Handling the Hybrid Page 18

  “I don’t know—some slave she bought only a few days ago, I think,” the bored voice replied.

  “Oh—didn’t she buy a Kindred? Like that slave of Lady Sweetbottom’s the Sacred Seven just passed judgment on?” the second voice asked.

  “As a matter of fact, I think so. But he did something to offend her and you know Mistress Tornflesh—the least little infraction and it’s ‘off with their balls!’” The first woman giggled. “It’s a wonder she has a single complete male left on her entire estate!”

  “Well, she probably won’t after this,” her friend replied. “What time is the gelding anyway? I might like to come with you—she always makes it such an entertainment and the way she wields the gelding knife is really quite masterful.”

  “It’s within the hour so if you want to come, you’d better hurry and get ready,” the first woman said. “You can’t go looking like that you know.”

  “Bother—I don’t have anything to change into.” The second woman sighed. “You go on without me—I’ll catch the next one. You know with Lady Tornflesh there’s always another gelding coming up.”

  “True. Well, take care of yourself my dear. I’m going to finish fixing my makeup and then I’m off.”

  The door opened and shut and there was a sound of high heels clacking against the marble floor outside as the second female went on her way. Quickly, Vrox opened his door as well and scanned the long marble hallway for Tandy. He saw a guard standing outside a door a little way down and rushed over.

  “I’m looking for my Mistress—Mistress Sweetbottom. Is she in there?” he demanded.

  “She is.” The guard nodded impassively and spoke in a slow, ponderous voice. “But she’s with the Sacred Seven signing paperwork. Sorry, slave—you’ll have to wait.”

  “I have to talk to her now,” Vrox insisted. “Get out of my way!”

  He started to shove past but suddenly the snub nose of a blaster was poking him in the guts.

  “I don’t think so,” the guard growled. He was a Rothian, Vrox saw—one of the many humanoid creatures the Yonnites hired to guard them, though they didn’t consider them fit to take as slaves because of the massive natural shell they carried on their backs and their wrinkly greenish-gray skin.

  The Rothians might be slow and methodical but they could also be deadly. There would be no reasoning with him and there was no getting through this door until Tandy came out on her own. And knowing how long legal issues could take, Vrox didn’t think that would be in time to save his friend’s balls.

  “Fine, I’m going. I’ll go wait somewhere else.” He held up his hands to show he was leaving peacefully and then whirled and went back down the hallway, in the direction he’d come from.

  Just as he was almost back to his starting point, the necessary room door opened and a tall, thin mistress dressed completely in pale blue feathers came out. She was glancing at her chronometer and saying under her breath, “Oh dear, I hope I’m not late! Mistress Tornflesh always gets so upset…”

  Vrox followed her as quietly as he could—luckily she was too preoccupied to notice a seven-foot-tall Kindred warrior striding along behind her—and waited until she turned into the small side hall that led out to the parking and docking area. The minute he was certain he had her alone, he stepped up behind her and put one hand over her mouth and the other around her waist to hold her arms in place.

  She stiffened at once and started to scream but it came out muffled against his palm. Her heart was going like a jackhammer and her eyes rolled crazily in her head as she tried to look back and see who was holding her.

  “Listen to me,” Vrox murmured in her ear. “I’m not going to hurt you. I just need you to get me to Mistress Tornflesh’s estate in time to stop my friend from getting his balls chopped off. Just that and I’ll leave you alone, unharmed. Do you understand? Nod if you do.”

  He waited for her to nod her head, which she did at last, reluctantly.

  “Good—then let’s go out to your ship,” Vrox breathed in her ear. “We need to get there fucking fast.”

  He hated to do things this way he thought, as the hapless Mistress led him stiffly to her short-range cruiser —it was doubtless going to complicate things with his and Tandy’s exit strategy. But what else could he do? He couldn’t hang around waiting while Dannen was gelded! He had to get to his friend and fast, before the unthinkable happened.

  Sending a swift prayer to the Goddess, he climbed into the cruiser behind the Mistress in blue feathers and instructed her to set a course. He had to save his friend—he would worry about the consequences later.

  Twenty

  “Oh Tandy, you didn’t have to send us so much! This must be almost all of Zora’s fortune!” Her mother’s eyes widened over the viewscreen as she read the amount Tandy had transferred.

  “It’s all right, Mom. I wanted to be sure you and Daddy had enough to save Remy and to live comfortably afterwards.”

  “Well, this is more than enough, my dear! But what are you going to live on?” her mother asked. “Are you going to sell the Sky-needle and move someplace smaller?”

  “I’ve done better than that—I’ve given Aunt Zora’s three old slaves their freedom and deeded it over to them,” Tandy told her. “That way they don’t have to worry about losing their home and they can live comfortably on the proceeds from the rent on the other floors for the rest of their lives.”

  “My goodness—such generosity! I think the fact that you’re taking care of her faithful slaves would have made your Aunt Zora very proud. But what about you?” her mother persisted. “Where are you going to live? Are you coming back home, Tandy?”

  “Not exactly…” Tandy looked around herself. She was still in the Justice Hall but the door was locked and the line was secure—she’d made certain of that before sending so much money and conducting legal business on it.

  She had neatly distributed all of Aunt Zora’s estate, keeping only a small stash for herself in a private account and just enough to buy Vrox’s friend from Mistress Tornflesh—which was going to be the very next call she made before she went out to get the big Kindred.

  She had also deposited one hundred thousand credits in Vrox’s account in the Galaxy Bank on Yiddris Prime, just as they had originally agreed upon. He had told her last night as they held each other not to worry about it—that he didn’t want the money—he only wanted her. But Tandy liked to honor her agreements so she had deposited the credits anyway.

  She knew she ought to wait to tell her mother about the big Kindred when she was home and things were a little more private, but she was bursting with the good news and she just had to share.

  “Mother,” she said in a low voice, leaning towards the viewscreen, which was mounted on the wall behind the desk she was sitting at. “I…I’ve met someone.”

  “What?” her mother frowned. “Who, Tandy? What are you talking about? Is it another Mistress?”

  Sometimes Mistresses of Yonnie Six did form romantic attachments, although most preferred to keep to themselves and take their sexual urges out on their slaves. Still, it did happen from time to time.

  Tandy shook her head.

  “No—a slave. Mother, I’m in love with my slave—the one they bought for me to tame for the Test of Mastery.”

  “Oh dear!” Her mother looked genuinely upset, which seemed strange to Tandy, since she had done the exact same thing herself. “Oh, Tandy—be careful, my dear!” she exclaimed.

  “What do you mean?” Tandy asked, frowning. “I’m only doing what you and Daddy did, all those years ago. I found a man to love—one who loves me back—and we’re going away together. Why is that a problem?”

  “I knew your father for years before we ran away together,” her mother protested. “I knew that he loved me with his whole heart before I gave him mine. How well can you possibly know this slave if you only met him three days ago? How do you know he’ll be true to you? That he won’t hurt you when he gets you alone somewhere? Oh, Ta
ndy—I don’t like this at all! Not one bit!” Her mother’s gray eyes filled with tears and her pale cheeks went blotchy and red as they always did when she was worried.

  “Mom, please calm down,” Tandy begged. “I know this is fast but I made a deal with Vrox—he was going to pretend to let me tame him and I was going to set him free afterwards. But then, well, we fell in love. We…” She bit her lip, trying to think how to explain. “We gave ourselves to each other,” she told her mom. Despite how embarrassing it was to admit, she wanted to put her mother’s worries to rest. “He penetrated me and took my virginity last night and I took his today, during the Test of Mastery,” she added and felt a little twinge of worry.

  She and Vrox still hadn’t gotten to talk about what had happened between them but he hadn’t seemed angry at her and he had submitted willingly. So everything would hopefully be okay—right?

  It’ll be fine, she reassured herself. We just have to talk things out, that’s all. We can get through anything as long as we love each other.

  But her mother was looking more worried than ever.

  “Oh my precious girl, I’m afraid that giving your body doesn’t always automatically mean that the other person gives you their heart,” she said to Tandy. “Males can be manipulative and false! They tell you what you want to hear and then leave you. There are good ones like your father and brother, of course, but many have violent tendencies and—”

  “Vrox isn’t like that,” Tandy said, lifting her chin. “He would never hurt or abandon me. He loves me and I love him.”

  Though had they actually said the word love to each other yet? Tandy didn’t think so. But still she knew she was right. She and Vrox had spent the night wrapped in each other’s arms and he had held her and murmured about the life they would have together—flying around the galaxy seeing different worlds, living together…

  “We never have to wake up to the same sunrise twice if you don’t want to, little girl,” he’d rumbled in her ear. “We can go anywhere you want—see everything there is to see. And we’ll do it all together.”

  Tandy had always wanted to see other worlds and cultures and the idea of doing it with the man she loved sounded like the most perfect life imaginable. A life that she was about to start as soon as she got out of here.

  “Oh Tandy…” Her mother’s voice sounded choked. “I hope you know what you’re doing. Will you at least come home for a little while so your father and I can meet this slave of yours?”

  “Sure.” Tandy smiled. “He won’t be a slave anymore by the time you meet him, though. I’m going to free him and then we’re going to have a joining ceremony. We might even do it there at home where you and Daddy got joined!”

  “Well…” her mother began but just then the door to the office Tandy was in burst inward with the splintering sound of a broken lock.

  “Oh!” Tandy turned to see her Aunt Deelee standing there with a triumphant sneer on her face. She was right behind one of the Rothian guards, whom she had apparently persuaded to break in the door with his bone-plated skull.

  “Oh! Tandy—be careful!” her mother cried from the viewscreen.

  “What are you doing?” Tandy demanded, glaring at her aunt. “I’m conducting private business in here! You can’t just break in like this!”

  “Why, hello, Sister dear,” Aunt Deelee said, ignoring Tandy and focusing on the viewscreen. “How very unsurprising to find that you’re in on this little plot to defraud the Council of the Sacred Seven and steal my rightful inheritance!”

  “What are you talking about?” Tandy demanded. “I haven’t defrauded anyone!”

  “Oh no? Then what’s this all about?” Aunt Deelee held up a small voice recorder and pressed a button. Floating from the small, but powerful speaker came Tandy’s voice.

  “I made a deal with Vrox—he was going to pretend to let me tame him and I was going to set him free afterwards. But then, well, we fell in love. We…we gave ourselves to each other,” Tandy heard her own voice say. The recording was muffled by the door that had been between them, but still perfectly understandable.

  “Oh my Goddess! How dare you spy on me?” she demanded, making a snatch for the recorder.

  “Ah-ah-ah…” Aunt Deelee, who was several inches taller, held it just out of reach. “I don’t think so, niece. I think the Sacred Seven need to hear this. Then maybe they’ll rethink their ruling about Zora’s will.”

  “Deelee!” Tandy’s mother exclaimed from the viewscreen. “How dare you? You leave Tandy alone! You—”

  Deelee leaned over and hit the kill switch on the viewscreen, making it abruptly go black.

  “I think we’ve heard quite enough of her for right now,” she said, grinning evilly at Tandy. “Don’t you?”

  “You’re the one I’ve heard enough of—I’m leaving!” Tandy headed for the door. She had to get Vrox and get out of here—they had to leave right away. They—

  Suddenly a hard, cold hand closed on her arm. Looking down, she saw that the Rothian guard had her upper arm in his three-fingered grip. But since each finger was as thick as her wrist, there was no getting free.

  Tandy tried anyway.

  “Let go! Let me go!” she exclaimed, yanking against the guard’s implacable grip. “Vrox—Vrox! I need you!”

  “You can call for that big Kindred idiot all you want—he’s not here,” Aunt Deelee said casually as she leaned against the desk.

  “Not here—what are you talking about? Where is he?” For a moment, Tandy was horribly afraid that her aunt had already had Vrox arrested and dragged off somewhere. But Deelee only shrugged.

  “I don’t know. But I had the entire Justice Hall and the area all around it checked before I made my move. I didn’t want any nasty surprises in case he really was as devoted as the two of you made him out to be.” She gave a nasty laugh. “But it appears that, too, was an act. The minute you left him alone, he ran off—without you, dear niece. Now isn’t that a shame?” She made a simpering face that Tandy wanted to knock off with her fist.

  “You’re lying,” she said. “Vrox would never do that—he’d never leave me!”

  “Oh no? You think he wouldn’t run away and leave you with his baby in your belly once he got the money you promised him to fake being tamed?” Deelee demanded.

  Tandy felt sick. She had sent the hundred thousand to the big Kindred’s bank account. But surely Vrox couldn’t know that—he had told her not to! He wouldn’t just abandon her, would he?

  “What’s all this? What’s going on here?” Mistress Sinda was suddenly standing in the doorway with the rest of the Sacred Seven Council behind her. “Why in the world are you holding Mistress Sweetbottom, guard?” she asked, seeing the three-fingered hand wrapped around Tandy’s arm.

  “He’s holding her because I have made a citizen’s arrest,” Deelee announced importantly. “I have reason to believe that this woman went to great lengths to defraud the Sacred Seven and to steal my rightful inheritance!”

  “Not this again!” Mistress Sinda rolled her eyes expressively. “Mistress Deelee, if you don’t desist from this kind of behavior I think we shall have to authorize a restraining order against you on the behalf of Mistress Sweetbottom. Once and for all, Tandace has passed the Test of Mastery and the inheritance from Mistress Zora is legally hers.”

  “Not if she got it by fraud.” Deelee’s poison-green eyes flashed. “And she did! I can prove it. Just listen to this.”

  And as Tandy stood there, feeling alone and ashamed and utterly miserable, she pressed the button on the voice recorder again, letting everyone know of her guilt.

  Twenty-One

  Vrox left the Mistress with the blue feathers far out in the woods where it would take her a good long time to walk to Mistress Tornflesh’s estate. Then he flew the ship carefully towards the vast country house, which looked more like a mansion. He wanted to rush in at once, blasters blazing, but he knew he had to be careful.

  Still, there wasn’t time enough to
be too cautious—on the way over he’d heard a lot from the Mistress whose ship he had “borrowed” about how ruthless her friend, Mistress Tornflesh could be. According to Mistress Featherbrain, the geldings were always done with a laser knife which cauterized the wound immediately—and precluded any hope of reattaching the lost organs.

  Which meant if he was even a second too late, Dannen would be singing soprano for the rest of his life.

  Luckily, the little ship had a short-term stealth mode so he was able to get pretty close to the house without anyone seeing. However, the stealth drive took a lot of energy and had to be recharged often. He was barely able to land in a little copse of trees just as the last charge was dying and the ship flickered back into visibility.

  Stepping out of the ship, he gripped the bright pink Lady-blaster 5000 that the hapless Mistress Featherbrain had kept under her seat for self defense. It hadn’t done her a whole hell of a lot of good but Vrox was hoping it would help him to rescue his partner. Hopefully since this was just a friendly gelding party none of the other Mistresses would be armed.

  He snuck up behind the back of the house, where Mistress Featherbrain said the geldings were always held, and what he saw made his blood run cold.

  There, on the rolling greenish-blue lawn, an assembly of about twenty well-dressed Mistresses were gathered. They were all watching eagerly as the tall, bony Mistress who had bought Dannen at the Flesh Bazaar ascended the steps of a small wooden stage which had been set up right behind the vast house. She was wearing a purple and gold dress and her hair was dyed to match and swept up into an elaborate tower which quivered above her head.

  Already standing on the stage, his shaft and balls exposed by a pair of the same kind of slave trousers Vrox had on, was Dannen. He was blindfolded and had his arms tied behind his back. Even more ominous, strong ropes had been attached to his ankles and his legs were open wide and tied in place.