by Seven Steps
“In this difficult time, it is best to look back on Drell’s life, learn from her strengths, and look forward to the future. As many of you know, we are here today to formally announce an emergency election of the next Council Leader. According to the Book of Council, as Drell’s main advisor, I will be the acting Council Leader until the election, which will take place three days from today. We will be holding preliminary elections in two days.”
The room exploded in chatter.
“Needless to say, I, as well as perhaps many of you, will be vying for that position. I wish you all the best.”
Arees looked down, scrolled through her touch screen. “And now, to new business. Myself and Countess Jun-Su,” she gestured to a olive skinned woman in the audience, “have drafted a very important bill. Please refer to your screens.”
Nadira looked down at the screen in front of her. A new message popped up. She opened it, and flipped through the file.
“This bill, which many of you may have seen, or heard of, has been stalled in committee’s for some time. But, as the acting Council Leader, it is well within my right to demand that this bill be voted on as soon as possible.”
“This bill is over a thousand pages long,” someone said. “Surely we need some time to-”
“As acting Council Leader, it is my job to determine voting dates. I have determined that day as today.”
More mutters.
A woman with short black hair, deep skin, and lips as red as blood stood up. “Czarina Arees, you are not yet Council Leader,” she said, her voice rolling through the hall like thunder. “I propose that we form an independent committee to review this bill.”
The crowd cheered their agreement.
Arees raised a hand to quiet them.
“Unfortunately, Empress Baleen, the Council Leader has the right to veto the formation of any committees. Your request is denied. Please sit. I suggest that you start reading.”
Baleen and Arees exchanged a hateful stare before Baleen sat again.
The women began to talk amongst themselves.
“This is ridiculous,” Eva said, her eyes on the screen before her. “I’m not signing this. She wants to give us a curfew.”
“A curfew?”
Nadira looked down at her own screen.
“Yes,” Eva said. “At ten o’clock, all doors and windows must be locked. Enforcers will, at that time, do a sweep of all public streets and anyone, woman or man, found on the streets will be immediately jailed and questioned.”
Baleen stood up again. “This bill will need to be reviewed more thoroughly. It says here that a identification chip will be put in every slave. For what purpose?”
“Identification, of course.”
A few women chuckled.
“Can that be validated? How do we know that this isn’t a tracking chip, for instance?”
“You have my word,” Arees smirked.
“Again, can this be validated?”
“We will release the specs of the chip as soon as possible. Any other questions, Baleen?”
“I’m sure that I’ll have many more questions Arees. Don’t worry. I’ll make sure that they are all addressed.”
Eva nudged Nadira with a sharp elbow. “Naddie, according to this, all infractions now come with a fine. After the first infraction, a security camera will be placed in the woman’s home. After three infractions, the woman is banished or executed. If it’s a slave based infraction, the slave is executed, no exceptions. For non slave based infractions, the slave will be wiped and resold to the slave market.”
Eva went silent. Her eyes translated what her mouth could not.
What if you get caught with Kiln again?
Although Eva didn’t approve of Nadira’s relationship with Kiln, she didn’t want to see them undergo such brutal punishments either.
Nadira sucked in a breath, stuck out her chin. “Don’t worry. I’m not signing it.”
“But what if it passes?”
Nadira shook her head. “It won’t pass.”
It can’t.
“But what if it does?”
Nadira didn’t reply. She turned her screen over on her lap, refusing to give the bill any more attention.
*****
The women, primary Baleen and Arees, argued late into the morning.
At midday, they were allowed a one hour break.
Nadira tapped Eva on the knee.
“Eva, wake up. They’re letting us leave.”
Eva opened her eyes, yawned and stretched. “Finally. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“No, we have to come back in an hour. They did a preliminary poll, and the bill didn’t pass.”
“Good. This trash doesn’t deserve to pass.”
“The final vote is in an hour.”
“Well, wake me in an hour.”
Eva shifted in her chair, crossed her arms over her chest, and leaned her head back, closing her eyes again.
Nadira frowned, and stepped over Eva’s long legs.
The room had turned hot long ago and she needed fresh air.
Halfway down the hallway, a woman stopped her.
“Empress Nadira, a word please?”
Porcelain skin, hair as black as ink, and ruby red lips stood in front of her. Empress Chee gestured to an empty corner of the hallway.
“Your preliminary vote showed that you are voting against the bill,” she stated.
“How do you know what my vote was?”
“I have my ways. I’d advise you to rethink your position.”
“The bill is a joke.”
“Not according to your public records. It seems that you have been playing with your slave a bit too much, and I have several sources that will confirm that you have been involved in some of the, shall we say, baser activities.”
Nadira’s heart stopped.
How does she know?
She slipped her ice mask into place. “Those are blasphemous words.”
“Not according to Empress Via, whom I have a sworn statement from stating that you were eating with your slave, Kiln is it? She also says that you keep your windows closed during the day, and shall we address the peculiar noises that she has heard coming from your home?”
“She’s lying.”
“And Officer Bragnia? Is she lying too? I have three other incidents of infractions here, all slave related.”
“How did you get those?”
“I’m actually quite amazed that you haven’t been brought in for questioning already. Of course, with an Ambassador for a mother, I can see why that would be the case. Shall I go on?”
Nadira glared at Chee. “What do you want?”
“Change your vote, or I will have you bought up on charges before the High Council. Do you know what that means? You’ll lose your position, and your slave will be executed, and that’s just the beginning. Are you willing to risk it? Are you willing to risk him?”
Nadira’s lips trembled, the nails of her clenched fist digging into her palm.
“Change your vote Councilwoman,” Chee said. She turned and marched down the hallway, a bounce in her step.
Hot rage pulsed through Nadira, and she bit her trembling lower lip to keep from screaming.
How dare she threaten me! I’ll...
Her thoughts trailed off.
I’ll...
Her mouth dropped open, her breath coming out in a puff.
There’s nothing I can do. If she brings me before the Council, I’ll be banished, and Kiln will be-
She didn’t allow herself to finish the thought.
She brought one hand up to her mouth, trying to hold in the tears that threatened. She was trapped. Signing the bill would only limit her and Kiln further, but if she didn’t comply, his life, and hers would be ruined.
She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, and walked back into the hall. She stepped over Eva’s legs and dropped hard in her seat.
Eva yawned and blinked. “What’s wrong?”
Nadira didn’t respond, only looked forward.
“Nadira?”
Arees rose to the podium once again. The room turned silent as the voting began.
The bill passed.
Chapter 8
Eva let out a frustrated breath.
I can’t believe I left Council early for this, she thought.
Grand Empress Amerish, her mother, sashayed her way down the long white corridor, her high heeled boots clicking against the tiled floors. The older woman was taller than most, almost six feet, with high hair that added an extra six inches. Though she considered herself a connoisseur in fashion, her heavy makeup and her highly starched collar reminded Eva more of a news reporter then a model on the runways of Habitat Zephta.
The smell of heavy male musk hung in the air as hundreds of eyes looked back at them through glass cages, some hopeful, some distinctly not.
“If there’s one thing I love, it’s slave shopping,” Amerish said. “Nothing says wealth like a new slave to match the latest fashion. Multiple limbs are in right now.”
“Don’t you think that seven servants is enough mother? After all, it’s just you in the house.”
“Oh, don’t be silly. You can never have enough slaves. Besides, it’s not as if we’re poor. We can afford it.”
Eva’s grandmother died the previous year, leaving Amerish her fortune. Before that, they had indeed been poor, barely able to purchase one servant, let alone seven of them.
“Maybe I should buy two,” Amerish said absently.
As her mother rambled and harped about the importance of keeping up with the latest slave fashions, Eva’s mind clouded with thoughts of Baster. After thirteen years in her service, he’d died suddenly in the middle of the night, only seven days ago. The memory of her sweet, chubby servant hit her powerfully, and she cleared her throat to remove the lump that had formed there. A single tear left a wet trail down Eva’s cheek. She quickly wiped it away before her mother saw.
Not that she’d care, Eva thought.
Eva cringed as she recalled Amerish thumbing through slave catalogues as Baster’s lifeless body was carried out of their home. She imagined that his body was cremated in the Graves, the slave burial ground.
He’s only ash and dirt now.
She wiped away another tear, forcing herself to breathe as they passed several slaves, each in a glass cage.
“Oh, that one’s nice.” Amerish pointed to a sad faced, four armed man. “He must be from that new planet we signed a treaty with a few months back. I just have to have one!” She squinted at the small screen in the top left corner of the glass. “Tigrim, from planet Carm.”
Lies, Eva thought. All lies.
Dying and desperate planets typically traded their males to Venus in exchange for supplies and technology. Although High Council released what planets it traded with, men were commonly stolen from unsanctioned planets, and sold to unscrupulous women in what had become known as the Hollow Trade. Those women then sold the stolen men to the slave market for a high price. This man may have been Tigrim from planet Carm, or maybe not.
“Eva you should get one of these. With four arms, they must be twice as fast at everything. It’s like getting two slaves for the price of one.”
“Yes, mother, I’ll consider it.”
“And don’t think that you’ll be walking out of this slave market empty handed. You can’t run a house by yourself. I won’t have it. Its indecent.”
Though the thought of buying a new slave was distinctly unappealing, the thought of her mother’s nagging was downright intolerable.
Eva took a few steps away from her mother, examining the men behind the glass.
“I’ll find someone, mother.”
She passed by older men, and young boys, some faces turned to her in desperate hope, some faces heavy with the equal weight of dejection and hopelessness. She tried to think back to when she’d gotten Baster, at the tender age of seven.
Did he look like this? She wondered. Was he hopeless too?
“Have you found anyone yet?” Her mother called from down the hall.
Eva turned to her mother, shaking her head. “No, mother.”
“All right, I’m going to start the process on this one,” she pointed to the four armed man. “I’ll meet you by the temple.”
“Yes, mother.”
She sighed, and turned back to the long corridor and endless choices.
She saw him.
Flame red hair, budding beard, long limbed, deep brown eyes. His jumpsuit was unzipped to the waist, revealing a sculpted chest and abs lightly peppered with dark hair. He leaned one arm against the glass, looking out of the window across from his cage.
He didn’t move when she approached.
She looked at the screen in the top left hand corner of his cage.
“Lex from planet Brev,” she said to herself.
She looked away from the screen. His unsettling gaze collided with hers, stealing her breath, making her pulse race.
His eyes were, in fact, not brown as she’d suspected, but a deep blood red. She watched him watching her, a strange sense of warmth filling her belly.
A little fog of air formed on the glass in front of him.
Unable to stop herself, she put a hand on the glass.
His large hand raised up, matched her movement. She imagined what his hand would feel like without the glass. What would his skin feel like against hers? Goose bumps raced down her spine at the illicit thought.
He kicked up one corner of his mouth, the small act making her giddy.
I want him.
She gestured to a nearby worker, identified by a blue tag on her jumpsuit.
“How much is this one?” Eva asked. She looked down at the woman’s name tag. Bre-La.
“He will be three thousand vesuvians.”
“Three thousand vesuvians? Isn’t that a bit expensive?”
“He’s house trained, well spoken, and comes very highly recommended by his previous owners family.”
“But three thousand vesuvians?”
“I can show you a later or earlier model if you are on a budget.”
Eva looked back at Lex. He was leaning against the glass, one hand above his head, staring at her.
She felt her knees weaken.
She turned back to Bre-La.
This is a very bad idea.
“I’ll take him.”
*****
After Eva completed the lengthy mastership documentation, Lex was taken away to be washed, groomed and dressed for the bonding ceremony in the temple. The Slave Temple was exclusively used for the bonding ceremony. Slaves, though deeply religious, were not afforded their own places of worship. They were, however, allowed to stand in the back of the Temple of the Mother Goddess Venus during weekly services.
This is bad, she thought. I’m getting strange feelings for this slave that are completely inappropriate. I should leave him here and get another one, maybe an older man. Someone who isn’t so...tempting.
When she saw him again, his beard had been shaped, his red hair buzzed down. His white jumpsuit was now pressed and zipped to his throat.
All thoughts of leaving without him flew from Eva’s mind as Lex went to stand next to Tigrim and two other men.
The Slave Temple, located in the lower level of the Slave Market, was built to resemble a cave. The walls were rocky, as if carved from the bedrock of Venus. The cavernous room was unfurnished, and lit by track lights in the ceiling. The unpleasant aroma of burnt flesh and sweat hung heavy in the air. The design of the temple was a deliberate effort to remind the men of their barbaric past on Earth.
To Eva, it served as a reminder of the brutishness of the impending ceremony.
A woman dressed in white robes, the Slave Master, stood on a small platform of raised rock. Two boys, no older than ten, sat on either side of her. Their heads were bowed, and they were draped in long, black robes.
“Slaves,” she said, her voice echoing through the c
avernous room. “Bow.”
The slaves stepped in front of their future masters and kneeled.
“Masters, place your hands on your slaves.”
Eva looked down at Lex’s neck. She saw a faded brand there already and shuddered. She looked away.
The two young boys next to the Slave Master stood and walked forward. In their small hands were square devices, which they distributed to Eva, her mother, and the third woman, before rejoining the Slave Master on the stage.
“Empresses, repeat after me, I own you through fire.”
Eva repeated the sacred words, the words she had only said to Baster many years ago.
“Now,” the Slave Master said, “through fire, brand him.”
Eva’s hand shook as she turned the device over. It read her fingerprints, flashed, and grew hot.
Trembling, she turned the device downward and pressed it onto Lex’s neck.
He tensed, but didn’t cry out, as Eva’s fingerprint was burned into his skin.
One, two, three.
She dropped the device and placed a hand over the wound. She felt her stomach lurch as Lex’s skin bubbled beneath her fingers.
The device clattered when it hit the floor, the sound echoing through the cavern. Her mother glanced at her, and frowned.
The Slave Master nodded.
“Through fire, he is yours.”
Eva snatched her hand away, anxious for the boys to place the healing salve on his neck.
Her fingerprints were branded on him. He was officially hers.
“I always loved that ceremony,” Amerish whispered. “So solemn.”
So cruel, Eva thought.
She followed her mother out, and waited for Lex and Tigrim to be delivered to them in the hallway. The thought of him reappearing sent goose bumps down her arms. She took a deep breath, trying to calm her racing heart.
What have I done? What if I act on these feelings? Where will that lead?
Amerish’s gaze was settled somewhere down the hall.
What would mother say if she knew I felt this way?
The thought of her mother doused her warm desire with cold guilt. A woman who went against her mother was considered the ultimate villain, the very worst kind of dishonorable person. It meant that she didn’t respect her life-giver, and, by extension, didn’t respect herself.