by K. L. Bone
“Careful, Kav,” cautioned Lord Kasar. “That is my daughter you are speaking too.”
“All the more reason to court her,” he said with a grin that stretched from one ear to the other. Lord Kasar laughed; I blushed even more if that was possible. “Forgive me, my Lady,” Lord Kavra said softly. “Lord Kasar described to me a pretty child, yet here I find instead a most enchanting young lady.”
“Thank you,” I whispered shyly.
“Please, be seated.” Lord Kavra moved forward and helped me gently to my seat, then seated himself across from me. “The better to gaze into your eyes,” he said.
“Kavra,” Lord Kasar said in a voice that had caused even the scariest of creatures to beg forgiveness. Kavra just gave a sly smile.
“So how was the battle, my Lords?”
“It went well,” Lord Kasar replied.
“We kicked their sorry tails from one side of the galaxy to the other.” That coming from Kavra, of course.
“Now just where has that servant run off to?” Lord Kasar replied. “I am evidently going to need a lot more alcohol to get through this dinner.”
The dinner served that night was an elaborate array of seafood. Lobster, shrimp, halibut, natll, fedmish, reveny, and a variety of other dishes from worlds you shall never see. Lord Kavra and Lord Kasar told tales of their recent battles. As the wine flowed, these tales became more and more descriptive. “Remember the time you drank too much at Councilor Valerisa’s promotion ceremony?” Lord Kavra asked in a teasing and slightly drunken voice.
“Don’t you dare!” Lord Kasar said, unable to hide his laughter.
“Has he told you that story?” I shook my head, a smile splitting my face as a servant appeared to take my empty plate. “Well you see, Valerisa had just been given a promotion from Commander to Councilor and Kasar decides to get drunk at the party. Then he accidently stumbles into the Councilor’s room and…”
“Kavra, you stop right there!” Kavra laughed and pushed his chair back slightly, as through ready to sprint. “Valerisa walks in from a side door half-naked and Kasar is sitting there drunk as can be and says.”
“Kavra if you say one more word, I will tell her about the time you and Lydia got captured by the Scaltz.”
Lord Kavra opened his lips, then closed them; opened, then closed. “Not fair!” he groaned.
Lord Kasar shot him a beaming smile, “but it worked.”
Lord Kavra glanced my way and was suddenly smiling again. “I’ll tell you later,” he said with a wink. I laughed.
“Okay.”
A moment of silence then Lord Kasar said, “Anyone ready for dessert?” The servants brought out a triple layer chocolate cake drizzled with a sauce of vanilla and cherry and topped with whip cream and shaved chocolate. Chocolate, Earth’s major contribution to the universal market; it was intoxicating.
Four days later, I was leaning back in one of the rocking chairs Lord Kasar had placed in my room reading a novel on Lorid history when there was a knock at my door. “Come in,” I said as Lord Kasar walked into my room.
“Hello, Chrissa,” he said.
“Hello, my Lord,” I replied.
“I wanted you to know that I will be leaving tonight for the Utymphotra front.”
“Leaving? So soon?” I asked.
He sighed, “Yes, the work of a Commander is never done.”
“Oh,” I said sadly.
“However, you might be glad to know that Lord Kavra will be staying for at least a few more days. Once I get to the front, there are a couple of special projects which he has agreed to help me on that can only be done from here. So at least I am not leaving you entirely alone.” I could not keep the smile off my face as he said, “I’m sure he has at least one more story to embarrass me with.”
I laughed for a moment and then said, “Okay, my Lord. Please be careful.”
“Always,” he replied. Then he turned and left the room. Three hours later, he had left for battle.
Chapter V
That night, I awoke to muffled sounds pulling me from the warmth of my dreams. I groggily forced my eyes open, asking the computer what time it was. The computer replied, 02:18 GD, the Setian equivalent of AM. I closed my eyes but once again heard that strange noise. I sat up, pulling the satin sheets from my body. The fire still burned bright and the room was warm as I pulled a long sleeved Akron robe, material as thick as wool with the feel of silk, around my thin pink gown and walked towards my door.
I threw open the doors and began to walk down the hallway towards that strange sound. It was dark, the only light coming from the candles which lined the walls. As I got closer to the sound, I realized that what I was hearing was deep, masculine screams.
“Hello?” I said in the dark hallway. No one answered. Another muffled scream and I knew which room it was. I walked to the left and stood there for a moment. I heard indistinguishable moans coming from the room within. I should have gone and found Kavra, but in that moment some unknown force propelled me forward.
The door to the room was silver in color, a thick metal that should have trapped all sound within, but did not. I put my left hand against the door. It was cold to the touch and my other hand pulled the robe tighter around my body, as though trying to keep out a chill that had slowly sank into my bones. I moved my left hand from the cold of the door to the handle. Another scream and I jumped, jarring the handle. The heavy door opened without a sound.
The open door revealed a large room with stark white walls. The walls held no artwork of any kind, but were lined with long, metal racks. Later I would learn their purpose, but in that moment, all of my attention was focused on the far left corner of the room. There, lying on a long black table was a man. He was nude, tied to the table with an elastic-like material that was pulled so tight it cut into his skin.
A strap across his upper chest, waist, and forehead held him fast to the table. Bands were also tied tightly around each wrist and ankle. His legs were tied to the table while his arms were tied to a pulley attached to the walls. His hands were in gloves which spread his fingers apart, encasing all but his fingertips. Three other men and one woman stood beside the table.
He was not human. He had two arms, two legs, and twelve fingers, seven on one hand, five on the other. He also had two sets of eyes, one above the other with no eyebrows. His skin was pale, white that seemed human enough. His top eyes were lavender while his lower were pale yellow and at this moment, both were open wide in pain.
Streaks of blood were running in rivulets down both sides of his body, pooling on the floor as rain forms on a dark street. All that blood. I stepped forward, trying to understand what was happening. My mind could not comprehend what was laid so clearly before my eyes. Two of the men standing by the prisoner finally noticed and turned their eyes toward me. “Who?” one said.
“She’s Lord Kasar’s daughter,” came the reply from another. My eyes never shifted from the writhing form on the table.
“Should she be in here?’ yet another voice asked.
The man and woman by the prisoner’s arms did not even look up. As I stepped closer, I realized they were holding small needles glowing red from what was surely intense heat. The needles were slipped under the long nails of the man’s restrained hands. Each time a needle was inserted it seared the flesh and extracted a new scream from the helpless creature. His chest was covered with thin, long cuts along his sides. Someone was talking to me, but I could no longer hear them, my eyes glued to the blood flowing toward the ground. The air was filled with the awful stench of burnt flesh. I felt sick. I put my head down as I gagged on the grotesque smell. I slipped to the ground.
I do not know how long I was in darkness, but the next thing I knew, I was outside in the corridor held tightly in Lord Kavra’s arms. I whispered his name and he paused to reposition me. I slid my arms around his neck.
“Chrissa,” he said softly. “What were you doing in there? You should be in bed.”
“I heard
screaming,” my voice was higher than it should have been, and quiet, much to quiet. I let my eyes close for a moment. It proved a big mistake as that bloody scene flashed before my eyes. I was carried farther down the hall, shaking my head. A couple of turns and I was in my room again. “I’m going to be sick,” I whispered. Kavra laid me down on the silk sheets of my bed.
“Just lie still,” he said softly. He helped raise me onto the pillows so I could see. “Deep breaths,” he whispered.
My maid was suddenly there. “My Lord?” she addressed Lord Kavra. I continued to breathe while he spoke to her. A few moments later, my maid returned with a cool cloth which Kavra took from her and placed gently on my forehead. It was soothing and I slowly began to relax as Kavra sent the maid away. I heard the door close behind her.
After a few moments, my head cleared enough for me to think. “What is going on? Why were they doing that to him? I don’t understand…Kavra?”
He looked at me with a smile, but it seemed sad. He sat on the edge of the bed and reached for my hand, which he gently took in his. “Chrissa, that man is a prisoner who knows certain things about the planetary defenses in the battle Lord Kasar is fighting as we speak. The torture is being used to force him to confess what he knows.”
“Why not just infest him if he is so important. I…I don’t understand.”
“His race cannot be infested; otherwise we would.”
“If we cannot infest them, then why are we fighting them?”
Kavra’s eyes bore into mine and he tried to make me understand. “The Shalites, the species we are fighting, are allies with his race, thus forcing us to fight them both. They are also allies with the Lorids who, as you know, are the greatest challenge to our Empire. A victory against the Shalites would be a huge step toward our final goal of defeating our far more dangerous enemies.”
“So you torture him?”
“A necessary evil,” was the reply. His eyes turned soft as he glanced my way. “I am sorry you had to find out this way. I would have preferred you a bit older before you saw that.” He shook his head and took a very slow, deep breath before glancing back my way. “However,” he continued, “since you have seen it, perhaps you should have it explained.”
“What?”
“I usually find that people fear the mysterious more than the known. When I was first introduced to torture, my tutor taught me what to specifically expect, so that when I finally saw the torture it was scientific as opposed to personal.”
“So,” I said, shifting slightly to see his face more clearly, “you think I should learn…torture?
“I think learning would help you better to cope with what you saw tonight,” was his reply.
My voice showed more fear as I whispered, “He was screaming.”
“Yes,” Kavra replied. “But I assure you that though the pain was great, very little damage was done. Torture of valuable prisoners is designed to maximize pain while causing as little actual damage as possible.”
“Why?”
“We want to force a confession, not kill him.”
“So what was that thing on his hand?”
“A ‘clovis’ he replied. “It protects the hand.”
“Protects?” my voice whispered in utter disbelief.
“Yes. You see, when the neps, or in your language, needles, are slipped under the sensitive bed of the nails, it is quite painful. The prisoner attempts to pull his hand away from the heat. If his hand is tied with rope or chains, it is possible for the prisoner to jerk so hard he damages his wrist or arm, causing more damage than was intended. So the clovis holds his hand perfectly still so though the fingertips are burned, the actual hand remains unharmed.”
“But the blood.”
“Scratches across his chest and arms, very shallow. Kind of like a paper cut. They do not cause serious damage, but they sure do hurt. Blood just runs down in streams. Really he barely made any noise when that was done. The screams you heard were from the burning of his hands.”
“Just from his hands?”
“Yes, one of the most sensitive portions of the body. Especially for his species.”
My voice was almost back to normal. “He is a Gastiranta, is he not?”
“Yes, that’s right.” He gave me his first real smile of the night. “Those cultural studies are paying off.”
“My favorite class,” I managed to return the smile.
Chapter VI
My routine of historical studies and battle strategies continued hand in hand with my new studies in torture. Three weeks later, Lord Kasar returned to the ship and called me into one of the reftas; much like a living room on earth. The room was decorated in deep reds with fires against two walls. Two large sofas sat in the center of the room facing each other with a low table between them. Another table was to the left covered in a red cloth, matching the rest of the room. Lord Kasar sat on the sofa in a long-sleeved black shirt that buttoned up the front and a pair of black slacks. A gold chain hung around his neck standing out against his pale skin, framed by his long black hair. Kavra sat across from him in jeans and a bright blue shirt.
Kavra saw me first, and I was greeted with a wide smile. “Hello, my darling,” he said playfully, “might I say you look lovely this evening.”
I was wearing a comfortable pair of black slacks with a bright red blouse of satin that must have looked soft even from across the room. The sleeves were long and hung slightly off the shoulders. My long, dark hair was pulled back with a simple gold clip. I returned Kavra’s smile as I moved toward him. “You called, my Lords?”
“We did,” Kavra replied. “Based on our location, Kasar and I could not help but notice that we were very close to Jereitinal, and we decided we simply could not resist.”
“Jereitinal?”
“Sweets, my girl! Jereitinal is the sweets capital of the universe. Go over to that table and make yourself a plate.” I turned and walked towards the long table. I was delighted to see it covered with exotic delights. “Be sure to get some Creta,” Kavra advised. “It looks like red cake. Lord Kasar loves that stuff so if you don’t get some now there won’t be any left.”
“Get the chocolate pudding thing too,” Kasar replied, “that is Kav’s favorite.”
“He lies!” Kavra said. “That stuff is awful. You really should spare yourself and force me to eat it.”
I laughed and filled my plate, ensuring I received plenty of both of the mentioned desserts. Then I walked toward the two men and Kavra patted the seat beside him, which I took happily. The two of them then turned back to their card game as I glanced at the paper to my left which held the score. They were playing an intense game of Sectra and Kavra was moving in for the win. I watched the game as I bit into little pieces of heaven. To this day, I have never tasted anything as sweet as the desserts from Jereitinal. When the game was over and the gloating toned down, the two Lords began to deal again when I asked, “Can I play?”
The two men looked at me for a moment before Kavra said, “Well, sure. We can change the game and play something.” Lord Kasar nodded in agreement.
“Why?” I asked.
The two exchanged a look and looked at me. “What do you mean?” Kavra said, “You are more than welcome to play.”
“No,” I shook my head, “that isn’t what I meant. Why do we have to change games?”
“Oh, well this is a rather complicated game and the cards are very different than the ones you are used to. I would be more than happy to teach you sometime, but for tonight I thought you might enjoy playing something you know.”
“It is Sectra, isn’t it?”
“What?” Kavra asked.
“You are playing Sectra,” I said again. “I know this game.”
Kavra glanced at Lord Kasar. “Oh, did you teach her?” Kasar shook his head. Kavra turned back to me and said, “You are saying that you have seen these cards,” he held them up for me to see, “you have seen them before?”
I nodded. “I’m getti
ng really good!” I smiled, proud of myself. It was true, I had even beaten Lysalie a couple of times. She said I was improving.
The two men shifted slightly my way and Kasar said, “Chrissa?”
“Yes?”
“How do you know this game?”
Oh, that was what he wanted. “My friend taught me,” I replied.
“A friend?”
“Yeah! We play cards all the time,” I informed him. “She taught me lots of games. I really like a lot of the games from Palta, though a lot of others are fun too.”
“Does your friend have a name?”
“Yes. Her name is Lysalie.” He repeated the name in a voice full of surprise. I was confused, “Why? Is something wrong?”
“Umm…” Kavra was suddenly laughing and I didn’t know why. “Who do you think Lysalie is? Please, do tell.”
I shrugged, “She’s a really pretty lady.” By now, Lord Kasar was laughing as well. “What?” I asked. “What is so funny?”
“Lysalie,” Kasar said. He was laughing very hard. “Have you been playing cards with my protégée?”
“Yes, Lord Kasar.” Her voice came from nowhere and my eyes searched the room. Lysalie was nowhere to be seen. Both men were still laughing.
“I don’t understand.”
“Lysalie, would you please come here for a moment, in whatever form you presented yourself to Chrissa?” The door opened and in walked my tall friend in a white top of satin with black slacks. She looked very professional, her long sleeves locked tight at the wrists and her blue eyes almost piercing.
“My Lords,” she addressed the two men whose laughter had finally died down to a brilliant pair of smiles.
“Do you know that Chrissa thinks you are a pretty lady?” Lord Kasar asked.