Stolen Desire (Outlawed Realm) (20 page)

“He’s called Wollum,” one of them had offered.

The female pleasure slaves stood nearby with bowls of salt to rub into any wounds their male counterparts might inflict. Only Eeete and Paige held nothing. When Paige had noticed Eeete’s fear of the guard, she’d wrapped her arm around the young woman’s shoulders, an unspoken promise that no one would harm her.

Wollum had no such assurance.

He kept turning in circles, trying to get away from the hostile crowd, managing only to tighten his chain. When Zekin approached, Wollum went still, his face brightening as though he’d recognized a friend.

“Help me,” he begged in their language.

Zekin lifted the device that opened portals. Like the guard, he used E2’s language. “You know how to use this?”

Something crossed the man’s wide face. Caution? Curiosity? A mixture of both? “No,” he said.

Zekin turned to one of the male pleasure slaves. The man was a head taller than Wollum. After months of proper food and rest, he was also stronger. He flicked the whip he held, the end snapping close to Wollum’s left eye but not quite touching it…yet.

Still, the guard cried as if struck.

Zekin waited until he quieted, then asked once more, “Do you know how to use the device?”

Wollum bounced in place, sweat pouring down his thick jowls. “Yes.”

“You can calibrate it so that it takes you anywhere you want to go?”

His attention darted to the others, pausing on the whips. He nodded quickly.

“Even E3?” Zekin asked.

Color drained from the guard’s swarthy face. He kept gulping air. “E3?”

Once more, Zekin gestured. This time, several whips cracked, their tips almost licking Wollum’s flesh.

He let out another cry of alarm, then blurted, “Yes, I can make it take you to any plane you desire, and any location within it.”

“He’s lying,” Qatar said.

“I believe you’re right,” Bruda chimed in.

“No,” the guard pleaded. “It’s the truth.”

“It had better be,” Zekin said. “Because once you calibrate it, we’re sending you through the portal first—that is, after we blind and paralyze you, and cut out your tongue. You’ll be naked, more helpless than a new child or the pleasure slaves you enjoyed harming, so we can test your honesty.”

Given the language, Paige had no idea what Zekin had just threatened the guard with. However, the man wept, his hurried words clearly begging for mercy. Empathy welled in her until she recalled what he and his partners had done to the pleasure slaves.

Gently, she squeezed Eeete’s shoulders. The young woman didn’t react. She seemed frozen in dread at the sight of any guard, even one who was unable to move and harm her.

Zekin strode to the closest table and sat. He said something to Qatar.

The man removed the chain from the hook and yanked the guard forward. The man stumbled, then sucked in a breath as he bumped into one of the male slaves whose hand fisted around his whip.

Hurriedly, the guard backed away and sank heavily to the plank seat. Zekin pushed the device toward the guard and said something in their language.

The man answered him immediately, words gushing from him as though he was unable to stop.

Was he pleading for his life? “What’s going on?” Paige asked Eeete. “What are they saying?”

She spoke as quietly as Paige had. “Zekin ordered him to calibrate the device to go to the intake area, telling him where it is. The guard, Wollum, said he hasn’t used the device in a while. He’ll need time to practice. Perhaps days or weeks. Others at the outpost are more knowledgeable. If Zekin would only take him back there, Wollum will point out who can best help him.”

“Yeah, right,” Paige muttered.

Zekin waited a moment, then glanced at the male slaves closest to Wollum. The first young man brought his whip down on the table to the side. Another struck the plank seat with his. As one, the other male slaves made threatening noises as they brandished their weapons.

Wollum turned to Zekin, his expression asking for compassion as he babbled something, not even bothering to stop for air.

Zekin didn’t react.

Eeete murmured, “The guard now claims to know how to operate the device. He said he’s an expert at it.”

Paige’s neck and shoulders ached from mounting tension. Her stomach rolled. Could be Wollum was telling the truth this time. Could be he was as clueless as he’d claimed earlier and would open a portal to E4’s jungle or someplace worse. There was no way to tell.

He lifted his manacled hand, causing the chain to rattle against the table. Many of the female slaves flinched as though the sounds brought back brutal memories. Paige stared as Wollum ran his hand over the device. Symbols scrolled across the small screen. He worked at it for minutes, then finally pushed the thing toward Zekin and spoke.

Eeete translated. “He’s encouraging Zekin to use the device.”

“Hey, wait,” Paige called out.

The moment Zekin turned to her, she said, “Can you trust him?”

“Eventually, we’ll have no choice.”

Aw crap.

“Everything will be all right,” he assured.

Paige chewed her bottom lip, wanting to believe him, afraid to do so. She could barely watch as Zekin pointed the device in the opposite direction of where Paige knew the intake area to be. The pod’s transparent wall shimmered slightly, then seemed to liquefy. Beyond it was blinding white light and a sucking sound. Cold air poured into this room.

“No,” Paige cried. She left Eeete and went to Zekin. “Don’t go through it, please.”

“I don’t intend to. I’m sending him through it.” Zekin kept his attention on the guard and resumed using their language as he spoke to Qatar and Bruda.

Wollum screamed. He tried to fight the men, but they were taller and stronger, pulling him from the seat, dragging him toward the portal.

“He didn’t calibrate it to go to the intake area,” Zekin said to Paige.

No kidding. Wollum’s shouts turned to terrified sobs. Zekin closed the portal. Bruda and Qatar hauled the guard back to the table. Sweat ran down his forehead and temples. His hands shook so convulsively he had to take a moment to calm down before he again worked on the device. Finished, he pushed it back to Zekin.

To Paige’s surprise, Zekin didn’t touch it. He took a whip from a slave nearest him. Wollum leaned away from the weapon, his eyes rounded in fear. Again, Zekin opened a portal and hurled the whip into it.

Seconds later, there was the sound of something falling. Paige turned, along with the others. Bruda raced toward the intake area. When he returned, he held the whip above his head in obvious triumph.

No one smiled, cheered or applauded. Wollum gulped air as if he couldn’t get his fill, his attention never leaving the whips closest to him.

Zekin spoke to Paige. “Where is your home on E1?”

“We need the longitude and latitude,” Qatar added. “In order to pinpoint your exact location.”

She was actually going to be leaving? She’d never see Zekin again?

“Tell us,” he said.

It took a moment before Paige could speak. “I don’t know what it is—I don’t want to go there.” Not without him. Leaving Zekin to die here would kill her.

His expression darkened further. “You can’t stay here.”

Neither could he or any of the rest of them, including Eeete. Especially Eeete. Wollum’s presence continued to intimidate her. She’d pulled her arms close to her body as though to protect herself from his expected blow.

How could Paige turn her back on that and allow this outrage to continue? There had to be a way for her to help every—

The thought came so quickly, she spoke without thinking. “Take me to Nikoli Zorr. You said he lives with Regina on my plane. He can protect me from the guards better than I can do alone. They abducted me from my apartment,” she lied. “I can’t go back there.”

“We don’t know where Reg-EYE-na lives,” Qatar said.

“Maybe he does.” Paige gestured to Wollum.

The guard curled his upper lip at her, making him even more repulsive. Seeing Wollum’s contempt—and most assuredly not approving—a male slave whacked the table with his whip. Instantly, the guard became a pussycat again.

Zekin spoke to him in their language. Wollum shook his head. One glance from Qatar had another male slave hitting his whip against the table, the blow close to Wollum’s fingers. He flinched and buried his hands in his lap. Words rushed from him.

“He claims Domm Zorr may know,” Zekin said.

Paige shook her head. “Who’s that?”

“Nikoli’s father.”

“A renowned scientist on our realm,” Qatar added. “Loyal to the state.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” Paige said. “You’re sure he’s on Vakar’s side?”

“Perhaps…perhaps not.” Zekin turned the device in his hand. “He’s never been to E4 like the others at his level. He keeps to himself. Before I was sentenced here, I watched him closely, wondering if he was one of the resistance, like us. Since Nikoli’s supposed death, Domm Zorr had secluded himself even more.”

“You’re saying you can trust him?” Paige asked.

“He seems an honorable man. We could contact him.”

“Using one of the monitors you have here?” Paige gestured toward the room where she’d seen them.

“They don’t transmit to the populace on E2,” Bruda said. “Only to Vakar’s inner circle. Ever since the revolt, we’ve been feeding them lies, making them believe the guards are still in control of the colony.”

“Then how do you intend to contact Nikoli’s father?” Paige asked.

“The only way possible,” Qatar said. “By opening a portal to his laboratory on E2.”

“Not to travel there, simply to communicate,” Zekin added. “It’s all that’s allowed on E2 from the other realms. As I told you earlier, scientists like Nikoli monitor the portals too well for anyone other than the rulers to enter as they please. Nikoli’s father is one of those scientists. I know the exact location of his laboratory.”

Paige rested her hand on his. “What if he doesn’t help? What if he is loyal to Vakar?”

Zekin lifted his face to her. Yearning shone in his eyes, proving the growing bond between them. Behind it was his calm resignation that they could never be together. Because of Vakar, perhaps Domm Zorr or the guards on the surface, Zekin would eventually be killed.

Uh-uh
.
Paige wasn’t about to accept that. She couldn’t let him go without a fight. Nor was she about to put him in danger. “I don’t want you talking to him, giving him any idea that you took over this place. I’ll convince him to help me—except he’ll really be helping us. All of us.” Her quick glance took in everyone in the room before she focused again on Zekin. “I’m good at that. In my, ah, realm, dimension, whatever, I’m an attorney. I know what to say to get people to do things my way.”

Zekin shook his head.

She argued, “I went to the surface with you, didn’t I?”

“Against my better judgment,” he retorted. “Domm Zorr isn’t me. Nothing you say can possibly sway him. He won’t speak with you.”

“Why? He doesn’t understand English?”

“At his current level in the realm’s hierarchy, he would have finally studied the language,” Qatar said, completely missing her sarcasm. “I suspect Nikoli learned it by watching Reg—EYE—na through the portals.”

“Awesome. Then I’ll talk to him.”

“I will,” Zekin said.

Paige sighed. “Aren’t you listening to me at all? I don’t want you involved. We don’t know if we can trust him. If he’s high enough in the realm to know about the Pleasure Palace, then he probably knows about this colony and that you’re here. He’ll wonder how you were able to get a device to communicate with him. Why the guards would let you do that. He may tell Vakar. I’ll speak to him alone. He doesn’t know who I am. We can disguise the surroundings I’m in so he doesn’t know we’re transmitting—or whatever you call it—from here. We’ll make him think it’s the Pleasure Palace. By the time he learns differently, if he’s one of the bad guys, he still won’t know I’m here. He won’t have a clue where I transmitted from.”

Zekin regarded her. “If I’m not beside you, he won’t trust you enough to speak.”

“You’re still not listening. If he sees you, he’ll suspect that you and the others have taken over this place. He may snitch to Vakar. You’ll put everyone here at risk. I won’t have it.”

“Eeete can be next to you,” Bruda suggested. “Given her appearance, Domm Zorr will know she’s a pleasure slave as she looks like no woman on E2 and is far more perfect than anyone on your realm. He may believe that she told you about the device and the portals, having witnessed Vakar using them. At the very worst, he’ll think you’re on E4, trying to escape and that you need his assistance to do so.”

“Eeete, do you mind helping?” Paige asked. “It’s your choice. Don’t think about me. Think about yourself. Can you do this?”

The young woman joined them. This time she didn’t look to Zekin for guidance. She seemed to know what he wanted, that Paige needed to go home.

“Yes,” she said, more firmly than she’d ever spoken before and with surprising confidence. Or relief, that in a very short time, Zekin would be hers alone once more.