Condemned

by Cari Silverwood

  On her lap, her manacled hands had paled. She closed her eyes, felt herself sway on the seat. Lack of blood, her mind told her. Stand up and you might fall over.

  They hadn’t even bothered to ask her much in the way of questions. She’d expected some sort of interrogation. Questions such as, who organized this? Were there others?

  Maybe they didn’t want to know? The things she could say... but the only point in talking would be for revenge. She was too tired for revenge.

  From either side her new guards dragged her to her feet and held her there.

  Not that they’d made her bleed. They were going to though. In a most painful way.

  What did you do when your life had turned to crap? Rewind it to before, of course.

  If only. She should have said no to Uncle. Should’ve watched Junis and Darva, kept them nearer. Should never have come to Snaar at all.

  Should never have been huleon? Should have somehow stopped her mother dying in childbirth, or her father from being some nobody asshole who ran away? Then maybe she’d have been brought up like a nice girl should be.

  Really though, the blaming stopped with her. She had a habit of making dumb choices.

  Happy Peace Day, fuck yeah.

  Chapter Three

  Takk allowed himself a wry smile and twist of his lips at how the girl needed two police enforcers to hold her up after that verdict. It wasn’t that he was unsympathetic; it was that he knew he was feeling her grief too much. Looking unhappy would be a dead giveaway as to his current thoughts.

  He wanted to help her. Why was that?

  Girl for one. The little thing looked lost, afraid, devastated, and all because she’d followed some order from some higher up. He’d done that himself and regretted it. Her being human meant little. His family farmed near enough to the border with Montague that he’d been across and back with his father a hundred times while selling stuff. He knew humans well, had liked a lot of them.

  The war had ended and this girl, this girl huleon, for those little claws said she definitely had mauleon genes in her, was still paying the price.

  “Harsh sentence.” From beside Takk, Timin had spoken. He stared at his gloved hands where they were wrapped about the muzzle of his lazgun. The long gun was upright; the stock grounded before his boots. His face was hidden by the mess of his brown hair.

  “Yes, harsh. But correct.”

  If ever there was a sign Timin was unbalanced, it was that tangled, knotted hair—it looked as if a bomb had exploded within.

  Zo was on Timin’s other side, in a rigid stance as if the lean mauleon had been injected with iron.

  Three of them to guard a court that no one would attack. Guarding the girl, he supposed. Regulations.

  “It was foregone,” he continued. “Read the law. Her thieving slipped in before the war ended. There is no other choice available to the judge when a person is found guilty of stealing a royal artifact, not for a foreign soldier, disguised.”

  Timin murmured, “She’s no soldier.”

  “No.” Takk considered his next words carefully. There was no one near them at this exit. Just wall. This could be construed as treason. “A shame to let a cute thing like her die because of bureaucracy. I was thinking, if the troops agreed, to figure out an alternative.”

  As the superior officer he would be the first to burn, but his men would be next.

  “Captain? Our heads could roll, but I am unhappy with this impaling. You have one of your famous plans?”

  “Mm-hmm.” Fuck this war though. They were weary of it. He let his gaze slide over Avalon as she was marched to the door that led to the cells. “That ass...”

  “And the cunt that goes with that ass...” Timin inhaled loudly, exhaled. “She’d owe you. I mean us.”

  Takk raised a brow. So the girl had stirred Timin from his morose withdrawal. The seizures he suffered would cause many men to doubt themselves.

  “What are you both talking about?” Zo leaned over and checked them out. His dark eyebrows inclined like knives. His upper fangs slid further into view.

  “Let me think it through some more. However, I will admit to imagining other uses for that girl than food for worms. Timin is tending to agree.”

  Slowly Zo’s eyebrows rose. “That figures. Timin would fuck anything.”

  Timin snorted, shook his head, and Takk was surprised nothing fell from his mop of neglected hair—like a nesting bird or a lost grenade. “Untrue.”

  Well, it used to be true. “There’s risks also.”

  “To the many hells with risk.” Zo flipped his rifle high, let it fall to slap down and balance across his clawed hands. “I’m bored with death. As are we all. Though I don’t wish to screw any human, she’s a little piece of anatomical female artistry and destroying her is the opposite of all I believe in, as was this war. My fate will make of me what it will.”

  Takk smiled. Zo and his zendokai philosophy.

  That made three yeses. Only Kondio to convince.

  Timin muttered, “Kondio.”

  “Yes. Kondio will be tough to win over.” They’d all seen too much war but for Kondio it was personal. A human over-the-border raid had killed his wife.

  He could only try. Forcing any of his men into this was vile and impossible.

  Ever since his hands had rested on the girl’s fine plump ass, he’d had an inkling she’d make him do what he should not. Whatever dried gel she had in her hair had made hosing her off a priority too. Spikes in that red hair? Females should not have those.

  Or smell bad.

  Ashes from the fire, dirt, and the rankness of not being able to bathe for days pervaded the little bitch human. He too didn’t want to screw her, or probably not, even if his cock had other notions and was striving to rise at this very moment at the thought of watching Timin do her. He smiled grimly. His cock rarely got a vote from him.

  The door she’d been escorted through thumped shut and the courtroom filled with the sounds of people exiting.

  No fucking her for him. Maybe it would cure Timin’s black moods. The others could, so long as she lived.

  How to do that when they had to stick a spear in her? Simple. He just needed some near-magical substitution, a big dildo, and some blood.

  And a lot of luck.

  Chapter Four

  From her sprawled position on the thin mattress on the cold floor, Avalon had a wonderful view of her visitors.

  Today was the day.

  The mauleon soldiers who’d caught her were filing into the hallway beside the cells, dressed in the same motley collection of clothes and battered armor. They looked unbathed, as dirty as she felt. For the most part their long manes of hair were dragged down by grime. Even their weapons were not regulation. She’d spied on a few troops on the way out of Snaar and these guys were the pits.

  Just what she deserved.

  They’d still trapped her. What did that say about her?

  Avalon felt her mouth tremble and firmed it. Be strong. Don’t let them think they have you cowed.

  Shivering was automatic however, and impossible to halt entirely. After the sentencing yesterday, they’d stripped her of all clothes except for her underwear and bra, chained her ankle to a bolt in the floor of this freezing underground cell, and left her with nothing except the mattress, an empty bucket, a bucket of water, and a bowl of soup.

  Nibbles had not been impressed with the soup, though he’d still snuggled up to her last night. Whatever he was, Nibbles ate and drank. Bots were extinct on this planet, weren’t they?

  For all the warm weather outside, down here it was cold. Her prison was built on rock from the looks of the back wall. Legs folded to the side, palm on the floor, she tried to sit straighter, to look tough, undaunted. When she shifted, her near-frozen nipples dug into her bra in a most painful way.

  Well, she was no wilting flower. Never had been.

  She made herself eye the soldiers as they sorted themselves into a line in the hallway, their bodie
s sliced up by the bars of her cell. Her executioners. Avalon clutched her arms to her, shivering again.

  The cells to either side were empty. She was alone with them.

  Nibbles chose then to run over her leg and for some daft reason, her heart clenched. The creature had sunk its tiny claws into her. Small and defenseless, and all it did was snuggle in for warmth, eat her food, and squeak. And let her pat it. Smiling, she drifted a finger down his back, watching the white fur depress then spring up in a way only synth-fur could.

  He turned to nuzzle her hand, whiskers twitching along with his pink nose.

  From a distance, he’d seem a plain white mouse with pink spots, like many of the feral squeaklings. Only his little golden eyes were different from the norm.

  Her eyes were watering. “You gotta go somewhere else, little one. I can’t help you anymore.”

  God, this whole day was stupid. Her life was.

  The mauleons began whispering among themselves. She knew their names now and glared at them, one by one, starting with their captain Takk, he of the many braids. Blue cloth spiraled through several of the braids. Threaded in, and she recalled that cloth was some sort of leader mark the mauleons used. Scars slewed across and pocked his face. Places on his scalp were bare. Shrapnel scars, she guessed.

  As far as she was concerned, the war against Snaar only emphasized the stupidity of people. Mauleon DNA was ninety-nine percent the same as human DNA. Apart from their claws, fangs, broader faces, heavier bodies, and occasional tendency to grow light fur here and there, on a dark scary night, these males could be mistaken for a man. Well, one who’d OD’d on steroids.

  That didn’t mean they were pretty or nice. These ones were not nice.

  Next to Takk was the ugly one with the brown mane who’d held the florses, Timin, and then there was Kondio, the older, gray one. Timin she’d seen have a fit of some sort, which said she was right—these were the wounded leftovers.

  Kondio, the limping mauleon, had hate burning in his gaze. He’d be the first to volunteer to stick a spear in her.

  Fuck him.

  Zo was last, to Kondio’s left. Sneaky Zo. Maybe the weakest of them but if she somehow ran for it, she’d bet he’d pull her down before she made a few strides.

  What if she could get hold of this spear they wanted to stick in her and shove it in them? Going down fighting wasn’t just a male prerogative.

  She wanted that, could taste it.

  Yes, plan one, make some bloody holes in them before they... she swallowed... before they killed her. Looking from under her brow, she thought this through some more. One needed the burn of anger to be brave on a day like this, on her death day. She knew anger well.

  Avalon clenched her fist, then unclenched it, felt her determination leak away.

  Who was she kidding? Any one of them outweighed her by three to one.

  Even though she was frightened, make that terrified—this warranted that bigger word—she couldn’t quite imagine how this would be. How much pain would she feel? Quick was supposed to hurt less. Please make it quick. She wouldn’t beg. Must not beg.

  When it happened, she would surely scream? She gulped down the bile welling to her throat. Fainting would be the best thing to do. Or dying before it got to that. Sadly, she eyed the chain that ran to her ankle. Strangling herself might’ve been possible last night. Not now. The story of her life. Always with the too-late planning and scheming.

  She looked to the mauleons again.

  What were they saying to each other?

  Her stomach twisted. Her dark thoughts circled back around.

  As if she’d summoned it, the captain raised a spear she hadn’t noticed due to the cell bars. He grounded it. The point looked sharp, as spear points do.

  Soon she’d be only a body in a grave.

  Way too soon.

  Please, don’t let me beg.

  Chapter Five

  “Decided, Kondio?” Takk didn’t bother looking away from the girl. Her fear was obvious, yet reassuring her in any way might be more cruelty than kindness, because Kondio might say no.

  The rasp of the mauleon scratching his chin with his claws carried and Takk did glance his way.

  The weathered warrior shrugged. “It’s a human, this thief.”

  Yet again, as he’d done so many times, Takk noted how the crags and furrows of his face had deepened since they’d left their farm district to go to war. They’d all aged beyond what time could do.

  “You said that,” Timin added. “Huleon though. Not human. Killing more of anything except my next meal bothers me. Have you not had enough of killing?”

  “I have. It’s the one thing that speaks to me.”

  “I will not force this,” Takk repeated. “There’s too much risk we may be caught and reprimanded, charged with treason even. If you cannot decide—”

  “I can. You want us to help this huleon or whatever you wish to call it. It’s too human in appearance for me.”

  “So?” Timin turned to him. “Is that a yes?”

  Kondio sighed and spat on the floor before the cell bars, making the girl flinch. “Blood looks the same whether from inside us or a human. The Claw of Truth is nothing to me except a royal trinket. I took risks in war. I’ve nothing to go home to ‘cept an empty farm, same as most of you.”

  There was a long pause and they waited for Kondio to continue, though they knew he was deliberately stretching this out. Kondio was like that—an asshole sometimes, yet also staunch in battle and loyal.

  “Yes, it’s a yes, with one or two necessary stipulations.”

  The barked laugh came from Zo. “Stipulation is a long word for you, Kondio.”

  “It means I will enjoy watching Timin make her take that monstrous hose of his. That’s number one. It also means I get to fuck her first. As in now. She’ll never take that dildo you carry, Captain, unless we stretch her.”

  “You first?” Takk said, dubious as to Kondio’s intentions. “You can’t hurt her.”

  “I won’t hurt the girl. Leastways not any more than we need to, to get that to fit in her. You know I’m right. Unless she’s been fucking one of us before, she’ll be too small.”

  This was Kondio taking a bit of sordid revenge for what he’d suffered.

  “Okay. But only if we need to. We check her first. She has to agree also. She may prefer death.”

  The old mauleon grunted. “You think it so?”

  It was enough.

  “While you do this, I have someone to see.” Zo nodded and opened the door into the outer corridor.

  Frowning, Takk flicked his fingers, acknowledging the words, then he waited for the door to close. An odd time to go, with Zo the most voyeuristic of them all.

  He handed the spear to Timin, unlocked the cell door and walked in to stand over Avalon. Though there was no one else here except his men, he spoke quietly.

  “Girl. We have a deal for you, if you wish to try to avoid dying. Do you wish to hear it?”

  “What?” She blinked up at him and her eyes brimmed with liquid. Tears in a female, even a huleon female, plucked at him to fix them. The tracks through the dirt on her face told of where previous tears had run.

  “Answer me. If you do, I need to give you instructions as no one must suspect we aid you.”

  There was the crux of this and perhaps a flaw she would see. If she deliberately did the wrong thing, they would pay. She would die, but they too would suffer.

  “What’s the catch? I assume there is one?” Her voice cracked and her trembling became visibly greater. Was it the cold or the anticipation of a way out?

  He smiled. “There may be several. But you will live.”

  She shut her eyes, opened them, allowing him a beautiful view into her soul, or so it felt to him. Such a pretty color blue. Mauleons were rarely blue-eyed.

  “Tell me.”

  How to put this nicely? There was no way he could think of. “You will agree to obey us if we get you away safely. You will sha
re the bed of any of us that choose you, until the day we sell you.” Even that made her pale. “The priests at Omage are asking for humans. They are a religion of love and will no doubt wish to whore you out as a reward for their followers, or use you on the altar while they pray, but you will be alive.”

  “Some religion,” she scoffed, surprising him. Humor at this moment? “Obeying you could lead to anything.” She gulped then said softly, “Me with any of you might kill me.”

  The blush reddening her face was cute.

  “How do you think huleons are made? The largeness of our cocks is no barrier to sex between human and mauleon. It is possible, with care.” The dildo he aimed to use on the spear was smaller than any one of them. Takk smiled. “However, it is true that my demand for your obedience is open-ended and could lead to many outcomes.”

  Smart girl. Her reply led him into new ideas, into dire temptation—into thinking of things he could tell her to do. To him.

  Her blush deepened and she shook her head. “This is crazy and yet, yet I—”

  “Have little choice. But you do have some. Choose death or choose what I offer.”

  He waited for her to think this through, to feel her way through what must be a muddle of emotions.

  Perhaps he should’ve asked himself more questions? Perhaps. It was done. They would sell her at the end because it was the only wise choice. They could not keep her. In home territory, everyone who saw a human girl in their hands would add up the facts.

  They would sell her. He followed rules. Except the stupid bureaucratic ones. Rescue girl, let the men have their fun, sell her, go home. Yes.

  “Yes.” The girl echoed him.

  “Good. Then this is what we will do. And what you will do.

  “We have to put on a show. Once outside we will surround you, concealing how we add a blunt dildo to the spearhead. Also concealing the bursting of a bag of blood to make spectators think we pierced your flesh. You must scream. Okay?”

  She nodded, with those eyes so wide he wondered if she was blinking at all.

  “I have a flask of liquor to help you appear overcome by the wound. You will drink it all. If it renders you unconscious, do not fear for you will be tied upright. This will also help prevent the spearhead from cutting through the dildo since it will take your weight... “