Branded Possession (The Machinery of Desire Book 3)

by Cari Silverwood

  “She does for the meantime. That may change.” Ryke placed his hand on her knee and gripped her there. “She is a slave but a possession of the king for the present.”

  “So I can’t have her? A pity.”

  Heat rushed to her face and neck. Nevertheless she answered his blatant stare with her own, until she wavered and ducked her head. She’d learned during the last year. Give in to a Mekker and things were ten times worse.

  Don’t give in and sometimes they were too. The stats were a bit ambivalent. Luckily he swung back to his brother. Jaded, she was so jaded by past humiliations. That he’d even suggested she might be swapped between them should enrage her.

  “What you’re going to see is to be kept secret. The king knows, as does anyone who needs to.”

  “Now you have me intrigued.”

  “I wish it wasn’t necessary.” He was silent for a while. “Those were our schooling and technical education sections, Gio. The children learn there.”

  “Children? You have those? I mean, I saw so few above. I thought maybe your birth rate was low.”

  Both men studied her.

  “Is... Is it true?”

  “Does it matter if we say?” Badh questioned Ryke.

  “I doubt it. Why would it?” Ryke twisted to face her. “You want to know?”

  Though uncomfortable at the scrutiny, she nodded.

  “The Scavs will never meet her. Gio, we don’t reproduce as well as we should. And children are often sent here. The Underdeck has a high turnover.”

  Turnover? That seemed ominous. “You mean a high death rate? Short life expectancy?”

  “Yes. Those.” Ryke’s focus switched to his brother and they exchanged looks that held some odd quality.

  Her persistent brain flicked through the facts she knew. High death rate. The king leaving the Underdeck. The blue in their skin and how others bore much more of that than Ryke, a man who’d left here long ago.

  The Engine Sea was killing them...or the waik power. Both were one and the same though, weren’t they? The Mekkers seemed to have some major problems.

  She needed certainty. Needed to understand them. Her priorities had shifted. Saving humans was near impossible because a portal mage was no nearer to being found. She might as well search for hen’s teeth... Wait, those were possibly doable here.

  No mage, but what if she could do something that inconvenienced the Mekkers? They’d banned slaves down here because the Engine Sea was important, and here they were letting her see everything, have the grand tour. Ryke might regret setting her loose.

  They emerged from the shaft that was a building and were spat into a labyrinth of tall containers. Rust dribbled down the sides. The rows further away were rolling toward the shaft building and disappearing into it. A few men and women policed the movement of the containers. There were little islands of desks and stacked crates. Seedheads, grains, crushed fruits, and stalks littered the ground. She guessed supplies went upward, to feed the masses above.

  As they neared the bow, the sound of some mighty mechanical apparatus intensified. Soon, she might’ve been in the middle of a factory at war with itself. Much of the noise seemed to come from the very front, where the hull curved away. Badh had to shout to get them to exit the hopper.

  What’s that noise?” she yelled.

  “The jaws that eat the land! It’s how the landship feeds. They’re just ahead of us but on the other side of the hull you can see.” Then he added to Ryke, “Here is where we suffered the most from that DRAK missile!”

  She stood beside them at a railing, staring down at where the glossy vivacious sea sloshed and climbed about yet another vast ball. If that were a perfect sphere, it projected above the sea by almost as much distance as what lay below the surface. Crackles of blue spat from the waik core and fell and deckers labored on its surface with tools rising and falling as if adjusting or fixing something.

  Two giant cables swung down to them, connecting somewhere at the top of the sphere. The cores must have those to carry away power.

  “That’s a waik core!” Badh told her, forgetting that Ryke had told her this before and taking up her hand to use to point at the ball. He let her pull her hand loose but the warmth of his remained in her palm.

  “What makes up each of those facets?” she asked.

  “Every one of those is a pure waik crystal. We mine them as we go.”

  The ball, when she peered and focused, seemed to be carpeted with thousands of glinting facets.

  She wanted to leap and cheer but only clung to the railing with both hands. These people were not as all conquering or all seeing as she’d thought.

  For the first time, she contemplated doing something terrible.

  Their power source, the Engine Sea, looked vulnerable. Whatever had hit this ship, they still hadn’t repaired it completely. Part of the hull, above the sea, showed where a hole must have been torn and the waik core’s top was missing a ragged chunk.

  The next wonder had her shaking her head in disbelief. A man swept in on wings of sheerest, perforated and iridescent silver to land upon the core and fold them up to...nothing. They’d gone into a tiny backpack.

  She pointed. “Uh. That?”

  “A core flyer. It’s a skill and a talent to use those, like my brother.”

  Those should not get enough lift to stay airborne. Surely?

  “So, they’re adding new crystals?”

  She thought perhaps no one had heard that question but Ryke had. He leaned on the railing to her right.

  “Yes, they are. Rebuilding her. It’s hazardous work.” His words hit a monotone and stayed there, as if he was sunken in memories, cruel ones, from the way his mouth twisted and the mark creasing between his eyes. “Sometimes they fall into the sea. Sometimes the waik blows out, leaves more tracks than anyone could ever want. We age and we die working on the sea and the cores.”

  And the missile they’d spoken of had created damage they were struggling to fix. Leaning her elbows on the railing, she put her hands together in almost a praying position, settled them over her face while she thought.

  What if. Could this help her?

  “Did you feel anything like a portal mage on the way?” Ryke asked, nudging her elbow, then his hand touched her neck, and he began gathering her hair slowly into his grasp, tugging softly, melting his touch into her mind.

  “No,” she answered, voice muffled, looking down at the waik core.

  Thoughts whispered. She could see... She could see a fault in the core.

  Light screamed outward, blinding her. A wind tearing at her skin.

  The blue blossomed in an explosion that blew a massive chunk off one side of the sphere. Fragments raining, raining, pattering into the sea, scattering into the air. People thrown high and flailing as they plummeted. Their mouths open in an eternal cry.

  Chapter 23

  Gio woke to the words of Ryke and his hands on either side of her face. The man was beside her, kneeling, and she had kneeled also, with her palms flat to the floor. She gasped at a headache scouring her temples.

  The pain receded. Before her, through the open frame of the railing she saw the sea and it was...normal. No bodies. No explosions.

  His hands slid from her. “What happened? Gio?”

  She glanced over, surprised at his apparent concern. “I’m okay. Just a sudden headache.”

  When he helped her to her feet, she found Badh there also.

  “What did you do to her? Has he tired you out? I know his habits with women.”

  Fuck. Was sex a total preoccupation with these men?

  “I’m okay.” She returned to the railing. What had really happened? That had been so very real. When she examined the core below, she could only imagine it, again. Her cheeks felt the ruffle of the blast. Her retinas held a memory of the lights searing her into a spotted blindness.

  Certainty arrived. This will happen.

  How was this? How could she know of something that’d not yet h
appened?

  The men talked over her, oblivious to her dilemma as they talked about working on the cores. Ryke had once labored like those below – flying from core to core, doing fast repairs if necessary.

  “He was good, girl. Really good.”

  Badh expected her to answer.

  She nodded. “I’m sure he was.” As if it mattered to her how good Ryke was at anything. If he worked on that core below, he might be dead tomorrow.

  Except, wait, this was about to happen soon. Within the hour. She frowned. How’d she know that? And was she so callous that she wouldn’t tell them? If she said this, they’d not believe her anyway.

  Ryke squeezed her shoulder. “Maybe I should get Doc Baxx to check her out. These headaches seem to be coming often. Yes?”

  Mouth open, still running through the morality of what she contemplated, she turned, and Badh replied before she could.

  “I agree. Can’t have you wearing her out. I might need her myself.”

  The amiable curses Ryke threw at his brother were mostly lost to her for Badh had added more words.

  “I have to go get ready. I’m due down there.”

  “You work still?”

  “We’re shorthanded. You know that. I’ll not ask you to help until I see you’ve practiced some. But this is why we need you. I’m getting little help from above.”

  “Of course.”

  Badh was going to that core?

  What did she hold against him or the people already down there? Gio curled her lip. That was obvious. She held against them what she held against all Mekkers – the responsibility for a litany of horrors, of rapes and murders. They were a despicable race of people.

  Except down here maybe they weren’t. Not quite... They weren’t perfect but who was? And maybe they conducted obscene tortures somewhere that she hadn’t as yet encountered.

  Would this not be murder if she stayed silent? Though she must be imagining this. She couldn’t know.

  Except she did. If she spoke they’d think her crazy.

  Which way should she lean? Doom them, let it play out, see if her prediction came true? Or speak and be thought insane?

  This might ruin her. Either way. She’d only just decided to be the sower of destruction of these people, if the opportunity was before her, and now she failed at the first step.

  Be brave. Be strong.

  Be a fucking terrible person. A person of zero morals. She bit her lip. Some of those below must be fathers, mothers.

  A remnant of her headache pricked at her.

  Woe is me. Motherfucker. What should she do?

  “I’ll see you tomorrow. The hopper will return you.” Already Badh walked away.

  She couldn’t do this, could she? Let people die. And she even might be wrong. The decision transfixed her.

  “What is it?” Ryke had her by both shoulders. Her eyes locked onto his. He shook her. “Girl, speak. What. Is it?”

  Torn between betraying her aims or her morality, she closed her eyes.

  How bad could she be? Not this bad.

  Apparently.

  “Stop him. Your brother. There’s going to be an accident down there soon. The waik core will fail.”

  “What?” A frown erupted. “How can you know that? It’s impossible for you to know that.” Yet he looked over her shoulder. “There’s no way I can –”

  She spun within his grip and he released her – no doubt surprised. “Badh!” The man was disappearing from view, stepping down a spiral stair she’d glimpsed. He halted and looked up. “You have to evacuate everyone! There’s a fault in that core. Part of it’s going to break away, soon, very soon.”

  He took the steps up at a sprint and came to her. “Did you say the core will fail?”

  “Yes!”

  He glanced above and Ryke spoke. “I don’t know, if you’re asking me. I don’t know if she’s telling the truth. I also don’t know why she’d lie.”

  Her hands were shaking by then and she stared at her fingers. “If you go there, you’ll die.”

  In spite of the thunder of the landship mechanisms, silence fell between the three of them.

  “What? Why would she lie... Girl, if you dare to fuck with me.”

  When she looked up again, Badh had a grim set to his face.

  “It’s true.”

  “I’m stopping everything. Get out of here with her. And you, if this turns out to be a lie...”

  “I’ll beat her for you. You get out of this safe. I’m going to wait for you at a good distance. Meet us.”

  “Sure.” Badh gave an exasperated noise then ran back to the stairs and down. Soon she heard him shouting, then a loud hornlike sound that didn’t cease filled the space, overcoming the engine noises.

  Ryke slapped her arm. “Let’s go.”

  Once they were in the hopper and heading back, with Ryke seated opposite her, he asked, “I’m going to say this even though I doubt you. How far do we need to go, to be safe?”

  She didn’t know, of course, and she shrugged. “I only know there’s a flaw. I...could see it. And that it will crack away. I guess if we go back to that building we passed?”

  That she might be wrong still plagued her.

  “That seems excessive. If it failed that badly then a fifth of the Underdeck would be affected. I’ll decide, then we go look and we will see if you are right.”

  “Okay.” If he was too close when they stopped, this sense of doom would warn her, yes? And still her hands shook. Fear? Doubt? Adrenalin? She wasn’t sure, but then this had never happened to her before.

  “And if you aren’t, if this is some trick, you will regret this for many, many days. Understood?”

  She nodded, feeling her head grow light as blood rained from her face. “I would never try to trick you.”

  “No? You say never? I don’t believe that. Why would I?” He dug his fingers about her jaw, pressing skin to bone. “I’m not a fool, girl. You’ve hated me even while I fucked with you. Deny that.”

  She couldn’t of course, not now, not while he held her.

  The hopper bumped onward and she may have scowled at him, which only made him chuckle. “Insolence? Never mind. I don’t need your love.”

  When the hopper stopped halfway to the building, at the edge where the railing marked the drop into the sea, he wasn’t so nonchalant. A little further ahead this deck flared wider and met the hull.

  “We have to wait while Badh catches up with us. People are leaving but he’ll be last off, my dutiful damned brother.”

  It was true that she glimpsed others either driving past in hoppers or running. Why he thought here was safe... She could see part of the sea from inside the hopper. A core flyer swooped by, a woman, yards below, silver wings flickering through the air. Nothing except a happiness of sorts suffused her mind.

  Here was safe. She believed her intuition.

  The walls, the hopper, the surrounding crates and containers, they disappeared in a familiar surge of light and below something crumpled loudly and splashed into the sea. She kept her eyes closed until around her darkened. When she opened them, she found Ryke inches from her face, his blue scalp-marks sparking like fire.

  “Well. You were right. From the numbers, I think they’re all off the core. This only begs the question how. How did you know, little human? Hmm?”

  Yet he sat back to question a group of three who were passing about Badh. When they reassured him, he was clearly relieved. His worry was a flaw, same as the core had been flawed. Hurt Badh and you harmed Ryke, and she’d just passed on the chance to do that. There was her flaw – she cared too much for people in general.

  More of the workers straggled past. If they were evacuating, did they think this area still unsafe?

  Her new-born intuition was silent on the matter.

  How had she done that? Had she really seen the future?

  The blast must’ve stirred the blue, twinkling specks, and a veritable flock of them appeared from below, drifting higher.
Hundreds, surely. Awed, she followed their path. This place was fairyland minus the fairies.

  Ryke’s hands encompassed her wrists and bore them backward, pinned them to the upholstery on either side of her. His knees nudged between hers.

  Shocked as she was, the slam of her heartbeats seemed likely visible at her throat.

  “We have to wait now, Gio. In the meantime, you can answer some questions. It’ll be a while before he joins us. My brother is a very particular man, as am I.”

  Her mouth hung open a second then she mustered her brain.

  “So, he’s anal?” Though worried, she smirked. “We call it that on Earth when someone fusses over details.”

  “Hmmm. Anal? Don’t give me ideas.” His grip firmed. Her wrists ached but she wasn’t telling him that. “I’ve decided I do need to make you love what I do, at the least. It’s only fair. I have to be nice, and you have to remember your place. Open your legs, girl, more.”

  More. A simple word and it said so much.

  Mouth moistening, with her tongue apparently pinned same as her wrists, Gio was very aware of his scrutiny. Flustered, yes, and she had a desperate and very moral need to say no.

  Yes also called her.

  She hesitated, the seconds ticking past, then she parted her legs beyond where his knees forced. She shivered and felt her nipples tighten and push into her top.

  No more lying to herself. This gave her an instant satisfaction. It might be degrading but it was also a compulsion and one that thrilled her. His need for dominance had consumed her need for her ego to have sway.

  “Keep them like that.” He released her wrists though she didn’t care to move them, only watching as he pulled the leash from his pants pocket. “You are such an obedient and dirty girl for me, aren’t you? Say yes.”

  Hypnotized, she nodded, then managed to take a breath, then another, and she said what he wanted. “Yes.”

  “Wrists.” He laid his hand on her upper thigh, over the gray pants material, palm upward.

  He wanted hers there. Her pussy clenched.

  Well then.

  She laid her crossed wrists over his palm and watched as he wrapped the clasp end of the leash about them, finishing with a simple square knot. With the leash wound loosely about his fist, he pulled on her bound wrists, until she had to lean into the pull.