The first Horvath guard cleared his throat.
“Excusse me, Mistresss,” he hissed. “But will you be wanting the Obedienssse Ssskin back?”
Karn held his breath. If he could get this fucking metal suit off, he could press the communications device embedded in the nail of his ring finger and call for help! It would mean the difference between life and death. How much did the damn Obedience Skin cost anyway? He hoped it was extremely expensive so that Mistress Mirabella would ask for it back.
But Lilli’s mother only shook her head.
“Keep it,” she said shortly. “Leave it on him and let him starve, for all I care.”
“Starve?” Lilli’s head jerked up. “Mother—”
“Silence!” Mistress Mirabella hissed. “If you dare say one word in defense of that male I’ll disinherit you! I ought to do so right now but I still need you to get me a decent heir, since I’m too old to carry another child myself. Now get in the ship! We’re going home.”
Karn watched as Lilli hung her head and followed her mother into the sleek silver hover-car ship where he and his little Mistress had made love only a few hours before. How had things changed so drastically so quickly? And how had he gotten her pregnant without bonding her to him?
Karn had no answers. He only knew that the woman he loved was about to fly away from him and he would never see her again.
At the last moment, Lilli turned her head and he managed to catch her eye. He tried to convey how he felt with a look, but she shook her head and turned away.
The door of the silver ship closed behind her and she was gone.
Forty-Three
“Go up to your room and think about what you’ve done,” her mother said coldly the moment they arrived back at her mansion. “I’ve got to make some vid calls and clean up this mess you made. I hate to think of the amount of money I’ll have to put out to shut up Mistress Martinet—not to mention Priss Tempertant! You’re going to cost me a ridiculous sum, Lilliana—far more than you’re worth, that’s for certain!”
“I never meant to shame you, Mother,” Lilli said in a small voice.
“You’ve shamed yourself,” Lady Mirabella spat back. “Having you has been the biggest disappointment of my life! But you’ll make it up—I can promise you that. Tomorrow morning we’re going back to Opulex to get that thing inside you removed. And then you’ll be implanted properly with a daughter—a new heir for me—made exactly to my specifications.”
“What?” Lilli’s hand went protectively to her lower belly. “You’re going to make me get rid of Karn’s baby?”
“It’s a male!” her mother snapped. “Of course we’re getting rid of it! A Mistress of Yonnie Six cannot have a male child! The shame of it would ruin our family name forever!”
“But—” Lilli began.
“Go to your room!” her mother snarled. “Now, Lilliana—I mean it! I don’t want to see your face again until I come to get you tomorrow morning.”
Tears running down her face, Lilli turned and fled up the grand staircase.
She didn’t stop until she was in her own room. She flung herself on the bed and pressed her face to a pillow, sobbing so wretchedly it felt like the pain inside her might tear her apart.
But the pillow she had picked was Karn’s. When she breathed in, the big Kindred’s spicy scent invaded her senses, which caused a fresh round of sobbing.
“Oh Karn,” she whispered brokenly. “How could you lie to me like that? How could you put me in this awful position?”
She turned her head away from his pillow, to get away from his scent, but everywhere in her room she seemed to see him. Sitting or laying on the bed beside her, laughing his deep, rumbling laugh when they joked around, having an indoor picnic, just the two of them, on the carpet, talking long into the night…
“I still love him,” Lilli whispered to herself despairingly. “I can’t help it. Even after he deceived me, I still love him. And now he’s gone to the mines. He…he’s going to…to die.”
The words came out in a choked sob and she pressed her face to the pillow once more and breathed in his scent. This was all she had left of the big Kindred, and soon it would fade too…
Just as the thought came to her, she felt a strange sensation in her lower belly. It was so odd and unexpected that Lilli stopped crying and rolled onto her back. There…there it was again! A fluttering in her lower belly—almost like a flutterbye was waving its wings inside her.
Lilli pulled down her skirt and put one trembling hand to her belly. She felt the fluttering again and something moved under her fingers. It was a motion so slight she wouldn’t have felt it if she hadn’t been so attuned to it. But it was most definitely there.
Suddenly, she realized what it was.
“His baby,” she whispered, a feeling of wonder filling her. “It’s Karn’s baby—his son—and it’s alive inside me!”
It won’t be for long, whispered a nasty little voice in her head. Not if Mother has her way. You’ll be losing it tomorrow, Lilli, so don’t get too attached.
A wave of fierce love and protectiveness swept over her and Lilli put both hands to her belly, cradling the tiny life there.
“No!” she whispered, stroking the barely-there bump. “No, I won’t let her kill you! I’ll protect you—I swear I will!”
But how?
Lilli had to face the facts—she was stuck in her mother’s house with no way to leave. She had a bit of money in her account, but what could she do with it? If only she knew how to fly a ship she might be able to get away, but that wasn’t a skill they taught at the convent where she’d been raised. Also, where would she go, even if she did get away?
“To the mines,” Lilli whispered to herself. “I’d go to the mines and save Karn, if I could.”
But again, it was impossible. Though the Diluthian mines weren’t that far away—they were just located on one of Yonnie’s Six’s moons—they might as well have been on the other side of the universe.
“Because I can’t fly,” Lilli whispered to herself. “And I have no one to fly me. Oh Karn, if only I could get to you! I’d forgive you for what you did and we could fly away together and make a life for ourselves and our son…”
It was a beautiful dream but that was all it was—just a dream. She had no way to get to him—she was a prisoner in her own home. Her mother would make her get rid of Karn’s baby so she could be impregnated with a daughter—an heir who would take Lilli’s place.
But I don’t want a daughter—I want a son—Karn’s son! The one growing inside me now, Lilli thought desperately.
“I don’t want to lose him,” she said aloud. Curling on her side, she cupped her barely swelling belly with both hands. “Oh please, can’t anyone help me?”
“I will help you, daughter.”
The warm, powerful, feminine voice which filled her room surprised Lilli so much she almost fell off the bed.
“H-hello?” she stuttered, looking all around. “Who…who is that?”
“I am the Goddess the Kindred worship—the Mother of All Life—including the tiny life now growing within you,” the voice told her. “And I say to you now, my daughter, that you shall not lose your baby.”
“But how?” Lilli asked, her voice trembling. Karn had spoken to her of the Kindred Goddess, the female deity his people worshiped, and it had been clear that he really believed in her. But Lilli had never expected to actually speak with her!
“Do not worry about how—only be on the lookout and help will come to you,” the Goddess told her. “Seize the opportunity when you see it, for it will only be offered once.”
“All right,” Lilli said, nodding her head to the unseen presence. “I promise—I’ll take it. But…” She bit her lip. “But what about Karn? You’re his Goddess—can’t you save him too?”
“You shall save him yourself, my daughter,” the Goddess told her. “Do not ask how, for you will know when the time comes. And remember…do not be afraid to attempt t
he impossible.”
Then the voice and the warm, feminine presence that accompanied it faded. It left behind only a fresh, sweet scent that seemed to lift Lilli’s spirits and make her feel like a new person.
“Thank you,” she whispered, though she sensed the Goddess was gone. “Thank you so much for giving me hope.” She put her hands on her belly again. “Thank you for me…and for my baby.”
Forty-Four
Lilli waited anxiously, but no help came. The hours ticked by on her chronometer and nothing happened. She just stared at her walls and wondered where Karn was now and if he had reached the mines yet and if he was all right. Maybe she had imagined the voice and the presence. Maybe the stress of the situation and her deep desire to protect her baby had made her have a hallucination.
Maybe she was going crazy.
She kept feeling the fluttering in her lower belly—Karn’s son telling her he was alive and well—but the tiny movement made her feel hopeless.
“How can I protect you if I can’t get the two of us out of here?” she whispered, rubbing her belly. “And how can I rescue your father so you can know him instead of just hearing about him after he’s already dead and gone?”
She was about to give up and go to bed to have another good cry, when there was a knock at the door of her apartments. Swiping at her eyes, Lilli padded to the door and opened it, only to see a vaguely familiar bodyslave standing there with a tray.
“Your dinner, Mistress,” he said, bowing respectfully. “Would you like me to put it down on the table for you?” He nodded at the low table before the couch where she had so often eaten with Karn, while they were watching a vid.
The thought made her sad all over again and Lilli was about to send the dinner away and say that she had no appetite when she took another look at the bodyslave holding the tray.
“You’re Priss’s bodyslave, aren’t you?” she asked uncertainly. “You’re H’rare—right?”
“Yes, I am. And I was hers until you and Karn won me from her, Mistress,” he said. “I can’t tell you how grateful, I am.” He dropped his voice. “Or how sorry I am for what happened to Karn—he was a good male.”
“Yes, he was.” Lilli felt a lump in her throat. “He told me that if we didn’t try to save you, you’d be sent…sent to the mines.” She could barely get the words out.
“He was right about that,” H’rare said solemnly. “Mistress Priss threatened me with the mines twenty times a day while she owned me.” He shook his head. “Never thought Karn would end up there while I stayed here safe in the kitchens.”
Lilli had a sudden thought—a hope so wild she was almost afraid to speak it. Trying to sound off-hand, she said,
“H’rare—while you were Priss’s bodyslave, did you ever fly her anywhere?”
“Fly her in a shuttle or a hover-ship you mean?” He raised his eyebrows. “Oh yes, Mistress. Lady Priss insisted that her bodyslave be able to do everything and anything for her, from massaging her toes to fixing her favorite rasta-bean smoothie to flying her to downtown Opulex for shopping whenever the notion took her.”
“I see.” Lilli opened the door wider. “Come in so you can put down that tray, H’rare. Let’s talk.”
“Of course, Mistress,” he said, frowning. “But talk about what?”
“H’rare,” Lilli said in a low voice. “How would you like to be free?”
“Free?” He looked around, as though he was afraid someone might have heard the forbidden word. “I don’t know that I rightly understand you, Mistress,” he murmured.
“Come inside,” Lilli said again. “And let’s talk about it…”
She felt that flutter in her belly again, but this time the feeling brought hope, not despair.
The Goddess was right, she thought. I will find a way to save you, little one. To save all of us…
She hoped.
Forty-Five
Gods he was hot. And thirsty. And so damn tired he felt like he could drop in his tracks—but he couldn’t because the fucking Obedience Skin just kept on going.
Karn swung the pickaxe again and felt the reverberations all the way up his arms as it hit solid stone. He would have liked to rest, but the skin wouldn’t let him. Hell, it would barely let him breathe, since the metal plate still covered his mouth.
The Horvath guards had dropped him off at the mines, given him the tool he currently held, and simply said, “Work.” The Obedience Skin had taken over from there and he had been chopping and hacking away at the greenish-gray rock face of the open Diluthian pit for hours now.
He wasn’t the only one working of course—there were hoards of unlucky slaves pounding away at the rock. None of them had tried to speak to him—not that he could have spoken back even if they had.
The toxic odors of the Diluthian being unearthed all around him stung his nostrils and made his throat raw. He wanted to retch but he was acutely aware that if he threw up, he would die. With his mouth blocked, he would choke on his own vomit. So he held onto his gorge grimly and tried to ignore the way he wanted to gag every time one of his blows unearthed a new vein of Diluthian and the more foul odors were released.
I’m going to die here, he thought, not for the first time. If it hadn’t been for the Obedience Skin, he would have escaped easily. He could have pressed the communicator on his nail and called for help at once. But his fingers were encased in the fucking skin—the same skin that forced him to keep working, even when the other slaves were allowed a five-minute break and a swallow of water.
Karn wondered what would get him first—the thirst, the toxic gasses he was breathing in, or simply exhaustion. He was well aware that if he hadn’t been in excellent physical shape, the grueling non-stop work for hours on end would probably have caused his heart to give out. But even the strongest heart couldn’t keep going forever.
And even the strongest heart could be broken.
Oh, Lilli—I’m so fucking sorry, he thought, his eyes stinging as he pounded away at the rock face. I didn’t know what we did together would hurt you. I just wanted to love you, baby. I’m so sorry…
The thoughts of her and the baby they had made together, growing inside her, tormented him, but Karn comforted himself that he wouldn’t be sad for very much longer. Soon his heart would give out or he would die of thirst or the toxic fumes would damage his lungs so badly they would no longer work well enough to send oxygen to his body. Then he would flicker out like a candle flame and hopefully go to be with the Goddess.
He wondered grimly if the Obedience Skin would keep working, even after he was dead. Would it go on lifting his arms and swinging the pickaxe, even with him dead inside it? Would he be like a zombie corpse, still animated by the suit even after his soul had left his body? Would he—
“There—that’s the one. That is the bodyslave I want!”
The imperious voice was vaguely familiar but when Karn looked up—the skin did allow him to turn his head at least—he didn’t recognize the face attached to it. Maybe because it was covered by a thick black respirator mask.
“That’s the one,” she said again to the Horvath guard standing beside her. “Bring him to my ship at once!”
Forty-Six
Lilli’s heart was pounding as she barked out orders the same way she’d seen her mother and Priss do on numerous occasions. She was pretending to be her mother, and hoping that the Horvath guards wouldn’t question her.
Oh please! she thought, as she waited for the guard who had accompanied her from the central control station to respond. Please, let them believe me! Please let me get him safely away!
Sneaking out of the house with H’rare had been a ticklish business. They’d waited until midnight, when she was certain her mother was fast asleep along with the rest of her bodyslaves. Only then had they dared to enter the docking bay and steal a ship.
Lilli had chosen the long-range vehicle to take with her. H’rare said he could drive it and it was the biggest and most expensive one. Maybe she and
Karn could sell it and live on the proceeds wherever they ended up.
Which won’t be anywhere unless this guard believes I’m Mother and releases Karn to me, she thought desperately. Oh, please…
“I said, bring him to my ship,” she snapped at the guard, who seemed to be hesitating.
“You—ssstop working,” the guard said to Karn.
But the big Kindred kept going, hacking mercilessly at the steep, gray-green wall of stone that rose above them on all sides.
“Ssstop!” the guard insisted, but Karn wouldn’t. Was he mad at her, Lilli wondered? Would he prefer to stay here than coming with her? Or maybe he just didn’t know who she was—she did have on the black respirator which covered her entire face, after all. She hated for the big Kindred to be in any doubt about who she was, but she couldn’t risk any of the Diluthian fumes getting into her lungs and possibly harming the baby.
“Make him stop!” she shouted at the guard. “At once, do you hear me? At once!”
“Er…” The Horvath hissed uneasily. His long, forked tongue ran out and swiped nervously over one yellow-slitted eyeball. “I cannot release him to you, Mistresss Mirabella,” he said at last.
“What? Why not?” Lilli demanded. “Do you doubt my authority to take him?”
“No, no—of courssse not, Mistresss.” The guard held up his green, scaly hands. “But the Obedienssse Skin—it has clearly malfunctioned. I have ssseen thisss happen once before. When the skin isss made to do only one action for hoursss on end, it sometimesss ssstops responding to ordersss.”
“What?” Lilli was horrified. “But…is there no way to stop it?”
Protecting His Mistress...Book 24 in the Kindred Tales Series Page 22