Hers To Cherish (Verdantia Book 3) (16 page)

The assurance in his voice brought a
wry smile to her face. {What about that questionable humanoid – the one who tried to drown you in Vxloncian brew?}

Ramsey stilled
. His lips pursed and he nodded slightly. {Yes. The Khlossian could be a problem.} He went back to his perusal of the data tablet.

She shook her head at him in irritation and stole a
quick glance toward her
UniLinc
4.5 in the one “blind spot” in the room
.
A three-dimensional, cross section of Veacon Narr’s main residence revolved in mid-air. Glowing red traceries delineated the security layout. Steffania studied it carefully to make sure she understood what she was seeing. The vast majority of Narr’s security resided in an extensive basement and sub-basement complex.
Curious.

{
DeKieran, I am going to disable the bugs in this room.}

His eyes flashed toward her then back to his reading.
{Yes. I need a briefing on the results of your data miner program. I studied that hologram this morning, but damned if I could make anything of it.}

After
bathing, applying makeup and wrapping the ridiculous scraps of diaphanous nothing around her hips, she carefully disabled the spies in the room. As she finished disarming the last one, Ramsey sauntered out of the bathroom, wiping his face with a towel, dressed in nothing but form-hugging black knit briefs. His muscles bunched and flowed with a liquid fluidity that reminded her of a predator at the top of the food chain.
By all that’s holy, you are a fine looking man, Ramsey DeKieran.
She shook herself mentally at his sudden grin.
Shit, shit, shit. Comm-disc
. His grin broadened but thankfully, he didn’t comment. Heat suffused her face and her ears became hot.
Pink sand cats, pink sand cats, pink sand cats – think, pink sand cats.

Ramsey stood beside her
, so closely her nose detected the smell of clean male.
Pink sand cats, pink sand cats.

“What am I looking at?”
He gestured at the slowly rotating, 3-D display projected above the UL4.5 in bright green.

“This is a holograph of Narr’s
main house and its security. The glowing red lines delineate the security feeds. The pulsing lights are physical access terminals – with either video feeds to a central guard console or security doors,” she said levelly, pointing with her finger at each area of interest. “There were several other estate buildings but none of them showed the level of security or the numbers of living entities that the big house had. I decided to concentrate my efforts on it.”

“What’s all this?” Ram’s finger circled the lower levels where crimson predominated.

“I don’t know.” She caught his eyes. “I would like to ask Pansy.”

Ram wrinkled his brow and looked a question at her.

“She knows more than she’s telling. I wanted to say something to you yesterday, but...well . . .”

“
Hmmm,” Ram interrupted. “Call Pansy.”

When the violet-eyed beauty entered the room
, she saw the holographic display and halted. The look of inquiry on her face vanished, replaced by stark terror. She whirled and bolted from the room.

“What the
–?” Ram frowned. “Bring her back.”

A slithering
thump sounded from outside the door. Steffania ran into the hallway then crossed to Pansy, crumpled on the floor. The tiny beauty’s mouth gaped open in silent, wracking sobs.

“Pansy.” Steffania knelt next to the weeping
slaaf.
“Pansy, talk to me. What’s wrong?” Steffania might have been addressing the wall for all the response Pansy made.

Unable to endure the petite woman’s heartrending
silence, Steffania gathered her into her lap like a small child. She held her and rocked her back and forth. “Whatever it is, I’ll help you. Please, stop your crying and talk to me.”

The little beauty clutched fists of Steffania’s hair and wept silently onto her bare breasts. She seemed incapable of stopping her outpouring of distress.

“What is going on out here?” Ramsey, now wearing a pair of synth-leather pants, slumped against the doorframe. “Steffania?”

Steffania shrugged helplessly. “
I don’t know what to do for her. She won’t stop weeping long enough to speak. Maybe you can get something out of her.”

With a sigh, Ram walked over to stand looking down at Steffania and the sobbing Pansy.
“Give her to me.”

Steffania gently disentangled Pansy’s hands and leaned back to allow Ram to gather the woman into his arms.
Childlike, Pansy immediately burrowed herself into Ramsey’s hold. Ram walked into the bedroom, moved to the low chair and sat. Pansy curled into a tight ball on his lap and clung to him. Steffania wondered what could cause a mature woman to behave in such an infantile fashion.

“Sweetheart, speak to me.” Ram’s low voice rumbled softly over her
almost silent sobs. “Pansy, calm yourself. Talk to me.” His broad, capable hands ran up and down her back.

Little by little, Steffania watched the woman’s
shudders quiet under Ram’s paternal touch.

“I can’t go back there. I’ll die,” Pansy whispered. “But I can’t do what
he
says, either.” She glanced fearfully at the exact spot on the headboard where the sound recorders hid and then to the corner statue that concealed the vidcorder. Another wave of wracking sobs convulsed her small body.

Ram frowned a
t Steffania. “Who is ‘he’?”

“I don’t know.”
Steffania shrugged. “Pansy, I disabled the ‘spies’ in this room. You can speak freely.”

Ram continued to pet the tiny woman. “Shh. Pansy
, you must talk to me. I can’t help you if you don’t talk to me.”

The brunette murmured a garbled, “He can’t hear me?”

“Steffania says not,” Ram said.

Pansy looked at him
dubiously.

“She is a very unusual
slaaf
. I believe her.” Ram pushed Pansy’s hair back from her face and tilted her head up to him. “Now, who is ‘he’?”

“Strom Kella,” Pansy choked out. Her initial response opened the floodgates and the whole story poured forth.

Pansy had noticed early on that Ramsey lacked the featherweight
armatura
, the impenetrable body armor used by combatants from technologically advanced planets. Certain one of the sponsors would remedy this lack before the games started, she remained silent. When it became obvious to her that no one would step forward to assist this man who had been so kind to her, she resolved to obtain some for Ram. The previous day, Pansy had left the villa with the service crew at mid-day and returned to the residence of
Dominus
Metrios. She knew the
dominus
had several extra sets. She doubted he would even know one was missing.

“That is where you we
nt,” Steffania commented. “I came out and you were gone. I wondered.”

The violet-eyed
slaaf
looked up at Ramsey with a weak smile. “That is what the black bag holds.” She pointed to the, as yet, unexamined sack on the floor. “I thought I could slip in and out while
Dominus
Metrios trained.” With a shudder, she snuggled further into Ram. “The Enforcer observed me entering a cab and stopped the driver.”

“What was Strom Kella doing at
Dominus
Metrios’ villa?” Steffania asked.

Pansy shook her head. “I don’t know.
Dominus
Kella asked what I was doing. I couldn’t lie to him.”

Steffania winced. No, Pansy couldn’t lie to anyon
e about anything. The woman was transparent.

“
I told him I wouldn’t do what he wanted. He told me he would send me back to Veacon Narr for a session in the ‘quiet room’ if I disobeyed.” Again, the tears started. “I will lose my mind if I go back there.” Pansy broke into quiet sobs.

Ramsey’s low voice interrupted her. “Wha
t did Strom Kella ask you to do and what is the ‘quiet room’?”

Pansy struggled to compose herself. “He
wants me to dose you with LasiCon.”

Ram looked at her blankly.

“It’s a drug that antagonizes dopamine D2 receptors,” Pansy explained.

Ramsey shot an irritated look at Steffania. “
I still know no more than I did. Do you know what the hell she is talking about?”

Steffania wrinkled her nose and glanced at Pansy. “I think it’s
an...anti-psychotic?”

The little brunette nodded.
“Yes. It creates bad side effects in normal people. You hallucinate. Your heart beats irregularly. You suffer dizzy spells. You’re easily confused.”

“Nothing to kill you, just
get
you killed during combat,” Ram stated.

Pansy nodded.

“Why didn’t you just do as he asked?” Ram said bluntly.

A long silence stretched and final
ly Pansy answered in the barest of whispers. “Because,
Dominus
DeKieran, you are a fraud.”

Pansy’s response floored Steffania and sent her heart into overdrive.
Had she and Ramsey been discovered? Ramsey shifted uneasily, his face a study in guarded concern.

The tiny woman sniffled repeatedly, but looked Ramsey straight in the eyes. 

“Please,
Dominus
.” Pansy struggled to get the words out. Her hands fluttered in the air like crippled birds. “You’re not like the others. You see me as a person.” The woman faltered to a stop. “I don’t know how else to say it. You resemble no man of this world and please, please, I beg you, take me with you when you leave.”

Apparently, Pansy had expended her entire storehouse of courage with that one statement. Her eyes dropped immediately and she curled into herself. Steffania allowed a slow exhale of relief and then choked on a laugh-turned-cough at Ramsey’s put upon look.

“Sweetheart, I doubt you’ll find a true
dominus
on Vxloncia – only legally-sanctioned, misogynistic sadists.
They
are the frauds.” Gently disentangling himself from the violet-eyed
slaaf
, Ramsey stood and placed Pansy back into the chair.

“What is the ‘quiet room’?” he repeated.

Pansy curled tighter into a fetal position and wrapped her arms around herself. Her body vibrated with distress.

“The monsters on this planet aren’t happy with simple slavery. There are no free women on Vxloncia, only
slaaf
so buried in fear they no longer remember who they really are—who they used to be. The
dominae
use machines to instill terror and strip your mind of the ability to resist.” Her voluminous purple eyes held Steffania’s and then returned to Ramsey. “Haven’t you wondered at the silent obedience? Haven’t you wondered at the acceptance by the Vxloncian women of the vile degradation and debasement forced on them by the men of this world?”

Pansy’s
quietly voiced despair stretched into silence. Ramsey knelt down by the woman and put a broad hand on her back. “Then why do
you
possess the courage to tell us this?”

At that moment,
Steffania disliked Ramsey for challenging Pansy but she buried the emotion. The same thought had occurred to her and the question begged an answer. Pansy lifted her head. “They wanted to preserve my medical skills so they did not rape my mind as thoroughly as they raped my body.” A grim smile twisted her lips. “It did them no good. I played dumb. They are convinced Narr’s med-techs ruined me. I can put on a very convincing act.” For a moment anger blazed from the violet eyes that regarded them. “I even fooled you.” 

Pansy unfolded and sat in the chair facing Ramsey and Steffania. She held her arms out in front of her. Tremors shook them uncontrollably. “Narr did something to my mind. This is what happens when I attempt to speak of certain things, and it worsens if I resist, if I continue
speaking. But I will try.” Pansy put her hands back in her lap. “You ask about the ‘quiet room’.” A wave of convulsive shudders overwhelmed the tiny woman. Her breath came in rapid pants while unending tears rolled down her clenched jaws. Remorseful anger tore through Steffania at the obvious agony Pansy suffered from her effort to answer
.

Tear-flooded
violet eyes found Ramsey. “Please hold me. It is better when you hold me. I need to feel your strength.”

Silently
, Ramsey picked her up and sat in the chair as he had before, engulfing her in his muscular arms. Pansy did her best to root through his chest and her arms wrapped him frantically. Her fingers dug into the skin of his back until small beads of blood formed under her fingernails. Steffania watched as one broke into a crimson drop that trickled down his golden skin. Ramsey never flinched, uttered a sound or shifted his protective embrace. Steffania met Ram’s eyes above the delicate woman’s head. The wrath blazing in them mirrored the rage uncoiling within her.