Instructing the Novice Read online

  “That’s right, take it,” Karx growled. “Take it all. And you’re going to fucking swallow when I come too—swallow every drop I pump down your throat!”

  Watching from the shadows, Lizabeth felt as though she was frozen in place. She couldn’t believe this was happening—couldn’t believe the cold, domineering Mistress Verlandah was being treated this way by her Novice. It must be some kind of a dream, right?

  This is no dream, Lizabeth, whispered a little voice in her head. This is happening—he’s doing this to her and he’s probably going to do worse unless you stop him!

  The little voice seemed to break her paralysis and propel her into motion.

  “Stop!” she shouted, stepping out from the shadows and running into the Communal bathing chamber. “Stop right now! How dare you treat her like that, you raping bastard!”

  For a moment, all the action stopped as both Karx and Mistress Verlandah looked at her in apparent astonishment. Then the Friezen’s choking hand dropped away from the slender column of the Mistress Superior’s throat and she pulled away from him abruptly. Then she got up and dusted herself off matter-of-factly.

  Lizabeth would have expected the other woman to look wild and upset but to her surprise what Mistress Verlandah mainly looked was annoyed.

  “See?” she said to Karx. “This is what comes of playing in a public area. Couldn’t you have waited until we got back to my rooms?”

  “Apologies, Mistress.” Karx sounded sulky. “But the way you were going at me really riled me up. I thought you wanted to play here.”

  “As usual, Karx, your timing is off,” the Mistress Superior sniffed.

  “Wait,” Lizabeth said, looking from one to the other of them. “So the two of you were just role-playing? He wasn’t really, uh—”

  “Raping my mouth?” Mistress Verlandah laughed harshly—a sound like the cawing of a crow, Lizabeth thought. “Certainly not! Sometimes Karx and I just like to…mix things up a bit.” She frowned. “Which is, of course, completely taboo here at the Tower—and on Yonnie Six.”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t say anything about it,” Lizabeth assured her hastily. “It’s not nearly as taboo on my home planet. I mean, it’s not…not surprising at all, really.”

  Which was kind of a lie. Though she knew there were people who were in the Lifestyle who liked to “play rough,” she hadn’t actually ever walked in on any of them playing out a scene before. And I never want to again, she thought, with a shiver.

  “No, of course you won’t say anything about it,” Mistress Verlandah snapped. “Because you won’t get a chance to say anything about it.” She looked at Karx, who stared sullenly back. “Karx, I think it’s time Mistress Paige here visited Mistress Goldahh in the Meditation Grotto.”

  “What?” Lizabeth started backing away but somehow Karx was suddenly behind her. He slapped a meaty palm over her mouth before she could even scream.

  “Sorry, my dear but you’ve seen too much,” the Mistress Superior said with a shrug. “I can’t have you telling everyone about the little ‘games’ Karx and I play.” She frowned. “Or about my little mining operation either.” Turning to Karx, she directed, “Take her away and when you get back be sure you clean up this mess.”

  “Yes, Mistress.” He nodded and started dragging the struggling Lizabeth away. “Come on—to the Meditation Grotto with you.”

  Lizabeth kicked and struggled and even tried to bite but the minute she sank her teeth into his palm, Karx simply grunted in pain and moved his hand higher, so that he was covering her nose as well as her mouth.

  “We’ll see how feisty you are when you can’t breathe, Mistress,” he growled in her ear.

  Lizabeth started to really panic. Can’t breathe, can’t breathe, can’t breathe! a little voice in her head was screaming as she tried to draw a breath and couldn’t. Oh my God, he’s going to kill me and no one will ever know what happened to me! They’ll probably just tell the Kindred High Council that I decided to stay here with Lone so we could—Lone!

  It occurred to her suddenly that maybe she could send a message to the big Kindred through the emotional link they now shared.

  “Lone!” she screamed mentally, trying to force her inner voice outward, trying desperately to reach him. “Lone, please help me! Please, I’m in trouble—in danger. Please, please come help me before it’s too late!”

  But whether Lone heard her or not, she couldn’t say. At that moment the lack of oxygen was too much and the whole world faded to gray and then black and Lizabeth knew no more.

  Eighteen

  Lone sat straight up on the bed when he felt Lizabeth’s worry and fear come through their new link. The emotions were so loud and clear he almost felt he would have “heard” them even without the new connection they shared. As it was, he felt as though someone had just touched his heart with an ungrounded wire—Lizabeth’s distress sent a jolt through his entire body.

  “Lizabeth!” he gasped hoarsely, running to the door. Gods, he’d known it was a bad idea to let her go out by herself in the Tower at night! Why had he let her go? And where was she?

  For a moment he was able to follow the emotions—they almost seemed to resonate and lead him to her, like she had a tracking device and he was following the signal it put out. But then, to his horror, the emotions abruptly cut off.

  He stopped in the middle of the broad stone hallway and turned in a circle, trying to pick up on Lizabeth again. It was like someone had turned off the signal he was following—turned it off so neatly and cleanly that he had no idea where to start looking for it again.

  Well, she said she was going to the communal bathing pools, Lone reminded himself. Maybe I should start there.

  He had a vague idea of where the baths were and he turned in that direction, sending a silent prayer to the Goddess that he would find the woman he loved before it was too late…

  When Lizabeth woke up. her head was pounding. With a groan, she tried to put a hand to her temples, only to find that her arms and legs were bound. Also, something smelled awful.

  Where am I? And what’s that terrible smell? she wondered hazily. Looking down at herself, she saw that she was wearing a thick, gray pelt that seemed to fit over and around her like a hairy poncho. A hairy, smelly poncho. Lizabeth wrinkled her nose when she realized the strange, ugly garment was where the horrible gamey stench was coming from.

  “It stinks, doesn’t it?” a masculine voice remarked.

  “Who…what…?” Lizabeth struggled to sit up—not easy when her hands were bound behind her back—and looked around.

  “I said it stinks—Garn-beast always stinks. Keeps you warm though—and that’s what you’ll need if you’re to make it to the ripening hut without dying of cold.”

  Lizabeth looked for the source of the voice and found it. It was Karx and he was standing at the control panel of the train that led up and down the Sacred Mountain and back to the Friezen territory.

  “Ripening hut?” she protested, looking around wildly. The train car was moving and from what she could see—not much since it was already mostly dark outside—they were descending.

  “Yes, Mistress.” Karx put a mocking accent on the title. “You didn’t think I’d waste you by killing you right away, did you? My people need a fitting sacrifice—a lovely, smooth-faced maiden in her second fertility to be the Snow Queen. You’re perfect for the part—you’ve even been in the Cleansing Pools which means you’re twice as fertile. You’re sure to conceive.”

  “You can’t do this!” Lizabeth struggled wildly but whatever he had bound her arms and legs with was strong—she couldn’t move so much as a millimeter.

  "I am doing it." His rough voice was implacable.

  “You don’t want to do this,” Lizabeth said, trying a different tactic. “You can make a lot more money if you just ransom me off to the Kindred High Council. They’re the ones who sent me and Lone here. If you just—”

  “Shut your fucking mouth. I have to listen to women talking
and ordering all day—if you think I’ll listen to you too, you’re wrong.” The black look the Friezen shot her way was so full of malice and hatred it made Lizabeth’s heart freeze in her chest. Still, she tried again.

  “You have to let me go—take me back,” she told Karx. “My Novice, Lone—”

  “Will be told that you’ve gone into the Meditation Grotto and taken a vow of silence,” Karx growled. “Which is what my Mistress will tell everyone who asks about you. She’ll let them know you’re not to be disturbed.” He gave a harsh laugh. “Just like Mistress Goldahh.”

  “Lone will never believe you!” Lizabeth exclaimed. “He’ll know you’re lying.”

  “Then he’ll die—just like Mistress Goldahh’s Novice did,” Karx snarled. “You’d better pray he doesn’t go sniffing around after you, Mistress—not if you truly love him.”

  I do love him, Lizabeth thought despairingly. Even though he can’t possibly love me the way he thinks he does—even though he’s too young for me—I love him.

  The realization hit her hard and for a moment all she could do was sit slumped in the smelly fur and cry. She felt overwhelmed with regret and she wished that she could have done things differently. If she could go back in time she wouldn’t have been so dismissive of Lone’s feelings for her—or so angry that he dared to express them.

  I should have taken a chance and let myself fall, she told herself. Even if it couldn’t last and I knew it would hurt when it ended, I should have let myself be open to him. He probably hates me now and I don’t blame him.

  But there was no helping the situation now. She had pushed him away and now she would never see him again. She was on her way to almost certain death because no matter what Karx seemed to think, Lizabeth was certain there was no way she could survive being mutilated and then gang raped.

  Just the thought sent shivers of sick revulsion down her spine. She wondered if Lone would come looking for her—she hoped not. Maybe he would believe the lie that she’d decided to take a vow of silence—maybe he would believe she had done it to distance herself from him and he would be content to go back to the Mother Ship without her.

  The thought hurt her but she couldn’t help hoping it was true at the same time. Above all, she wanted the big Kindred to be safe and if that meant leaving her behind, she wanted him to. There was no sense in both of them dying.

  Though she wasn’t in any way a devout person, Lizabeth sent up a prayer.

  Please, she prayed, looking out into the darkness and cold that passed swiftly by the train’s glass-sided panels. Please, just let Lone be all right. Don’t let him come looking for me—let him believe the lie and go home safely to the Mother Ship.

  She didn’t know if anyone out there could hear her prayer, but she felt somehow more at peace after she prayed it. As the train car continued its swift descent down through the mountains of Yonnie Two, she closed her eyes and tried not to think about what waited for her at the end of the ride.

  “Sorry, but I can’t let you in by order of the Mistress Superior.”

  The bored-looking guard blocking the door waved his blaster warningly in Lone’s face. There was a lazy kind of menace behind the gesture that said it would be a pain to shoot Lone but he’d do it if he had to.

  Lone blew out a breath of frustration and looked at the door to the Meditation Grotto. He’d been searching for Lizabeth for hours only to come up empty-handed. Finally, after bothering and waking everyone he could think of, he was told that Lizabeth had decided to take a vow of silence and had retired to the Meditation Grotto—which he was conveniently excluded from since males were never allowed inside that holy space.

  Lone wasn’t buying the story. He might have believed it—might have thought that Lizabeth had decided to go someplace he couldn’t follow just to put some distance between them for a while. After all, she had been more upset than he had ever seen her when she left him earlier that night. But he couldn’t forget the burst of sheer terror that had come through the bond they shared—the bond that had ominously gone silent.

  But what if it was somehow true?

  Had Lizabeth gone into the grotto after all? Was she meditating—had she emptied her mind and purged her emotions somehow and that was why he could no longer hear or feel her? Was such a thing even possible?

  It shouldn’t be but then again, Lone thought, a Twin Kindred wasn’t supposed to be able to form any bond—even a partial one—without his twin. The fact that he and Lizabeth had found a way to do that made everything else seem possible—even that she had somehow found a way to deliberately shut him out.

  “You have to let me in,” he growled angrily. “I have to know if my Lady is really in there or not!”

  “Do you doubt my word, Novice?” Suddenly the Mistress Superior swept up with her Novice in tow. Karx looked tired, as though he’d been up all night—just as Lone himself had. But there was a smirk playing around the corners of his bearded mouth that Lone didn’t like one damn bit. An expression that seemed to say, I know something you don’t know! What was the damn Friezen's secret?

  “I said, do you doubt my word?” Mistress Verlandah demanded again. “I will not be called a liar in my own abode!”

  “I have not called anyone a liar,” Lone said carefully. He could see that this was a loaded situation which would take some diplomatic handling. In the past, that would have been no problem since the Light Twin part of him was exceptionally good at diplomacy. Unfortunately, it was the Dark Twin that kept wanting to rise to the surface now and that part of Lone demanded that he charge into the Meditation Grotto and see if Lizabeth was there—if she was well and safe—at once.

  “Well, when you demand to see your Mistress—who I took to the Grotto myself—and act as though she isn’t there, you are calling me a liar,” the Mistress Superior proclaimed loudly. “I could have you cast out of the Tower for insulting me this way, Novice. Have a care and go back to your rooms.”

  “Go back to my rooms and do what?” Lone demanded angrily. “Wait there and just hope that my Mistress is all right?”

  “I have told you she is,” Mistress Verlandah exclaimed. “In time, your Mistress will either emerge from the Meditation Grotto, or…”

  “Or what?” Lone growled.

  Mistress Verlandah shrugged. “Or she won’t. She might decide to stay there permanently, like Mistress Goldahh did. In which case, we will provide you with transportation away from the Tower so you can fly back to wherever you came from.”

  “Leave without Lizabeth? Never!” Lone exclaimed. “Let me see her—what have you done with her?”

  “How dare you question me?” The Mistress Superior’s iron gray eyes flashed. “I think I have been more than patient with you. Guards, take this Novice—”

  “What’s going on here? What’s all the fuss and ruckus?” Mistress Anarrah swept up with Joren by her side. She frowned when she saw Lone and the Mistress Superior glaring at each other. “Whatever is going on and where is Mistress Lizabeth?” she asked.

  “That’s what I’d like to know,” Lone growled. “I’ve been told that she’s sequestered herself in the Meditation Grotto but no one will let me in to look at her and make certain she’s all right—or that she’s there at all.”

  “Do you hear this, Anarrah?” Mistress Verlandah exclaimed. “This male is calling me a liar right to my face! He must be thrown from the Sacred Mountain’s highest peak!”

  “Now, now, Verlandah,” Mistress Anarrah said soothingly. “There’s no need for such extreme measures. I’m certain Lone here is only worried for his Mistress because he loves her so very much. I tell you want, Lone dear,” she said, turning to him. “I’ll go into the Grotto and check on her myself, shall I?”

  “No!” Mistress Verlandah said quickly, frowning. “No, I don’t think that’s a good idea at all. You might…might disturb the meditation going on.”

  “I’ll be as quiet as a neeter.” Mistress Anarrah was already walking around the guards who looked as th
ough they weren’t certain if they ought to be letting her go into the Grotto or not. “I won’t disturb anyone, I promise.”

  “No, wait!” Mistress Verlandah moved to intercept her and the guards turned uncertainly in their direction.

  Lone saw his chance and took it.

  Sliding silently around behind the guards, he was at the large, bronze-bound door with its yellowed sign reading “Silence Please” before anyone could stop him. Grasping the handle, he turned it and pushed his way into the Meditation Grotto.

  “Stop him! Stop him!” he heard Mistress Verlandah exclaim but by then he was already inside and it was too late—he had seen the truth.

  Nineteen

  “Put her down here—she’s come just in time and not a moment too soon.”

  Lizabeth opened her eyes and looked up dully to see three bushy, bearded faces staring down at her and one of them looked kind of familiar.

  She blinked, trying to make sense of things. She’d been held in a kind of storage area—a dark, hide tent—for what felt like hours until all her extremities had gone numb and she’d fallen into a kind of doze. The frozen wind whipping at the sides of the tent had crept into her bones until she felt so cold she could barely think and nothing seemed to matter anymore.

  Now that she found herself in a slightly warmer environment—another tent which had a fire burning in the center—she blinked and began to come back to life.

  “Where…where am I?” she somehow managed to get out through numb lips.

  “Listen to the female—she speaks right to us as though she has every right to address males!” one of the bearded men exclaimed. Lizabeth thought again that he looked familiar. “What boldness!”

  “Didn’t Karx say she came from the Damned Ones?” asked the second. “Where the males bow down to the females?”

  “As does Karx himself,” the first male said darkly and spat on the ground as though to rid his mouth of a disgusting taste.