Alien Slave (23 page)

Dani squeezed her eyes shut against a
fresh flood of tears. She couldn’t cry, and she couldn’t puke. She
also couldn’t watch Wynhod not come with them.

He kissed her forehead. His voice was
gruff as he said, “You’d better get moving. Take care of her. I’ll
see you soon.”

Krijero hugged Dani close, and she
buried her face against his chest. She concentrated on the thumping
of his heart, ignoring the pains in her stomach, the chills that
made her shake, and most of all, trying not to think of Wynhod on
his own against a platoon of Tragooms.

* * * *

Nearing where the caves should be,
Gelan led Krijero through the sun-dappled forest. In these higher
elevations, the scents were growing earthier, less rotted as they
moved farther from the marshland.

And farther from the ship. He worried
about that, but there was no help for it. They had to get Dani to a
safe spot to treat her, out of the reach of the Tragooms hunting
them.

Gelan also worried for his Nobek. As
smart and able as Wynhod was, Tragooms were clever fiends and
brutal adversaries. If a group of them caught up to him, he didn’t
stand a chance.

Worry only about the things you can
help, he reminded himself. That’s what the Book of Life counseled,
and it was sound advice. If he could just take it, he’d be in good
shape.

His biggest concern was that he
couldn’t help what mattered most of all: Dani’s health. She faded
in and out of consciousness now, whimpering from time to time as
Krijero carried her in Gelan’s wake. She continued to puke up the
water they gave her. There was a sweetish-sick odor coming off her
in waves. Her too-pale face scared the Dramok the most, and from
his clanmate’s expression, Krijero was frightened too.

Gelan couldn’t help but ask the
question he already knew the answer to. “How is she
doing?”

The strain in Krijero’s voice had
nothing to do with carrying the feather-light Earther. “She must
get hydrated. I think she’s got heatstroke on top of the effects of
the bad water.”

The situation just kept getting worse.
“We have to come up with something.”

“
I noticed the vines growing
around here are hollow. Once we stop, I’m going to try giving her
an enema. It’ll get some liquid in her that she can’t vomit
up.”

Gelan knew Krijero’s suggestion for
what it was. A last ditch effort to save Dani’s life.

The ground wasn’t as soft, and
outcroppings of rocks dotted the landscape. In one more mile, they
should be on the caves. Then what, Gelan wondered? If his Imdiko’s
idea failed, they had no medicine for the bacteria that had taken
hold of Dani’s system, no way to make her keep down the water she
needed to live.

One obstacle at a time. Find those
caves first.

“
We’re almost there. Hold
on, little Dani,” Gelan muttered. He tried not to think grim
thoughts as they continued on.

* * * *

Dani drifted in a haze. Sometimes she
found herself on Earth, both the whole version and the
post-Armageddon nightmare. Sometimes she was back in the
Dantovonian brothel. The strangest place she woke to was a rocky
cave near a fire, like some prehistoric Neanderthal.

The worst place she emerged in by far
was her mother’s room at the drug treatment center. Dani wasn’t
sure how she came to be sitting on the bed next to Emily
Sturn-Watson, renowned psycho-junkie socialite and absentee parent.
It was probably her father’s doing. Sometimes he sent Dani to visit
her mother during an election year, to gauge whether or not Emily
could manage public appearances for his latest campaign.

The room was a nightmare of overbearing
good cheer. Sunshine yellow walls competed with the meadow green
bedspread, curtains, and carpet. Sky blue painted furniture
scattered the room: bed, nightstand, and armoire. It was a room
that looked like the innocence of Little House on the Prairie had
exploded all over it.

And seated in the midst of all this
happy crappy was Dani’s mother, perched like an exotic bird on the
edge of the bed in a fuchsia robe. She was a scream of vibrancy in
pastel hell.

“
I see they got you too,”
Emily chortled. “Don’t worry kid, the worst part is group therapy,
and you can get out of that by throwing a screaming fit. Then
you’ll get a nice hit of sedative, and they’ll leave you alone for
the rest of the day.”

“
Good to know,” Dani
muttered. Her mom was the queen of finding ways to get her
chemicals.

“
Just don’t attack anyone.
That’ll get you in restraints, and I can tell you that’s no thrill
ride.”

Jeez, the place was a sauna. Was the
air conditioning broken? “Hey Mom, what’s with all the
makeup?”

You could tell what kind of day Emily
was having by her makeup. If she wore none, she was depressed and
it was time to hide all the pointy, sharp objects. If she’d layered
it on, looking like a Happy Mom Clown, she was in high spirits.
This was also when she made her worst decisions, like showing up
unannounced at a random elementary school with cartons of ice cream
and boxes of cookies for the kids. Besides the face full of makeup,
she’d worn only a feather-trimmed bathrobe. In October, a damned
cold month in Delaware. The press had had a field day with that
one, after which Dani’s father’s publicists had spent two weeks
dealing with the fallout.

Days that found Emily with her makeup
applied carefully like she was due at a photo shoot were good days.
She was on her game then, making phone calls, meeting with
community leaders, floating through the day with assuredness that
Dani envied. And if she seemed distant even on these occasions, at
least she spared a moment to greet her children, comment on their
clothing choices that day, and even ask about school with a tinge
of motherly concern.

Those lucid days had grown fewer and
fewer as the years went by until Emily could go months without
experiencing any.

Today was a Happy Mom Clown day.
Sparkling fuchsia eyeshadow to match Emily’s robe competed with
turquoise eyeliner. Peach blush applied unevenly gave her face an
off-kilter look, as if one cheek had been jerked up by a fish hook.
Her screaming fire-engine red lipstick smeared on her teeth, like
she’d taken a bite of raw meat. Frizzing copper-penny hair, a match
to Dani’s, had been twined in improbable little-girl
braids.

Looking at her made Dani feel ill. Her
stomach hurt, and she looked down at her own bare feet.

Why don’t I have shoes on, she
wondered?

Her mother chattered happily,
discordant thoughts streaming from her mouth with no rhyme or
reason. “I remember your father taking me on a Ferris wheel on one
of our first dates, and I laughed at how all the people below us
became ants. The last time I used Westgate Caterers, two pieces of
the silver service went missing. Did you try the crab bisque? I
thought the way Hattie Sullivan dressed at the party was an
abomination, but I just went on and on about how adorable she was.
Her husband contributed to your father’s campaign.”

“
I think I’m sick, Mom.”
Dani’s stomach cramped painfully.

“
Of course you are, dear!
Everyone is.” Dani glanced up to see Emily beaming at her
approvingly. “That’s the secret, you know. It’s the well ones that
are unhappy.”

“
Drink some water, little
fighter.”

Dani blinked at the deep voice.
Something pressed against her lips, and liquid splashed into her
mouth. A very big, very dark man loomed over her, his purple eyes
peering into hers. She thought she knew him, but couldn’t quite
place his name.

She swallowed a mouthful of water, and
her stomach cramped again. “Just a little at a time,” the dark man
said.

Dani’s father peered over the man’s
shoulder. “In trouble again, Dani?” he sighed. “One of these days
you’ll do something I can’t buy your way out of.”

“
Like me,” her brother Alan
smirked. He crouched on the floor of the cave on the other side of
the fire. He wore the uniform of the military school he’d been
kicked out of after the incident with the thirteen-year old girl.
Had they let him keep it in prison?

Dani’s head swirled. What was she doing
in a cave with her father and brother?

Another dark man, his hair tidily
braided into tight cornrows, knelt beside her. “Can you hear me,
Dani?”

She tried to answer him, but her head
buzzed nastily, and darkness was swallowing the men, the cave, and
her self-absorbed family members. She melted into the black
void.

When she found light again, it was on
the outdoor stage of Dantovon’s central market square. Heat beat
down on her, making it hard to breathe. Dani stood naked, the eyes
of hundreds of people on her, aliens of all civilizations. They
waited breathlessly for her to be punished, their avid gazes eager
to witness her humiliation.

Alan stood off to one side, a shockwhip
clenched in one hand. “You stand accused of running away from home.
The punishment is ten lashes.”

“
Please,” Dani croaked. Her
voice was a dry, rattling wheeze. “I’m sorry.”

Emily suddenly stood at Alan’s side,
her crazy clown makeup garish in the burning sunlight. “My
daughter’s a star!” she shrieked, waving wildly at Dani as if miles
separated them. “Look, Danielle! You’re the center of attention!
Everyone is watching you now!”

“
Don’t,” Dani said, terror
and regret filling her in equal measures. “Don’t hurt me. I’ll be
good.”

Alan laughed. “How many times have we
heard that one?” he asked. He flicked his wrist, and the whip
cracked in the air, sending a wave of tingling energy over Dani’s
skin. She flinched, and he laughed again.

“
Someone help me,” she
whispered.

Cool wetness wiped over her face,
relieving a smidgen of the glaring sun’s heat. A third dark man
blotted her cheeks with a damp cloth.

“
Hush, sweet girl,” he
soothed. “It’s going to be okay.”

He tipped a container onto a cloth,
rewetting it before pressing it over her chest and belly. Dani was
relieved to find herself in the dark cave again, away from her
punishment. The fire crackled pleasantly, unlike the shockwhip’s
brutal air-fracturing sizzle.

“
Krijero. Your name is
Krijero,” she said, her voice too weak to really be called a
voice.

“
That’s right.” He smiled,
but his gentle eyes didn’t smile with his lips.

“
I’m sick,” Dani guessed.
She didn’t really remember how she’d gotten here or what had
happened to her.

“
Yes, but you’ll be fine.
You’re keeping the water down now. You just need to rest for a
bit.” Krijero jerked his head to send a heavy lock of hair out of
his pretty purple cat eyes.

“
Okay.” She did feel tired.
Exhausted, as if she’d been wrung out as hard as the cloth the dark
alien used to cool her sweating body. She closed her
eyes.

A dark eternity later when Dani opened
them again, Krijero still hovered over her. Light spilled onto his
face from the fire and sunshine streaming in the mouth of the
cave.

Everything came back to her: the crash,
running from the Kalquorians, being chased by Tragooms, and getting
sick.

The Imdiko smiled down on her. His face
was no longer tense. “Are you back?”

Dani felt as if she was glued to the
ground. Her body didn’t want to move at all, but her stomach had
subsided, and her head was clear. “I guess I am.”

Krijero lifted her to sit on his
crossed legs. Cradling her head and shoulders in the crook of his
arm, he lifted a canteen to her lips. “Drink this.”

The water was delicious and cold, and
after her first gulp, the alien pulled the canteen away. “Slowly,
little girl.” He gave it to her again, and Dani sipped delicately.
“That’s it,” he said approvingly.

After another sip, Dani asked, “How
long was I out?”

Krijero grimaced. “Two
days.”

Dani stared at him as she tried to
absorb that information. “Really? The Tragooms didn’t find us?
Where are Gelan and Wynhod?”

Krijero gave her more water. “They’re
scouting to make sure our enemies haven’t caught on to Wynhod’s
trick yet. He left a false trail for them to follow. It seems to
have worked, but we can’t let down our guard.”

The smell of roasting meat wafted into
Dani’s nostrils, and she turned her head to see the haunch of some
unknown animal browning over the fire. She felt hollow inside, as
if she’d been gutted and left with only skin and skeleton. “Can I
have something to eat?”

He nodded. “As soon as it’s finished
cooking, but just a little to start with. You’ve been through a
lot, and I don’t want you vomiting and dehydrating again.” Krijero
took a deep breath. “We thought we would lose you,
Dani.”

A curl of warmth lit in her breast to
see the concern in his face. “Thanks for not abandoning
me.”

Krijero’s expression registered horror.
“We would never do that. We plan to take good care of you.” His
arms tightened around her.