If he found no whore that liked his treatment of them? The smaller punishments came around regularly enough. Someone always did something wrong, and it didn’t have to be Slave Twelve.
He tossed the collar in the air, caught it again.
Chapter 10
After being in the surreal world of the House of Basteer Oren, meeting with Mako, and living inside the ship of the Swathe, being sent to see Giovanna was...odd.
Unnerving.
The first human brought here.
And it made Emery seethe with embryonic rage.
Before they were separated and sent to their patrons, it’d been whispered that Gio had betrayed them all, that she was the one who had told the Mekkers how to do it again and again – to bring more humans here.
If true, she was about to meet a traitor, the traitor. Yet, with no one else who could even begin to understand her situation, no one else she could speak to who knew of Earth, how could she not crave this?
Someone to talk to. It was enough to make her yearn. How had she been reduced to this so quickly?
The little rickshaw vehicle rolled down the street-corridor, passing people who had less access to vehicles. Whatever steered this, it knew directions or had the destination programmed in. The vehicle slowed and stopped beside large, bronze-hued doors that stretched overhead. The wooden door of the street buggy opened and Emery stepped out, gazing around as the vehicle sped off. If she ran off into the streets, how long before they found her?
Funny how they used timber for some things.
From either side of the doors, two black-uniformed security guards eyed her.
Did they know what she was? Why she was here?
If she ran off, would they track her? In minutes, she guessed, or seconds, remembering how her red hair shone like a beacon.
The hungry gazes of a few of the passing men and women shocked her into a darker reality.
A macabre one.
Those people might be happy to drag her away, hide her, and suck out all her blood, or rape her for those other fluids Mako had been so keen to tell her about. When your tears or your spit could save a life, you were no longer valued as merely a person – you were a magic bag of medicine.
She was suddenly glad of the guards.
No one touched her when she herded mechlings, though that was a different part of the ship. Perhaps her House Oren collar did bestow on her some protection.
“In.” One of the guards inclined his head, as the left side of the doors swung inward.
A slave took her deep, through many hallways, then to a room that held a long table and chairs. Gio sat at the table but rose as Emery entered, with her hand out in welcome.
Her smile and hand faltered when Emery paused and merely looked from one to the other.
“I’m Giovanna. Most call me Gio. You’re Emery?”
She nodded. How everyday a greeting. “No slave name?”
Gio’s mouth pursed, twisted. “No. Drette calls me Gio too.”
It was true. The rumors must be true. Galling.
Her arms were at her sides, where she’d made them stay. Her fingers opened and closed, brushing the skirt of her dress – the ivory colored one they’d given her. No underwear, because slaves were rarely allowed underwear.
Already she wished she had a knife. How could a human here avoid being made a slave? Her hate threatened to rise, but she pushed it down, left it on simmer.
There might be good reasons.
“You’re not a slave?” She wondered if this Gio knew what happened to those made into slaves.
“Sit?” Her eyebrows almost did a dance. Worried? She should be. Gio backed and sat again.
Emery followed, but chose a chair a couple of seats down, dragging it a few feet from the table before she sat. It made her feel as she might have the power. Illusory or not, she was going to ask questions and get answers.
“I suppose I’m a slave. It’s what Mekkers assume. I have some privileges I think you might not have? But I can’t go anywhere, can’t leave...here.” She gestured around her. “Not without permission.”
“That is it? That’s what you feel is bad about your situation? You think you are a slave?” Emery shook her head slowly, swallowed past the lump that tightened her throat. “Fuck. They sent me here because they hope you’ll help me feel better.” She wiped at a tear that’d drifted over her cheek and down to the corner of her mouth. “I doubt that.”
“Umm.” Gio retreated to the back of her chair, clutching one side of her own embroidered blue dress. “I know what bothers you. You’ve heard I betrayed us.”
She grunted. Already she didn’t believe whatever tale was coming.
“It’s true, in a way. I did.” Her gaze fastened on the floor.
Emery let her talk. If she spoke again, this could become a disturbingly violent conversation so quickly...
“I’m sorry. I made mistakes. I should’ve refused Drette when he asked for help, but...” Gio’s face was slowly growing redder, and her hand worked at the material of her dress. “I’ll tell you everything. If you hate me after, I’ll understand.
“I came through like I think everyone does, naked, after something called me. It was the most beautiful summoning. I was asleep in bed then something woke me, intrigued me. I walked and fell through some gap in the air that I didn’t even know was there. I was blind before I hit the floor. It lasted weeks. I think it was weeks – hard to tell time. I was so lost. The voices around me spoke nonsense until this boy started to talk to me in whispers.
“And then I learned the language here.” Gio shrugged. “It just...fell into place. Still don’t know how they do that. The boy and I talked and he told me about how his people were being persecuted, about how when they developed some sort of disease, some madness, they were killed. Worse than killed, the Mekkers crushed them to death.”
Emery sat forward. She knew this story. Or thought she did.
“Sun madness?”
“Yes. Sun madness. I came out of the blindness slowly. Drette was able to understand me by then, and he asked me about the method he used to get me here. Told me he was puzzled, and finally I became convinced that I was actually in another world.” Gio stopped to stare at Emery. “He showed me things. Windows to the outside, mechanical things, strange food, took me up to the roof of this ship. It was all wrong for anywhere on Earth, and I wanted to go home.”
Of course she did. Her own heart ached with longing even now.
“And then I told him how solving puzzles was my job on Earth. How good I was at figuring out stuff no one else could, and he begged me to help him. It was the only way I could see to get back. I leaped at his offer. I made him promise to do one thing for me if I succeeded – to free those boys who were getting killed over this sun-madness.”
“You were the one who got that law passed? They...obeyed you? That’s...”
“Unusual? No. I understood enough to get him to sign that agreement in blood. I’d researched enough, seen enough, to close that loophole, though not as thoroughly as I thought. I think he was surprised I knew but I’d had free rein of their databases for a few days. Anything signed like that is binding to them, and he signed. Should have been impossible for him to agree if it wasn’t doable. It turned out it was possible for him for a reason that I didn’t understand at the time – how much us humans are worth to them. The Governance understands trade, and one of the currencies of this Swathe is H factor. They’d tested my blood, and they knew we were highly valuable. Drette was desperate to get more of us.
“Only, I’ve found out he watered down my clause. They remove some of the power cells from the sun-mad before they free them.”
“So?” Emery scowled.
“It means the mechlings can’t survive for long. I’m guessing they plan to catch them once they die and recycle them anyway. You know, I’m a PhD research assistant at White Springs with four degrees in related sciences, and yet...I was too stupid to see what he wanted.”
“To make s
laves of us?” How would she have known? Her hands were sweating, as if this was something that hadn’t yet happened. Gio only angled her head, shrugged. “So you figured out how to do it?”
“To make a portal? To replicate what he did? Yes, and the funny thing is it turned out to be magic.”
What the fuck?
“That doesn’t exist.”
“That’s what we believe. It’s what Mekkers believe too. Magic is impossible.” She stood, pulling the full skirt of her blue dress free of the chair legs, and walked a few feet to study a floor vase. It held a spray of yellow flowers that reached almost to the ceiling. “Yet to bring more humans through, Drette had to arrange objects in a certain setting, think a certain string of thoughts, and hum the right frequency notes in the right sequences. On the day he brought me through, he was humming a favorite song. Took me ages but I tracked down exactly what he did that day. Nothing else works and it varies in tiny details and is tied to the date and time of day. Nothing else works. It is magic as far as I can tell.”
“Impossible magic.”
“Yes. My most astounding research and no one will ever know.” Her voice cracked. “I didn’t know the boy was a mechling.”
Humans had been sold out for robots. Emery tangled her fingers together and tried to stay calm.
“You might be smart, but you’re also the dumbest person ever. I’ve been sold out for robots. I’m here because you... Because...” Her fingers strangled each other and she held her breath, struggling with all these...facts. “Do you know what’s been done to me? Any idea!” She was shouting by then and half off the chair.
Gio shook her head. “I can guess.”
Guessing didn’t really work.
“You clueless bitch.” The next conclusion jumped at her. “You’ve tried to go back? Haven’t you? Tell me you can.”
“Not yet. They won’t let me.”
Emery laughed bitterly. It was the only response to that. Ridiculous.
Let her? She’d have been sprinting for the portal.
And she’d seen how ruthless the men here could be.
If it’d been her from the beginning? Would she have done the same? Mechlings could be cute. If she was blind, she might’ve made the mistake of thinking one was a child, but she’d never have cracked how to make the portal again. Once she knew the robot wasn’t a child, she’d have reneged on any agreement, if she thought it’d let them bring more people through. Which should’ve been bloody obvious.
What fool trusted strangers with the fate of their whole world? What fool let them in, showed them how to unlock the door? It was like inviting a strange man into your bedroom.
Which was every one-night stand ever.
She coughed out another laugh, face buried in hands. “Oh boy. You know, if I had a knife, I was sure I’d have stabbed you, but now, I’m just so horrified and appalled and shitty at your dumbness that I can’t even...”
“Yes. Me too.”
She twisted her head and eyed Gio, who looked crestfallen.
But she’d not been beaten, raped, humiliated...or had she?
“Has anyone tried to rape you or hurt you?”
Lines formed on Gio’s brow. “No. Drette is asexual, or close, I think. He just wants to make money. I still help him. It’s that or be sold. I’m guessing I’ve been lucky?”
Everything that’d happened to her rolled past, replayed. Everything that’d shattered her, though she’d reassembled herself afterward. One day she’d forget how to do that, how to put herself together.
Everything bad.
Gio had missed it all.
“Yeah. You have been lucky.” Bitch.
“I’m sorry.” Hesitantly, Gio came over and went to one knee before Emery. “I’m so sorry. I won’t ask forgiveness but...” Her lips pinched together and tears lined her eyes.
They’d only given her so much time to talk and it must be nearly up.
The solution to this all occurred to her. Drette was it? The one and only magic person? Wizard. Mage. Whatever he called himself. They probably hadn’t a name for it yet.
Impossible mage.
She whispered as low as possible. “Is anything listening to us?”
“No. I made sure. The mechling turned off its ears.”
So Gio could do that? Tell one of them what to do? Amazing, but she still wasn’t telling Gio she could hear them too. Or about JI-mech.
JI-mech. There was an idea. Gio was the one sort of trustworthy woman who might know what it was. Maybe she should ask?
Fuck no. Don’t be stupid. Trustworthy?
“You still help him? Drette?”
“I said so, didn’t I?”
Motherfucker. So wrong, but slavery or suicide were probably the other alternatives Gio had.
“You told yours. Let me tell you my story.”
Where oh where to start?
After drawing a tremulous breath, Emery took one of Gio’s hands in hers and held it tightly. “This is how dangerous Aerthe really is.”
Then she rattled through it all. All the sadism, the humiliation. Mako. Everything.
By the end, Gio’s eyes were wide with shock.
She squeezed even harder until Gio tried to pull away her hand. “Now you see why I want you to do this next thing. I want you to kill Drette. Kill him and there will be no one to call more people through.”
She stood, releasing her fingers. “That will end this.”
She would be stuck here, marooned, still a slave, but they’d have finished it.
Gio nursed her hand, staring at the crescents left by Emery’s fingernails. “I know you must hate me, but if I do that they’ll execute me.”
“Hmmm.” She stared down at her. “Yes, I suppose they will, unless you’re very clever. Poison him?”
Gio shook her head. “I can’t get access to poisons. I’d never get away with it anyway.”
For the first time she noticed how brightly Gio’s blond hair shone, how it haloed about her head. She was an angel in appearance. Ironic as hell.
What did she truly expect, for Gio to turn into some brave superhero? Suicide was not something she could throw at her and expect her to just do it.
“Whatever you do, and I don’t see a whole lot of fucking courage before me, and in case I see you again, find out about a man called Mako, he’s the master at House Oren. He might be famous or infamous...or something. I need to know his past.”
“I won’t kill myself. I’m sorry.”
“Yeah.” She almost said, a fucking pity, but that was too harsh even for her, even with what had and would likely still happen to her. She did have some sympathy for Gio.
Her nasty and impetuous need to see revenge play out into this woman’s death had drained away. Tired, she was so tired.
“I’ll see what I can find out about Mako. And Emery. Take care, this place is dangerous.”
My god. The understatement in that. Emery found her mouth open.
There were faraway footsteps in the hallway by then and she walked to the entry and waited.
“Did you know they’ve sold Sawyer and Ashleigh to Grounders?”
Really? Sawyer and Ashleigh, her and Fern – that was everyone from the wedding party who’d come through in that one batch.
The information tugged at her heart, begged her tongue to speak. She leaned her forehead on the door. “Why would they do that?”
“I don’t know. The Mekker king is old and senile, maybe? All I know is both of them assaulted guards at the court after Fern’s attack on Ormrad.”
The Grounders though. If humans were valuable to the Mekkers, that didn’t make sense.
“And Fern? Have you heard?”
“Only rumors that she’s being abused.”
“Fuck,” she said to the door. Then, louder: “Your fault again. You know that, don’t you?”
The silence was both golden and terrible. Hate wasn’t good for her and not her natural inclination. Gio could be a person of some power, and sh
e’d just trodden on her. She was also the only human they’d let her talk to. She needed to stop hating before she turned into some bitter thing the size and appearance of a prune.
“Not yet,” she told the door. Not yet.
She might’ve trashed this talk entirely, but she couldn’t bring herself to tell Gio she was forgiven. Sainthood didn’t run in her veins either.
Chapter 11
Taking the mechlings up to the roof became her daily chore. Going to the markets for fresh delicacies and unexpected needs became her secondary chore. She liked doing both. One gave her the semblance of freedom; the other let her see the humanity of this place, even when a guard had to accompany her to keep away the Mekkers who might steal her for her blood.
Most of the shopkeepers and their customers could be transplanted to Earth – New York, London, wherever, and no one would notice them.
The worst of them made her want to wash herself afterward.
Humans were like walking gemstones here – shiny, pretty, and valuable enough that they needed to be protected from thieves. She took advantage of her protection from the guard, until the guard noticed her poking her tongue out at the Mekkers who leered. Then she received a face slap and a stern talking to. Do it again and Mako would be informed.
Fine.
She went back to being meek, and seething with indignation inside.
The leers from the men didn’t go away. One man took a red capsule from a pocket, licked it slowly with his fat tongue, then swallowed it. He’d kept eye contact the whole time and she’d been so shocked she hadn’t looked away. The other slaves had told her what became of her blood and their blood. It was filtered and processed to extract a concentrate of the Factor H chemical then turned into capsules and tablets. The color varied depending on who made it and what it contained, but she’d bet a million the asshole had been licking a Factor H capsule.
Imagining that the capsule might’ve contained her blood made her want to throw up.
It had shot her straight back to the last Bloodletting Day when they’d connected her neck port to a tube. The red running out of her...
She curled her lip, gulped. Not nice, ever.
Acquired Possession (The Machinery of Desire Book 1) Page 6