Dangerous

by Sharon Green

  The laughter coming from all the men who had watched Jake's humiliation made that humiliation even worse, but there was still nothing Jake could do to change things. The slaver wanted him and Tandro to wish they were masters again instead of slaves, but the tactic wasn't working the way the fool expected. Jake was now even more opposed to slavery, not to mention silently promising himself Himlin's blood as soon as it became possible to take it…

  "All right, slaves, you can straighten up now but don't try to touch or take out what was put inside you," Himlin said after the laughter died down. "Come over here, and then kneel at my feet to either side of my chair. I like having slaves around me when I relax."

  Again Jake had no choice but to obey, and walking proved to be even more painful than he'd expected. But painful wasn't the only thing walking turned out to be, and by the time he reached Himlin's chair it was all he could do not to groan. The insertion had made him aroused during the switching, and walking had increased the arousal. The men seated in the chairs grinned wide as they watched him and Tandro, some of them chuckling as others laughed outright. They could all see how Jake and Tandro felt, the two men's condition being more than a little obvious.

  "Yes, I enjoy having obedience from my slaves," Himlin said once Jake and Tandro had knelt painfully to either side of his feet. "And I also enjoy having slaves around me. Bring in the first one."

  One of the men was near a door in the far side of the room, and when Himlin gave his order the man near the door turned and opened it. The way the man grinned was a hint Jake didn't want to believe, but the next moment the hint was reality that couldn't be denied. A really beautiful woman came in, moving with all the grace of a born and trained dancer, her naked body covered only with lengths of sheer lavender silk that were worse for Jake than complete nudity would have been.

  The woman's dark hair hung down to her slender waist in bouncing waves, moving beyond her arms as she moved toward them. Most of her body was slender, but her breasts jutted against the silk to emphasize her small waist and rounded hips. Her lovely face wore a smile of welcome and encouragement, and actual amusement danced in her gorgeous blue eyes. Jake's arousal was so intense and painful that he wanted to jump to his feet and use the woman no matter how many others were watching, but he'd been ordered to kneel and that order hadn't been rescinded. When Tandro groaned aloud, it took all of Jake's will not to do the same.

  The music of a flute sounded suddenly, and the woman began to dance to the music. The flute-player had apparently followed the woman into the room, but Jake hadn't noticed the small man until he began to play. The way the woman swayed and turned and stepped and posed was sheer hell for Jake, and even closing his eyes didn't help much.

  "I expect you slaves to watch this other slave's every move," Himlin's voice came, instantly ruining Jake's feeble escape attempt. "She's been trained for a specific purpose, and I want to know if that purpose has been achieved."

  So Jake was forced to watch the dancer as she moved in a very small amount of space in front of Himlin. Jake's hands had turned to fists where they rested on his thighs, an outward admission that the ache in his backside wasn't enough of a distraction. His body flared with the demand of his need, but he wasn't being allowed to see to that need. He was just being allowed to have the need increase, higher and higher without the least hope of getting it taken care of.

  And then an odd thought came to Jake in spite of his barely being able to think. Himlin had said that the slave had been trained for a specific purpose, but he hadn't said exactly what that purpose was. It was just possible that Himlin meant to question him and Tandro after the girl finished dancing, and if they came up with the proper purpose of the girl's training they might be allowed to use her. Part of Jake was very ashamed that he would even consider taking advantage of a slave like that, but the rest of him needed release too badly to worry about the niceties. If he ever got away he could find the girl and apologize, but right now…

  Right now Jake knew he had to figure out the answer to the question he'd be asked, so he watched the girl's dance carefully. Her movements were graceful but they were also slow and deliberate, the way she held to the silk and occasionally moved it emphasizing all the rest. Her gaze slid from one of the men watching her to the next, the smile on her face provocative, the look in her eyes the least bit challenging. Her hips moved in a way that turned Jake's mouth even drier, and -

  That's it, Jake thought when the realization forced its way through to his conscious mind. She's been trained to entice men into wanting to rape her, and the training has been very effective. If she would just come close enough for me to grab her…

  But the girl didn't come close enough to be grabbed, only almost close enough. Out of the corner of his eye Jake could see that Tandro was writhing where he knelt, something that Jake would have also done if he hadn't had a ten-point-steel grip on himself. His intense interest couldn't be missed by anyone who looked at him, but at least he wasn't adding to his own humiliation by writhing.

  The girl danced for a very long time, years and decades and centuries in Jake's estimation, but finally she went to her knees and bowed her head while she squirmed around a little and then the dance was over. The flute playing stopped while the men in the audience made loud sounds of appreciation, and then Himlin turned his head toward Jake.

  "Well, slave, I can see that you liked the dance quite a lot," Himlin commented, making his men laugh again. "Now I'll find out if you also obeyed my orders. Without speaking aloud, tell me if you're able to say whether the female slave's special training has been effective - and that you know what she's been trained to do."

  Jake nodded his head, the only way left him to show that he'd figured out the answer to the question, but Himlin didn't go on to ask that question. He turned to Tandro and said the same thing he'd said to Jake, but Tandro didn't show a nod the way Jake had. Tandro shook his head instead, which told Jake why Himlin had silenced him. If Jake had spoken aloud, he might have been able to share his knowledge with Tandro.

  "Oh, that's really too bad," Himlin said when he saw Tandro's headshake, the slaver pretending to be upset on Tandro's behalf. "I'm afraid you're going to regret not having the answer, but maybe you won't be alone regretting the lack. Your friend claims to know how to answer my question, but maybe he doesn't know at all. It's time to find out, so tell me, slave, what was the female slave trained to do?"

  "She was trained to entice men into wanting to rape her," Jake said, suddenly wondering if his answer was the one Himlin was looking for. "And yes, her training has been very effective."

  Those words brought laughter from all the men again, and Himlin wasn't shy about joining in. The slaver enjoyed his laugh while even the dancer smiled, and then he half leaned down to Jake.

  "What a good slave you are, obeying your master so well," Himlin said as he patted Jake's head. "You've earned a small reward, which I know you'll be grateful for. Girl, go and bend over the form and raise that silk up to your waist."

  Jake's mouth turned even drier as the girl instantly obeyed the orders she'd been given. She jumped to her feet and hurried to the form Jake himself had used, then raised the bottom of her silk costume before bending over the form. She was in exactly the right position to be used, and Jake waited tensely for permission to go and do that using. He needed a woman, needed her desperately, and even putting on a show for his captors wouldn't - make the time - a complete waste -

  It actually took Jake that long to realize that Himlin wasn't giving him permission to use the girl, but had gotten to his own feet and walked over to her. Himlin had his body wrap open in no time, showing that he was almost as badly aroused as Jake, and then the slaver was thrusting himself into the girl. The girl cried out when that very large tool was pushed into her, but she made no attempt to escape the following use. Not that she could have escaped even if she'd wanted to…

  Terrible disappointment flooded over Jake, the emotion so sharp that for the first ti
me in his adult life he really wanted to cry. He'd done exactly what he was supposed to do, had been praised and promised a reward, and then the reward he'd hoped for was snatched out of his hands by his master. Even though doing something like that was his master's prerogative, Jake still wanted to cry. He'd have to be careful to be much better the next time, or else this would just happen again -

  Jake shook his head hard as anger flooded his mind, chasing out all those alien thoughts. He didn't want to cry, he wanted to hurt Himlin for tormenting him, and also for giving him more orders while he was unconscious than he'd realized. If his previous reaction hadn't been so totally alien to his normal way of looking at things, he might not have been able to thrust the ideas away so easily. Jake could have ended up an eager slave, anxious to do well for the man who had made himself Jake's master…

  It would have been nice if Jake could have spoken aloud the words that now filled his mind, but asking for trouble was definitely a bad idea. Himlin had probably given Jake the kind of orders that were given to female slaves, having no idea that the same kind of orders would be useless to hold a man. Which was a damned good thing, or Jake would have been really deep in it right now.

  And the only question left now, Jake thought, was how much worse it would get. That it would get worse was so sure a thing that Jake would have been willing to bet every cent he owned on the certainty. And he couldn't even hope for rescue. Tain would be a fool if she didn't get Ennie and herself out of the town and back to base, but she might have been that kind of fool if Jake hadn't … enjoyed himself.

  It's my own fault, Jake thought as every ache and sense of need intensified in his awareness. This will be going on for a very long time, and I have no one but myself to blame. Not that that makes acceptance any easier… What the hell else will Himlin do to us…?

  Chapter Ten

  Himlin took his time with the girl slave, and from the way Tandro moved just a little where he knelt Jake knew that his friend was suffering at least as much as Jake himself. Every time the girl moaned Jake's suffering increased a notch, but there was a limit to the increase. The rise stopped just short of the point where Jake would have come just by watching, which showed another segment of the orders he'd been given. Without permission from his "master," he was allowed nothing in the way of relief.

  When Himlin finished with the girl he closed his body wrap again and sauntered back to his chair. The girl seemed to be deeply satisfied, and it took a minute or so before she was able to leave the form and follow Himlin to kneel at his feet - just out of Jake's reach. She was also out of Tandro's reach, and having her so close but still beyond touching and use made her presence even worse for Jake.

  "And now for the regret I spoke of earlier," Himlin said once the girl knelt in front of him, but the slaver's gaze was on Tandro rather than the girl. "A slave is required to be pleasing at all times, and you, slave, were less than pleasing by being unable to answer my questions. Go to the form and bend over it the way the girl did."

  Jake watched as Tandro obeyed the orders he'd been given, but not even the expressionless expression Tandro showed was enough to keep Jake from knowing how really disturbed his friend was. The native tried hard not to limp - or flinch - as he made his way to the wooden form and bent over it, but Jake was sure Tandro knew what was coming as well as he did. Slaves who weren't pleasing were punished…

  "Your reward, slave, is to know that you won't be punished - this time," Himlin said, and Jake glanced up to see that the slaver now looked at him. "You should also be rewarded with the knowledge that you've pleased your master just as a good slave is supposed to do. Now let's enjoy teaching a new slave his proper place in life."

  By that time one of the slaver's men had positioned himself behind Tandro, a switch in his hand. Again Jake knew that a whipping would have been easier to take and watch, but he and Tandro weren't going to be given a chance to salve their pride. Humiliating pain was what slaves were given, and that's all that Jake and Tandro could look forward to. Stubborn defiance had a way of melting back faster in the presence of humiliation than in the face of real pain…

  Not that there wasn't real pain involved. Tandro couldn't quite swallow a hiss when the first stroke of the switch reached his backside, and the sound of the thin branch striking tender flesh even made Jake wince. As Tandro himself had once pointed out, no one in their right mind wanted to experience a second switching right on top of a previous one. But the observation hadn't been enough to save Tandro, and now an opinion was being turned into reality.

  The second switching was given at the same pace as the first, and Tandro's body writhed even when the switch wasn't striking his backside. Every stroke added to the red the skin of his behind had turned, and by the third stroke Tandro was making soft sounds of pain. By the sixth stroke the sounds weren't quite as soft, but the last four strokes, landing "smack! … smack! … smack! … smack!" with precision and strength didn't change the volume of the sound. At that point Himlin gestured to his man with the switch, and the man stepped back.

  "All right, slave, you can come back now and kneel in place again," Himlin said, his tone showing how much he'd enjoyed the show. "If you liked the punishment and want more of it, just continue to be displeasing. Your master will be more than happy to oblige you."

  Tandro straightened and began to return to his place at the feet of Himlin, but Jake could see that the other man was holding his breath against the added pain of movement. And Tandro was so aroused that Jake wondered why the other man's skin hadn't yet burst. By rights the pain should have ended Tandro's arousal, but thanks to those insertions he and Tandro were being allowed nothing of any kind of relief. Jake's knees had started to hurt from the way he was being kept kneeling, but that wasn't doing him any good either.

  And it seemed that nothing would do him or Tandro any good. Once the native was kneeling, Himlin signaled to one of his men and a second female slave was allowed into the room. This second girl was easily as beautiful as the first and dressed in the same kind of silks, and when the flute player began to make music again Jake really did wish he could cry. His first thought was a silent demand to know just how many of these girls Himlin meant to parade in front of him and Tandro, but then Jake realized that he didn't really want to know.

  Whatever the number, the time would be as far from pleasant as it's possible to get. Without the least chance of escape…

  * * *

  Tain started to lead Ennie back in the direction they'd come from, having decided that reaching the gate they'd used to enter the town would be a better idea than trying for a different gate. She kept close to the back of the building, moving through shadow whenever possible, but hadn't gone far when a strange woman stepped out of a doorway only a few feet ahead of them. The woman wore the thin, knee-length smock of a free woman of the lower classes, and held up a hand toward Tain.

  "Don't be afraid, I only want to help you," the woman called softly. "Come inside and we can talk."

  "Do you think we can trust her?" Ennie asked in a whisper from behind Tain. "What if there are men inside and she's only luring us into slavery again?"

  "Why would men bother doing it that way?" Tain murmured back, having already considered the point. "As far as they would know, they'd only have to step outside and order us to come to them. And now that you mention it, there's something I should have done sooner. Don't take orders from anyone but me."

  A glance back showed Tain the way Ennie nodded almost distractedly, the momentary animation already beginning to slip away. Being in danger obviously let Ennie escape the depression holding her for short periods of time, but the relief wasn't, unfortunately, permanent. Well, Tain knew there was nothing she could do about the problem right now, so she led Ennie toward the doorway the strange woman had come out of.

  The door stood slightly ajar, so Tain pushed it open further before stepping inside. Three women stood waiting in the empty warehouse, all of them dressed alike, and the woman who'd spok
en a moment before took one step away from her companions.

  "It's all right, we won't hurt you," the woman said with a smile. "I'm Risdin, and I also used to be a slave, but now we're all free. To prove it, I'll say don't take anyone's orders ever again. It's just that easy to be free of the drug."

  Tain knew that being freed would have been just that easy - if she hadn't been given orders not to take orders from anyone but Killen. And if Ennie hadn't been given orders not to listen to anyone but Tain herself. She felt the urge to tell the woman Risdin about not being able to take orders from her, but since she didn't really have to protect herself from Risdin the urge was easy to push aside. Since she knew that the order she'd been given had been meant for use with men, ignoring the required response was easier than it would have been ordinarily.

  "Why are you risking yourselves by helping us?" Tain asked, a question that really did have to be put. Risdin was of average height and build, just like the two women behind her, but she was the only one of the three smiling. She had brown hair and seemed to have matching eyes, and was only faintly pretty. The two women behind her were downright plain.

  "We're risking ourselves for you because others risked themselves for us," Risdin answered, her face sobering. "We saw you run when your owners were attacked, but we didn't show ourselves right away. Some slaves in your place would have gone back to the men once the fighting was over, and if you'd done that we couldn't have helped you. But you didn't go back, which meant you wanted to escape, so now we can help. Let's start with giving you some real food to eat."

  "I - think we need a few more answers first," Tain said, ignoring the way Risdin's gesture directed them more deeply into the building. "You seem to be saying that you and those others were once slaves yourselves, but if that's true then I don't understand why you're in this town. You ought to be out of here, to make sure you aren't caught and enslaved again."