by Fox, Jaide
Fallon gave her a quizzical look. “You’re an odd woman, Ebony.”
“You have no idea.” In her pleasure and release, she almost laughed again. The king’s brother--the king’s own twin brother!
***
A sharp twinge arced through Damon’s insides to see Fallon on top of Ebony. His eyes, narrowed to slits, closed fully, for he was unwilling to watch her seduction by another man. He had watched this dark and exotic woman, so different from any other he’d ever seen, with great interest, and it was not just her physical charms that had caught his attention--it was her courage and spirit, as well.
Damon could not remember the last time he had felt a woman’s soft skin and willing body beneath him, and he suspected the temptation of Ebony’s lush figure had tested Fallon’s limits much the same as it was testing his own.
Fucking the women they’d captured wasn’t part of the plan, however, and they couldn’t afford to be distracted by fleshly pursuits—not when their lives depended upon keeping clear heads.
Maybe Fallon believed he’d think with a clearer mind if he cleared the little head betwixt his legs. Then Damon laughed a little in his mind. As if bedding a woman ever solved anything! It only made the madness worse.
He would have to speak with Fallon in the morning. Though Fallon was the ruler of the rebels, he treated all the men as equals--no better and no worse than the way he treated himself. It was that attitude which had captured their undying devotion to him. On the other hand, in King Kore’s world they’d have stood no chance to have better lives--not given the state of the lotteries that would decide the courses of their lives and careers.
If Fallon’s rule had been instated, as it should have been due to order of birth, all the people of Chalcydon would have had an equal opportunity to pursue whatever path in life they chose instead of having their lives dictated to them by the state. But such radical thinking was unheard of, and had led to Fallon being removed from the line of succession.
Damon heard Ebony’s sudden indrawn breath, quickly followed by rapid breathing. So, she responded positively to Fallon. The hope of him attracting her as well dissipated in the wind.
CHAPTER TEN
Perhaps more disturbing to Ebony than her response to Fallon was the fact that after the two of them had quietly returned to the house, she’d slept all night--and very well--curled up against him with his arms around her. She didn’t like that, either. The last thing she wanted was to get too comfortable and let her guard down around any man--especially one who was holding her captive.
But now, the night was long past. Ebony and the other seven women, and Fallon and all eight of his men, continued up the foothills on an old, forgotten path. As always, Fallon walked behind Ebony at the tail end of the group, but right now Ebony ignored him in favor of talking with Cassie as they continued over the rising terrain.
“This looks like it used to be wider--wide enough for some kind of vehicle,” said Ebony. “I know that somewhere there are conveyances similar to cars, but Adrienne’s told me that everyone in the city travels by foot.”
“Maybe it’s the people outside the city walls that use the cars--or whatever they are?” said Cassie.
“I haven’t seen any sign of anything like a car. Not even a dog sled. Nothin’ at all,” Ebony replied. “If I didn’t know better, I’d have sworn we were back in the Dark Ages on Earth.”
“I don’t understand,” said Cassie. “The city--the palace--uses electricity and modern conveniences practically the same as Earth. But that little village where we slept last night had nothing like that. Why not?”
“Could be the king wants it that way. It’s one way to keep his people in line. When you have to worry all the time about how to get clean water, or how to keep warm, there’s not a lot of time or energy left for rebellion.”
She glanced back at Fallon, but as always he simply looked elsewhere and said nothing.
Ebony was beginning to get an inkling of how the king kept his people on the outskirts of the land under his control. “Yes,” she said out loud, as they walked, “it’s difficult to mount a rebellion, warranted or not, if you’re fighting with sticks and hand tools while the king’s men have guns, laser sabers, and dragons that breath acid. When you look at it that way, withholding technology from the average people makes a hell of a lot of sense.”
Cassie thought for a moment, and then nodded her head. “I’ll bet that living in that village was like living in one of those third-world countries. I’d be pretty mad if I had to live like that while everybody in the city got the good life.”
Ebony nodded. “Fallon wanted to bring all the people of this world into the good life--but his brother, the king, did not. That’s why Fallon and all the men who took us are outcasts.”
***
But very soon, Ebony and all the other women stopped talking as they struggled to walk up the steep and winding path through the foothills. The tree cover became sparser and the air became cooler and thinner. They all began to get a lightheaded, dizzy feeling. When Ebony paused by the side of the path, trying to get her breath, she looked down the side of the mountain and saw that they were high above the village. If she hadn’t known it was there, she wouldn’t have been able to see the remnants at all.
All of the women began gasping for breath with every step, and moved slower and slower. The men seemed unaffected and, wordlessly, began to simply scoop up the women, throw them over their shoulders, and carry them along the very steep trail.
Rocks dotted the hills, some large as buildings and others smaller than bowling balls. She saw piles of gravel along the trail that looked like the tailings of a quarry.
“How much further are we going?” Ebony asked. She was the last of the women to still try to struggle up the mountainside.
Fallon glanced at her and, without a word, lifted her up in his arms and held her cradled like an infant. Ebony squeaked but then clung to him with both arms around his neck, grateful that he’d relieved her of walking. She hadn’t been about to beg him or Damon for a ride. She had too much pride for that, no matter how tired or out of breath she got.
“We’re going just around the bend, and up a little. There. See it?” he said, jerking his head in that direction.
She followed the line of his eyes and saw an opening high up in the face of the mountain. The black hole gaped above them like a giant’s mouth ready to devour the unwary.
Ebony frowned, bouncing in his arms as he trotted up the steepest part of the path behind the others. All of the men had quickened the pace out here in the open air as soon as their goal was in sight, even as they carried the women in their arms.
“What is this?” she asked, as he set her on her feet outside the opening.
A cold wind howled around them, stirring her hair and whipping her tattered skirt around her legs. Ebony shivered, staring into the blackness with chills moving over her body. The other women, she saw, looked just as uneasy as she felt.
Fallon stepped close to the entrance and then whistled loudly. From the mouth of the cave emerged two guards carrying what looked like long silver-gray rifles. She’d seen similar weapons in the palace, but they’d looked more futuristic than what these men carried. Had they only procured the dregs of weaponry?
The guards glanced around and nodded at the approaching group, motioning them forward. “It’s an abandoned mine,” Damon said, as the men began moving the women inside.
“Why are we here?” Ebony asked, stumbling forward on the gravelly ground. The muscles of her feet ached from gripping the steep incline they’d been forced to travel. Then she stopped dead in her tracks. “You’re not going to drop us down the side of a sewer cave again, are you? Because I’m not doing that again! I’m not--“
Damon and Fallon looked at her. “This is where we live,” Fallon said, placing his hand at the base of her spine to push her forward.
If he’d reached out to hold her hand, he could not have surprised her more. The touch of his
palm on her back felt like a brand. She scooted forward, quickening her pace to escape it. Fallon and Damon both chuckled.
Then she stopped again as she looked at the inside of the cave. “You can’t mean you live in here? For real?”
“I think you’ll find it’s not as uncomfortable as one would think. There are some modern conveniences inside.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” she whispered. Beneath the high rocky ceiling, the top corridor was lined with streams of tiny white-blue bulbs lighting the way. Peering closer, they reminded her exactly of glowing LEDs--like delicate Christmas lights lining a corridor at a shopping mall.
“Are these everywhere?”
Damon nodded. “We can run thousands of the diodes with very little power. They were installed when this was a functional mine and never removed. Some of the managers of the mines stayed here rather than commuting back to the city every day, so they brought luxuries with them and installed them within the mine.”
Ebony looked thoughtful. “And now you make use of their quarters?”
“Exactly,” Damon said. He looked at Fallon’s hand resting on her back. Fallon lifted his hand and allowed her to walk ahead of them on her own.
“These little lights are very bright,” Ebony said.
She heard a small laugh behind her. “They’re not really all that bright,” said Fallon. “It’s just that without the bulbs, this interior would be as black as the bowels of the earth--because that’s what it is.”
Ebony could see that the rock walls were completely smooth and free of cracks, as was the floor. There were no bits of gravel to step on and hurt her feet either, which meant they kept the entrance clean and swept free of debris. “Nice place,” she said.
As they moved further inside, the cavern began a gradual descent down. Deep within the cave--a place that never saw the sun--the air temperature dropped and her skin pebbled with chills. Her skimpy outfit was good enough for a climate-controlled palace, but it wasn’t much protection from the elements beyond the city.
She hugged her arms against her chest, rubbing her biceps with her palms.
“Cold?” Fallon asked.
“A little chilled,” she said.
“We’ll be at our quarters soon. We have clothing and shoes for you and the others down there.”
“Good. I’m tired of wearing this see-through crap and having everyone stare at me like I’m a freak.”
“They don’t stare at you as if you’re unpleasant to look at. It’s been years since most of them have lain eyes on a woman, especially one as lovely as you.” Fallon ran his gaze over her frame as if unaware of himself.
Ebony shivered from another chill and quickened her step, ignoring the compliment. “I don’t like the sound of that. Should we be worried about horny men attacking us?”
He frowned. “My men are more disciplined than that. You are an odd woman, Ebony Raines.”
Ebony lifted her chin. “Well, you’re an odd man, Fallon Anadaru. And Damon is, too. All of you. You’re the weirdest aliens I never imagined I’d come into contact with. And I’ve read about a lot.”
Damon and Fallon chuckled. “What alien races have you read about to compare us with?”
“Well, I admit they were all fictional races. I didn’t expect to run into any real aliens. I guess the part about taking women captive as sex slaves is the only thing that really compares to anything I’ve read. It was hot in books, but not so hot in real life. I think I should have read more classic science fiction.”
“To lose one’s freedom is never enjoyable. Perhaps you can identify with our plight after all?” Fallon said, urging her downward into the mine behind the others.
She stopped and turned around, glaring at him. “What do you mean? I’m the sex slave here. No one’s holding you prisoner and forcing you to put out,” she said, before casting her eyes back on her footing.
“Our lives are not our own under King Anadaru’s rule,” Damon said, interjecting, but then waved his hand as though shooing a fly. “It is beyond her,” he said to Fallon “She will never understand the ways of our people and what we fight against.”
“Huh? Well, maybe if you explain a little more, my tiny woman’s brain can begin to understand. My own planet has had many tyrannical kings and dictators through history. It’s not a stretch for me to believe you have problems here.” She looked at Fallon and met his eyes. “Here’s one thing I can tell you for sure: Your brother, Kore, is an asshole.”
Fallon snorted. It almost sounded like a laugh. Damon merely stared at the rebellious, dark-skinned woman who tested their patience at every opportunity. “A lottery is held once a year for the people who’ve come of age and are to enter the workforce,” Damon said. “Those with the right connections will never find themselves living anything but a life of privilege. The others--no matter what their intelligence or skill level--the ones who do not come from the right families--will find themselves in the most dreary and dangerous jobs of our society, either breaking their backs or dying for the kingdom.”
“And Fallon wanted to change this. He told me that was why he was not made king when he was supposed to be next in line.” She stopped and looked at both of them.
They nodded.
“Sounds...I don’t know...communistic to me. I think I’m beginning to understand why there was a rebellion. People need the freedom to choose how they want to live their lives, and here, you don’t get that option. Am I getting the gist of it?”
“Exactly,” Fallon said, looking grim faced. “I wanted our world to advance in technology, to move with the rest of the universe and keep our natural resources here. That way, we could improve the lives of everyone and not just the fortunate few.
“But my radical ideas were not welcomed by our father. He wanted his legacy preserved, and left everything in my brother Kore’s hands. That fool will run this entire planet into the dirt. We cannot allow ourselves to have a resource as precious as chalcedonite and not advance our technology--to say nothing of our defenses. We are just asking for a more advanced race to invade our world and take everything from us.”
Ebony nodded. “I get you there. That’s the ‘ore’ you were telling me about?”
“Yes. Chalcedonite. It is a metal ore highly sought throughout the universe. Our planet is rich in it where most of the others are not. The mining of this ore has brought the kingdom great wealth. It is light and incredibly strong, and able to withstand the rigors of space travel unlike any other material.”
“Okay,” she said, wrapping the rags of her dress a little closer around her shoulders. “So your planet has a valuable resource wanted by everyone in the known universe, and only a few people benefit from the sale of this ore. I think I finally understand things now.”
“I am glad to hear it,” said Fallon.
“Everything, that is, except why you think stealing King Kore’s harem would make any difference to him. He might be annoyed, but he’ll just pay those gray aliens to go steal some more women--and, thanks to this wonderful ore, he can easily afford it.” She shrugged. “All of us women are completely replaceable, as far as he’s concerned. I’ve never seen him act like he’s got any attachment to any of them. He sure doesn’t have it for me--not that I’d want him to.”
Both Fallon and Damon fell silent, and Fallon put his hand on her back again and guided her on down the corridor until they reached the level where everyone was housed. It was a long line of doors and windows, doors and windows, much like a motel back on Earth.
Ebony glanced around, and tried to see into the rooms through the hallway windows and the occasional open door, but she couldn’t see more than a few dozen men in the various rooms. “From the looks of it, your rebellion doesn’t have many supporters,” she said. “How did such a small force cause so much trouble? Unless you’ve got more scattered throughout the mine?”
Fallon gave her a hard stare.
“Or in other settlements besides this one?” She paused. “Now, that seems like a
distinct possibility.
Fallon continued to stare at her, and then finally looked back at Damon. “I want everyone split up in these rooms,” Fallon said. “And hear me again: No man is to harm these women in any way. We need them safe and well if we expect to make the trade—especially if any of them are pregnant.”
At that, Fallon’s other men stepped forward and began taking the women one by one into different rooms--each woman alone with one man.
Ebony raised her eyebrows and looked up at Fallon. “Call me crazy, but that looks like a recipe for trouble. You’re putting a lot of faith in those guys.”
“Do not trouble yourself about it, Ebony Raines,” said Fallon.
She snorted. “I suppose you have reason to trust your men, since they put their fate into your hands to begin with; but I know how men get when they don’t get a piece of tail for a while. I can’t imagine that it’s different here, just because you’re aliens.”