And on the inside, they had demanded a Hearth room, as was traditional among Glaenwi.
The Slern night steward opened the door and extended a trio of eyestalks through the folds of its midnight blue cloak. “Yes?”
Lynx removed his false head and shoulders.
The steward’s eyestalks went rigid, waving from droid to Zhoogene and back in consternation. Then it extruded two more eyestalks to take in the sight from every angle. Just to be certain.
“Bylzak!” it shrieked. “It’s you.”
* * * * *
Chapter 26: Izza Zan Fey
Nyluga Ree’s Sanctuary, Tumlhui Dek City, Pleigei
“That’s quite enough recovery time,” said the Kayrissan. She tapped her wrist slate.
Power surged through the eighty-seven pain pins stuck into Izza’s flesh, hot-wiring agony into her nerve endings.
Her writhing rattled the chains suspending her from the ceiling. Screams filled the playroom, as her interrogator liked to call it.
White-hot fire consumed her skin. Violent sparks overwhelmed her vision, even though Kaycey hadn’t pushed her pins inside her eyeballs. There were three in her tongue, though, and several in her lips. She had the sense of experiencing every taste at once, all turned up to maximum. It was not pleasant. In fact, it made her gag, which only made the pins piercing her throat hurt more.
“Unnnghh! Fuuukkkkhh!”
She grunted until the pain stole her breath. The screams continued in her head.
Despite the agony, there was no damage to her flesh except for her manacled wrists and her ankles to which the cat had tied heavy weights that layered on additional agony with every swing on her chain.
Ironically, the more she hurt, the less pain she could feel in her ankles. But she began to doubt her ability to walk any time soon. The smell of ozone was intense now.
Her lungs filled once more, the air being expelled immediately as screams. Sharp breath in. Scream. In again. Out. The gasps between her breaths grew shorter and shorter until everything blurred into one continuous shriek. The bright flashes of pain in her vision merged into an actinic blur.
Then the pain ripped away, leaving just the sharp residue of ozone.
Izza tried to press the balls of her feet onto the floor to take the weight off her ankles and wrists, but Kaycey had hung her high, and they barely reached. Any relief was minimal.
But it was better than nothing. Marshaling her dwindling reserves of defiance, she glared at her tormentor.
From the sofa, Kaycey licked idly at her glossy sapphire fur while enjoying the sights and scents of torture.
“I love to see you dance,” she said and took a swig from her cool beer.
The skangat cat was loving this. No doubt about it. Cruelty and pain were her pleasures.
“Nyluga-Ree set you a task,” Izza gasped. “Verify my loyalty to her. I suggest you do it, or it might be me sticking pins into your flesh.”
“Unlikely.”
Kaycey moved over from the sofa and cruelly toyed with one of the pins stabbing into Izza’s left bicep.
It caused a sharp intake of breath between clenched teeth, but Izza was too numbed to scream.
Kaycey licked the sweat dripping from Izza’s nose and purred with pleasure. “I enjoy the taste of your pain, Zan Fey. This has been a long time coming.”
She returned to her spot on the sofa. “The Nyluga asked me to certify your loyalty before admitting you back into her inner circle. That is her objective. Not mine. I simply want to enjoy hurting you.” She flicked her tail. “Is that so wrong?”
When Kaycey’s finger moved back to her wrist slate, Izza gasped and tensed every muscle.
But the bitch was bluffing. Bitch? Skangat made a better insult.
“Just playing with you, Zan Fey. I can’t shock you just yet. You’re still too numb.”
“That’s not your only game,” said Izza. “You wouldn’t dare defy the Nyluga. You’ll make your checks, and I’ll answer some questions, but only the most incompetent torturers think pain will get anything other than corrupted results. Nyluga-Ree would be better off entrusting my interrogation to your sex kitten of a sister.”
Kaycey flicked her tail from side to side.
Getting under her fur wasn’t much of a win, but Izza took it.
Her tail might be flicking, but Kaycey’s face was smiling. “You’re probably right. Maycey would take out the pins and lick every inch of your body until you were so revolted by her that you’d say anything to make her stop.”
“Sounds like you two have had a falling out again.”
The Kayrissan shrugged. “A dispute over a wager has escalated. Funny, it’s a wager over a former shipmate of yours.”
“The human with the beard? I bet your sister’s got her tail wrapped around his sex parts.”
“She toys with her prey. I enjoy hurting it.” She walked over to Izza and leered into her face. “And when I tire of hurting you…”
Kaycey ripped out a pain-pin from Izza’s knee and shoved it through the webbing between her toes.
“Ahh…Goddess!” Izza groaned.
“All things come to an end,” Kaycey said. “When I finish hurting you, I shall declare you to be a spy. And I will be correct, too. I don’t need to waste my time interrogating you to know you’re still in thrall to that human you married.”
Kaycey paused and blinked at her prey with green eyes. It was an unexpectedly respectful expression. “Did you know, the Nyluga actually bought your story about splitting with Fitzwilliam? Of course, it was only because that’s what she wanted to believe. But you did manage to fool Lyi-Niah too.”
“And Das-Zee?”
“The Shield is missing. She’s been gone seven weeks. Which means that when Nyluga-Ree hears what I have to tell her about you, she will not be in a forgiving mood.”
“You’re wrong,” Izza told her. “I dumped that useless human on—”
Her shrieks rent the air.
Kaycey wasn’t even watching Izza bucking in her chains. Her back was turned as she reached into the chiller cabinet for a fresh beer.
Oaahhhh! Fitz! She screamed inside her head. You’d better make this come out well.
The pain overwhelmed her, and the blistering heat of her howls drove all words from her mind.
Soon, even the screams moved on to somewhere else.
Before her tormentor could settle back in her sofa, Izza hung limply in her chains.
* * *
Secret Monitoring Station, Nyluga-Ree’s Sanctuary
With those long stretches of green skin bristling with needles, the woman hanging from the chains looked like one of those plants the humans used in terraforming projects. What did they call them? A cactus.
Speebulz winced as he watched her swing from the chain. Zan Fey had always been good to him.
He replayed the cat assassin’s words. “I don’t need to waste my time interrogating you to know you’re still in thrall to that human you married.”
After all these years of watching and recording in the shadows of the Nyluga’s Sanctuary, it was difficult to imagine they might risk it all to reveal Kaycey’s disloyal words. But Oouzo had explained the plan. Zan Fey’s agony would not be in vain.
One of the Ellondytes crawled into the monitoring station.
“I don’t know why you make yourself watch that,” said Roogyin.
Speebulz muttered a greeting and waved a pseudopod at the humanoid to sit.
“I hate to see her like this,” the Slern replied. “It was Oouzo’s idea that I watch every moment. Zan Fey’s pain will fuel my courage to do what must come next.”
* * * * *
Chapter 27: Izza Zan Fey
Izza drank.
The liquid felt cool and sweet running down her throat.
Reviving her.
The lights turned back on in her mind, and she noticed the pins were gone from her tongue.
Was this a new torture? Had Kaycey moved on to sadisti
c mind games?
She opened her eyes and saw Maycey squeezing the liquid into her mouth.
Details seeped into focus. The pictures on the walls. The sofa with the thick rug in front of it and the chiller cabinet beside it. She was still in the pleasure room.
She scanned her body and saw that most of the pain-pins had been removed. Not all, and although the weights had been taken from her ankles, she tested the chains binding her wrists and found she was still manacled.
“What is this?” asked Izza. “Good cat, bad cat? Why am I still bound?” She rattled the chains again.
“I shouldn’t be surprised by your stupidity,” said Maycey. “Not when you have rotting leaves for brains. I wasn’t about to release a big, green, unconscious lump like you and let you crash to the floor while you are still covered in pins. Sheesh! Give me a chance.”
“Where is your sister?”
“Spreading her lies to the Nyluga. The boss won’t believe her. She just put you with my psychotic sister because she’s in a foul mood.” Maycey put the drink on the floor and started removing more pins.
“I heard,” said Izza. “Das-Zee is missing. And now Lyi-Niah too.”
“It’s true. The Nyluga is beside herself with worry.”
“I’ll bet. So, she sent you to make amends with me.”
“Hardly. Have you forgotten, Zan Fey? I enjoy the hunt. The climax of the kill. But I’ve never enjoyed inflicting pain. I think it’s barbaric.”
“Funny. I seem to remember you dishing out a few cuts and bruises when we used to wrestle. You loved the taste of my blood. Told me it was exotically spiced. Have you forgotten?”
“No.” Maycey’s eyes hazed over for a few seconds. “That was different. That was rough play.”
“How about Arunsen? Do you enjoy roughhousing with him?”
Maycey hesitated. “Arunsen is proving to be a reluctant playmate.”
“Interesting. So, just to be clear—” she rubbed her bruised wrists as Maycey freed them from the manacles, “—you’re being nice to me to piss off your sister?”
“Naturally.”
“Well, here’s another way to put one over on her. She’s telling Nyluga-Ree I have betrayed you all. She’s wrong, and I’m going to tell you a secret that will prove it. You see, Lynx and I didn’t come alone…”
* * * * *
Chapter 28: Green Fish
Cell Block, Nyluga-Ree’s Compound
Sinofar’s ghostly green fingers gave a silent three-count. Then the Pryxian grasped the handholds she’d glued onto the breach hole and lifted.
Through her infrared visor, Green Fish saw bundles of muscle fibers glow bright across Sinofar’s bare arms. There was a glow too around the edges of the breach they had cut through the floor.
Green Fish hesitated. What if the hot edge burned through her rope?
Too late for that now.
Without giving herself time to think, she checked one last time that her HC2 blaster was ready to fire. Then she jumped into the hole.
The rope-braking system choked her descent in easy stages that left her stable enough to scan the room for targets.
She saw no hostiles.
When her boots touched the floor, the rope automatically detached from the harness.
She made a final scan of the room and confirmed that their intelligence was correct.
The room was a cell. Vetch’s cell. There, on a mattress against one wall, was a human figure lying on his side. His core was glowing warm, and the tiny pulses of a heartbeat were visible.
Gods, she felt like a holo-star. It was such a rush.
“Vetch,” she whispered.
She remembered he was still her squad leader. Sort of. “Sergeant Arunsen.”
She took a last scan of the room. Nothing. She gave the all clear hand signal to Sinofar, who was providing overwatch through the hole in the ceiling.
The sergeant was sleeping like a beautiful, bearded baby.
She gave his shoulder a gentle shake.
Memories suddenly bubbled to the surface. All the things she’d done and seen since fate had snatched her from her Militia family. She knew she would have to wait, but she was desperate to tell the sarge everything, to let her story flow out of her in one enormous ramble.
He’d be proud of her.
Sergeant Arunsen had taught her so much. Looked out for her. Saved her.
Now, it was her turn to save him. She would have rescued him for free, of course, but Izza was flush with credits, and Green Fish was getting paid. Five thou to be here. Another five if they got him out alive. It was the kind of money the likes of her and the sergeant had never seen.
She gave him a harder shake. “Arunsen!”
Her jubilant high crashed, leaving an acid burning in her stomach.
Because something was wrong.
Arunsen was warm, but stiff.
It was faint in the IR, but she could just about make out his Viking beard.
After glancing up to bolster her resolve with the sight of Sinofar’s heavy blaster, she touched Arunsen’s beard.
It felt…solid!
“It’s a trap!” she cried.
Before her warning had escaped her lips, blinding light flooded the room,
“Suit, cancel IR mode.” She blinked back the overwhelming brightness.
Something moved inside the dazzle. It tapped her HC2.
Instantly, she squeezed the trigger.
But the blaster gave a warning buzz. Weapon malfunction.
The fierce glare hardened into shapes.
Another flurry of blinks, and she could make out some of them.
There were two people in the cell with them. Humanoid. Women in tight-fitting suits.
They had tails.
Skragging priceless! These had to be the Kayrissan assassins.
In their hands were the twin-tipped spears her briefing had called power lances.
Through the hole in the ceiling, she could see blaster barrels pointed at Sinofar’s face.
“We are outgunned,” Sinofar shouted to her. “Only resist if you want to die quickly.”
The cat women oozed smugness, licking their chops as if they’d just cornered the market on cream. They had been wearing stretchy black suits with green visor bands.
Had been, because one of them had removed her visor and unfastened her suit down to her navel.
The lances didn’t frighten Green Fish. What were they going to do, poke her with their blunt tips?
She glanced at her HC2. The barrel and charge regulator had been sheared through.
“Not what you were expecting?” gloated the cat still wearing a suit.
As she removed her visor, the other added, “Eh, little fishy?”
“Oh, I never expect anything,” Green Fish replied. “That way, I can never be surprised.” She threw her blaster rifle at the unzipped cat and grabbed her tactical knife to slash at the one still unzipping.
The Kayrissans moved faster than she thought possible.
The one she’d thrown her blaster at bent back at the ankles almost parallel to the floor beneath the ruined HC2’s trajectory. The movement was as fluid as a dancer’s. Then, like an acrobat, she flipped sideways through the air and landed a sidestep away.
With her face covering only half off, the other cat dodged Green Fish’s slash attack and came up between the human girl’s legs, nudging her just enough that she tripped and fell on her face. Somehow, amid the movement, the cat’s tail flicked Green Fish’s nose.
“Don’t,” Sinofar warned.
Green Fish turned over onto her butt and reviewed the tactical situation.
With the light on, it was humiliatingly obvious they had been lured by a printed Arunsen with a fake IR signature. Sinofar was staring into the barrels of blasters carried by two Zhoogenes on the roof. And the cats—who had to be Maycey and Kaycey—were pointedly ignoring Green Fish.
“Good to see you, Verlys,” said one. She blew the Pryxian a kiss and undi
d her hood, revealing a face covered in fur that gleamed with highlights like burnished bronze under a spotlight, but whose perfection was marred by a mutilated ear that appeared to have been half bitten off long ago.
That identified her as Kaycey. The boss had described her as the cruel one.
Which left the other as Maycey. Her coloring was more subtly blended, dull bronze stripes laid over a verdigris base. And with her suit undone down to her navel, allowing her furry little breasts to spill out… yup, that definitely matched the boss’ description of Maycey.
It wasn’t difficult to see how this pair had a reputation. They were beautiful and lithe, and they knew it. Green Fish would have liked to bury her fist in those pretty, furred faces. Just for personal satisfaction, mind. Then she’d gut them with her knife.
Her orders were not to engage unless she was sure of a kill. The boss had told her that, in every tactical respect, the Kayrissans outclassed her.
Their narcissism made her guts crawl. If she had a mirror, she’d give it to them. They were so in love with themselves, they would never be able to look away, and the gutting would commence.
Maycey dropped to all fours, licked her nose with a long, thin tongue and sniffed Green Fish.
Freak!
“Thank you for bringing me a human to play with, Verlys.” Maycey rose onto two legs and came closer to sniff Green Fish’s hair. “Yes, she will do nicely. A male human and, now, a female. Such amusing possibilities.”
Out of her peripheral vision, Green Fish could see her knife lying on the ground. Just one lunge and it would be within reach.
She glanced up at the ceiling. If Verlys had spotted the opportunity too, then they might still have a chance.
But Sinofar had seen. And she was shaking her head.
And if the Pryxian had abandoned hope…
Between the fear and the crash after the adrenaline high, Green Fish’s limbs shook.
The two cats enjoyed the sight of her defeat with almost erotic arousal.
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