“Search them all!” ordered the palace guard who seemed to be the leader. His armor was different from the others. The others guards obeyed his orders without question.
Their sacks were taken and Zykeiah’s daggers were seized, as well as Kalah’s smaller one.
“You are not spies from Earth 3012,” the leader said.
“No, we are not,” Zykeiah confirmed as her eyes stared straight ahead at the gentle slopes of Saturn Four’s Marria Mountains just behind the palace guard.
The lead palace guard examined one of the daggers, rotating it over and over again, admiring the craftsmanship as the polished silver caught the sun’s rays. “What does this ‘M’ stand for?”
Zykeiah did not answer.
“This piece is not of anything I have ever seen in the Pixlis galaxy.” The lead guard raised his tinted glasses revealing blue eyes that seemed to be scooped from the heavens and dropped into his sockets. “And they belong to a woman.”
He shook his head in disbelief and chuckled. He called to his fellow guards, “A woman.”
The other guards joined in the joke that was not entirely lost on Zykeiah. Her own mother had slaved in the silver mines outside the castle grounds and after a sharp kick from one of the overseeing guards, became disabled. She could no longer work at the mines. She spent her remaining days at a brothel house for guards and workers not far from the mines.
Zykeiah would have met a similar fate, the silver mines or the brothel houses, except for Valek’s raid on the poor camps where she lived, that took her to Solis.
At first she thought that she had merely traded one slave mine for another. Then she began to meet other women from kingdoms outside Saturn Four that told her stories of women who could do as much as a man and where women ruled alone.
So intrigued and convinced of their validity, Zykeiah vowed that if she ever escaped the cages, she would never be submissive again. Not to anyone. She would rule her fate.
“Take them to the dungeons,” the lead palace guard ordered as he placed Zykeiah’s daggers into his open bag.
Zykeiah met Sarah’s eyes and shook her head, “Do nothing.”
At her request, Sarah and Kalah obeyed completely, but doubt coupled with fear marked Kalah’s face.
“To the castle. General Ogroth must be notified at once.”
Zykeiah turned to Sarah and winked.
* * *
The day had held much promise for Valek. For it was his favorite day of the month, the third day. On the third day, Valek collected his payments and counted his Solance inventory. The souls learned to hate this day each month, yet he delighted in ordering new batches of Solance and getting paid. But this third of the month was extra fun for the defiant Minister Knight had been captured, Orono and MaxMion were working outside the castle and the temperamental King Richard and his troublesome advisors had announced they would be leaving Solis at first light.
“Perhaps today things will get back to normal,” Valek hoped as he braided his hair.
Richard’s arrival had taken his attention from his other businesses, but today he wanted closure and payments. All customers were to have paid him by the third of each month for batches already delivered.
Amana waited in the corner of his bedchamber dressed only in a sheer ivory gown and bare feet. Her hands were clasped in front of her and her eyes cast downward.
Her appeal did nothing for him, and her presence in his bedchamber was not for him.
The telltale click of heels on stone made his smile broaden.
“Manola.”
She stopped abruptly as he came toward her with arms wide open and a bright smile on his face.
Her eyes flickered for an escape path, for a smiling Valek was a dangerous one. She had not expected him to be awake. Realizing she was trapped, she smiled back at him. He could smell her mounting fear.
“Are you well?”
“Yes, of course.” He dropped his arms and instead slid back the wire screen to his office. “Today is payment day.” He waited a beat and then said, “Your payment, dear Manola, is in the corner.”
“The third day of the month. Yes, of course.” Manola smiled and scanned Valek’s partly lit room.
“Amana.” Manola raced over to Amana and yanked her into the sunlight. “Valek, I am –”
“I am done with her. Do as you wish.” He said nothing further as the unusual nice gesture had already been forgotten.
He closed the screen and waltzed to his desk. He collapsed into his chair and removed his orange sphere. He rubbed his hands together vigorously as he pressed sections associated with Earth 3012.
General Cullen’s watery visual soon filtered in. The General’s harried expression could only mean one thing.
“General Cullen, where is my payment for shipment 3476?”
“We are raising the funds as we speak.” General Cullen shifted in his seat and wiped his brow. “It should be there tomorrow.”
“Did we agree on tomorrow?” Valek asked coolly.
“Well, no, but we do not have it in full today –”
“Then not only will you pay the price but a 70% late payment charge.”
“But, Valek, it is just one day later.”
“Yes, but we agreed that payment for that shipment would be made by today,” he said.
“Yes, but –” General Cullen said hotly.
“And you failed to meet that deadline! I gave you that shipment on ‘credit’ for you did not have the full payment last month—something I never do. Did I not explain that?”
“Yes, Valek.” General Cullen leaned in closer to the sphere. “You were extremely kind to do that, but you increased the price. It has been difficult to meet the new price. But thanks to you, we whipped Saturn Four yesterday.”
Valek leaned back further in his chair. He loved it when they tried to flatter him. His ego devoured such comments and suffering.
“Nevertheless, you failed to pay me,” he said coolly.
General Cullen’s face, wet with sweat, loomed in a fit of panic. Valek had never seen the General so wrought with fear.
“Yes.”
“Good. Then it is agreed that you will pay my fee in full plus the late payment charge tomorrow?”
“Yes, Valek,” General Cullen said weakly.
“Tomorrow or I will pay Earth 3012 a personal visit.”
Valek terminated the transmission.
Adrenaline surged through his body as he threw back his head and laughed. Profit plus late charges equated to more profit. It was far better than sex, Valek thought as he leapt from his seat, tightened his belt and left the office. As if he knew anything about sex, he headed for the dungeon. Why delay his second most enjoyable part of the day?
As he made his way down the drafty and dreary hallway, he came to the guestrooms where Richard and his advisors ate fresh fruit conjured by Manola.
“Valek, come here.” Richard called as soon as he saw Valek’s robe float past the open door.
All hopes of disappearing without seeing Richard quickly dissolved. Valek resolved himself to smile and applied effort to extinguish the burning anger that threatened to singe through his chest and on through his robe. Today was the third; the warehouse could wait a few more minutes. Especially if it meant he could rid himself of Richard.
“What may I do for you, Richard?”
The weasel grinned at his advisors as if Valek had fulfilled a hidden joke.
He watched the advisors withdraw behind Richard still smiling; only their teeth were visible from the shadows.
“Valek, we were discussing the foul odor that comes from the hallway by the dungeon –”
“Go on,” Valek said slowly.
“We think it would be best if we knew what Solance was made of. A sort of ingredient list.”
No, what he really wanted to know was how he could make his own version of Solance, Valek mumbled to himself as he turned his slender back to Richard. His mood had become sullen and drab, as he ponde
red how best to respond.
He had similar questions before from both Earth 3012 and Saturn Four during their initial purchases. It seemed to be the natural order of business. Once the customers were reassured that Solance worked and they were comfortable the product was worth the price, then the questions would turn to Solance’s composition.
Idiots! Valek had brushed their inquiries aside with the explanation of business protocols and confidentiality clauses. The two planets’ plights were so severe that they accepted his explanations without argument.
But Richard and his advisors had already disregarded Valek’s standing rule not to entertain guests. They may not accept a simple ‘no’.
He would have to risk it.
Valek turned back to Richard.
“Speechless Valek?” Richard clasped his hands together and stole a glance back at his advisors. “Just the ingredients is all we ask. Surely you know them.”
“No, no dear Richard.” Valek secretly clenched his teeth before continuing. “The ingredients in Solance are strictly confidential. Only my staff and I know it. That is how it shall remain.”
“You cannot expect us to drink it without knowing what is in it,” one of the advisors said coolly as he slithered forward before smoothly melting back behind Richard.
“It is your decision to make.” Valek shrugged. “I assure you it is safe.”
Richard twisted his thin lips into a pout before he swirled around to his faithful advisors. “Now what?”
Valek counted the number of fat bulges protruding from several advisors as he cooled his temper. He was in no mood to have Richard completely ruin his delicious day.
“I am sure you can see your way out,” Valek called as he faded from the room and met the overbearing smell of flesh as he started down the spiraling stairs to the dungeon.
He could see the wisps of his breath as the temperature steadily dropped a few degrees in the already chilly castle.
He passed Orono’s quarters as he continued his trek down past the dungeon cells to the elevator and down to the warehouse, where he knocked hard on the door. He waited three minutes before shoving the door open.
Candles lapped at the air as Valek sped down the many aisles in the dim warehouse. The death smell, intense and thick, filled the room. Hundreds of bottles filled with the creamy white liquid, Solance stretched back to the rear warehouse wall. Three shelves held thirty bottles. Each row contained 23 shelves.
In the front of the warehouse were wooden crates filled with bottles, stacked for shipment. A sheet of paper held markings of which kingdom had received a shipment and how many bottles per crate.
Orono usually kept up with the entire process of packaging the order, charging the order, and delivering the order. Valek usually joined him to take the payments, but as of late, Orono had to go it alone. For the most part, payments were sent to Solis. Orono and Valek rarely left Solis anymore.
The process for making souls into Solance was confined to a tiny room in the rear of the warehouse.
The warehouse, despite the early day, remained quiet except for Valek’s footsteps.
“Orono.”
No answer as he reached the rear section of the warehouse. The third day was Orono’s only day free of the warehouse.
From a stained thick crystal jar with a silver plated lid, Marion’s soul gazed back at Valek. Then grimaced as Valek laughed.
“Left unattended? Were you hoping I was someone else?”
Valek picked up the jar and peered closer. “Try to impose on my business, steal my souls… tsk… tsk.”
Carefully, he replaced the jar and announced. “I cannot wait to extinguish your soul in the next series of batches. I may even charge more for that batch.”
He pondered this new idea as he retreated down the many warehouse rows, counting his prized inventory and reveling in the immense smell of death.
* * *
Manola’s nails scraped Amana’s skin as they made a trail along her back sending chills racing up to the base of her neck and making her hair stand tall.
Naked, cold and hungry, Amana kept one hand over her stomach and the other over her private area as Manola kissed and scratched her back in some sort of ceremony.
With each wet, cool kiss, Amana cringed.
“How warm your skin feels,” Manola cooed.
Amana whimpered in return.
“Do not be afraid of me. I healed you.”
Amana wanted to run, but it felt as if iron clasps had been attached to the control sections of her mind.
Valek’s smell lingered in her nostrils and her hair. Amana patted her empty stomach as it rumbled aloud, echoing through Valek’s quarters.
“Hungry?” Manola asked between kisses and nips.
Shaking her head “yes”, Amana could not open her mouth to speak for her throat was dry. It felt as if she had swallowed a coarse wool blanket.
“Here.” Manola lifted her hands before Amana and from them arose a bright red plum. “Eat.”
Manola sat inches from Amana as she bit into the tangy plum. The first bite was a small one, but with the next one Amana greedily devoured the entire fruit.
“More?” Manola’s breath was like ice on Amana’s cheek.
She spread her palms open and a bunch of plums sprouted from them. So many that they spilled over Manola’s outstretched hands.
The fruit juice, red and sticky, smelled strangely of roses Amana thought as she snatched the plums from her.
She stuffed as many as she could into her mouth. The juice spilled over and raced down her chin where Manola licked with greed.
“I enjoyed your company so much when we were in the cages. It made me think of another one such as you.”
Amana’s ears perked up and her heart increased its beat at Manola’s words. The words were warm and affectionate.
“A gift from Valek she was.” Manola produced more plums as she spoke, which Amana ate slower than the last. “I do miss her.”
“What happened to her?” Amana inquired softly around her mouthful of plums.
“So, you can speak.” Manola’s fingernail traced an invisible path from Amana’s ear to the corner of her mouth. “I thought as much. My other one escaped and is lost to me.”
She patted her lap; Amana placed her head there. “I will not allow the same fate to befall you, my precious.”
Amana’s heart sank as her hope of rejoining Sarah floated into despair.
* * *
“Where did you get this?”
General Ogroth’s breath, cool and spicy, smelled of pepper-roasted henckens. Zykeiah attempted to twist her face away, but the pain of the ropes cutting into her face forced her to stare straight ahead at the searing light. The chair was hard and she had been tied up for hours.
The blinding rays of the sun obscured General Ogroth’s face except when he leaned in to ask her questions.
“I am a Minister Knight sent by Queen Zoë of Veloris.”
“Yes, yes, you are a knight. A Minister Knight at that!”
General Ogroth leaned in close to her again. “And a female!”
The General pounded his fist into the palm. “Do not lie to me. No one could have journeyed here from Veloris, the ice planet.”
“Our mission is most urgent.” Zykeiah closed her eyes tight and waited for the blow. He had already struck her.
“What mission?” General Ogroth chuckled.
“It involves Valek and Solance.”
“Stop!” General Ogroth walked over to the window and closed the shutters. He pointed to the two palace guards. “Leave me.”
“Yes, at once,” they uttered in unison and marched from the room. But not before Zykeiah saw the confused expression the two men exchanged.
She blinked repeatedly and she longed to rub her dry puffy eyes. The salt water they had dropped into her eyes and the blaring sunlight had made Zykeiah’s eyes burn.
Although he dismissed the guards, he did not untie her.
Zy
keiah sighed but said nothing as the General paced back and forth in front of her.
“Tell me about your mission.”
“Untie me.” Zykeiah shot back. “I am a knight, and I deserve to be treated as such.”
“You are not able to demand things of me, woman,” General Ogroth sneered.
She waited. Like any male, General Ogroth’s ego needed constant stroking and she had not done that. In fact, she had injured it by demanding to be freed. Her patience had run thin. She could see Marion shaking his head in disappointment at her loss of temper.
“Tell me!”
“Yes, General.” Zykeiah struggled to get more comfortable in a chair designed to be uncomfortable. “Our Queen has sent us on a mission to rescue our fellow knight whose soul Valek has stolen.”
“Stolen? A soul stolen?” General Ogroth’s eyebrows knitted themselves together as he frowned. “Rubbish.”
“It is truth. He steals souls to make Solance, which he then sells to you.” Zykeiah took in a deep breath before adding, “and Earth 3012.”
Silence, then an eruption of laughter as General Ogroth stalked over to Zykeiah and began slicing through her ropes with her very own dagger.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Zykeiah rubbed her injured face and wrists.
“Come, I will free your friends and send you on your way. Tell Orono that his gag has failed, but nice try.”
“What?” Zykeiah stood up.
“Good joke. Valek using souls…” General Ogroth could not continue for he was caught in a fit of laughter. He wiped a tear from his eye. “You almost had me.”
Zykeiah lowered her voice. “General, this is no joke. Valek is double-crossing you.”
“Yes, yes.” General Ogroth reached into his pocket and retrieved his keys. He opened Sarah’s and Kalah’s cells and called in the guards. “Now, go back to Veloris. Or wherever Orono hired you from.”
Sarah looked to Zykeiah. “So he agreed to help us.”
“No, he believes it is a joke.”
“And that is what it is for sure.” General Ogroth emerged between them. “Now leave Saturn Four before I change my mind.”
The three rushed to gather their sacks and reholstered their swords and daggers.
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