Uncharted

by Evangeline Anderson

  “This is the weakness of the Kindred—they care too much for their females. It’s a kind of sickness with you—the reason I wanted to eliminate your bloodlines from our people to begin with. I worked very hard to do it, too—your people might have been larger and stronger than us Nixians but at least we don’t have your fatal flaw.”

  “What are you talking about?” Terex asked hoarsely. “I thought it was your ancestor who wiped out the Kindred.”

  “Yes, well…that’s what most of the rabble outside the palace believe.” Krumf smiled nastily. “But within these walls, it’s a bit of an open secret that Krumf the Fourth is the same as Krumf the First. And the same as Krumf the Second and Third, for that matter.”

  “What?” The branding iron sagged in Terex’s hand. “But how—”

  “The little healer plant I told you about—the one that was originally developed to cure the Need—was the key,” Krumf explained.

  “How?” Terex asked. “I thought it was specifically genetically engineered to cure the Need.”

  “Oh, it was. But it turns out, it’s good at curing almost any disease—including age. I found that with the proper distillation process, the essence of the little healer can be refined into a regeneration formula which takes twenty to twenty-five cycles of age off one’s life.”

  “So of course you used it for yourself instead of curing the females infected with Need,” Terex said flatly.

  “Of course.” Krumf gave an ugly laugh. “It can’t bring back your youth completely—more’s the pity since I was already getting along in years when I discovered it. We Nixians don’t age quite as gracefully as you Kindred.” He looked Terex up and down with a sneer. “Still, it was enough to keep me going in good health and bring me back to a comfortable middle age.”

  “Why not simply stay that age, then?” Terex asked. “Why allow yourself to get old at all?”

  Krumf frowned. “Unfortunately, only one crop can be grown at a time and it takes the plant twenty-five cycles to bloom, so I can harvest and distill it only every quarter of a century or so. But that works just fine.” He laughed heartily. “Just think—soon Krumf the Fifth, my “successor” will come to the throne and no one outside my inner circle at the palace will have any idea that it’s simply me, regenerated and ready to continue my reign. My reign which will never end!”

  Terex shook his head. “I can’t believe you have everyone fooled! So this is why you never cured the Need—you needed all the plant’s blossoms to extend your already unnaturally long life.”

  “Yes, that and the fact that I really do enjoy putting females in their place.” Krumf frowned. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing, Commander—you’re trying to keep me talking so the brand won’t be as hot. Well, it won’t work.” He pointed at Elaina, still cuffed and quivering to the metal cross, her eyes wide with fear. “Brand your female now or I’ll have the guards heat it up again—white hot this time. That temperature sears right to the bone, you know.”

  “You bastard,” Terex said thickly. It was exactly what he’d been trying to do—keep Krumf boasting while the iron cooled. But it was still cherry-red when he crossed the dungeon to Elaina.

  He focused on her small feet, bound with the cruel metal cuffs. Gods, how he longed to free her—to throw down the hated brand and rip the manacles off her so they could get out of this accursed place. But the guard beside her, holding a blaster to her temple, kept him from doing anything rash. Trying to free her now would be the same as pulling the trigger himself.

  “Terex,” he heard her say. For a moment, he still couldn’t meet her eyes but then he made himself look up.

  “Yes?” His voice was low and rough and he felt sick with all the emotions swirling around inside him. Hate for Krumf and his cruelty, desperate love for Elaina, disgust and horror and self-loathing at what he was about to do—they filled him like a miasma that wouldn’t dissipate.

  “Terex, I forgive you,” she whispered. “We have no choice. You have no choice.”

  “There’s always a choice.” He gripped the long-handled iron harder.

  “No.” She shook her head. “Not if we want to get out of here. Please, just…just do it.”

  Terex could see that she had nerved herself up to take the pain and just wanted it to be over with. Though he would rather brand his own flesh a thousand times with the hot iron than press it to her skin even once, he understood that delaying the inevitable was a cruelty to her.

  “Where?” he asked simply.

  “My thigh.” Elaina nodded down at her right inner thigh. “Less…less visible there.”

  More painful too, Terex thought, than a more prominent but less sensitive place. Still, he couldn’t blame her for wanting to hide this shameful thing—the sight of his initials burned into her flesh would serve as nothing but a reminder of how he had failed her.

  “All right,” he said, and did it.

  Had he thought he was dead inside? This was the true death. Hearing the scream of pain from Elaina’s lips as she called his name…smelling the scent of her burning skin as he inflicted agony on the female he loved.

  Goddess, he thought as he finally removed the brand and saw his own, hateful initials burned into her flesh. Let me die. Please, it’s all I deserve—let me die.

  * * * * *

  Elaina had never felt such agony in her life—at least for the first half second. Then, strangely, the sensation began to change.

  The Master, she thought wildly, watching Terex as he burned his initials into the tender flesh of her inner thigh. The Master has marked me as his own forever! The Master gives pain and pleasure and both are one!

  Elaina didn’t know where the weird words came from but when they popped into her head, she knew they were true. Suddenly, the pain transmuted itself. First into a warm sensation, and then into pure, all consuming pleasure. As intense as the pain had been, that was how strong and concentrated the pleasure it turned into became.

  Oh my God, Elaina thought dizzily as she struggled to hold back a moan. I’m going to come! How sick is that? I’m going to come from being freaking branded!

  And then the waves of pleasure radiating from the hot iron on her leg reached a crescendo and she couldn’t hold back any longer. A moan of pure desire poured from her lips, her back arched and her toes curled as stars exploded in front of her eyes.

  “Terex!” she heard herself crying. “Oh God, Master! Master, please!”

  Even after he removed the brand, the pleasure continued, bursting over her in waves as the place where his initials were burned into her skin cooled. Dimly, she heard a voice speaking in her memory… “I promise you, though Commander Terex will inflict physical pain on you, he will not hurt you.”

  It was Kate—the girl from the Mother Ship—she said that to me, Elaina remembered. I thought she was crazy but she was right…somehow she was right…

  “Stop!” someone shouted and to her surprise, it wasn’t Terex.

  Her eyelids fluttered open and she saw the big Kindred standing in front of her, the branding iron hanging loose in his big fist. There was a closed, dead look on his face that worried her. But it was Krumf who was approaching her, waving his hands in agitation.

  “Look at her!” he exclaimed, pointing at Elaina. “Someone bring my court physician at once!”

  He’s worried now—after he ordered me branded? Elaina thought hazily. Should have thought of the consequences before he decided to make Terex burn his initials into my skin!

  The intense pleasure was dying away some now but the place where she’d been branded still throbbed and ached, giving her little sexual chills. She didn’t understand why it should feel good instead of bad but she wasn’t going to complain—if she had to be branded it seemed preferable that the sensation give her a screaming orgasm rather than leaving her in screaming agony.

  “Yes, your Supreme Excellency?” A tall, thin Nixian male who looked to be in his late sixties rushed up. He was wearing a long black rob
e and carrying a white box under one arm.

  “Test this female for the Need,” Krumf demanded, pointing at Elaina. “At once!”

  “What?” Terex’s face, which had born a dead, flat expression suddenly came to life. “What are you talking about?” he demanded, rounding on the Supreme Leader.

  “I’m talking about the way your female reacted to being branded,” Krumf snapped. “Those weren’t screams of agony, Commander Terex—they were screams of ecstasy.”

  “You’re lying,” Terex spat. “I know you are!”

  “I don’t need to.” Krumf spread his hands. “Just look at the physical evidence—guard, open her garment.”

  A guard came up to Elaina and pulled out a knife.

  “No!” Terex started to surge forward but the guard who was still holding the blaster on her, rammed the cold muzzle to her temple and shouted for him to back off.

  “He’s not going to hurt her—just prove my point,” Krumf said, frowning. “Go on,” he told the guard. “Open the garment.”

  Using the razor edge of his knife, the Nixian split her thin white bathing garment from neck to crotch and pulled it open.

  Elaina wanted to close her eyes and take herself away from the whole awful mess. Had she felt naked before, in the thin bathing garment? She felt about a hundred times as bare and vulnerable now that it was split open to show her body completely.

  “Look at her nipples!” Krumf exclaimed. “And her cunt lips! You can’t tell me that’s her natural color, even if she is unnaturally tan.”

  Looking down at herself, Elaina saw with horror that her nipples and the outer lips of her pussy had turned a deep, rose red. She barely even felt the prick of the needle as Krumf’s court physician stabbed the pad of her finger for a drop of blood. He mixed the red drop into a small vial of blue liquid he’d gotten out of his white box, shook it, and held it up to the light.

  Elaina watched, mesmerized, as the water turned first purple…then green…then solid black.

  “Your Majesty is correct,” he said, bowing to Krumf. “This female most certainly does have the Need virus.”

  Elaina felt dizzy.

  The Need, she thought. Oh my God, he’s right—I’ve got it! I’ve got the Need!

  Oh well, whispered a cynical little voice in her head. Just think of it this way—you’re forty next birthday which means you won’t have it for long.

  Because it was going to kill her off. Right now the same virus that had made her feel the searing pain of the brand as pleasure because it was delivered by her Master’s hand, was hard at work in her body, getting ready to shut her down like an out-of-date doll the minute she got too “old” to be desirable.

  I can’t die yet! she thought. I can’t! I have to find a way to save Gina! I have to find the little healer and bring some back to her! I have to—

  “She’ll have to be quarantined, of course,” Krumf said, his hateful voice breaking into her frantic thoughts.

  “And just where are you thinking of quarantining her?” Terex’s deep voice was low and menacing.

  “In my harem, of course.” Krumf gave her an appraising look. “She might be willful and disobedient but I believe she’s not a lost cause—with the proper subjugation she’ll be a good slave.”

  “Never.” Terex’s hand tightened on the branding iron. “We told you when we first came here, Elaina has separation sickness. She can’t be taken from me or she’ll die. She can’t—”

  “Lies,” Krumf said curtly, cutting him off. “I don’t believe she can’t be separated from you—you just don’t want her to be because you’re ridiculously possessive of her.”

  “Because she’s mine,” Terex growled.

  “Not any more,” Krumf said airily. “If it’s any comfort to you, Kindred, I was going to take her from you anyway. You did lose our wager the other night—remember? Your slave was forfeit from that moment on—I was just waiting for the right time to take her. The Need only seals my decision to take her sooner rather than later.”

  “Let her go—the Need is deadly, you said so yourself,” Terex exclaimed. “Just give her back to me, Krumf. Let me take her back through the Blind to the Kindred Mother Ship—we can cure her there.”

  “Oh, I’m afraid neither one of you is going back to the Kindred.” Krumf gave him a nasty smile. “You see, the penalty for impersonating an important person with intent to defraud is life imprisonment. Sentence effective immediately.”

  He made a gesture and the guard at Terex’s side jammed his blaster into the big Kindred’s back. At the same time, more guards started approaching him, including the one who had been holding the blaster to Elaina’s temple.

  “No!” Terex spun away from the guard. Wielding the branding iron like a sword, he cracked the metal handle down hard over the head of one guard and jabbed another in the face with the still hot brand.

  “You fools!” Krumf shouted above the sounds of battle. “You can’t control him that way! The female—threaten his female! It’s literally a Kindred’s only weak spot!”

  One of the guards jumped over to the metal cross Elaina was manacled to and shot a warning blast into the air above her head.

  Crap! The flat crack of the blaster and the menacing whiff of ozone from the shot made her duck her head and cringe but cuffed as she was, she couldn’t get away. Elaina had never felt more helpless in her life.

  “Look at that, Kindred!” Krumf shouted. He had retreated to safety behind a line of his own personal guards, all of them armed to the teeth. “Look at how your female is about to be killed! Is that what you want? Is it?”

  Terex turned and took in the situation. His eyes— which had pinpricks of pure red in the pupils, Elaina saw—first widened, then narrowed when he saw she was in danger.

  “Terex,” she whispered, barely able to get the words out past the lump in her throat. “Terex…Sariv…please…”

  Maybe it was the use of his first name or the pleading in her voice, but something got through to him. Slowly he lowered the branding iron which he had been using as a weapon and let it hang by his side. The guard closest to him grabbed it at once and another hastened to put a pair of thick manacles on him and cuff his hands behind his back.

  “Now kneel before the Supreme Leader, Kindred!” one of them snarled. Shoving one of the electrified black billy clubs into the small of Terex’s back, he gave the big warrior a jolt which sent him stumbling to his knees. But it wasn’t in front of Krumf that he knelt, but Elaina.

  “Elaina,” he said, looking up at her, his deep voice hoarse with emotion. “I am so sorry. I have failed you.”

  “No!” She shook her head. “No, don’t think that way.”

  “I love you,” he said simply. “I don’t deserve to, but I do.”

  “Oh, Terex…” She felt her eyes filling with hot tears and this time she couldn’t stop them from falling. “Terex,” she whispered. “I lo—”

  “Enough of this tender talk,” Krumf sneered. “Take them away—the Kindred to the dungeons and the female to my harem.”

  “No!” Terex tried to fight but the guard gave him another jolt, this one to the back of the neck and he sagged to the floor. Two guards grabbed him by the arms and started pulling him out. “Elaina…” His eyelids fluttered as he tried to focus on her. “I’ll…come for you. I…swear it.”

  “I know you will!” Elaina called back as they dragged him toward the door. “I’ll be waiting!”

  “I’m very much afraid you’ll be waiting in vain.” Krumf gave Elaina an appraising look. “I’ll see you later, my dear, perhaps after my next rejuvenation.”

  If I’m not dead from the Need by then, Elaina thought numbly. Well, at least waiting for his rejuvenation should buy me some time.

  “Which is tomorrow, as I believe the little helper is ready to harvest,” Krumf said, demolishing her last hope. “Goodbye, my dear…for now.”

  Chapter Twenty-three

  I failed her…failed her so badly. And I hurt her t
oo—branded her with my own hand after I swore I would never hurt another female. My oath is broken, my honor gone. Goddess, why? Why must I ruin everything I touch? Why send me a female to love again after so long only to let me lose her?

  Terex sat with his head in his hands, locked in the small, dull gray prison cell where the Nixian guards had thrown him. His last moments with Elaina were playing over and over in his head. Over and over he saw himself branding her, heard her screams…and then Krumf, claiming she had the Need.

  She can’t have the Need—it kills females over a certain age! If she has it she’ll die and there’s nothing I can do about it because I allowed myself to be incapacitated…because I failed her…

  It ran in a loop in his head—his failure, Elaina’s fate, the way he’d broken his vow and hurt her, the fact that he hadn’t been able to save her… Terex thought if it didn’t stop soon he was going to go mad.

  “Hello.”

  The unfamiliar voice made his head jerk up. He frowned when he saw it was the real Master Valdor, standing just outside the iron bars of his cell.

  “What do you want?” he asked dully. “Have you come to berate me for impersonating you? Don’t you think I’ve been punished enough?”

  “To lose the female you love to a fate worse than death is indeed a heavy punishment,” Valdor replied thoughtfully. “But the fact that you love her—that you aren’t simply using her for your pleasure—tells me all I need to know about you.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?” Terex growled irritably. “Yes, I love her for what good it does me. Now I’m locked away, unable to help her, unable to save her from the Need or from that bastard, Krumf when he goes after her.”

  The thought made him grit his teeth and clench his fists as a wave of helpless Rage swept over him. There was noting he could do—nothing to save Elaina from her fate.