He laughed again, as though the idea of a female not wanting to be treated like a sexual slave was ridiculous.
“So you spread the Need virus on purpose? And you’re not worried about revealing it in the present company?” He nodded at the girl who was still hard at work sucking the dictator’s shaft.
“Who, her? Of course I don’t worry. Females don’t have the brain power to retain information or even process what we’re saying in the first place. This one is so busy satiating her Need cravings by sucking me that she probably doesn’t even hear what we’re talking about.”
“I heard it though,” Terex said darkly. “You unleashed a sickness that would sexually control and weaken females—that would kill them—just to weaken the Kindred’s cause and take their support.”
“Of course we did!” Krumf exclaimed. “Imagine their surprise when the very females they were trying to free from ‘sexual bondage’ declared they didn’t want to be freed! That they liked being dominated and subjugated by males. That they loved being whipped and punished for disobedience. That they adored being used hard and often by their masters…or any male who wanted them.” He laughed. “Of course the whole ‘dying by forty cycles’ was a bit hard for them to swallow but since they believed the Need to be a natural occurrence, it wasn’t like they had anyone to blame.”
Terex felt sick. “Maybe it isn’t that they like what you’re describing so much as that this disease you’ve infected them with makes them need it,” he said harshly. “Even if they hate themselves for needing to be degraded and used by a male they don’t love, they can’t help themselves.”
“It doesn’t matter—the end result is the same.” Krumf waved a hand negligently. “A female population completely under our control and no more Kindred to pollute the bloodlines.”
“And since you have, as you say, no more Kindred to pollute your bloodlines or tempt your females to rebel, have you considered trying to find a cure for the Need?” Terex demanded.
“Oh, we have a cure.” Krumf shrugged as though it was immaterial. “We have from the first. We call it the little healer—it’s a plant which has the antivirus incorporated into its DNA.”
“What?” Terex exclaimed. “But then…why did you not use it when the Kindred ‘threat’ was gone?”
“Have you not heard a word I’ve said?” the dictator demanded. “By the time the Kindred were eradicated and the first healer crop was ready to harvest, we’d decided we liked our new society. It’s so much more comfortable this way, knowing a female can never mouth off to you. In fact, if she opens her mouth to complain, you just shove your dick in it!” He roared with laughter again and the males around him laughed as well.
Terex sat in stony silence, watching them. Gods, to think the entire Need outbreak had been orchestrated and perpetuated by males like these! It made him ashamed of his sex, although he knew no male with true Kindred blood would even consider taking part in such a thing.
Dominating a female for your mutual sexual satisfaction was one thing—turning that same female into a sexual pet by using her own unfulfilled desires against her…well, that was evil.
As evil as spanking and caning your mate? whispered the voice of guilt in his brain. But that had been different, he argued with himself. Solange hadn’t been under the influence of some insidious sexual virus when she asked him to do those things. She’d simply been intent on exploring an alternate sexuality.
Besides, I would never do it again, he thought. I learned my lesson after the Goddess took Solange from me as punishment. I would never raise my hand to a female again, even if she wanted me to. He didn’t mind playing Elaina’s “Master” as long as it didn’t come to that—as long as there was no physical violence involved, he told himself. As long as…
“Excuse me, your Supreme Excellency. Forgive me for interrupting you in your Private Bathing Chamber.” The male attendant who rushed up to them was out of breath. He bowed low, panting, before Krumf.
“Yes, yes—what is it?” the old dictator demanded irritably. “Can’t you see I’m busy being pleasured?”
“Yes, your Supreme Excellency but I’m afraid this won’t wait.” The attendant bowed again.
“All right—what is it? Make it fast,” Krumf snarled.
“Your Majesty, there was been a formal complaint lodged.”
“A formal complaint?” one of the Council Members exclaimed. “You bother his Supreme Excellency over a matter as trivial as something which can be adjudicated on Supplication Day?”
“This matter cannot wait until Supplication Day,” the attendant insisted. “It involves a very serious case—a female speaking out in public. Not only that—also denial of rights and then actual physical violence during her unlawful resistance.”
“What? A female committing violence against a male?” Krumf frowned. “How can this be? You’re right—we must hear about it at once! Who is this female who dared to violate so many of our laws at once?”
“Her.” The attendant pointed directly to Elaina, who was trembling against Terex’s legs. “She is the one accused, your Supreme Excellency. And I’m afraid the wounded parties are asking that you hear the matter at once.”
* * * * *
“Well, well…” Krumf looked at her speculatively.
Elaina tried to put an innocent expression on her face but inside her stomach was rolling. She pressed back against Terex’s legs, trying to make herself as small and inconspicuous as possible.
“Is this true, my dear?” Krumf demanded, narrowing his pouchy eyes at her so that the eyes themselves nearly disappeared in the deep folds of flesh around them.
“I—”
“Let me explain,” Terex interrupted, reaching down to put a big hand possessively on her shoulder. “I was detained on a Council matter in the male antechamber and so was unable to enter the Bathing Room at the same time as the other males or the females. Elaina was by herself when three males approached her and attempted to…to violate her.” His big hand squeezed her shoulder fiercely and Elaina could hear the barely controlled rage in his voice.
“And why did they not take her?” Krumf asked in a soft, dangerous voice. “If you were not with her, it was their right. Why were they unable to try her sexual favors? Did she resist them?”
“Of course she resisted them!” Terex growled. “Elaina comes from a planet were females have rights. The right not to be violated by strangers for their own amusement for one.”
“And did she speak out in public?” Krumf asked. “During this…resistance of hers?”
“Yes,” Elaina answered for herself this time. Her voice seemed to echo in the stone bathing chamber, almost as loudly as it had echoed during the attack. “Yes, I told them to leave me alone,” she said, looking defiantly up at Krumf.
“That’s not all she did!” Suddenly, two of the three men who’d attacked her came in, ushered into the Private Bathing Area by another male attendant. The tall one still had a bloody nose and the beefy one was still walking funny, Elaina was glad to see. Also, both of them had large goose eggs on the sides of their heads where Terex had knocked their skulls together.
They gave the big Kindred nervous looks and tried to stand as far from him as they could. Elaina didn’t blame them—Terex’s glare was pure rage and his hands were curled into huge fists.
“Who are you?” Krumf demanded, frowning at them.
“If it pleases your Supreme Excellency, these are Tunard and Maldred—both sons of two of your most trusted Council Members.” The attendant bowed again.
“Hmm—Yorinth and Gadwig’s boys, are you?” Krumf said, looking at the two young males. “Is that right?”
“Yes, your Excellency,” they chorused and bowed to him again.
Elaina looked at them uneasily—she was beginning to get a very, very bad feeling about this.
“Well, seeing as you seem to have a legitimate complaint and the female in question has not denied it, I think we should hear this matter at once,
” Krumf declared. “I’m afraid bathing time must be cut short today.”
“What?” Terex nearly roared. “A legitimate complaint? These males attacked my female and tried to rape her! She fought them off as well as she could until I came and saw what was happening and punished them.” He glared at the two attackers who blanched and took a step or two back from him. “I’m just Goddess-dammed sorry I didn’t finish the job.”
“First of all, there is no such thing as ‘rape’ here on Nixelle Prime-Beta,” Krumf said sternly. “There are only unwilling females who refuse to do their duty to superior males.”
“What—?” Terex began.
“Secondly, the fact that your female spoke out in public and committed actual physical violence upon the males who were only seeking to use her body—as was their right—is a very serious offense indeed,” Krumf went on. “As I said, we’ll have to see to this matter right away. Come, everyone—to the Adjudication Chamber at once!”
And with that he rose—with the help of several male attendants—and left the Private Baths. But not before he gave orders to the male attendants.
Suddenly, Elaina found that she and Terex were surrounded by big, burly males, all dressed in the plain black trousers and shirts which seemed to be the uniform of the bathing attendants. Not only were they surrounded, their guards had weapons—big nasty black sticks which had crackles of electricity jumping from their blunt ends. They looked a little like a billy club someone had decided to run an ungrounded wire through.
“Now, Master Valdor,” one of them growled, frowning. “If you know what’s good for you, you and your little slave will come with us.”
“Don’t touch my female!” Terex stood protectively in front of Elaina, who was still crouched on the floor at his feet. “Don’t touch her or I swear by the Goddess, she’ll be the last thing you’ll touch because I’ll rip your arms out of their sockets!”
“He means it!” One of the attackers exclaimed, backing up. “Better be careful—I hear he has Kindred blood!”
“No one is going to touch your slave,” the first one who had spoken, his voice suddenly soothing. “No one wants any trouble here. You just have to go to the Adjudication Chamber, that’s all.”
“And what happens once we’re there?” Elaina demanded. She was aware she wasn’t helping her own case by speaking in the presence of men, but they were already in so much hot water she didn’t see how it could get worse.
The male attendants with their cattle-prod/billy clubs frowned and looked shocked at her raised voice but the first one answered anyway.
“As to that, it’s up to his Supreme Excellency to decide. If you’re found guilty of the offenses your master will most likely have to pay a fine. If the other side can’t prove their case, they’ll be the ones paying a fine for bringing a false charge.”
“Is that all?” Terex demanded. “We just have to pay a fine?”
The attendant shrugged. “In most cases. Sometimes they also require you to discipline your wayward slave. If she’s found guilty of speaking out, she might have to wear a gag while she’s out in public to prevent it happening again.”
Terex looked down at Elaina, his face troubled.
“What do you think?” he asked in a low voice. “I don’t like it.”
“A fine and a gag…that’s not so bad,” Elaina murmured. “What else can we do but go?”
“I could fight.” He looked at the ring of beefy attendants surrounding them and the intensity in his eyes made two or three of them take a step back.
“Yes, but these aren’t the only guards in the Baths,” Elaina argued softly. “I say we just go pay the fine…Master,” she added, aware that the males standing around them were giving her and Terex startled and suspicious glances. Clearly it wasn’t normal for a male to consult his female slave about a possible course of action.
Terex sighed, his face more troubled than ever.
“Very well,” he said at last. “We will go peacefully.”
The relieved looks on the guards’ faces told Elaina how frightened they were of the big Kindred. As well they should be—he probably would have torn all of them apart if she’d asked him to fight their way out. As part of her had wanted to.
But what would happen if they did manage to fight their way free, get out of the palace…maybe even get back to their ship? What good would it do? They would be leaving the planet without the two things they had come for—and without helping any of the women stuck here in bondage.
We know the little healer and the silver sphere are here, she thought as the attendants herded them towards the exit door of the Baths while all the other bathers stared curiously and whispered behind their hands. We know they are—we just have to get our hands on them!
And they couldn’t do that if they ran away.
Just have to stay, she told herself, trying to feel brave. Stay and deal with whatever comes. There’s nothing else we can do.
Chapter Twenty-one
“Welcome to the Chamber of Adjudication where grievances between high-born individuals are settled by his Supreme Excellency,” intoned an attendant who was standing at the golden double doors of the chamber. He was wearing a long red cap with a puffy golden ball at the end which made him look both ridiculous and self-important. “His Majesty will now hear the case of Tunard and Maldred who lay claims against the disobedient female slave, Elaina of Earth. Come in.”
He nodded at Terex who strode into the room with Elaina a step behind him. They were still wearing their wet bathing garments and a shiver ran through Elaina as a chilly blast of air from the palace’s ventilation system made her nipples stand to attention in tight, pink peaks.
She would have thought that the thin white garment, still clinging to her like a chilly shroud, would have started to dry soon. But apparently the stuff the female attendant had sprayed her with at the beginning of her adventure in the Baths had been more than water. It seemed to keep the garment continuously damp and clingy and horribly uncomfortable.
On the far side of the room from them were Tunard and Maldred, still throwing uneasy glances at Terex who was glaring back at them. Elaina had an idea the only reason they dared to be in the same room with the big Kindred was the eight armed guards still circled around him.
Can’t believe I’m about to go on trial for not letting a bunch of goons rape me! she thought, eyeing her attackers. This world is horrible—we have to do something for the women living here. But how?
Just then, Krumf walked in. He, apparently, had taken the time to change because he was now wearing a long white robe with a fur-lined golden cloak over it and gold, curly-toed slippers. It reminded Elaina a little of something the Pope might wear—if his Holiness had really bad taste, that was.
As usual, the Supreme Leader was flanked by male attendants and female slaves. They helped him settle himself in a golden throne-like chair in the middle of the room where he nodded solemnly at the attendant who had welcomed them into the room in the first place.
“Hear-ye, hear-ye,” intoned the attendant in the red cap with the puffy golden ball. “Be it known that his Supreme Excellency, Krumf the Fourth, will now Adjudicate upon the matter at hand.” He bowed to Krumf who nodded approvingly.
“Very good, very good, Adjudication Announcer. Now elaborate on the matter, if you please.”
“As your Supreme Excellency wishes.” The attendant bowed low again. “A grievance which has been judged a legitimate complaint has been brought by Lord Tunard and Lord Maldred, both members in good standing of the Court, against the foreign female, Elaina of Earth who is the slave of Master Valdor.”
“Very good,” Krumf said again, making a ‘go on’ gesture with one small, wrinkled hand. “List the charges.”
“First,” the attendant read out, “Lords Tunard and Maldred allege that they did approach the female in question with the intent to taste her favors as she had no Master present with her at the time.”
“Is this true?” Krumf
asked the two pasty Nixians.
“Yes, your Supreme Excellency,” they chorused in a way that would have been comical if they weren’t admitting to attempted rape.
“Second,” the attendant went on. “Lords Tunard and Maldred allege that the female, Elaina of Earth, did unlawfully resist their advances. Third, she spoke out as she did so, addressing herself to males who were not her Master and inflicting the sound of her female voice on all those in a crowded Bathing Chamber. Fourth she did physical violence to Lords Tunard and Maldred when they attempted to take what was lawfully theirs and Fifth, and most damning of all, your Supreme Excellency…” He looked up at Krumf. “That she has shown no remorse for any of her vile and offensive actions.”
“I object to this,” Terex said, frowning. “You’re painting Elaina as a villain just for refusing to let these two idiots assault her.”
“Peace, Master Valdor—you’ll have your turn.” Krumf looked irritated. He turned back to the two attackers. “Now then, my lads—is all this true?”
“Yes, your Supreme Excellence,” they chorused again and Tunard added, “She kneed me right in my male parts, your Majesty, inflicting injury that was both grievously painful and possibly damaging. I may never be able to enjoy taking a slave again!”
“You mean raping a slave again,” Elaina exclaimed. She knew she wasn’t supposed to talk but the words just burst out of her. Standing here, hearing the charges read against her seemed to bring the entire attack back almost as though it was happening again. It made her stomach twist in a knot and her legs feel shaky. She wanted to puke and scream at the same time and it was only by a huge effort of will that she kept from doing either or both.
Krumf glared and several of the people in the room sucked in their breath in apparent shock that she had dared to speak out in public to someone besides her Master.
“You see?” Tunard demanded. “This is the kind of thing we had to deal with! This insolence—this unrepentant disrespect. And then when she actually did violence to me—”
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