Captive (8 page)
She followed him to the back of his living area where he pressed another button on that wall. A section sublimated from solid to gas. A blast of icy air hit her. She shivered.
“Put on this cloak.” Duncan wrapped the heavy garment around her, then took his eggplant-colored cloak from another peg on the wall. When they crossed the smoky threshold, the room illuminated without flipping a light switch. “This is our master’s apartment.”
The stark white room nearly blinded her. Brilliant walls, ceiling, and floor shimmered like ice crystals, and appeared to be manufactured from the same material as the breeding box. To her right, a long white table stood as tall as her head, and the cushions of the accompanying chairs came up to her waist. His ceiling must have been twenty feet high. Each step on the staircase leading upward was about knee height.
Other than some Hyborean-sized furniture and a potted evergreen-type tree in the corner, the room was empty. There were no bookshelves, no knickknacks, no lamps, computers, TVs, nor wires of any kind. The only visible technology was the 3-D holographic pictures on the walls and side table that played short movie clips of other aliens or of Duncan and Tess before starting over again.
Addy’s breath clouded in front of her. Her teeth chattered and she drew the hood over her head. “It’s freezing in here.”
“The Hyboreans live in an arctic environment. They’re verra comfortable in the cold. Ferly Mor usually keeps his home about ten degrees below zero on your Fahrenheit scale, which is a wee warmer than outside.” He crossed the alien’s room, jumped onto the couch, and climbed up the back. “Come see for yourself.”
Addy followed him up, peered through the transparent wall and nearly tumbled backward.
Outside bustled a monstrous frozen metropolis. Enormous white buildings lined the streets. Hovercrafts skimmed over crystal power. A flurry of Hyboreans rushed down frosted sidewalks sparkling beneath city lights.
The aliens looked like giant Eskimos wearing fur suits in a supersized, snow-bleached New York City. She imagined the Yard as a large Central Park walled off by the city’s buildings and a hundred-foot-high roof.
“We’re on the second floor? We never walked up any stairs.”
“Aye. The Yard is about twenty feet or so deep with dirt.”
“It’s not the real ground?”
“No, lassie. That’s the real ground out there.” He pointed down at the snowy street.
A weight fell on her heart. Tunneling out left her with one less escape option. Lights from distant spacecraft climbed into the starry night sky, where two silver white disks—one bigger than the other—hung full.
“You have two moons.”
“Aye. Luna Major and Luna Minor. The Yard’s celestial holograms are synchronized exactly to Hyborea’s thirty-hour day. We’ve twenty hours of daylight and ten hours of darkness.”
“Hold on. Back up. One day is thirty hours?”
“Aye. Every new day dawns at one o’clock, or zero one hundred hours if ye prefer. We’ve six days in a week and four weeks in a month. So essentially one month on Hyborea is comparable to a month on Earth. Twelve months make up a year—”
“Stop. Stop it. Please.” She rubbed her temples to alleviate the dull ache behind her eyes. “Don’t tell me anymore. I can’t take it.” Resting her forehead against the windowed wall, she stared out into the frozen city. An icy chill seeped through her hood. Who cared about Hyborean weeks and months and years? She wouldn’t be around here that long. She was going home to earth to live free 24/7.
But how the heck would she escape? And where would she go when she got out of this building?
The alien’s apartment door sublimated, and the monster stepped through the cloud into his living room, took off a silver ring from around his head, and tossed it on the side table. The gas crackled as it transitioned back into its solid state. Even if there had been enough time to jump off the couch and run through it, she couldn’t. Her legs were frozen. Her breath came out in quick puffs of smoke.
The creature approached slowly—probably so he wouldn’t frighten her (too late for that)—and picked up Duncan, embracing him. Duncan returned the hug, and Addy sensed the alien’s happiness. It gave Duncan a pat on the head and set him down on the couch’s seat.
“It’s okay, lassie,” Duncan called from below. “He won’t harm ye.”
Before she could say anything, the monster picked her up and cradled her in his arms. Squirming made her hood fall back and the cloak twist and tighten. The alien untangled the material and repositioned her before drawing the fabric around her again. His grip was firm so she couldn’t get away but not tight enough to cause pain. His soft, furry body emanated warmth and the scent of black licorice.
She hated black licorice.
His long spindly fingers stroked her hair, and she couldn’t stop wondering if her cat, Zira, had felt as uncomfortable in her arms as she did right now in the alien’s.
“Can ye sense it, lassie? Ferly Mor cares for ye verra much. Ye’re no’ just any human to him. Ye’re
his
human.”
I
t wasn’t long before the monster had lost interest in petting her, and returned them to Duncan’s house. With its one-way transparent walls for the alien’s viewing pleasure, it was more like a fishbowl.
The door crackled closed behind them. Duncan hung their cloaks. “Ye’ve already seen the common area.” He indicated the room she had woken up in earlier today.
A whoosh of cold air startled her. She glanced toward the hutch. Ferly Mor’s hand reached through a smoky window and placed bowls of food on the sideboard next to a giant hanging water dispenser. Could she feel anymore like a caged rat?
“Suppertime,” said Duncan. “But first, let me show ye the rest of our home.”
He pushed opened the middle door she had noticed after waking up on his couch, and then turned on a little flashlight-looking thing. The closet-sized room brightened. Straight ahead was a familiar orange flowerpot. To the left, a pitcher and bowl sat atop a wooden table. “The privy.”
“No shower? No sink?”
“No, lass. Ye can wash up in any one of the bathing pools in the Yard.”
“Great,” she mumbled. “More being naked in front of strangers.”
“Ye’ll find towels under the privy table.” He left the bathroom and entered the open doorway to her right. “My chamber.”
The room, no larger than seven by ten feet, felt cramped with the overfilled bookshelves, knickknacks, and stuff jammed in every conceivable space. Did the Hyboreans take these things from Earth? If anyone back home was missing something, she knew just where they could find it.
In the far corner loomed the same pillow bedding as in the breeding box. Addy’s stomach turned. She backed away from the bedding in case Duncan suddenly got the same idea Max and Regan had.
“This is your home now, so ye’re free to go anywhere ye wish. Except in here.” He retrieved a key from his pocket and unlocked the door at the rear of his bedroom. “This is my private horde of the malt.”
Duncan cracked the hinged door open only enough to fit through. Not that she’d be able to see inside, anyway, since the door opened out in her direction. She heard the shuffling of boxes. They were, no doubt, the tower of boxes she had seen through the transparent wall while in Ferly Mor’s apartment. More boxes shuffled and glasses clinked before Duncan emerged with three bottles of whiskey. He shut and locked the door.
“If anyone asks ye for some, ye must fetch me. I’ll no’ have ye accidentally giving away the good stuff to just anybody. And if Regan ever received the lesser quality—” He shuddered. “It’s best ye not be on the receiving end of his anger, aye?”
Addy nodded. She didn’t want to see Regan in a good mood, never mind seeing him going ballistic.
“Tess,” he called, taking great care in packing up the bottles. “Can ye show Addy her bed? I’ve a delivery to make.”
“What, no squeaky exercise wheel?” she said entering the last room. It was L-shaped with the short end wrapping behind the “privy.” At least she’d have complete privacy in the one place that mattered.
She stared out into the darkened Yard.
“The observation walls are only transparent one way,” Tess said, as if she had read Addy’s mind. “All you can see from the outside is the mural.”
“Does everyone have observation walls like this?”
“Of course. The Hyboreans love nature. They like to view the Yard habitat.”
“View it or monitor it?”
“It’s not like they keep a sharp eye on every little thing we do. We have a great amount of freedom.”
Ha. What did Tess know about freedom? She’d been born a captive. To her, voyeuristic aliens were normal. To Addy, they posed another challenge for escape. How on earth would she get out of here if Big Hairy Brother was watching?
She shuddered.
Perhaps Tess was right that the aliens didn’t monitor every little thing. After all, they hadn’t chased after her when she fled from Duncan. Maybe the aliens viewed people with only mild interest, kind of like she did when watching aquarium fish.
That could explain how someone was able to escape.
He escaped. He got caught. He was killed.
Max’s haunting voice invaded her thoughts. Whatever happened to him after being pulled from the breeding box?
“Where does Max live? Duncan told me he’s not from the Yard.”
“He lived here with the other gladiators some years ago, but his master eventually sold him.” Tess arranged long body pillows on the floor for Addy’s bed. “When he comes back for breeding or for the infirmary, he stays at HuBReC’s kennel.”
“Infirmary?”
“The survival race is a brutal sport.”
“I see.” Though she didn’t, really. If Max had been hospitalized so often, how come he didn’t have any scars? Not that she’d been checking for scars on his naked body. Her cheeks warmed. She turned away before Tess could see her blush, and flopped down on her bedding, shoes and all. She was not about to undress in front of the alien. For all she knew he was watching her right now. “Night,” she mumbled into a pillow.
“Don’t you want supper?”
“No. I’m beyond exhausted.”
“Of course you are. Good night, Addy. I’ll leave the lightstick here.” The room darkened. A blanket covered her. And exhaustion took over.
* * *
Addy had awakened the next day intent on learning more about this God-forsaken planet so she could find a way to escape, but Ferly Mor had other ideas. In the morning, he had brought her to HuBReC’s infirmary, where he’d poked and prodded her and shot her with some supersized EpiPen filled with God knew what.
As if that medical exam hadn’t been humiliating enough, now the damn alien wanted to train her!
She stared down the furry, gray beast with teeth clenched so tight her head ached. Hot, heaving breaths expelled through her nostrils like an irate bull. Only this bull refused to charge.
“Och, Addy, just go to him.”
“No way.” She folded her arms across her chest. In the grassy Yard about twenty feet away, Ferly Mor faced her wearing his silver ring around his head. Without touching the headband, a musical tone sounded. He crouched down and motioned for her to come.
She didn’t budge.
He held out a square chocolate cookie and sent happy telepathic feelings as the ringtone played again.
And again, she didn’t move.
He faced Duncan. A different ringtone sounded, and Duncan walked to him to receive his cookie. “That’s all he wants ye to do, lassie.”
“Call me Lassie again and I’ll punch your Scottish mouth.” She turned her back on them. “I’m not a freaking dog.”
A queer uneasiness fell over her. Angry vibes penetrated her body. A moment ago the alien was merely frustrated, but now he was outright mad. Her heart sped up at the quick attitude change. Had she pushed her luck with that about-face?
She spun back around to see they weren’t alone. A black Hyborean, a foot or two larger than Ferly Mor, was facing off with him. As they repeatedly pointed her way, their snarls and growls intensified.
Somehow, she had caused this fight.
At their feet, Duncan looked back and forth from one to the other as if he followed the conversation. His eyes grew wide and his cheeks lost what little color they had. Of the three of them, his body language terrified her most.
The black alien strode toward her. Its dark eyes pierced her as if arrows shot through her body, pinning her feet to the ground. She couldn’t move. And this time she wanted to.
Ferly Mor snatched her into his arms, holding tight enough to snap her spine. Sensing desperation, she felt him pleading with the black fur Hyborean. What seemed like days had passed before Black Fur finally nodded.
The pressure on her spine eased, and Ferly Mor set her on the ground. Legs giving out, she fell on her butt.
The aliens faced each other. With ceremony, they placed two fingers to their own lips, and then simultaneously slapped their palms on the others’ chest. They used their free hand to cover the one resting on their own chest.
Addy looked to Duncan for an explanation, but he still appeared scared out of his wits. Though he did have the presence of mind to help her stand.
Black Fur took Ferly Mor’s silver headband and placed it on his own head as they both walked the same distance from her. Ferly Mor knelt down and held out a chocolate cookie.
The ringtone sounded.
She looked from one to the other, sensing them both calling. Was she supposed to go to Ferly Mor or Black Fur?
A sharp pain jolted her body. It wasn’t nearly the same intensity as in the breeding box, but it was enough to warrant a jump backward.
The tone played again.
“Go to Ferly Mor, lass.”
Another zap and she ran for his furry body, practically jumped into his arms. He hugged her and stroked the hair from her eyes before setting her down with her reward.
Black Fur shoved the headband into Ferly Mor’s hands, giving him a curt nod that could have meant, “
That’s how you train a human.
” He strode off.
Duncan squeezed Addy’s shoulders. “Ye did well, lass.”
“What was all that about? Who was that other Hyborean?”
