Fountain of Beauty

by Meraki P. Lyhne

  The Changeling perked up, but there wasn’t a lot of hope in his eyes as he glanced less surreptitiously at Seldon.

  “Will you feed me?” he finally asked.

  “Are you empty for me?” Seldon asked.

  “I don’t know!”

  “Well, then shove a finger up there and find out.”

  Roardon chuckled behind them. Seldon turned his head to see Geodin and Roardon sit closely. They, too, were cold, it seemed.

  Back to the Changeling who was fingering his ass. He withdrew them, his cock standing erect and drooling. Seldon hated that cock because of all the pain it had caused him. It was ugly, too. At least he thought it was because it had hurt him.

  “I’m empty.”

  Of course he was—he hadn’t been fed by the soldiers yet.

  Don’t be petty, don’t be petty…

  But if the Changeling was going to be a part of Daniel’s House, Seldon certainly wasn’t going to let the disrespect for the hierarchy fly. Seldon leaned closer to Elakdon again to whisper. “You said you wanted to give him to Daniel to see what the cub would do?”

  “Yes, why?”

  “Might as well train him a bit, then.”

  Elakdon chuckled again. “Whatever helps you pull off a feeding.”

  “I’ll feed you, but you should learn how we do things. So far, you’ve missed calling me by my title. Those are important where we come from. You’re one of us now, you will learn them, use them, and most importantly of all, you will respect them. Ask me to feed you again, but do it properly.”

  The animosity and humiliation at having to respect Seldon battled the soldier’s hunger. Seldon waited, staring at him. God, he wished he had a watch. Sense of time told Seldon he’d waited ten minutes to hear the word Sire be sneered at the end of the request to be fed.

  Seldon stood. “Run me through all the proper titles in The Great House of Dahlidin. I’m sure you know them.”

  More sneering, but the soldier finally tried. He missed the difference between dark and light blue, and Seldon kept at it for another fifteen minutes before he poked at the soldier by asking him to come up with a good reason for treating the Cubi in their custody like that, and he wouldn’t take it’s my job as an answer.

  Before he got to feed the soldier, the door to the cell room opened, and Seldon stalked back to Elakdon, ready to protect the King if he could. But the soldiers came in with food which they placed on the floor around where the Changeling sat. He could reach it through the bars.

  “Let me out, Matt.”

  “No, Jones, you’re one of them now.”

  “That’s not my fault! Come on, they’re fucking sadistic!”

  “So are you,” Seldon retorted.

  “You’re one of them, Jones, now eat.” The soldier stood and left quickly.

  “Sadistic, huh? Are you sure that I would want to feed you if you think I’m sadistic for taking care of your needs after you poisoned me?”

  “I didn’t poison you!”

  “Rape is poison, you ignorant mother fucker!” Seldon roared and stood. “If not for higher doses available, I could have fucking died a slow and agonizing death, and you think I’m sadistic? You tortured me!”

  The soldier looked at Elakdon. “Why didn’t it work on you?”

  “Work? Sounds like you were attempting to do the same to me, then.”

  “What was the order that made you rape us while getting paid to do so? Job indicates you got paid, right?”

  “To…prepare you for interrogation,” the Changeling said quietly, not looking at them. “Break you down.”

  “How’s that working out for you?” Elakdon sneered. “And it didn’t work on me because golden-eyed have an anal gland, so I dosed you to escape the torture.”

  “Do you know who’s good at torturing people?” Geodin asked the Changeling.

  He shook his head. When Geodin didn’t say anything, Seldon looked at her, but her steely gaze was already locked onto him.

  “Oh, that’s right. Me,” Seldon said. “I’m four hundred years old, and I’ve been in a few wars. Guess my job was like yours. Break them, except it wasn’t breaking them for others to take over and finish the job, I went all the way and got the intel we wanted.”

  “And I want intel,” Geodin said. “I want to know how high up the orders are given from.”

  Seldon smiled at the Changeling. “Don’t worry, I’ll still feed you and not rape you, but the Grand Lady wants something. As a Sire of her House, it’s my responsibility to get it for her.”

  The Changeling had lost all color in his face, and he shivered even more as he backed into the corner again, leaving his food untouched.

  “How many soldiers are here and how big is the facility?” Elakdon asked.

  “I can’t tell you that!”

  “Can’t or won’t? Two very different things,” Seldon said.

  “Ever wonder if your soldier buddies are going to treat you like one of us now that you are?” Roardon asked. “What did they have planned for us? Which now includes you.”

  Well, reality just set in by the looks of it.

  “They wanna trade you for the soldiers you took prisoner,” the Sergeant finally said.

  “Hmm…” Elakdon said. “Why haven’t they made demands yet, then?”

  “They’re trying to get hold of the top Cubi.”

  “Well, fan-friggin-tastic,” Geodin said. “We’re in here!”

  “You’re the Grand House?”

  “I’m Grand Lady Geodin. The Grand House can’t make decisions like that without me present, and since your little attempt to break into the Grand House with the two hundred soldiers we now keep prisoner, Grand Sire Seldon here is a vote on the board, too.”

  “You have one option then,” Elakdon said. “Get the people in charge here to negotiate.”

  “In the meantime,” Seldon said, “enlighten us by answering our question. You should want to be all over that opportunity to get some goodwill after what you did.”

  “And he is the only one here who can feed you,” Elakdon said.

  Would feed him was probably a better way to phrase it, but Seldon understood why the King refused to.

  “So, start at the beginning,” Seldon said. “I’ll feed you after.”

  The Changeling shook his head and rocked, his loyalty to the corps he’d served so embedded that he couldn’t go back on it even to soothe himself. Seldon could admire that, but he didn’t have to like it since it screwed with his plans. Well, he just hoped the soldier could admire Seldon’s skills as a trainer, too.

  “You know, your kind isn’t the only one who uses torture. We just use it differently.” Seldon stalked to the solder, grabbed his ear since his hair was too short, and hauled him toward the mattress. Elakdon got out of the way, and Seldon tossed the man face down onto the mattress. “Grand Lady, if you’d be so kind and hold his hands, Elakdon, his feet.”

  Geodin reached through and grabbed a wrist before the soldier managed to pull them away from the bars. Seldon grabbed the still free hand and yanked to put it within Geodin’s reach. The Changeling cried out from the roughness and kicked to get free, but Elakdon had an easier time restricting his legs.

  “How many soldiers are there in this compound?” Seldon asked, planting a heavy hand on the soldier’s back to keep him against the mattress and not flopping off it.

  “Fuck you!”

  Seldon didn’t have any tools for corporal punishment, so he used his hand, slapping the Changeling’s thigh. It tore a scream from him, and the red and welted outline of Seldon’s palm stood forward almost immediately. Seldon then repeated the question and counted to ten. No answer, so he slapped the soldier on his other thigh, wrestling another pained cry from him.

  Soldiers rushed into the cell room, yelling for Seldon to stop.

  Seldon stood. “How I train my people’s Changelings is none of your business!”

  “We heard what you asked him!” a soldier said, and Seldon was
far from proud of a situation where the soldiers had brought weapons.

  “Did you also hear the part where the ones you’ve been trying to contact to negotiate are the ones you haven’t spoken to yet?” Geodin asked, not letting go of the Changeling’s arms.

  “Let’s remedy that,” the soldier said scornfully. “Knock them out and bring her.”

  Seldon threw himself between the weapons and Elakdon while Roardon grabbed Geodin and put himself between her and the soldiers. The silicone bullet hit Seldon’s stomach, knocking the wind out of him, yet he tried to protect Elakdon who was shouting and cursing the soldiers. Another bullet hit Seldon, and the queasiness took over while the dizziness assaulted his senses.

  Roardon screamed, and Geodin ordered them to stop shooting.

  And that was the last Seldon heard before he collapsed unconscious on top of Elakdon.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  D aniel had never seen that many purple-eyed Cubi in the same place before if not counting the chaos on the platform when boarding the trains. And there was a big difference, too. Most of them were in tactical gear and had weapons. As in guns and not a sword which Caledon had looked pretty badass with.

  The Royals and Grand Lord Neardon walked among them and talked while Daniel and Caledon sat on a window sill and watched. Once in a while, a purple-eye dragged someone aside to feed, but then they went back to their work. Caledon had just fed and fed on Daniel, and it was more from necessity than wanting to be intimate. He could even feel on Caledon that he wasn’t in the mood for the fun stuff, and he suspected they were both nervous about the upcoming military insurgency. It certainly looked like they were preparing for one.

  Nol-Plydon came over along with a Guard Lord. “Nol-Beaudon, please meet Guard Lord Stadon. He’s the best of Elakdon’s warriors and the head of the operation.”

  Daniel stood, and the Guard Lord bowed. “Will you tell me where we are in this?”

  “Yes, Nol. We know where they are, we’ve scouted the place for the past six hours. We have their routines and personnel count. We’re moving in in two hours. I’ll be heading the operation, so I’m leaving, now.”

  Daniel nodded, and fear and relief fought for dominance.

  The Guard Lord placed his hands on Daniel’s shoulders. “We’re not leaving anyone behind.”

  “Thank you. Are we taking prisoners?”

  The Guard Lord smiled. “If at all possible, yes. And we’re going to steal all their hard drives, too. In the meantime, stay safe, young Nol.” The Guard Lord gave Daniel’s shoulders another squeeze, let go, and hollered for people to get ready.

  Daniel grasped Caledon’s hand, finding it both cold and clammy. He looked up, finding one of the it’s going to be okay smiles on Caledon’s face.

  “Shall we go watch?” Nol-Plydon asked.

  Daniel and Caledon followed the King to a media room where the other Royals and their respective Ilkil-Nol waited—except for Elakdon’s Ilkil-Nol because she was in Canada, paving a road to a tighter friendship between the Canadian government and Daniel’s Kingdom.

  Nil-Baesdin turned on the big television, and her Ilkil-Nol fiddled with some electronic equipment that made four computer screens, two on each side of the big television, come alive. The images bounced like the feeds were from head-cams on a helmet. They were, Daniel finally figured, and the noises he heard sounded like it came from the helicopters outside. Once the rotors roared and the helicopter lifted off the ground, Daniel could hear the same outside.

  His stomach hurt.

  Someone handed him a file, and he busied his mind with looking through it. It had a list of names with ranks and pictures and schematics of a building.

  “That’s the Colonel who led the military laboratory we used,” Caledon said, pointing at the name. “He’s the one who started all this.”

  It was a man in his sixties if Daniel was any good at placing a person’s age. Considering he was nineteen and anyone above thirty was old in his eyes, the guy could be forty for all he knew. Standing next to a hot eight hundred-year-old was funny enough to chuckle at. The Colonel looked haggard, and his eyes tired and soulless. Like he’d seen too much evil and suffering to want to care anymore.

  “Do we have the files of the soldiers we took hostage?”

  “Yes,” Caledon said, got up, and left the room. He returned within a few minutes with his laptop and logged on, finding a file with a lot of names. “They’re sorted by age, except for the red names at the top, they’re Changelings.”

  Caledon placed the laptop in front of Daniel who clicked the first name. A personnel file created by the Cubi came up, showing a not so flattering picture of a young man who wouldn’t have made the cut by looks alone, yet he wasn’t that unattractive—he just didn’t meet the normal standards. Under Placement, Daniel saw that he was moved to Labor.

  “So the not so attractive ones are moved to Labor?”

  “Yes. Look at number fourteen.”

  Daniel clicked it, and man he was hot. Placement, Changeling confinement. “What’s that?”

  “The ones who have trouble being a Changeling. We can’t just let them loose in the House if they hate it, and we definitely can’t let a soldier loose in there.”

  Daniel nodded, seeing the point. He’d made it through twenty-five of the people when Neardon came to sit with them. Daniel looked up, catching a glimpse of a look the Grand Lord and Caledon shared. Oh no, that was Caledon’s bad news face.

  “Caledon?”

  Caledon smiled more genuinely and reached up to caress Daniel’s cheek. “You see right through me, cub.”

  “That’s because you allow me to.”

  “That’s true, I guess.” Caledon drew a deep breath. “A second attack on the Great House means we’ve had to abandon it completely. Half the breeders were set free, and we’ve focused on moving cubs and prisoners of war. Your people have been scattered all over the Kingdom.”

  Daniel gasped, and a million thoughts forced their way through his mind at the same time. “Anyone hurt?”

  “Yes.” Neardon drew a deep sigh, and Daniel feared the number. “One hundred and fifty dead is the latest number.”

  “Oh, God.” Daniel covered his face.

  “But your contingency plans are working,” Neardon said, looking optimistic. “Houses have been bought under Mingler names, and some breeders are loyal to the Cubi now. Take Caledon’s six collared breeders. They’ve returned to human society and bought property in their names to hide Cubi.”

  “Alex? What happened to my first claimed breeder?”

  “He was given a choice. He asked if he could go home. He was taken to the city and set free with some money and clothes.”

  Daniel wondered how Seldon would take that news. They’d had fun. They’d even been friends. It almost gave him some sense of peace to know that Alex was free to live his own life and have sex with who he wanted and not whatever Incubus had him on his schedule. But Daniel had released him from that on Seldon’s request. Still, he hoped Alex would find happiness.

  “So there are too few breeders in the Great House now?”

  “Yes and no,” Neardon said. “You see, the new Great House was never meant to house all of us like the first one. It was built so we could grow as a people. The Grand House decided upon it once the human government first tried to put a halt to our right to procreate like we were a nation under their rule.”

  “And that’s why it’s located in Canada?”

  “Exactly.”

  “They’re at the location!” someone said, and Daniel left the computer to look at the screens, once again clutching Caledon’s hand. They stared in rapt attention as the Guard Lords and Ladies moved in during daylight, and all Daniel saw was sewerage on every camera. Then ladders and the Guards climbed them and stuck optic cameras through holes. It was like watching an action movie, and as long as Daniel treated it as one, he could keep his nerves under control. But all that was at stake kept poking at his willpower to stay s
trong.

  The Cubi made it up into the hallways and were apparently camouflaged because soldiers walked right by some of them. Then they moved quickly, caught the soldiers, and injected them with something. The cameras picked up the other Guards because it wasn’t blinded by hormones, and it looked odd when soldiers walked right past a Cubus standing still somewhere.

  They watched for almost thirty minutes before an alarm blared and a voice shouted something about intruders. Then the cameras moved quickly, bouncing as the Guards ran through the hallways. They began kicking down doors and shot the soldiers.

  “Are they using lethal force?” Daniel asked.

  “No,” Neardon answered. “They’re using darts.”

  Soldiers rushed out of a room, and Daniel froze when he thought he recognized Geodin’s voice. Guards toppled the soldiers, and a knife caught some light. Whoever wore the camera screamed from pain, and the camera shifted to another person’s, leaving Daniel eager to know what had happened to the Guard Lord. But he soon had other things to worry about because the head camera pointed at Geodin strapped naked to a chair, and she was bleeding from cuts on her face and arms.

  “Grand Lady Geodin has been located.”

  The camera shifted while the Guard Lady was releasing Geodin from her restraints, and the next feed was from someone kicking down another door. Seldon lay on his side, bruised and unconscious, and Daniel whimpered. Caledon let go of Daniel’s hand and pulled him close, but they couldn’t stop watching.

  “Grand Sire Seldon has been located.” The Guard Lord knelt and turned Seldon over, feeling for a pulse. Seldon groaned and swatted out an arm. “He’s alive.”

  The feed changed again. And this time they watched as all the screens showed Guard Lords fighting soldiers and kicking down doors.

  Elakdon sat kneeling on the floor, his arms held out by manacles around his wrists. He, too, was bleeding.

  Daniel couldn’t take anymore. He hid his face against Caledon’s chest, praying his dad was okay, too.

  “Nol-Elakdon has been located. Alive and conscious…We have a Changeling here, too. Not yet located.”

  Daniel glanced at the screen, finding Elakdon standing but bruised and pissed off by the looks of his shiny eyes.