by Gail Gernat
Shock rippled across Padr’s face.
“Exactly,” Radhya continued. “If I am brought down you leave here. You and D’Bara would not be together. If I can keep it together and survive, I’ll give her to you in six months. This is temporary. If you still want her in six months, and I survive that long, I’ll give you a house and D’Bara as a bride. Your only chance is to work with me Padr. I thought you cared about the dilemma of the slaves too.”
Padr leapt upright. “You don’t know anything about me. All your spies can tell you about my life, but you don’t know me. Why don’t you just castrate me while you’re at it?” He swung his arms wildly clipping her on the jaw. Radhya fell backward. Grabbing a tray of medical tools, he hurled them to the floor. He punched his hand into the wall, then grabbed Radhya up from the floor and thrust her against the wall his arm across her throat.
“You can’t control me. I am myself whether I am an aristocrat or a slave. I won’t be bribed by you any longer.”
Radhya could not answer. Just as her vision was getting dim around the edges, Padr was torn away from her and thrown against the desk.
“Go to your room,” snapped Geo, “while I explain things to this young pup.”
Radhya pulled her wits together and staggered to her room. Throwing her clothes to the floor, she crawled under her covers naked. There the fears and the tears came.
Chapter 11
Radhya, exhausted, slept late. Aninya woke her with the news that lunch would be served shortly and that Lord Barone was expecting her. Grimacing at that bad news, she tottered to the shower. Coming out, she ignored the lacy pink outfit Aninya had laid out and chose her usual comforting black. She whipped open the door, and there on a pallet was Padr, sleeping. Shadows on his arms and face told her what his conversation with Geo had been like. She stepped gingerly over him, wondering what the outcome would have been if Geo had not intervened. Would Padr have killed her? He seemed angry enough to last night.
Aninya had the goldwood table and chairs burnished to a high gloss, the metallic grain sparkling in the subdued light of the cut crystal chandelier. It contained two settings of Radhya’s finest china, a beautiful green with yellow hand painted lilies, set at either end of the long table. D’Bara and Rada, dressed in house livery were waiting behind her chair when she entered the large, elegant dining room.
“Send me Will and Max,” she commanded. “You two go clean something.”
Barone rose from his seat, bowing low from the waist.
“Radhya, I trust you slept well? I waited for breakfast for you for an hour.”
“Noel, I hope you didn’t,” Radhya replied absently.
She waved her hand at Jemelina who left at once to fetch the meal. Max and Will hurried in and took the place behind her chair. Rada scurried off to the kitchen while D’Bara strutted slowly to Lord Barone, and giving him a seductive look, wriggled her way from the room. Deja vue struck Radhya with a powerful force. The actions of the slave were so familiar her neck hair rose.
“So Noel,” she covered, “you’ve obviously bedded that one a few times.”
“A time or two I suppose,” he answered offhand.
“Poor way to make a gift. Do you suppose I want your used merchandise?”
“My apologies. I didn’t think you leaned that way.”
“You don’t know anything about me,” she snapped. Echoes of last night rang in her head and she gripped the table edges tightly.
Barone continued, “Oh, I’ve talked to others about you, you’re difficult to find out about, but it’s not entirely impossible.”
“Well who are these wellsprings of my personal information?” She inquired coolly.
“That would be snitching.”
“Then how about who did your alteration work? That’s a short list. I should know. Stephan, Petra, or me. Now I am not a likely candidate, am I? Steph, well last time I talked with him he still had some integrity left, and he still hated your guts for beating him in the chess tournament in the third grade. Let’s tentatively stroke him off. Therefore, we come to my sweet sister Petra, the beautiful, who would cut my throat for a child’s marble. Not too hard was it?”
Noel bowed his smirking face. “I bow to your superior intellect and logical reasoning ability. I was hoping to start my treatment after lunch. Do you have any further advice?”
“Only to do what I already told you. Oh, you might want to eat a lot of protein today. Be very careful in your timing and I hope yours hurts an extra amount.”
“My we’re bad tempered today. I hope becoming a spouse mellows you.”
Radhya snorted into the soup before her.
“If I just paid you off, would you cancel the contract to contract, take your slave girls and go? You can even keep and use the gift I gave you.”
“Tsk-tsk-tsk. Why how could I leave my Lady Love?” asked Noel ever so sweetly.
Radhya sighed and continued eating.
Noel continued, “Very heavy fog this morning. I was hoping to see your grounds and your stables this morning, but I was honestly afraid to leave the veranda for fear I would be lost.”
“Fog blows in from an inlet to the northeast. We have a lot of fog.”
“Must be bad for your racetrack.”
“No, the same wind blows it clear of fog, except in very still conditions. That’s usually in midwinter when the season is over. Besides I like fog. It helps me to think.”
“I hope you will take me to this inlet when the weather clears. I really want to get a good assessment of this place.”
“Impossible,” Radhya replied around a mouthful of food. “I am running an experiment there, biohazardous. It’s absolutely impossible to go there.”
“How intriguing,” pondered Noel, “then perhaps you will give me the grand tour of our house after lunch. Give me something to dwell on while the treatment is on going.”
“Noel, if you can think of anything but how much you hurt during the treatment you’re not the man I think you are. As far as my home goes, you may have the run of the first and second floor. Use it how you will. Geo’s quarters and office are that way; the parlor is behind me. The den and library are those two doors. The kitchen is off the hallway behind you and the slave’s quarters are off that. Grand tour finished okay?”
“Radhya, how ungracious. What about the third floor?”
“My rooms and working labs are on the third floor. It is off limits to you or any of your slaves.”
“Is that so you can sleep with your bodyguards?”
“Where do you get this drivel? One guard was on duty last night, guarding me from you, outside my room. The others slept in the slave quarters or didn’t your little spies tell you?”
“I hear you do medicals on the third floor.”
“Yes, I have a med lab there. If your penis falls off, maybe you will see it. Then again, maybe not.”
Noel laughed. “I see I’m not going to get any good will from you today.”
“No, you will not. I don’t like company. Remember that I’m Lady Death, and death is the loneliest estate. Excuse me, I have work to do.”
Noel sobered at her words. He rose as she left the table. Radhya returned to lab one and called the three new slaves’ medical files to her big comp. After staring at D’Bara’s for sometime, she tapped the hard copy with her finger.
“I know this,” she murmured.
Setting it aside, she called up the files. She brought up Amlina’s code and began working on it. She set Max, Will and Padr working on the unzip and rezip portions of her cure.
Several hours of intense concentration passed when a frantic pounding on the lab door disturbed them. Max interposed himself between Radhya and the door. Padr opened it while Will stood behind him.
Barone’s slave, 72, was standing there, his fist raised to pummel the door again. The whites of his eyes bulged and he sported a large, purpling bruise across both his eyes and the bridge of his nose.
“Please,” the man cr
oaked, falling to his knees, his hands raised in supplication, “please, come, the master, he is dying. I know he is dying. Please save us.”
Radhya gestured the men away as she went to the door.
“Tell me,” she commanded.
“He took the pill and exact to the second he took the purple capsule. Now he is swollen, red, there is much pus, and hurt, hurt, hurt. He is screaming like he is dying. Please come.”
Radhya looked puzzled. “It sounds like everything is progressing fine.”
She could hear bloodcurdling screams from the next level down. Gesturing for the bodyguards, she went to the room where Noel lay in a large four-poster bed on top of a royal blue comforter. Her guards recoiled in sympathetic horror at the sight of the Lord’s swollen and pus filled member. Radhya inspected him closely.
“I see no problem here. Will check his readings.”
Will ran the portable scanner over Lord Barone. “Everything seems to be progressing well inside normal parameters.”
Barone shrieked an ear-piercing scream; twitching and squirming as the waves of pain took him again. He screamed until his oxygen ran out and he had to subside into an agonized panting. His slaves cowered in the corners.
“Is your bunch useless?” asked Radhya annoyed. “Put cold compresses on his head. He has the normal fever,” she ordered one of his slaves. “Bring me a basin,” she said to a scantily clad female.
When the basin arrived, she showed the woman how to give the squirming man a slight amount of relief by removing the accumulated pus.
“Rinse and disinfect the basin. Every time he gets filled with pus, do that.”
Noel looked at her wearily. “Thank you,” he whispered, his voice raw and cracking. “You didn’t tell me what agony this would be.”
“Yes I did,” contradicted Radhya. “You are rewriting your genetic code; do you expect it to feel good? This is just a little taste of what you put your make to order slaves through. Can you imagine how painful it would be to change almost your entire appearance, not just one little part? Imagine what you are going through in every part of your body. That is what you do to those slaves when you rewrite their codes. I wonder how many of them die and you just start over with a fresh body. If nothing else, you will gain a new appreciation for pain. I have to get back to work now; your slaves can take care of you.”
“No I don’t want you to go.”
“I don’t care what you want. I am not your servant and I will die before I become your servant,” Radhya warned.
Noel started to groan and pant again as another wave of change came over him.
“Now milady?” asked the slave girl.
“No,” Radhya explained, “Only when it is full of pus. Probably in about six hours. For now, he just has to put up with the discomfort. See you in a week or so Noel.”
She turned to leave the room.
“No, no, no don’t leave me. Don’t leave me alone like this,” Barone howled.
She turned at the door.
“You’ll be just fine. Everything is progressing perfectly. You’ll probably end up thirty centimeters if I’m not mistaken, and I rarely am. You should be delighted.”
“It hurts, dammit it hurts. I can’t stand this. It is killing me damn you,” screamed Barone at the top of his voice.
Lady Kirbyson strode from the room trailed by her white-faced bodyguards, dashing up the stairs to her lab. Throwing open the door, she came face to face with D’Bara, just rising from the comp screen. Radhya leapt across the floor and smashed D’Bara across the face with the back of her hand.
“How dare you!” screamed D’Bara.
“How dare I? I am your owner, you are my slave. How dare you invade my lab? What are you doing in here? You know this is off limits, I told you myself. Why are you even on the third floor? Where did you learn to read genetic notation? What kind of betrayal is this Petra?”
The woman froze. The three men behind Radhya were rooted to the spot.
“I hate you,” screamed Petra. “I hate you and I came to take the man you love away from you. I’m going to bring you to ruin. Noel is going to give me everything you own, everything that should have been mine in the first place. You’ll be a slave, for Jabin’s amusement. He has quite a few interesting little plans for you. We have it all arranged.”
“Why Petra?” Radhya asked in a soft voice shaking her head. “You were the most beautiful woman in the galaxy. You had men falling over their feet for you. Everyone always loved you the most. I was forever second best, if I rated at all, you were given everything. I worked since I was fourteen. I had to earn every mina myself, every single mina. Why did you do this to yourself?”
“To get you. You’re so smart, always parading around and showing off. You always sneered at me because I wasn’t as smart as you think you are. Remember, I wonder how Petra keeps her ears apart cause she got no brains? Grandpa always loved you best. He only spent time with you and after Mom and Dad died all we had was Grandpa. Don’t forget that you stole half my world and all this stuff besides. Now I will have it.”
“I worked for my half of your world, or do you forget all the new fiber bearing animals I created for you so you could have a fashion industry for income when you didn’t like genetics. I spent two years working for you. All that other stuff is from when we were little children. Besides, you are a branded, collared slave now. You can’t own anything. Who has your property now?”
“Noel promised to reverse everything as soon as you are out of the way. Did you really think a man like that could desire an ugly thing like you? It was all a ruse. And your smart brain turns men off. Noel will never contract with you, but it got me in here. I will find your illegal research then you will be removed and Noel will contract with me.”
“You can’t reverse a branding. Moreover, the only way back is to get a royal pardon from the king. You should really look into these things before you jump into them. That branding goes right through your genetic code. Do you even know about the explosive nano planted in your liver?”
“It’s a communication device, for when I want to contact Noel, when my part is over.”
“Wrong. It will blow your head off. What exactly is your part?”
“If I couldn’t find anything, I was supposed to plant evidence of tampering with human embryos. Then you would be busted to a slave. But you’ve caught me, so, I’m going to kill you instead. I’ll leave your body to the dire wolves, and no one will suspect a thing sister dear.”
“Petra, look at the readout. That is Krin’s work. She’s the best. In addition, she is also Noel’s bed partner and has been for the last ten years. See how the device communicates with your collar. Noel can kill you at any time.”
Petra shook her head, “Never, never! Noel loves me. He’s told me over and over. Loves me, not you, you black haired freak, nobody could ever love you. Mother and Father never did you know. You were too nosy, too smart, and too ugly. You should be glad I’m killing you.”
She lunged at Radhya and caught her by the throat with both hands. She was tall and strong and she began crushing Radhya’s windpipe. Padr and Max sprinted across the room. One on each arm they dragged her from Radhya.
“Will, med lab. Third drawer, dismemorizer capsule,” croaked Radhya.
Petra was lunging in the guards’ hands, screaming and fighting. She kicked at Radhya, snarled and tried to bite Padr. Will came trotting back. At Radhya’s nod, he broke the capsule under Petra’s nose. The girl collapsed, hanging limply from the hands of the men.
“Take her to the slave quarters and throw her on her bunk. Don’t be gentle.”
Padr picked her up carefully, giving Radhya a withering look, and carried her out the door. Radhya threw her hand in the air.
“Men!” she cursed, “Let me get this rewrite finished. Absolutely no more distractions. Out, out! Everyone out. Lock the door.”
As Max and Will returned to the slave’s quarters, Rada pushed back the blanket Radhya had hung. S
he boldly strutted up to Max, pulled his head down and kissed him.
“Owwwww,” he yowled as he pushed her away. His hand grabbed the back of his neck. Rada, hands on her naked hips laughed at him.
“Oh come now, you can have me tonight and pretend it’s her. I don’t mind. I could give you some orders if that turns you on,” Rada tittered at him.
“No, thank you,” replied Max backing away. The pains in his stomach made him double over.
“You’re a slave,” she purred, “and a slave has got to grab what pleasure he or she can when he or she can. I can fulfill your fantasies. I know moves she has never heard of.”
Rada grabbed him and drew him closer, fastening her mouth to his with magnetic suction. She reached into his pants and pinched his buttocks hard.
“Noooo!” he yelled as he hurled her to the floor. She laughed up at him.
“Leave me alone. I don’t want you near me. Just leave me alone,” he snarled.
Rada made a pout as Will hauled her from the floor by one arm and hustled her back to the women’s half of the quarters.
“What’s the matter handsome, a few little girls bother you?” she said slyly batting her eyelashes at him.
Silent, Will returned to their half of the room restoring the blanket to its place. He found Max something to settle his stomach as he sat on his bunk having the dry heaves.
Chapter 12
Radhya worked with total concentration until Aninya tapped on her door with a supper tray.
“I’m sorry to disturb you milady, but it’s after eight and I thought you might be hungry.”
Max and Will entered behind her. Radhya raised her head from the screen abstractedly.
“Let me just run this simulation, and I think I’ve got it.”
She tapped a few spots on the smart screen then pushed back from the desk. She stretched until her spine popped. Will was standing behind her chair observing her work.
“Where’s Padr?” she asked.
“He ate with the slaves tonight milady,” replied Aninya. “Although that D’Bara, can’t stand that girl, she was sick and didn’t come for supper. Last I saw Padr; he was playing with Kung.”