by M. Garnet
She stopped and looked at him, then over at Tal who was now standing in a tense military stance, already looking around, facing sideways toward the doors. Smart already.
Dee finally spoke. “So now there are three. As history tells us, the slave bracelet is an asset beyond comparison. I accept your proposal of protection, and the young man has proven his worth. I will sign his papers of promotion when he gets me to my office. I think I will let him take me there now as I don’t want to face my two boys and get that I told you so look from them.”
He rose. Taking one last look at the mark on the wall, he nodded at the young man who held up his hand at the door. The guard opened the door, spoke to several other guardsmen and then a troop of them surrounded Dee with Tal walking so close he was a shadow. She smiled as they went down the hall, as the door was pulled closed. She sat back in her chair and gave a deep sigh.
She looked down at the bracelet and for the first time since it had been placed on her wrist she actually examined it closely. She was not sure if it was gold or some other material because in this part of the universe, who knew what was considered a precious metal? It was beautiful, even though it had been created in a dark and dirty shop on a dark and dirty planet.
She smiled as she felt the two men move behind her.
“You feel us approach?”
“Yep, the two headed beast that matches my bracelet.” She held up her wrist.
Suddenly, both men were kneeling, one on each side of her chair with a hand on her shoulder, and now she felt the contact move through her.
“Lorelei, I have captured prisoners before and it was always something that was kept at a distance. They were locked up and we took them. We sold them and pocketed the proceeds. I don’t know why I had you moved to my cabin except you were unusual. The circumstances were unusual and I was upset with losing good men. Something seemed to just take over my emotions. But I have talked it over and over with Leant.”
She didn’t look at him as he talked, just continued to examine the bracelet, but Leant continued on her other side.
“We are not sorry, even though it means that you ended up a slave. We know this rubs against your free spirit, but we also think that fate had a hand in the whole process. We know that the three of us were meant to be together. We will include you from now on in whatever you want to be included. We will try to give you what freedom we can give you.”
The other voice continued. “But know this. You complete some type of connection for us. We need you close for the next few years, as we take over the control of the Federation and get several worlds back into a stable situation so all of their people are fed properly and have a voice in their government.”
She looked from one to the other, then back down at the bracelet. “I don’t really have a choice. I was just trying to make you and others beside Dee tsee me as something other than a toy or this bracelet. This bracelet wraps around the wrist of a living thinking person.”
Two identical sets of lips kissed each cheek. Leant spoke. “So you think you can get the woman to talk, okay, interrogate her. But like Dee, we need to find a guard to stay with you when we are not there. Any suggestions?”
She smiled. “Call in ten guards from outside that door right now and have them stand shoulder to shoulder.”
She sat and waited as the men came in and lined up. It was obvious that some of them were so in awe of the twin Dissnue that they were actually shaking. She hiccupped and then hiccupped repeatedly.
The two twins looked at her. “What do you need?”
“A drink of water.” One of them handed her a glass. She couldn’t guess where it had come from and decided she would just have to get use to magic from these two. She took a sip and still hiccupped.
She got up and put a restraining hand on the twins, then went around to face the ten men and looked them over, even though she continued to hiccup. She went to the first man who had shown fear of the twins.
“You may leave the room.” The guard looked at her and then at the twins. The twins chose this moment to get into a deep verbal discussion so they were ignoring her and the men. The guard looked at his other guards. Realizing he had no choice, he turned and left. She went to the other two guards who also had shown fear of the twins and asked them to leave the room. The entire time she hiccupped.
Talking over her hiccupped interruptions she explained. “I have a special duty for one of you, and the three men I asked to leave showed so much fear of the twin Dissnue that they would not serve my purpose.”
She went to the first man of the seven left. “I am sorry. I have a mild problem called hiccups, I need you to slap me to interrupt the process, please.”
The man looked at her in surprise and came to tight attention, staring straight ahead. He didn’t answer, but he did not strike her. She sighed and moved on to the second man.
This one at least answered. “Mistress, the twins will strike me dead if I were to touch you, let alone strike you.” Again she sighed over her hiccups and moved down the line until she reached the fifth man and before she even asked he reached out and struck her lightly on the cheek.
He then went down on one knee. “Please forgive me for touching you. I pray that I did what would improve your situation.”
She stopped the fake hiccups and turned, leaving the men where they were, including the kneeling man. The twins were no longer talking, just watching.
She used her policeman’s voice. “Guards, everyone except the kneeling man is dismissed.” After they left she asked him to rise.
“What is your name, Guard?”
“Mistress, I am UnderGuard Tamin.”
Her twins took over. “Well, UnderGuard Tamin, you are about to get a promotion, and you have become the protector of our most valued possession. Our Mistress Lorelei. You will be available to accompany her whenever she walks through the halls without us. You will eat in the public areas she does and you will sleep when she does. You will have a special rank that will allow you to ignore orders from everyone except the three of us in this room. You can draw weapons that will help you protect her. The only people you have to really fear are in this room. Do you have any questions?”
The entire speech came from both of the twins and would have frightened most men, but he did not flinch. He had risen and he cleared his throat.
“This is an honor and I will protect the Mistress with my life. Perhaps the uniforms of the FDF Honor Team would be more appropriate, as it is less colorful and wouldn’t draw as much attention as I escort the Lady?” He asked this question cautiously.
The twins looked at Lorelei. “The Honor Team is actually trained as a spy group, so their dress is plain without a lot of extra color. Most people are not to know what they are, but it is a poorly kept secret within the crokteam. We think that would be a good suggestion and we also think, when possible, that you should take some training from them when you have time away from the Mistress so that you can learn more techniques.”
He saluted and still stood at attention.
Lorelei was happy. It was a good choice. “You are dismissed.”
“Yes Mistress, I will be outside this door.” He left the room.
“I didn’t mean for him to start right away. He needs some time to get things in order.” She felt bad that he took it as his role to start immediately.
There was a chuckle, she wasn’t sure who it from. “You have people skills we don’t have. I was a scientist and had my head stuck in experiments, and my only friend got killed in one of those experiments. I was a soldier and was given command immediately due to my status so everyone took my orders and I am bringing my only friend back to help us. Neither of us had to deal with people, we just told everyone what to do and they did it. Now, we don’t even have to tell them, if we want, we can make them.”
She looked at them and then at the bracelet. “So I am part of the team and not just a warm hole?”
There was a lon
g silence and she had to look up. She was greeted by two intense stares from those fractured colored green eyes, but on both faces was also a small, but slightly wicked smile.
“As long as we can still use the warm hole as often as possible, then we agree.”
She sighed. Every partnership had a downside, but if she listened to her body and not to her mind, perhaps it was not a downside. She smiled.
About the Author
After raising a daughter, running an International Business, traveling the world and only finding time to write a few minutes in any twenty-four hour period, Muriel now is retired in Florida and can write all day and all night, which she often does. Under the pen name of M. Garnet she uses all the experience she gained and without any hesitation draws information from her long list of friends and acquaintances worldwide. She loves to hear from you at [email protected]
