Jane Carver of Waar (25 page)

“So eager already?”

I spun around. The Captain stood in the doorway. “Don’t look so nervous, lad. I’m not always the fire-breather you saw on deck. I am Kai-La. Men call me Queen of the Air if they’re being polite, “That damn she-skelsha,” if they’re not. You may call me anything but another woman’s name.” She laughed. I must have been pretty beat from all the fighting because I didn’t get it.

She patted a wicker chair. “Sit down, boy. You look nigh on to death.”

I sat. Sitting was good. Kai-La gave me a long look as she crossed to a cabinet and took out a wide-based jug and two short mugs. She licked her lips.

“There certainly is a lot of you, isn’t there?”

I was catching on now. “Uh, more and less than you know.”

She sat down in the chair beside mine and handed me a mug full of something sweet and powerful. She was suddenly serious. “Listen, friend. You are not Oran. There is no need for you to share the Orans’ fate. I’m prepared to offer you again the choice they have lost. Will you join us?”

My heart jumped, but... “I... I don’t like slavers.”

She smirked. “And yet your friends are slave owners.”

“What?” I was shocked. Were they?

“My poor bumpkin, were you born under a rock? Are not they not Oran land owners? Who tills their fields? Makes their food? Wipes their behinds?”

It hadn’t even occurred to me. I mean I knew they had servants, but I’d assumed they were paid or something.

“Truly, lad, what land do you hail from that knows no slavery? ’Tis a place I’d like to visit.”

I snapped out of it. “From parts unknown.”

She laughed. “Half my crew hails from there. So, do I change your mind?”

It finally occurred to me that this was my chance. This was the advantage Lhan wanted me to win for us. And I’d almost turned it down, twice. “Uh, why not. Beats being a slave.”

Kai-La paused, then laughed. “You were not born a liar, lad. Your thoughts crossed your face just now as clearly as if written on a scroll. You mean to join my crew in the hope that you will gain an opportunity to escape.”

“No, I...”

“Cease. My offer is withdrawn, no matter what you say.” She sighed. “A pity. You killed many men, men that must be replaced. And from what I heard, it seems you could almost replace my crew entire.”

“I’m sorry.” And I was, too. If things were different... But they weren’t, so fuck it. I gulped down my drink.

Kai-La joined me. “No matter. You and your friends will fetch enough coin to replace them another way, though not so much as you would have had that evil slut had kept her mouth shut.”

“What’s your beef with Wen-Jhai? She’s an idiot, but I wouldn’t call her evil.”

Kai-La looked surprised that I was talking back, but Wen-Jhai had her all worked up, so she let it go. “The nobility are like drunken giants. They may mean no harm, but every blind stagger crushes hundreds, thousands. You saw her. She gave no thought to the rest of you. Her pride was wounded, so she spoke and doomed you all. I know too well the carnage that trails in the wake of ‘noble’ idiots.”

She stared out the window like I wasn’t there, then snapped out of it and leered at me. “But enough history. On to more pleasurable pursuits.” She put down her cup and stood. “I always like to sample my wares, to make sure I never sell second-quality merchandise.”

She circled me, running light fingertips across my collar bone and shoulders. “And I have a penchant for big, strapping boys.” She caressed my jaw. “Particularly those with such smooth, youthful...”

I hated to piss on her parade. “Er, listen, sister, I...”

She frowned playfully. “You demur?”

“Um, it’s not that. It’s just...”

“Then why do we wait?”

And with that she ripped my shirt open—and came face to face with my sailcloth binding. She frowned. “What’s this? Were you wounded so badly?”

“Uh, not wounded, exactly.”

Before I could explain, she drew a twelve-inch pig-sticker and sliced open the canvas with one swipe. All that was missing was a cartoon
“sproing!”
’ My boobs split the cut wide and bounced out to fill my shirt.

She stared. “You’re... You’re...”

“I tried to tell you.”

She looked up at me, a strange quirk in her brow. “And so strong as well? It truly is a pity you cannot join us. You will find no happiness elsewhere as you are. I have traveled this world over. I know.”

I had the feeling she was right, but that didn’t matter as long as Sai came through on his promise of a ticket back home.

She sighed and saluted me with her drink. “My apologies if your appetites run in that direction, but you just won’t do. Right now I need a fat cock to fill my cunt and empty my brain.” She stood. “A pleasure and a wonder to meet so strong a sister. May slavery not break your spirit.”

She ushered me out and told Burly to put me in the women’s pen. He did a double take, then grinned. As he was leading me away she called after him. “Send up the pretty one. And have him washed. This one smelled like an Andag priest.”

I almost turned back and told her she was wasting her time, Sai didn’t go for bad girls, but why bother? I didn’t owe her any favors. She’d find out soon enough.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

LOCKDOWN!

S
ai and Lhan were waiting at the bars of the men’s cell, eyes full of questions, but Burly pushed me past too quick and threw me in with the women before I could say anything.

A second later I heard Lhan and Sai protesting when Burly pulled Sai out. Sai called back as he was dragged down the hall. “Lhan! Protect Wen-Jhai if I die! Save her! Goodbye, my friend!”

I looked at Wen-Jhai. She was staring blankly at the wall.

The women’s cell was less crowded than the men’s—Wen-Jhai, me, some merchants’ wives and serving girls, and a top-heavy temptress in a gaudy peek-a-boo loincloth bikini who had sex-worker stamped all over her. She had that hard, eyes-on-the-prize look you see in strip clubs all across America.

It was as tense as a courtroom on sentencing day. The women were giving Wen-Jhai hard looks and sniffing like they smelled something rotten. I’m guessing Aldhanshais weren’t used to getting the silent treatment. Wen-Jhai did her best to pretend there was nobody else there, but her knuckles were white and her jaw was quivering. The only one who wasn’t looking daggers at her was the boom-boom gal. Maybe she knew what it was like to be shunned.

I wasn’t real happy with Wen-Jhai myself, but she looked so lost and pathetic that it was hard to keep my mad on. I gave her a smile to let her know not everybody was against her, but she made like she hadn’t seen me. Maybe since I was Sai’s pal she was tarring me with the same brush.

Things didn’t get any more comfortable when, a little later, we all heard, coming through the plank ceiling, the voices of Sai and our lusty captain Kai-La rising in pornographic ecstasy.

Wen-Jhai froze like Lot’s wife. The other women clammed up and didn’t know where to look. I glared at the ceiling. I know Sai had told me just the night before that fucking lower class chicks didn’t mean anything, but goddamn, he’d only called a tearful goodbye to Wen-Jhai less than half an hour ago. Didn’t he need a little time to switch gears? I snorted, disgusted. Maybe Oran guys wore those little love tokens around their waists to keep track of which chick they were supposed to be in love with.

Wen-Jhai was leaking quiet tears now. For some reason this pissed off the other women even more. They curled their lips. I heard one say, “Not fit to be an Aldhanshai.”

Wen-Jhai’s jaw started to quiver. She was about four seconds from bawling her head off. She jumped up and flounced to a corner, then kneeled down facing the walls like a school kid who’s being punished. The whole room watched her shoulders shaking. Her sobs clashed with all the huffing and puffing coming from upstairs. I wanted to cover my ears.

The worst part was, the shagging didn’t stop! Sai and Kai-La panted and gasped and screamed an hour, then after ten minutes of quiet, when I’d begin to hope it was over, they started the whole circus all over again! Little punk was Captain Viagra on top of everything else? It wasn’t fucking fair.

After a while the dancer—her name turned out to be Shae-Vai—crawled to Wen-Jhai and started petting her hand and murmuring in her ear. I lay down and tried to go to sleep, but I couldn’t. All the noisy night long I kept myself awake thinking one thing. “What has she got that I ain’t got? What has she got that I ain’t got?”

A full head and an empty cunt is what I had—the exact opposite of what the captain was getting. The bitch.

***

The trip went on for days. So did the schtuping. Sai was giving it to Kai-La every night, all night, which meant that Wen-Jhai was weeping every night, all night. She and Shae-Vai became bosom buddies. They would talk together in a corner, mostly about Wen-Jhai’s horrible fate. More than once I overheard her say, “I know the sort of slave they will make of me. I’ll not do it! I shall kill myself before they take my honor.”

Shae-Vai was always sympathetic. “Poor, brave Aldhanshai. I, alas, had my honor taken from me long before I knew its importance.”

It got worse. One night while the orgasm Olympics were going on overhead and Wen-Jhai was weeping in Shae-Vai’s arms, I noticed Wen-Jhai’s moaning changing tone. I raised my head.

It took me a minute to make out shapes in the darkness, but finally I saw Shae-Vai and Wen-Jhai in the far corner. Wen-Jhai’s back was arched across Shae-Vai’s knee, grabbing the rough boards of the wall, while Shae-Vai’s hand moved between her legs. Goddamn it, everybody was getting laid but me!

Shae-Vai winked at me. I groaned and closed my eyes. I didn’t want to know. Shae must had pulled a fast one, moving from soothing Wen-Jhai to seducing her so smoothly the little fool hadn’t known what was happening until Shae’s “comforting” had started blowing her mind.

I couldn’t take it. Here I was, alone on an alien world in the middle of a fucking porno movie with only my hand for company. I don’t know if I was frustrated, or lonely, or just plain pissed off, but all of a sudden my eyes were wet and my throat closed up. Dammit, I missed Don! I wanted his big arms around me so bad it felt like somebody had my heart in a vice.

I frigged myself to sleep. It didn’t do a damn bit of good.

***

Unbelievably, the next day was worse. Shae-Vai was asleep in a corner, worn out from corrupting virgins no doubt, and the rother women were in their own corners whispering. Wen-Jhai was pacing, as edgy as a cat in a rocking chair factory. I ignored her, doing pushups and trying to remember all the words to “Folsom Prison Blues,” until she sat down beside me.

“You are called Jae-En?”

“Close enough.”

“And you have traveled with Sai-Far since—since my capture?”

I had half a mind to snap at her. Some shit about “now that you’re a sinner like the rest of us you can finally lower yourself to talk to me?” But I was a little lonely for conversation myself. “Uh-huh.”

She bit her lip, then kept going. “Believe you that... that he loves me?”

“It’s all he ever talks about.”

A little sob flew out before she could stop it. “But why then...?”

She hid her face in her hands. I quit my pushups with a sigh and sat beside her. I obviously wouldn’t get any peace until we’d had this conversation. “What’s the matter? Sai told me that it didn’t mean anything—as long as it was with trash, that is.”

Wen-Jhai raised her head and sucked in a big breath. “He is correct. By law and custom it means nothing, a mere release of animal urges that touches neither heart nor mind. But though I try, I cannot...”

She buried her face again. Tears leaked through her fingers. “Look not upon me. I am ashamed, ashamed.”

I scowled. “You? Whadda you got to be ashamed of?”

She swiped at her tears with the backs of her hands. She looked like a kitten washing its face. “An Aldhanshai must be the epitome of Oran womanhood. She must uphold our sacred traditions of matrimonial fealty and be above petty envies. She should not be roused to jealousy by her Dhanan’s dalliance with outland
filth
!” Her little fists clenched at her sides. Her knuckles stood out against her purple skin like they’d been dotted with white paint. “And yet... and yet...”

I patted her arm. Probably a breach of etiquette, but she looked like she needed it. “Hey now, don’t beat yourself up. ‘Matrimonial fealty’ is great in theory, but when your man is bonking some bitch right over your head it’s kinda hard to be objective.”

I guess I struck a nerve. She beat her fists against her thighs. “How could he! Even the most debauched of Dhanans has the courtesy to be discrete. Here he embarrasses me in front of... merchants! And with her! The witch who condemns me to slavery.”

I had to agree with her, and not just because it wasn’t me Sai was giving it to. I know guys think with their dicks, but this was ridiculous. This was a world class lack of class.

Of course she hadn’t exactly been chanting her rosary, had she? I nudged her and grinned. “Well, at least you got a little revenge last night, right?”

Her purple got about five shades lighter. “Ah, no. You heard?”

“Uh, I’ve got good ears.”

She started leaking again. “The Seven have mercy. The shame! I know not what came over me.”

“I’ve got a vague idea.”

“Please, Mistress Jae-En. Can you make light of my disgrace? I can no longer call myself Aldhanshai. I have given in to the most base, vile...”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh get real, girl. Who threw the first stone here anyway? How can you feel guilty with Sai going at it like the Energizer Bunny upstairs? Hell, if my old man was bonin’ the chick next door, I’d be ridin’ another bull before you could say ‘saddle up.’”

That couldn’t have translated, but she caught the gist. “But... but that’s horrible.”

“Why?”

“Why? Women don’t... It, it is different for men. Men must slake their animal fevers or go mad.”

“And women don’t have animal urges? Sure they do. Better believe
I
do, and the captain sure as hell can’t get enough of it.”