by Seven Steps
Kiln didn’t take his eyes off of the image.
“I want to see her.”
“You can see her when we have obtained our goals. Until then, this camera will be your portal.”
“Can you at least tell her that I’m okay?”
“I will have the woman who attends her send word.”
Kiln quieted, staring at Nadira as she sat her back against the wall, and dropped her head onto her knees.
“Are we in agreement then, brother?” Boikis asked.
Kiln nodded. “Yes.”
“Excellent. Welcome to Mars, my prince. We shall start immediately.”
Boikis turned to Etree, Namic and Dalio.
“Take him to Praxis’ quarters. Wash him, dress him, and, by Mars, give him a decent haircut. I want him ready as soon as possible.”
CHAPTER 19
Jun-Su sat at the dining room table of her quarters, a plate of vegetables in front of her. A single bedroom, a common area, a bathroom, a kitchen, a small dining area, and a patio that overlooked the barren Martian landscape were all she was afforded, but it was the most the Martians were willing to offer.
Gaudiness was not on the list of Martian characteristics. It was one of the things that she most certainly did not miss about this place.
“How are our prisoners today?” she asked as Boikis stepped into the dining room.
He placed his hat on the table and collapsed onto the hard backed chair. “I have only seen one of them.”
“Then man that you believe can pass for your brother?”
“The man who is my brother.”
Jun-Su sat up straight in her chair. “The test came back positive?”
Boikis nodded. “Yes. He is Praxis’ twin.”
“Your brother.” She placed a hand on the bare table and scowled. No tablecloths, no paintings, no carpet. Everything here was bare and barren. “Do you think he can pull it off?”
“He’ll have to.”
Jun-Su laughed shortly. “He is a slave, Boikis. All he knows is how to be a slave.”
“For the sake of the woman in the cell, he will learn to be a Martian prince.”
Jun-Su shook her head. “Imagine, Kiln, a Martian prince.” She looked down at her cooling plate of food. “This plan is foolish. Kiln will never be Martian royalty. Praxis is full of testosterone and drink. Kiln is not.”
“He will learn to be a man again.”
“You mean he will learn to be a beast like Praxis was?”
“That as well.”
“Have you thought about how you will do it?”
Boikis reached forward, took her goblet of wine, and took a long sip. “My men are working on it.”
“Did you tell him what he'd have to do?”
Boikis shook his head. “I've given him his part. Play Praxis and convince my father to ally with you.” Boikis smiled. “The wedge it will drive between them will not be so easily be pulled out. Perhaps then the accursed man will learn to get my name right.”
“You are going a bit far to hurt your father, aren't you?”
“No worse then he's hurt me. He's rejected me, humiliated me. Let's see how he feels when his prized son turns against him.”
“You underestimate the king's love for his son. To drive a true wedge between those two will take a lifetime.”
“Perhaps. Unfortunately, we don’t have a lifetime. The machine is... malfunctioning.”
Jun-Su’s eyes went wide. “What do you mean malfunctioning?”
“The dust is unstable making the machine unstable. Plus, with all of the water that thing is sucking up someone is going to notice something soon. We have maybe a week. After that, the machine will only have enough power for the trip to Zenith and a few hours after that.”
“A week? You cannot complete your plan in a week.” Jun-Su leaned forward, her elbows brushing against the bare table. “Kill the king and Kiln, take hold of the army, and we will attack Zenith tonight.”
“Martian may not be religious but they have their traditions. They will never allow me to take the throne. It will have to be handed to me by the King or through an election. They won’t follow me otherwise. No, must be Kiln. When he is King, he will be my gateway to controlling the army.”
“So kill the king now, put Kiln on the throne, and get on with it.”
“Not without training. Kiln will need to learn to walk like a Martin, talk like a Martian. He’ll need to dress like us, think like us. And, most of all, he will have to learn to play war games. Praxis’ athletic skills make him popular with the men. If Kiln doesn't play like his brother, they’ll know something’s wrong.”
“They won’t know.”
“Do not underestimate us, Jun-Su. We are not ignorant, nor are we fools.”
Jun-Su dismissed the conversation with a wave of her hand. “Fine, Boikis. You have your week. Just bring your Martian army to Zenith when my Mungogians arrive.” She readjusted the veil that covered her third eye and organized her forks and plate on the table. “And the woman? The killer of your children. What of her?”
“I am too busy to deal with her at the moment.”
The fork in Jun-Su’s hand shook, and she placed it back down onto her plate. “You don’t have time to punish the woman who murdered your children?”
“No.”
“Boikis Poklar-”
“I am not one of your slaves or your children, Jun-Su. You will not address me in such a manner.”
“I may no longer be the mother of your children, but I am the guardian of the monsters that will help you rule this planet, and the universe. You will heed my commands.”
His eyes narrowed at her, and he leaned forward in his chair. “You dare command me?”
“I dare, Boikis.”
Jun-Su stood, leaning heavily on the tips of her fingers.
They stared at each other, neither willing to back down.
“You should have been born a man, Jun-Su.” Boikis said softly, sitting back in his chair. “You have fire in your blood.”
“You should have been born a woman, Boikis,” she replied, purposefully keeping the ice in her voice. “Then perhaps you would be able to follow simple commands.”
Irritation colored Boikis cheeks, and he snatched his hat from the chair and stood.
“Where are you going?” Jun-Su demanded.
Boikis stopped midway to the door, then, like a flash he was upon her, his face nose to nose with hers. Her pulse skidded, partially in fear, partially in anticipation. She remembered his kisses, his touch. Was it so long ago that he’d lent his heart to her? Would he do it again?
His lips brushed against hers, softly. “If you were a Martian woman, I’d chain you up and never let any other man touch you.”
“No man touches me unless I will it,” Jun-Su replied quickly.
“That is not the Martian way.”
“It is my way.”
Boikis’ smirked. “I will punish Arees. And then, you will give me sons.”
Jun-Su’s face fell, and she took a step back.
“Have you so quickly forgotten our son, Boikis?”
“I never met the boy.”
“You sent me away.”
“You never came back.”
Jun-Su tried to keep the tremble out of her voice at the mention of her children. “Punish her, Boikis. I want her to pay.”
“And then?”
Jun-Su turned to the man whose heart she once possessed.
There was no doubt in her mind that she could possess it again.
“And then, I will give you everything.”
CHAPTER 20
Arees body ached.
Her nose burned from the constant smell of sulfur that hung in the air.
Her clothes were wet with sweat, urine and vomit.
The only respite she had from her wretched condition was when she closed her eyes and imagined that she was in another place. A place with two suns, and an open room where her and Lex could bask in each other’s
warmth without fear. She’d taken that place for granted before. She swore that if she ever got back to Zenith, she’d never take it for granted again.
But Lex was gone now.
She swallowed down the devastating sadness that rose within her. Her Lex was gone. The man who loved her.
She wished she could tell him that she loved him back, but that time was passed now. Vanished when they left The Dark.
Now there was only here, in this cell.
Time slowed to a standstill here.
She didn’t know how long she’d been chained to the wall of the cell, but when she’d awakened there was light and she had yet to see the lights turn off.
Were her companions still alive? There was no telling for sure. She’d tried to scream for them earlier but the heavy doors and walls seemed to be soundproof. The damp, humid, putrid smelling cell was completely isolated, cut off from contact of any kind.
I would rather be torn apart by those things in The Dark, she thought.
After tasting true companionship, even for the briefest of moments, she had no desire to return to the isolation of her former life. She wanted to talk to someone, anyone. Even Nadira or Kiln would be preferable to the silence of this cell.
“Can anybody hear me?” She screamed.
“I can hear you.” The metal door to her cell opened, and in strolled the man that had her thrown in here in the first place.
Boikis Poklar.
Years ago he’d danced in her ballrooms. He’d begged Venus for slave women, for technology, for medicine. The Council had denied him then. And now, he looked at her as if she solely were responsible for every wrong that had come upon this miserable planet.
“Czarina Arees,” he said, his voice low, lethal. “Pretty far away from your ballroom, it seems.”
“What do you want, Boikis?” Arees growled.
In three steps, he covered the ground between the door and her hanging, stinking body. The back of his hand flew across her face, forcing stars into her vision. She felt her jaw shift from the force of it.
“I am here to take vengeance for my two dead children,” Boikis replied calmly. He casually took off his hat, and cracked his knuckles.
“Children?”
“Jun-Su birthed a small boy and girl. A boy and a girl that you murdered.”
Children? Those children were Boikis’?
Jun-Su had told her that the children’s father was a Prince. She’d assumed she meant Prince Praxis, not a third son like Boikis.
“I didn’t know the children were yours,” she said, fear tightening her gut.
“And if you did?”
I would have still killed them. I was a wicked woman.
“I’m a different person now, Boikis. I am no longer the Czarina.”
“Ah, but does that bring the boy back?” He asked, taking a step closer.
“Boikis don’t-”
A fist flew into Arees’ belly, pushing the breath from her body. She felt a rib crack and cried out.
“Do you remember them?” He asked, sending fist after fist into her body, higher now, cracking another rib.
“Do you remember them?”
Another fist, and another, and another.
Defenseless, Arees could only scream under the assault as he brutally beat her body into a blood pulp. Her nose gushed blood. Her lips puffed. Her ribs shattered. Her organs shifted. Her lungs seized.
By the time he had finished with her, she could only hang in agony and pray to the Mother Goddess for death.
His shook out his hand, picked up his hat as casually as he had put it down, and opened the door to the cell.
“You will not die today, Arees,” he said over his shoulder. “My den maid will heal you. Then, we will feed you to the men after war games. You will pay for what you’ve done to my son. You will pay until you wish for death. And then, you will pay again.”
The cell door clanged as it closed, leaving Arees to the darkness, the silence, and the pain.
Battered and bruised, her body throbbed with the memory of every punch, every slap, every strike.
Somewhere, in the back of her mind, she knew she deserved each one of them.
~()~()~()~()~
Agony pulled Arees back to consciousness. She didn’t know when she blacked out, only that she dreamed of the eyes of two children with faces like their father.
I killed them.
Feminine voices whispered around her in hushed, urgent tones.
“Hurry, she’s waking up.”
Her body felt like one, giant ball of pain. She could barely move, barely cry out. A tear dribbled down her cheek as the women worked fervently around her, bandaging her ribs, applying salve to her cheek, setting her nose, cleaning the blood from her.
Why couldn’t they just let me die here?
“Ok, give her the shot,” one of the voices said.
Something pricked Arees’ arm, dragging her back down into inky depths. Back to the dream world, where a little boy and a little girl haunted her.
~()~()~()~()~
“Czarina?”
A light voice from above woke Arees from her nightmares.
“Czarina Arees, are you awake? Can you hear me?”
Arees blinked. The cell was filled with light from the hallway, momentarily blinding her.
“Are you all right? My name is Nim. I was born on Venus like you. Can you say something?”
“What...” Arees licked her chapped lips. It felt as if her entire body had dried out. “What are you doing here?”
“I was kidnapped,” she said. “The Martians came one night and took me.”
Her eyes finally adjusted to the light, and she fully cracked her eyes open. The woman, Nim, was a ball of red hair, red freckles, green eyes, and a slim body. No recognition came up into Arees consciousness.
“Where were you-”
“Zephta,” she said. “I’m originally from Zephta sector. But the Martian’s raided one night and took twenty of us. Are you here to save us?”
Arees’ mind tried to remember hearing anything about this, but she couldn’t recall any mention by the Princess of twenty Venian women being kidnapped. That could only mean one thing. The women weren’t kidnapped. They were sold at the behest of Princess Niadad.
Niadad sold women as slaves? I’m glad I killed her.
Arees muttered a Venian swear and attempted to sit up. Her ribs throbbed in pain, forcing her to lay down again and suck in a breath.
“No, please Czarina. Don’t get up. You’re very injured.”
“Don’t...” Her dry throat refused to make any more words. She went into a coughing fit, each cough rattling her fragile ribs.
Nim disappeared, then quickly returned with water. She raised the small cup to Arees’ throat and, gratefully, Arees allowed the water to slide down, giving a bit of relief to her aching body.
With her throat soothed, and the pain quieting in her ribs, Arees finally looked at the red haired woman. “Don’t call me Czarina. Just Arees is fine.”
“But you are the Czarina Arees, aren’t you? I have seen your pictures, seen you speak on the feeds.”
Arees turned her head from her. “I am not that woman anymore. I’m just Arees now. The Czarina is dead.”
“Is it because of the jewel in your chest?” Nim asked, before quickly gasping. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked about it.”
Arees shook her head, and turned back to the woman. “No. It’s okay.” She paused, considering how much to tell the woman about what had happened to her. “The metal is part of it. But it doesn’t work now. It can’t help me.”
“I’ve seen that metal before.”
Arees heart stopped. “What? Where?”
“In the man in the cell further down. He has one in his chest, too.”
A man?
“What does he look like?” Arees asked.
“He’s a Glorium warrior,” Nim said. “I could tell by his red hair and red eyes. If Heedon finds out that he’s
out here, he’ll kill us all.” Nim splayed her slim fingers over her throat, as if Heedon had already sliced into it.
“Lex is down here?” Arees breathed. “Can I see him?”
The relief that flowed through her made her weak.
Lex is here and he’s alive. Thank you, Mother Goddess.
Nim’s eye darted to the door, then back to Arees. She bit her lip and nodded. “We can’t move you right now, but I can bring him to you.”
She went to the door, looked out both ways, and disappeared down the hallway.
“She’s a sweet girl, isn’t she?” Another deeper voice echoed through Arees cell. The woman who entered was fit to be a Venian enforcer, with her meaty arms and legs. Her hair was long and grey and her swollen breasts stretched far in front of her.
“Who are you?” Arees asked.
“My name is Cara. I am the head den maid of this prison. That means that I am in charge, Czarina.”
Arees lowered the tone of her voice to match Cara’s. “I only want to see my friend, Lex. I am no threat to you or your power here.”
“Oh, I’m sure of that,” Cara said. “But I can’t have you entertaining Nim’s silly thoughts of escape or rescue. No one leaves my prison. No one.”
Arees swallowed, her throat turning dry again.
“You will keep the peace in here. No secret talks, no sneaking around, and no talks of leaving. Those are my only rules. Do you understand, Czarina?”
“Arees. My name is Arees.”
“Good, Arees. Be good here, and I’ll be good to you.”
Cara eyed her up and down before disappearing back into the shadows of the prison.
A moment later, Nim reappeared, with Lex in tow.
His eyes met hers.
She’d never seen anything so beautiful.
“Arees, you’re alive.”
He came to her side, and knelt next to her, gingerly placing his head in her lap.
“I thought you were dead,” Arees said, her tears re-wetting her face.
They held each other. Something Arees never thought she’d do again. She thought she’d never see him again, and it nearly broke her.
I never want to feel that way again.
“You can’t sleep in here, Lex,” Nim said. “But you can visit each other during the day as long as you don’t cause any trouble. And, when Arees gets well enough, we can ask Cara if you two can help me with the other prisoners, well, if I ever get any other prisoners in my wing. You’re the only two I’ve had in a long while.”