The male groans when they reach the sunlight. I imagine the light, which he hasn’t seen in annums, must sting his eyes. When I reach the top step, Zar is standing so his shadow falls across the male as the doctor straps him to the hover-stretcher. The male groans in relief.
“Join the others on the main floor of the mansion. They’re having a meeting,” Zar tells me, then beams up to the Fool with his charge and the doctor.
Chapter Eleven
Willa
“Um, your attention please.” It’s Anya’s voice over comms. The pit of my stomach feels like it’s being bathed in acid and squeezed in a tight fist at the same time.
In the moment between the end of her sentence and the beginning of the next, my mind flies to visions of a thousand terrible things she’s about to announce. The one that circles round and round in my head is that she’s telling us they’ve all been killed. Or at least my Bayne has.
As I picture him lying dead on that awful planet, tears spring to my eyes.
“The fight is going well. Their report is that all the enemy has been vanquished except Khour.”
I sigh in relief, more thankful even than when the Fool’s Errand rescued us from the slaver ship.
“Only one serious injury. Wrage. He’s already bellowing to be released from medbay, so I wouldn’t worry too much about him. You can wish him well later. I’ll put even odds on whether he’s even still in medbay or not. But ladies, we have more important things to do.”
As I pay attention I look at the comm unit in my ceiling as if the speaker is a vid unit.
“The males found a group of women in an outbuilding on the property. They barged in, secured the perimeter, and are staying at the periphery until we arrive, believing the presence of a bunch of huge gladiator males would traumatize them.
“We’re already in the process of treating some malnourished and abused males we found in a dungeon. I’m not certain what shape these females are in.”
I drop onto the bed, my legs giving out. The extent of cruelty I’ve encountered during my sojourn in space is staggering. Abused males, traumatized females. Thank goodness I’m safe now. And I’ve found Bayne. I quell my rising fear by assuring myself Anya would have told me if something had happened to him.
“I’m looking for volunteers to go down to the planet with me to meet these females, assess what’s going on, and provide assistance.”
I hit my comm immediately, “I’m in,” I say although I don’t know what help I can be. Within moments I’m dressed and waiting near the transporter with five other women.
They transport us to what appears to be a courtyard in the middle of the compound. The mansion is to my back, an old well is in front of us, and to the side is an old building that reminds me of a two-story college dorm. It’s quaint and utilitarian.
Steele greets us, then accompanies us to the building made of the same chestnut and gold stone that constructs the whole compound.
I didn’t notice at first, but the charming old-fashioned building has something most college dorms don’t—bars on the windows. We enter onto a common area where the males have evidently rounded up all the females.
I’d expected to see a variety of alien females, but it sure looks like a bunch of Earth girls.
“Earth?” Anya asks without preamble.
They all nod, eyes wide. They must be as surprised to be rescued by a bunch of Earth girls as we are to find them.
It doesn’t take long to discover these five women were being held against their will, most were awaiting sale. It never ceases to amaze me that although humans are prohibited in space, the slave traffickers seem to prefer us. I was told it’s because our genetics are bland and it’s easy for just about any species to breed with us and produce offspring that look like the father.
The women seem to be in good physical shape. At least the asshole kept them fed. The doctor is busy with the malnourished males they found on site, but when he has time, he’ll give all the women a thorough exam.
“You’re free to leave this building,” Anya tells them after consulting with Zar, her mate. “I don’t recommend it. The grounds are littered with dead males—the ones who kept you prisoners here. We’ll have to meet to decide what to do, but you’re free and we’ll ensure you all wind up in a good place.”
“How soon can you get us back to Earth?” a small woman with tight brown curls asks.
“You’ll wind up in a good place,” Anya says as she shakes her head sadly. “It won’t be Earth. Humans don’t want to know there are other species out there capable of space flight. If you went back they’d take you directly to a place like Area 51 and your life would be miserable—that is if they don’t dissect you.”
The look of hope on every single face is dashed, shoulders sag. I’m sure Anya hates being the bearer of bad news as much as these women hate to hear it.
I sit on a couch between a blond and a brunette and try to lend a comforting hand.
“It’s not so bad,” I tell them. I think of how miserable I was at first, and how happy I am now that Bayne and I have found each other. “Sometimes you don’t even have to work hard to make lemonade out of lemons.”
Bayne
The gladiators are in the living area of the mansion which is now riddled with dead bodies and the charred evidence of laserfire.
“The house staff have been rounded up and are in
