The Slave Planet

by Seven Steps

  His mind went blank.

  “Hava,” she said.

  A greeting?

  “My name is Hava.”

  He was drawn to her sparkling dark eyes, the light that bounced off of her chocolate skin, her darkly glossed lips. His mouth went dry.

  “Kiln,” he croaked.

  “Hello, Kiln.” Hava tilted one corner of her mouth up into a half smile.

  Kiln felt his heart began to race.

  “Where are you from?” Hava asked.

  “Venus.”

  “A Venian slave? Here? Well, well.” She took a drink from her cup, drawing Kiln’s eyes to her full mouth again.

  “Freed, actually.”

  “Even better.” A smile spread across her face. Her dark eyes seemed to glow.

  Gorgeous.

  “Would you walk with me, free man?” Hava asked.

  “I ... uh ...”

  “Kiln, I was just going to get a drink.”

  He heard Nadira’s voice but couldn’t turn away from the exotic beauty. It’s like I’m under a spell. A Hava spell.

  “Kiln!”

  Kiln felt a hand slap him in the gut, breaking the enchantment. He turned to find Nadira glaring at him.

  “Escort me,” Nadira said, her voice flat.

  “Yes,” Kiln whispered. He bowed toward Hava, unable to wipe the silly grin from his face. “It was an honor.”

  “Likewise, free man.” Hava smiled back.

  Kiln felt himself being pulled toward the food table.

  “This place,” Nadira mumbled.

  Kiln smiled. “Yes, this place.”

  Nadira stopped in front of the table, simultaneously glaring at Kiln and Hava. “She’s still looking at you.”

  “Is she?” Kiln’s head swooped around. Hava’s eyes hadn’t left him. He grinned at her.

  Nadira pushed his shoulder hard, grabbed his collar, and pulled him down until his eyes were level with hers.

  “You have one Empress. One!”

  A slow smile spread across Kiln’s lips.

  She’s jealous of Hava?

  “Yes, I have only one Empress.” He grinned, bending close to her ear to whisper, “And you have only one King.”

  Before she could argue with him further, he covered her mouth with his, not stopping until he’d stolen her breath away.

  “Only you,” he whispered against her kiss swollen lips. “I want only you, my Empress.”

  Her eyes turned heavy, her pulse jumping erratically in her neck. She dropped her gaze to the floor and nodded, a furious blush rising in her cheeks. He placed a gentle finger beneath her chin, raising her eyes back to him.

  “Never look down, Nadira. You are, after all, an Empress.”

  She took a deep breath, and straightened her shoulders, remembering her Venian roots. Turning back to the food table, she kept a wary eye on Hava, who was talking to the old man who’d clapped Kiln on the back earlier. It seemed that she had found other prey.

  When the music stopped, all eyes turned to the door. Two commanding figures stepped over the threshold and into the room.

  An announcement echoed through the ballroom.

  “Forger Magistrate Embrya and High Keeper Heedon.”

  Small white flowers decorated ginger locks that fell in perfect ringlets down to Embrya’s ankles. Icy blue eyes perfectly complimented her porcelain skin. Two sets of large, clear wings embroidered with gold grew from her back.

  High Keeper Heedon stood two feet taller than Embrya. With skin so white it took on a bluish tint, and blood red hair and beard, he stood out among all of the men at the ball.

  They both wore draping, deep green robes that flowed over their bare feet.

  “Aren’t they magnificent?” Dell Una asked.

  Nadira and Kiln turned to see Dell Una suddenly at their side, staring proudly at her rulers.

  “They are,” Nadira said. “Do you think we should say something to them?”

  “Please do,” Dell Una said. “Come, I will escort you.”

  Dell Una moved them past the waiting ambassadors and positioned them directly in front of Embrya.

  “Magistrate and High Keeper, I present Marie’s birth and her life mate.”

  Kiln bowed deeply before the rulers. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Nadira do the same.

  “Marie’s birth,” Embrya said.

  Embrya had the most dazzling smile Kiln had ever seen.

  “It’s wonderful to see you again,” Embrya said to Nadira. “Your mother was highly favored.”

  “Thank you, Embrya.”

  “News of her death brought great pain to my heart. I had hoped that she would spend her final days here with me in a place of honor. That invitation is now extended to you and your life mate.” Embrya turned her dazzling smile to Kiln. “Prince Kiln, life mate to the highly favored.” She inclined her head. “I trust that you are comfortable here.”

  Prince?

  “I am, Magistrate.”

  “Excellent,” Embrya said. “The comfort of royalty is always a priority. Please let your ambassador liaison know how she can make your stay more pleasant.” She and Heedon moved on to the next ambassador, leaving Kiln in his confusion.

  “Royalty?” he whispered. He turned to where Embrya and Heedon walked down the line of ambassadors. He saw Heedon glance his way, then turn back to the ambassador that Embrya was speaking to.

  “What did they mean by royalty?” Kiln asked.

  CHAPTER 12

  Lex picked at what he only could assume was vegetation. There was a green stem, but the body of it was a shade of orange he had never seen before. He moved it around his plate.

  “Hey!”

  A pale, redheaded woman dressed in an all-white uniform charged at him. She stopped only inches away and craned her pale neck to glare up at him, challenge in her eyes.

  At the sight of her, Lex felt something change within him. He squared his shoulders and stood up straight as she stepped closer.

  Closing her eyes, she took a long sniff of him. A low growl emitted from her throat. “You are the lost one.”

  Lex’s voice dropped an octave. He barely recognized it as his own. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “You are the Glorium child that was sold,” the woman said. “The lost one.” Her scent teased his nostrils. The smell was distinctly feminine and inarguably hers.

  Lex shook his head, trying to rid himself of her enticing smell. “I am a Venian.” He squeezed his lips together, trying to understand why the word Venian felt so foreign, so wrong.

  “No man is truly Venian,” the woman said. “You were sold to Venus as a child. But you are Glorium, highly favored of Heedon. I know it.” She snatched his hand before he could protest and clasped it with her own.

  The moment their fingers linked, adrenaline coursed through his veins. His body pulsed with potent energy. Boldness crashed through him. He felt braver and stronger then he had ever felt before.

  The room around him turned into flames. Though the red inferno scorched his vision, he saw the woman as clearly as before. Her green-eyed gaze seemed to reach him through the flames, connecting them, bonding them. He instantly trusted her, felt her sink into his mind, and into his heart.

  Lex closed his eyes.

  Through the darkness, she was still there, as clear as ever, his own beacon of light.

  She pulled her hand away and took a step back.

  Without her touch, the flames died, and the room turned back into a ballroom filled with oblivious ambassadors.

  He could do nothing but gasp.

  “Through the fire,” she said.

  He couldn’t help but to say, “Through the fire.” Even as he said it, he knew exactly what it meant.

  I would go through the fire for her, as I would for myself.

  “You felt it, didn’t you?” she asked.

  Lex nodded. He felt masculine instinct in the back if his mind, pushing him, filling him with a new aggression and
virility that he hadn’t felt before. He felt like a part of him had come back to life, and he reveled in it.

  “I knew it. Your smell, your mark. You are undeniably Glorium.”

  “My mark?”

  “Your hair. The flame of Glorium.” She pointed up to her own red hair and smiled. “There is nothing else like it in the universe. And your eyes. Haven’t you noticed that they are red too?”

  He had, but he’d never thought anything of it.

  “Our fire flows through us, moves us, keeps us together.”

  Lex furrowed his brows. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe this woman, after all, he had seen the flames, but his mind couldn’t help but question her.

  Who is she? What does she know about where I’ve come from? Not that I can remember anything before ...

  His eyes wandered around the room before they rested on Eva. She was chatting with a female ambassador wearing a bright blue shawl, seeming unconcerned about anything else.

  He turned back to the woman.

  She tilted one side of her mouth into a smile.

  He smiled back.

  “Don’t worry,” she said. “When Heedon marks you again it will all make sense. My name is Kiera. I’m one of many Glorium warriors here.”

  Lex cleared his throat. “Lex.”

  “Lex,” she whispered. She rolled his name around in her mouth. “Lex.”

  He shifted. “Kiera’s a beautiful name.”

  “It was my mother’s.” She grinned proudly. “When I completed my training, she gave it to me.” She tilted her head when she saw confusion on his face. “Those who are Glorium only receive a name when they are found worthy. But you don’t remember that, do you?”

  Lex shook his head.

  Kiera’s red brows squeezed together over her deep red eyes. She reached out and touched his cheek. “I’m so sorry.”

  He hardly noticed the flames rising around them. Her eyes were a crimson he’d never seen before. Deep and pure. No flecks, just an orb of red in milky white. He lost himself in them for a moment before he cleared his throat, took a step back, and composed himself. The flames died again, leaving no scorch to show that they had ever been there at all.

  “Can you tell me about Glorium?” he asked.

  Kiera looked across the room at Eva. “Won’t your master object?”

  “I have no master. I’m a free man.”

  Kiera’s eyebrows twitched upward. “Spoken with the passion of a true Glorium.” She waved him to an empty, comfortable couch near the wall.

  Lex began to look for Eva again but thought better of it and turned back to Kiera.

  She’ll find me if she needs me.

  “Well, where do I start? How does one begin to describe home?” She smiled and looked off into the distance. “Glorium,” she breathed reverently. She looked back at Lex. “It’s a Keeper’s place. Each Keeper is given a world all his own, and Embrya gifted Glorium to Heedon. Back home the sky is always on fire. It’s beautiful. It’s hot. Too hot for all of these clothes.” She grimaced. “There’s lots of sand, and big sandstorms, and enough cliffs and canyons and caves to get lost in. Lots of big open fields to train in. Once a cycle, when it rains, we have a festival with all the meat you can stomach.” She sighed. “Compared to Glorium, Zenith is a wasteland. Once you go there, you will never desire to leave. Not that it matters. Once Heedon finds out you’re here, he will reclaim you.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “All who are Glorium belong to Heedon,” Kiera said. “It’s been decreed. It doesn’t matter what happened to you in the past. He’ll take you home.”

  But what about Eva? What about Venus?

  Kiera tipped her chin up at him. “You look sad. You should be celebrating. You’re finally going home!”

  “Yes.” Lex couldn’t hide the troubled look that settled on his face. “Home.”

  CHAPTER 13

  Venus

  Arees’ heart sped in panic as she examined her touch screen.

  The latest report from the spies on Mars had just come in. The armies were mobilizing.

  Mars sent men to Venus under the guise of being slaves in order to spy out the Council, but Venus had their own set of spies. Dozens of women who made the ultimate sacrifice every day to keep Venus safe. Women who were subjected to the Martian women’s barracks. Women who endured the birthing houses.

  Slaves themselves. Subject to the worst kind of torture, a man’s bed.

  She shivered at the thought, and wondered how Jun-Su could not only be persuaded to it, but could enjoy it, pine for it.

  They must’ve drugged her.

  The spies sent encrypted messages back to Venus once every few days. Since she’d murdered Empress Drell, the former Leader of High Council, it had become Arees’ responsibility to monitor these lines of communication.

  War Games are slowing down. Prince Praxis has given the order to prepare for battle. He has not communicated where the armies are moving to or who they are fighting against. King Haggarty has left the palace under the guise of sickness. We believe that he and Praxis had a falling out, and now Praxis is taking over royal command.

  Praxis, Arees thought. She could see him in her mind’s eye. Six and a half feet tall, blonde hair shaved on one side, piercing blue eyes, and covered in muscles from neck to ankles. He was a hulk of a man, and the thought of going against him in battle terrified her.

  If Praxis is ending his childish War Games then something big must be going on. Martians don’t end their games for just anything.

  Arees had seen a War Game only once. Her enforcers raided an outpost for the Hollow – the illegal underground trade route on Venus. In the treasure trove of slaves, strange animals, and weapons she found a feed of War Games. Two teams of men squabbling over a ball on a field. She didn’t quite understand the rules of the game, but she did know that the ball was on a timer, and, when the time ran out, the ball exploded. One of the men ending up losing a finger. She’d liked that part.

  That men should survive at all is a miracle.

  She cursed Jun-Su and her Martian lover and tossed her touch screen onto the white table.

  Time is running out. If Praxis comes here and attacks with the full force of the Martian army, we don’t stand a chance. And without the support of the Magistrate, I am left woefully unprepared. It looks like I’ll have to move faster than anticipated.

  She picked up the touch screen from the table, and commed Bragnia.

  Bragnia answered on the first buzz. “Yes, Czarina.”

  “There is movement on Mars,” Arees said.

  “Yes, I have heard as much.”

  “We must be prepared for battle at once.”

  “Czarina, unfortunately, with our, uh, recent efforts our enforcer army has diminished. We are down to less than twenty thousand women.”

  “What are twenty thousand women against millions of Martian soldiers?” Arees mused out loud. “It won’t be a battle, it will be a slaughter.”

  “What do you want us to do, Czarina?”

  “We have to act quickly. Move the executions to tomorrow. After that, gather all enforcers on the planet to Alpha Sector. We’ll need every available woman and ship ready.”

  “For what purpose, Czarina?”

  “We need to get reinforcements.”

  “You mean-”

  “Yes. Tomorrow, we march on Mungogia.”

  “But, Czarina, if we cannot stand against Mars with our army, how can we stand against Mungogia?”

  “We won’t stand against them. We will use our armies as a distraction. While the Mungogian army is focused on them, myself and a small team will sneak into the tower and steal the eye.”

  “But, Czarina, what will happen to our soldiers?”

  “They will fight to the death if need be. That is what they are here for, aren’t they?”

  “We’ll lose thousands, Czarina. Tens of thousands.”

  “But think of what we will gain? Millions of soldiers, a
ll under my command.”

  “And your own soldiers?”

  “What higher honor is there than dying for me.”

  Bragnia’s eyes narrowed at her through the touch screen, surprising Arees. Typically Bragnia was compliant, easy to control. This was a face she’d never seen before. Anger, and hatred flowed through the screen in unmistakable waves.

  Arees leveled Bragnia with a threatening gaze of her own. “Bragnia, are you defying me?”

  Bragnia froze, her voice growing soft, her eyes downcast. “No, Czarina.”

  Arees smirked.

  Yes, that’s better. Cower before me.

  “My orders are for every available enforcer to be sent to Alpha sector immediately with every available ship. Tomorrow we will have our executions, and then, we will have our armies. Is that clear?”

  “Yes, Czarina.”

  “And Bragnia.”

  “Yes, Czarina.”

  “The next time you defy me, I will put you on the wrong side of the death barrier. Do you understand?”

  A beat passed before Bragnia responded. “Yes, Czarina.”

  Arees disconnected the comm, and turned back to the window. Clasping her hands behind her back, she walked towards the glass, staring at her reflection. Her army was no longer worthy. She would have to get a new one. Yes, it would take hard work, and great sacrifice. But, at the end of the day, Venus would be protected.

  Protected by monsters, she thought with a shiver.

  Naked, genderless, and powerful, the Mungogians were like no creature she’d ever seen. They were gigantic green, hairless beast with oblong faces and sloping foreheads. They had three eyes, and their noses protruded from their face like hoses. With three sets of arms and two sets of legs, they would be a force to be reckoned with. But, the Mungogians could be controlled. Within a well guarded tower on Mungogia was the greatest treasure in all the cosmos: the Eye of Mungogia. With it, Arees would be able to control the minds of every Mungogian on the planet.

  Imagine, Arees thought. Millions of those beasts just waiting for me to take the eye, waiting for me to take my power. With the Mungogians, I can march on Mars, and then, not even Embrya can stop me.

  She smiled, feeling genuinely happy for the first time in days.