by Opal Carew
“Hmm…” Sarden nodded. “Yes, I like her,” he said, turning to Tazaxx. “She’s young enough to train and she’ll be quite lovely when she’s grown in a few years. What’s your asking price?”
“One hundred thousand credits,” Tazaxx said, without blinking an eye.
“What?” Sarden frowned. “I thought I might get a better deal here than at the auction. It’s ridiculous to ask so much for an ungrown girl with no particular rarity or skill set.”
“But she is rare—not her species, per say—she’s only a common Thonilan. But there are other forms of rarity, my dear Baron Van’Dleek,” Tazaxx assured him. “This little female is the last living heir to the House of Yanux—one of the ruling families of her people. As a result, she is very rare indeed.”
“Hmm…I do like having girls with good pedigrees in my entourage,” Sarden said, sounding for all the world as though he was talking about some kind of purebred animal like a racehorse instead of a sentient being. “Do you have any more like that? Any more royalty? Perhaps we can make a deal if so.”
“Alas…” Tazaxx made a face. “I did have a very fine Eloim female in my collection until very recently.”
“You did have?” I heard the slightly strangled sound in Sarden’s voice but to his credit, he managed to keep his features blank and only mildly interested. “What happened to her? Did you sell her?”
“Unfortunately, no. She had the Crimson Death. I didn’t know it when she first came to me—it’s lucky I keep my treasures isolated or it might have spread to all of them.”
“The…Crimson Death?” Sarden’s voice sounded harsh and his cool, indifferent manner was slipping somewhat. “So she’s too ill to see—is that what you’re saying?”
“Oh, no—you may see her if you like. Come.”
Tazaxx led the way down the darkened hallway. Sarden’s broad shoulders were tense and his gait was wooden but somehow he kept going. I wanted to slip my hand into his and comfort him the same way he had comforted me when I told him about Angie, but I didn’t know how he would take it.
We walked past a few more lighted windows and then we came to one that was dark.
“Lights!” Tazaxx called, raising his voice and tapping on the glass.
At once, the lights came up in the case, revealing a bare room with a single raised platform in the center. On the platform lay a girl—or what used to be a girl.
Her body was bent in a position of agony—the back arched as though she had died trying to get a last breath. Her long, silky black hair was matted and dull and her golden cat’s eyes, so much like Sarden’s, were open but empty. Glazed and lifeless, they stared at us and I noticed rivulets of dried blood had leaked from their corners. Her full lips were painted red too, and gore ran down her chin.
Clearly she had died in agony.
“Gods,” Sarden whispered hoarsely. “Oh Gods.”
“Yes, it is rather disturbing, isn’t it?” Tazaxx didn’t sound disturbed by the gruesome sight at all. If anything, I thought he sounded bored. “I’ve had to leave her here, unfortunately. It would be quite dangerous to unseal the room at this point. We need to give it a full sixty solar days before we break the seal and spray in the anti-viral agents.”
“She…she…” Sarden clearly couldn’t finish.
I slipped my hand into his, not caring if he wanted me to or not—I had to comfort him, to help ease the numbing pain I saw on his face. A pain I swore I could almost feel in my own heart.
“She’s been gone for about a week, I believe,” Tazaxx said. “We did the best we could for her but after a certain point, nothing but intervention by the Goddess of Mercy herself would have been enough to save her.”
“What…what are you going to do with the…with her body?” I could feel Sarden’s big frame trembling, yet still he was trying to keep from showing his pain. I understood why—we had to keep the pretense up at least a little while longer if we were going to rescue Teeny.
Tazaxx shrugged his mud shoulders stiffly, as though he wasn’t used to making the gesture and was only copying what he had seen others do.
“Burn it, most likely. It’s the only safe method of disposal when dealing with the Crimson Death.”
“Her ashes…” Sarden made a choking noise. “I need them.”
“What?” Tazaxx frowned. “Whatever for?”
“A gift to the Eloim government,” I said quickly, improvising. “My, uh, Master is entering into trade agreements with them. If he could give them…give them her ashes, it might be taken as a sign of, uh, goodwill.”
“So it could. Yes, I see.” Tazaxx nodded. “Very well. I’ll be pleased to send you the ashes—for a nominal fee of course.”
“Of course.” Sarden’s deep voice was wooden.
“And do you wish to see any other females?” Tazaxx inquired, raising one mud-eyebrow.
“No, I…no.” Sarden coughed. “Just the one. The little Thonilan.”
“Yes, indeed. I tell you what—since I couldn’t satisfy your other offer, I’ll give her to you for a mere ninety-nine thousand.” Tazaxx nodded genially, as if he was being generous.
“Yes, all right. Ninety-nine is all right,” Sarden said in a low voice. “I…I really must be going now. If you could just have her delivered to my shuttle.”
“I’d be happy to. Come right this way.” Tazaxx tapped the wall beside the lighted room with Sellah’s body in it. To my surprise, it slid open smoothly, revealing another long, dark corridor. “It’s a shortcut,” Tazaxx explained when I looked at it in surprise. “An underground passageway from my display area back to the docking accommodations where your shuttle is parked. We can arrange for payment there since you’re in such a rush.”
“Of course. Thank you,” Sarden said mechanically. I was getting really worried about him—he seemed like he was barely holding it together. I squeezed his hand and looked up at him but he didn’t respond. Even with the smart-fabric mask on, I could tell his face was set like a stone.
He’s still numb, I thought as we followed Tazaxx through the short-cut corridor. It hasn’t really hit him yet, but it will. I intended to be there for him when it did. I felt so bad for him, seeing his sister like that! What a terrible, gruesome death. And she had died alone, isolated in that horrible cage with no one to help her bear the pain or hold her hand. Poor Sellah…
I squeezed Sarden’s hand harder and felt my eyes burning. My throat was tight and somehow I couldn’t seem to swallow the lump that had formed there.
“Here we are. I’ll just go get Floosh to see to the financial transaction and fetch your purchase,” Tazaxx remarked as we came out into the warehouse where Sarden’s small shuttle was parked. “I’ll return shortly.”
He left us alone, disappearing back through the door we had come from, and for a moment we just stood there.
“Sarden…” I said at last but he didn’t look at me. “Sarden.”
At last he turned his head.
“Yes?” he asked in a low, toneless voice. “What is it?”
“Sarden, please.” I stood on my tiptoes and put my arms around his neck, trying to bring him down to me, trying to ease his pain.
At first he didn’t seem to know what I was doing but then he bent down, letting me hug him even if he didn’t exactly hug me back.
“Sarden,” I said again, pressing my face to his neck. “Honey, I’m so sorry.”
He fell to his knees then, his arms wrapping around my midsection, his face pressed between my breasts. I put my arms around him tight—wishing I could take the pain for him. For a long moment, we stayed like that, with Sarden holding me silently. He didn’t cry but I could feel the ache of grief inside him—I swear I could.
“I failed her,” he said at last, his deep voice hoarse with agony. “She’s been gone a whole week. I should have come sooner. I should have found her before she got sick. I—”
“There was nothing you could have done,” I whispered. “You tried—you did everything you co
uld.”
“No, I didn’t,” he said fiercely, pulling away. “I never should have left her in the first place—I should have fought for my place on the throne. But I told myself it wasn’t worth it—that the Eloim people wouldn’t want a half-breed ruling them. I left the responsibility and burden to Sellah and that idiot, Hurxx, who didn’t protect her. Who let her get taken…”
“I’m so sorry.” I felt tears running down my cheeks and couldn’t seem to stop them.
“Don’t be.” Sarden’s eyes glittered as he looked at me. He cupped my cheek in his palm. “I thank you for your tears, Zoe, because I cannot shed them myself.”
“Why not?” I asked, swiping at my eyes. “I don’t understand.”
“I can’t let myself grieve until I get vengeance.” He stood and looked down at me, his voice a low, menacing growl. “Vengeance on the pirates who took her in the first place…and on my fool of a cousin, Hurxx, who should have protected her and didn’t.”
“And Tazaxx?” I asked, knowing he was probably somewhere on that list.
Sarden nodded. “But not now—later when he’s least expecting it. After Grav has had time to take his ward to safety.”
“Thank you, my friend,” Grav rumbled. He hadn’t said a word this whole time but I could see the terrible compassion on his face. “There are no words for the pain you must feel,” he told Sarden. “I will help you take vengeance for Sellah’s death if you wish.”
“Thank you.” Sarden nodded formally. “I will take you up on that offer.”
“Here we are. I believe this is the female you purchased?” It was Floosh—or POC as I had been calling him in my head. He waddled in from the back door with Teeny in tow. Her eyes got wide when she saw Grav but she didn’t say a thing.
Sarden and Grav shot each other one last meaningful look but Sarden didn’t utter another word else except to thank POC for bringing the girl.
“If you would like to follow me to my Master’s back office, we can arrange for the payment,” POC said to him.
“Fine. I’ll come.” Sarden squared his shoulders. “My new acquisition will be safe with my Protector.”
“As you wish.” POC waddled towards the door on his tiny little feet and Sarden followed him.
“I’m coming too,” I said, hurrying to stay with him. As we left the vast, echoing room, I turned my head and saw Teeny rush into Grav’s arms.
“Grav! You came! You came for me!” she whispered breathlessly. He laughed and swung her around, looking happier and less scary than any time I could remember since I’d met him in the VIP lounge.
“Teeny! Didn’t I promise I would always come for you? Didn’t I swear it on my life?” He squeezed her very gently to his broad chest and she covered his rough face in kisses. She looked like a little girl greeting an adoring uncle—I couldn’t believe the big, tough Vorn (or Vorn half-breed? I still didn’t know what he was) had such a soft heart.
The sweet little reunion almost made me feel a little better. Then I looked at Sarden’s broad back and felt worse again. Poor guy! And he wasn’t even going to let himself grieve until he killed everyone responsible for Sellah’s death.
He could say that but I knew the truth—there’s no way to put off that kind of deep grief. When it comes knocking, you have to open the door because you can’t keep it out.
“Just a little further down,” POC was saying as he led us around another bend in the dark tunnel. “This is my master’s accounting area…”
We were heading for an open door at the end of the corridor and passing several others along the way which all appeared to be locked. They were dark and quiet and I wondered if they were back entrances to some of the “exhibits” we had seen. Then we passed one that was different—it had a window.
Sarden had his head down, looking at his feet as he walked. I could only imagine the effort it cost him to keep up this awful charade. I, however, was looking around and so the window caught my eye—and in it, the flash of a woman’s face. A golden eye…a flick of silky, black hair… Had I really seen that?
I couldn’t be sure. It was there and gone so quickly I thought I must have imagined it. I stopped for a moment and looked again but I didn’t see anything—just a lighted square in the metal door. Just my mind playing tricks on me.
“And here I am afraid you must come in alone,” POC said, breaking my concentration. He was gesturing to the open door and talking to Sarden. “Master Tazaxx does not allow anyone but his business partners into his inner accounting sanctum.”
Sarden frowned. “I won’t leave Zoe.”
“You must, I am afraid,” POC said. “I assure you she will be quite well. Or she can go back to your Protector to wait if you like—the way back is just down the corridor.”
“Yes, do that.” Sarden nodded at me. “Go back to Grav. Stay there until this is finished.”
“All right.” I nodded and watched as he and POC went into the lighted room and shut the door, leaving me in gloom.
I should have gone back down the hallway at once—I know I should have. But something made me go look in that window we had passed one more time and that was when I saw her.
Sellah was alive.
Part IV
Captured, Cloned, and Collared
Chapter 21
Zoe
I couldn’t believe it but there she was—the exact same girl I’d seen in Sarden’s crystal memory cube. Her smooth brown skin and large golden eyes, so like Sarden’s, were unmistakable. Those golden eyes widened when she saw me watching her and she made motions at me and said something I couldn’t hear.
“Hang on,” I told her in a low voice, which she probably couldn’t hear either. “I’m going to get you out of there.”
But how? I pulled on the door handle and it didn’t budge an inch—it was unmistakably locked.
I looked at the palm-pad just to the right of the door and wondered. Doubtless it was set to only open for Tazaxx. But then, the door on Gallana had been keyed only for someone with Majoran DNA and the Force-Locks I had opened before that were supposedly only useable by a Vorn.
Might as well give it a try.
Taking a deep breath, I pressed my hand to the pad and waited anxiously to see what would happen. At first my fingers were outlined in red and I was afraid it wasn’t going to work. Then, to my excitement, the red changed to green and I heard a soft but definite click from the locking mechanism inside the door.
Grabbing the handle before it could change its mind, I yanked it open and ran in to Sellah.
“Sellah!” I exclaimed, rushing to greet her. She was wearing manacles on her wrists and a cruel looking metal collar around her slender throat which was attached by a chain to the wall.
“Who are you?” she whispered, looking at me with wide eyes. “And what are you doing here? I thought…I thought I saw my big brother.”
“You did.” I couldn’t help myself, I put my arms around her and hugged her tight. I was just so glad to see she was alive!
Sellah hesitated for a moment, then hugged me back.
“Where is he?” she whispered in my ear. “You have to tell him to get out of here and you have to go too—you’re both in terrible danger.”
“We’re not going anywhere without you,” I told her, pulling back to look into her eyes. “You’re the reason we came in the first place. I’m Zoe, by the way.”
“Zo-ee?” She made my name sound exotic. “Are you my brother’s lover? Or his intended mate?”
“Oh, er…” Well this conversation was turning awkward fast. “Neither,” I said. “He abducted me to trade for you but then…well, it’s a long story. Let’s talk about you—we thought you were dead. Tazaxx showed us…” I shivered. “I don’t even want to say what he showed us.”
“He can take many shapes—different forms,” Sellah said in a low voice. “Please…” She looked at me urgently. “You have to go while you still can.”
“I told you—I’m not going without you,” I said
firmly. “Now let’s have a look at this awful collar you’re wearing.”
I found the unlocking mechanism around the back of it.
“It’s no good,” Sellah said, sounding hopeless. “It’s keyed only to Tazaxx or the captain of his Gord guard. I don’t know what planet you hail from, but it’s clear you aren’t Gord.”
“I come from Earth,” I told her. “We’re a, uh, closed planet. Or we were, until recently.”
“You’re a Pure One?” Her eyes widened.
“That’s what everyone keeps telling me, though Sister Mary Louise back at The Sisters of the Sacred Heart high school would probably disagree,” I said. “Okay…here.”
I had been trying to find a way to open the thick, metal collar around her neck. There seemed to be several buttons but none of them responded when I pressed them. Then, by accident, my fingertip slipped into the small, smooth place between the buttons and that was when the lock snapped open. I pulled the collar off Selah’s neck and helped her stand.
“How did you do that?” She looked at me wide-eyed.
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “Sarden, er, your brother says I’m a La-ti-zal, whatever that means.”
“It means that you’re very, very valuable indeed. Even more than I had at first imagined.”
The familiar voice came from behind me, startling me. I jerked and turned to see Tazaxx in his mud-man form standing just inside the doorway. Before I could move, the door clicked shut and I knew it was locked again.
“What are you talking about?” I asked, my stomach doing a nervous twitch. “And why did you lie to us about Sellah being dead?”
“I might ask why you lied to me as well,” he drawled, raising an eyebrow. “The smart-fabric mask was a masterful touch—I will give you that. But it wasn’t enough to fool me, especially as I knew you’d be coming.”
“Someone warned you Sarden was coming?” I asked.
“Of course—Hurxx, who arranged for Sarden’s sister to be captured and sold in the first place.” He gave Sellah a cold smile. “He told me when he sent her to me that her older brother would never stop hunting for her until he knew she was dead.” He shrugged his muddy shoulders. “So I made certain that he knew it.”
