by L P Peace
There were no doors. The entrance was covered by an old sheet someone had scrounged. Knocking at the wall to the side, Olivia waited.
‘Yes?’
‘Tassian, it’s Olivia.’
‘Come.’
Pushing the curtain aside, Olivia walked into the small one-room structure.
Tassian was sitting on his bed, bleary-eyed.
‘Carim’s with me. I’m sorry. Did we wake you?’
‘It’s fine,’ Tassian said, his bright pink eyes turning to her. They stood out against the dark grey of his Adalan skin and his long straight white hair.
Gesturing to the two chairs across from his bed, Tassian stood. ‘I have fresh water,’ he said.
Usually, Olivia would turn down a drink for a quick visit. At least, the old Olivia would. The Olivia who was well fed and hydrated. Now, freshwater was precious. Olivia nodded eagerly, seeing Carim do the same out of the corner of her eye.
A few moments later, Tassian passed Olivia a container made of cheap metal. It could have been tin, but in all honesty, Olivia wasn’t paying enough attention to care. She drank the water, feeling the cool freshness wet her throat. She was so hungry, so empty, she felt the water travel all the way down and hit her stomach, chilling her from the inside. She didn’t care. The human body could survive thirty days without food. It could only survive three days without water and with that would come rapidly deteriorating health.
Much of the fluid Olivia had drunk over the time she’d been on this planet was dirty. She was surprised she hadn’t died of anything yet. The injections the Tessans provided were the real deal.
‘Oh, that’s so good,’ she said, smiling up at Tassian.
His smile was brief. Tassian was handsome, even with the scars on his face from the abuse he’d suffered from his Myardahl owner before escaping.
Somehow, he survived the Myardahl, survived down here on his own. Then slowly, he helped others escape, and over the years, he built up a network of escaped slaves, many of whom helped him plan the escape of other slaves.
When Olivia arrived on the Myardahl homeworld, having been bought by a broker, she had been terrified. The tour of the rooms she would be allowed entry to in her new owner’s home had done nothing to temper that. In fact, seeing the things he had planned for her had been horrifying.
But first, he had an event to attend, and as his newest procurement, he was taking her with him.
They had reached the large government building where the event was taking place a couple of hours later. There, Myardahl in fine clothing promenaded outside the building pulling slaves about on leashes. Falmon had pulled her out of his flying vehicle and clipped a leash onto the collar he made her wear. She remembered trying to cover herself because the clothes he allowed her barely covered her skin.
Smoke had filled the square, rising from the grates. There were small explosions of some kind, more like flashbangs than actual explosions. Suddenly, Olivia’s leash was slack. Some sort of attack was taking place and everything got confusing as hands pushed and pulled at her. Voices reassured her she was safe as they dragged her away. For a moment, she’d been filled with panic until she saw the shadows of Myardahl lumbering around, the smoke interfering with their blind senses. She ran, letting the strangers lead her because anyone had to be better than Falmon!
Before Olivia had known what was happening, she and several other slaves were being led through tunnels under the city, away from their masters. Free.
Tassian’s had been the first face she saw, and she would never stop being grateful to him for saving her.
‘What can I do for you?’
‘You mentioned when we met that you knew Falmon?’ Olivia replied.
Tassian nodded. ‘I make it my business to know all of the powerful ones, up there.’ His head jerked towards his ceiling.
‘A friend, a Todaal I know, has arrived on the planet. We saw him at the port just now. Tassian, he’ll help me. Once I’m away from here. I can tell the IGC what’s happening here. About all the illegal slavery.’
Tassian went quiet, considering her words. ‘And you’re sure this was your friend?’
Olivia nodded. ‘He has a distinctive limp, and I saw his face. It’s Kadian. I know it is.’
Tassian was watching her closely as she spoke. ‘When was the last time you ate?’
‘A while,’ Olivia admitted.
‘Three rotes,’ Carim said. ‘We were coming here to volunteer when Olivia saw him.’
Standing, Tassian crossed to the door. There was no one standing outside Tassian’s home when they arrived, yet now, someone appeared almost as soon as the curtain was open.
‘Vyan, do you remember the residence of Falmon Onager?’
‘Of course,’ the Aavani said.
‘I want you to lead Olivia there. She believes an ally of hers is going there.’
The Aavani male looked at Olivia. He had dark bronze skin. His hair was golden, his eyes more yellow. The blind Myardahl could ‘see’ the look of an Aavani with their echolocation, but they couldn’t see and didn’t care about the acceptable Aavani colourings. Therefore, those Aavani that didn’t fit them were sold to the Myardahl. Aavani were the largest group of slaves on the planet for that reason and were the largest number of escapees living underground.
Vyan tipped his head to her, a small smile on his face. ‘Very well. Let’s get you to this ally.’
‘Before you do, bring them to Dena. Let them get some food.’
Olivia and Carim drained their respective containers before handing them back to Tassian. Olivia was careful not to touch him. The abuse Tassian had suffered had put him off contact with others. The only time she’d ever touched him was when she was lowered into the sewers, into his arms before he put her on her feet and led her to safety.
Vyan led them to the back of the camp. Dena had a stew pot going, as she had every day. Olivia knew that the meat in it was whatever creatures called the sewers their homes. The rest was provided by the Myardahl children the slaves had adopted off the streets. The orphaned and abandoned children provided scraps, and the escaped slaves turned them into meals. In exchange, the children had somewhere safe to stay, food to eat, and people who cared about them.
Eating quickly, Olivia thanked Dena, a Zavi female, before turning to Vyan. She was eager to get underway, but they still had to wait for Carim, who finished a moment later. He returned his bowl, but instead of joining them, he bent his head to talk to two Myardahl children. When he joined them, the children followed. Olivia smiled, understanding immediately. It would be foolish of them to get too close to Falmon’s house. But the children would be practically invisible to him and his staff.
Vyan led the way from the camp, back into the tunnels. This time, they entered the tunnels on the opposite side of the cavern.
Vyan began jogging. He was larger than Olivia, and it was hard to keep up. Worse, the food was still sitting on her stomach and it was cramping and nauseated at the presence.
Refusing to throw it back up, she swallowed hard and followed Vyan.
Soon. Soon, she would see Kadian. Soon, everything would be all right.
The cab pulled up outside of the home of Falmon Onager. Kadian got out and looked at the gated residence.
Olivia was inside this place. The thought made him sick. On Earth, it was now the thirty-first of May. Olivia had been taken on the twenty-fifth of April. She’d been gone over a human month, sold to this male over a cycle ago. The idea of the kind of things she might have gone through, of the condition he would find her in, enraged him. But he was determined to keep calm. Determined to buy his Olivia and get her safe and off this planet as soon as he could.
He walked to the gate and announced himself. He’d made the appointment while in transit from Caras. Kadian was sure the male had agreed to the meeting out of amusement more than anything else. He didn’t care. He was seeing him, and Kadian would give him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
The gate swung o
pen, and Kadian was greeted at the door by another Myardahl.
The whole species was blind by the standards of most other worlds. They had a form of echolocation. Though it seemed to be much more sophisticated than the bat's echolocation, which Kadian had learned about on Earth.
The Myardahl could see. They simply didn’t see with eyes, the way most other races did.
The servant led Kadian into a room and left him there alone.
Kadian had never been to the Myardahl homeworld before. It was certainly interesting how much colour they had in their world, considering they didn’t see colour.
It was the same in this room now. It was colourful, too colourful. Bright and garish. Kadian moved around, looking at the ornaments lying about the room. The furniture. He stood for several metri before the pain in his leg grew too great, then sat.
It was almost two hacri later that the door opened and the Myardahl walked in.
At seven and a half fenth tall, the Myardahl was taller even than Kadian, though only by an inith or two.
Two long, thick tendrils grew out of the back of his head, falling down his bare mottled green skin. He wore what the humans would call a kilt. His bare feet had two large toes, his hands, two fingers and an opposable thumb, all of them tipped with deadly-looking claws. His body was large, muscular and dangerous.
Myardahl were a predatory species, and he looked the part as he walked in.
‘You want to buy my little slave,’ the male said in a voice deeper than any Kadian had ever heard. ‘My delicious little human.’
He took the seat across from where Kadian sat, his eyeless face tracking him as he tried not to jump the space between them and kill the male.
Sensing Kadian’s struggle, Onager laughed. He took in a deep breath, his nostrils opening and closing, taking in the air around him. His grin stretched wider.
‘Oh, all the things I want to do to that little cunt. There aren’t enough hacri in the rote.’
Kadian stood, a snarl ripping from his mouth.
Onager stood, snarling back. His face was little more than a mouth and flat nostrils that opened and closed. It was disturbing to witness and twice as much when he saw the lower half of it suddenly drawn back against pointed teeth and massive canines.
The creature inside Kadian demanded to be unleashed. He agreed, feeling his control slip.
The Myardahl started laughing. ‘Do you want to see her?’
Kadian forced himself to take a step away from Onager. The male was baiting him. ‘Lead the way,’ he managed to get out.
Still chuckling, Onager walked out. He led the way up the stairs and into the halls of the house.
Stopping before a door, he smiled. ‘This is my favourite room. Though, when your little Olivia saw it, she screamed and cried and begged me to let her go.’
Hand on the door, the Myardahl pushed it open.
The apparatus and items he slowly revealed chilled Kadian’s blood. Eyes fixed in horror, he waited for the sight of his beautiful Olivia, more terrified than ever about the condition he would find her in.
The room was empty.
The Myardahl laughed and turned, taking Kadian back the way he came.
‘I don’t understand,’ Kadian said, his throat tight. If the Myardahl thought he was leaving just like that, he would soon be shown how wrong he could be.
Onager led him back to the front door and opened it. ‘The human escaped the first night she was here,’ he said. Then his grin widened. ‘But now that you’re here, I’m sure she’ll reveal herself again. It was Kadian, right?’
‘Yes?’ Kadian frowned, his mind reeling. Olivia escaped?
‘Then you are the male she screamed for when she saw that room.’ Kadian searched his face for a lie but saw only truth.
With that, the Myardahl pushed him out of the house and slammed the door in his face.
Stricken, Kadian wandered from the house.
The gate closed behind him. Kadian stood in front of the house, not knowing what to do. Olivia wasn’t there? She escaped?
Kadian looked down at the pad he’d pulled out of his pocket without thinking. He had to hire a cab. He had to find Olivia. He had to…
What?
What could he do? Where could he go?
It wasn’t as though there was a place he could go where he could report Olivia missing and then wait while they brought her to him. They would simply bring her back to Onager.
Kadian looked across the street, over the rooftops of the houses at the towering buildings of the city beyond. At the lights and noise and crowds that filled the city. The planet.
How would he ever find Olivia in this place?
He had to be smart. He had to get a hotel room first. Somewhere he could use as a base of operations. Somewhere that, if he found her during the rote, he could hide her until nightfall and he could take her to his ship.
Because he was going to find her.
Someone crashed into him. Kadian reached out, grabbing hold of the Myardahl child to steady them.
‘This way,’ the child said before running off down the street towards the city.
Kadian hesitated. This was a trap, wasn’t it? He waited another moment before following.
The child disappeared around a corner. Kadian kept his pace, determined to look as easy and natural as possible.
He rounded the corner and saw the child waiting at the end of the turn for him.
As soon as he was out of sight of the house, Kadian hurried his pace.
Seeing him, the child turned and continued on at a similar speed.
The few residential streets fell away, and they were swallowed by the city.
The child continued up the street, avoiding Myardahl, who milled about in the falling twilight. Looking up briefly, Kadian saw the pink sky darkening.
When he looked back, the child was gone.
Panicking, Kadian broke into something like a run, hindered by his limp. The only place the child could have gone was an abandoned alley.
Wary now, Kadian walked down, looking around the crates, boxes and trashcans that seemed to be standard fare in places like this across the galaxy.
‘Here,’ a voice whispered.
Kadian looked around.
‘Down,’ the voice said.
Scanning the ally floor once more, Kadian saw a sewer grate was open. He approached it.
‘Kadian.’
Kadian’s heart skipped a beat. He stepped closer. As he did, the darkness of the grate gave way to a shaft of light. There, under the street. Olivia stared up at him.
Without thinking, Kadian reached down for her.
Reaching up, Olivia allowed him to pull her from the sewer. His eyes moved over her, taking in every detail.
One of the first things Kadian had ever noticed about Olivia was the shade of her skin, it was the same colour as the hazelnut shell, like the colour of her eyes, dark brown flecked and contrasted with light green. Her eyes were almond shaped and always seemed like she was smiling. Her hair was dark brown and fell in large, loose curls around her. It was dirty now, oily but to his eyes appeared as beautiful as ever. She had full lips and a small nose which was rounded at the end and had a scattering of freckles around her mouth and nowhere else on her face or neck. She was smaller than she’d been before, even more fragile and delicate and even as Kadian pulled her into his arms and held her close, he held her a little more carefully, gently than he wanted. He moved them, making sure they were behind one of the waste receptacles and out of sight of the street.
‘Olivia,’ he said, taking in a deep breath.
‘Oh, god! Don’t do that—I stink!’
She did. Kadian couldn’t deny it, and it was the most glorious stink because Olivia was there and whole and in his arms. More importantly, underneath the smell that rose from her was the smell of his little human. Floral, nutty, her. He could stand here for hacri just taking it in, stink and all.
A noise skipped up the alley. Kadian turned, using hi
s body to cover Olivia.
An Inadiine, black skin, white hair, and bright blue eyes, smiled at him.
‘He said you’d lead me straight to her,’ the male said. ‘I was sceptical, but here we are.’
‘But now that you’re here, I’m sure she’ll reveal herself again.’
The Myardahl’s words scorched a path of understanding through Kadian’s brain. He was such a fool. That’s why he’d been made to wait so long. Because Onager was hiring someone to follow him, and he’d led the male straight to her.
‘He said you’d lead me straight to her. I was sceptical, but here we are.’
Olivia had never seen an alien like this before. Well, that wasn't entirely true. He looked a little like one of the hybrid Tessans Olivia had seen pictures of during training. Though he had no horns, his skin was darker, and he was larger.
In front of her, Kadian went utterly still.
Olivia looked down at Carim, who watched with her fearful eyes. ‘Go!’ she whispered. ‘Put the cover back on the grate! Go!’
Carefully Carim recovered the sewer hole. No matter what happened now, Olivia couldn't risk her friends.
Afraid the alien might have heard, Olivia looked around Kadian.
Highly reflective blue eyes took her in. A sensuous smile crept across his coal-black lips. His hair was long and white, tied up at the back of his head and fell down his back. He wore black leather-like trousers and a top made of the same material. It clung to his body, strong muscles rippling as he slowly paced to the side, like a predator waiting for an opening to strike. Over that, he wore a long coat and long boots that went up to his knees.
‘Such a beauty,’ the alien said. He licked his lips, his black tongue swiping over his full lips slowly. ‘She’s wasted on a Myardahl. I could have fun with one such as you, little human.’
‘You will never touch her!’ The words were ripped from Kadian’s throat in a fierce snarl.
The alien reached underneath his coat, behind his back and pulled out two short blades. Short for him, but they almost doubled his reach. ‘I will do more than touch her, that I promise you.’