, if shaky, height. Took a second of holding the bed to get her balance, but...she could stand.
One thing at a time.
She staggered to the door.
Nothing to lose and everything to gain.
It struck her then how ridiculous her efforts to incriminate Mako were. He’d brought her to the house. Basteer would know this quite soon, so the feed from the mechling was useless, might’ve been anyway, since it might not be looked at immediately and on a normal day actually getting it seen by Basteer and not Mako was not simple...
Okay, she’d always known the plan was a crazy one, but it’d been her only one.
Today was her lucky day, if she discounted almost dying and her lungs feeling as if they were burning.
Chapter 30
His last moments at this house. He’d gathered his essential belongings already. No point in begging from Basteer; he’d clearly violated his order. He knocked at the door to the garden and, when told to, he entered. It had been so little time since he left here, as well as an eternity.
The man still had the tablet, though a bowl beside him on the bench said he’d eaten.
“Sire.”
“Yes, Mako? This visit of yours, with that bag in hand, has me thinking I’m not going to like what you’re about to say. What have you done?”
“I freed her. Left her there long enough. As my last favor from you I ask that you consider her fully punished, sire.” Then he moved to kneel.
“Don’t! Don’t kneel. Be as you were. I heard your plea. Knowing you, you calculated this to the second?”
“Well, a bird about to eat her did make me jump a little early.” He clenched at the bag handle, released it.
“I see. Then I grant your plea. She’s punished. You’re leaving?”
“I disobeyed you.”
Basteer nodded. “True. I’m disappointed in you. Very. This is exactly why I had her put on the spear, to avoid this situation. Humans don’t seem worth their cost. They create too much trouble. But you must go. I’ll refrain from giving you glowing references. Good luck, Mako, with the rest of your life.”
That was it. The man was as logical as a mech brain.
“Goodbye, sire.”
Once outside the doors leading into House Oren, he hoisted the bags in his hands into a better position. Finished. That part of his life was over. Though it was going to be difficult to forget how Emery had felt in his arms.
Chapter 31
Getting to the roof with warm clothes, some food, and eight mechlings in tow in the middle of the day when she hadn’t been told to do so by anyone from House Oren, was something she’d never have thought possible, until now. No one, absolutely no one, had doubted her purpose. Once out of the house she’d just simply...walked. No hopper, as a slave couldn’t order one without permission.
Emery went to one knee to catch her breath. Even then her knee wobbled and she sat down and stared at the sky with a hand to her sore chest. She’d wrapped herself and her face in coat and scarf but nothing would reverse what was already done. Was pretty up there with the pink clouds and, really, she didn’t have time to mess around by sitting on her ass.
You are ill? I saw what they did to you through the feed. I am sorry. I am glad your master released you before you died.
So the fuck am I. She smiled to the unseen JI-mech. Excuse me. My breathing needs to catch up with my doing. But... She grabbed a few breaths. I have...food here to load wherever. Where do I fit?
Did he grow from the roof? She’d always imagined he’d pop from a hatch.
JI-mech, can you take the mechlings and do what you have to? Be kind to them, please. Do I have to somehow feed them to you? She grimaced.
I will take them. Only four will be dismantled, the others I need for a different purpose. We need to move fast. Though the distant mechling herds on the roof cannot see us well, there will be noise as I emerge. Our four dead mechlings that I leave here will be memory-wiped. I will show you where you fit soon. I need to get you out of the cold.
So, no recordings of the escape would be left. However...
Doesn’t the ship have warning systems? In case of attacks?
No. No longer. Nothing on this world is capable of such attacks at present. Those systems decayed many years ago. I am all that is left of my...siblings – the other JI-mechs.
The roof before her began to make noises it never had before – the creak of metal joints, pops and cracks, squeals, and a section rose and rose, unfolding until it dwarfed her. The final shape was reminiscent of an upside-down boat hull wi
th caverns, ridges, and projections forming as she watched. Fractured ice slid. What might be a weapon launcher or wing of some sort eased out to one side, with a ka-chunk sound, then the other side did the same. The ship grew legs then raised itself on those crooked legs.
Do not be alarmed at this next event.
A humanoid robot dropped from some hole beneath in an unexpected robot birth. Even this, a mech a sixth the size of the main JI-mech, was nearly twice her height.
Mechlings were much cuter, she decided, less menacing. Did she still call JI-mech he? It had seemed to fit his demeanor. The color scheme was interesting.
Flame orange, black, and vibrant blue, with pretty steel rivet things and stuff?
To begin with. I change as I wish.
Pink polka dots?
Another day, Emery, when we are not in danger, then you may have your pink polka dots.
The deep laughing echoing in her head made Emery grin. You can laugh?
She pushed herself to her feet and picked up the sack with the clothes and the small amount of food she’d dared to steal. The deserted kitchen had given her the creeps.
I can. The smaller creature is my aux-mech. It will assimilate the mechling’s parts. If you do not wish to witness their demises, come aboard.
No, she did not wish to observe any demises, and she was freezing.
A ladder unrolled from a hatch beneath JI-mech and she set foot on the bottom rung, then she paused and looked about.
The roof had a great chasm where JI-mech had resided. Not a speck of rust showed. For him to function so well after such a great lapse of time spoke of a highly advanced technology. Maybe it was for the best that people in this world seemed unable to travel to hers.
Slowly, she climbed the metal ladder.
Your engines function well enough? She didn’t know what to ask precisely, but she was nervous. What if this failed at the last hurdle?
They are good, well repaired, though under-powered. Better than I had thought statistically likely. Some systems I cannot repair without new parts – remote communications, scanner, armaments, and a few minor ones.
Acquired Possession (The Machinery of Desire Book 1) Page 14
