Captured (3 page)

Mari could hear them talking amongst themselves. She could pick out a word here and there.
 
She imagined they were making casual conversation and discussing mundane issues like the weather or what they had for supper last night.
 
Maybe they were taking bets on which
beast
would bring in the most money or coin or whatever it was they used as currency.
 
It really was like a livestock fair.
 
Mari wasn’t at all shocked when a group of the tall men threaded their way through the women.
 
She stood straight and still while they felt her legs and arms, tugged down on her jaw to look in her mouth, and checked her teeth.
 

She was glad hers were perfect, big, and white although she didn’t know if that counted for anything among Ekkatt’s people.
 
Maybe they had a thing for crooked teeth or sharp canines.
 
But, she’d noticed that Ekkatt’s and Pana’s teeth had been very straight and very large so perhaps their people valued good teeth.
 
She assumed they were omnivores despite their size, because their canines were not even as sharp as those of a human.
 

She knew from what little information Ekkatt shared with her that most of the buyers were not of his species. Some were barely humanoid.
 
At least his species appeared human in most ways, in the ways that counted.
 
In the two arms, two legs, two eyes, two ears, one head variety.

 
  
 
Mari heard one of the men bark an order telling them to move.
 
He spoke in his own language, but she moved automatically, understanding the word clearly.
 
She saw him glance curiously in her direction as the other women followed her lead, and she wondered if she’d made a mistake by drawing attention to herself.
 
Out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of Ekkatt.
 
He was approaching the man who’d spoken, but then she was through the gate and she lost track of him.
      

She and the other women entered what appeared to be a very large shower room, and for just a moment Mari was overcome by visions of old newsreels of the showers in the Nazi concentration camps.
 
Her heart began to pound. It only slowed when she noticed the bathing attendants.
 
These men were most definitely not of Ekkatt’s species.
 
They were small and slender and almost feminine in appearance.
 
Their only garment was a loincloth, so it was easy for Mari to see that their bodies were hairless except for thick yellow curls on the tops of their heads.
 
These men carried rolls of cloth, what looked like vials of shampoo or liquid soap, and combs and brushes of various sizes.
 

The tall man who’d ordered them into the shower room appeared in the doorway.
 
The naked women scattered as he strode into the center of the room.
 
He scanned the crowd.
 
It seemed to Mari like he was looking for someone.
 

 
He was apparently looking for her.
 
Without hesitation, he headed her way, all seven feet of him.
 
Her first impulse was to shrink back, but she overrode it and stood her ground.
 
He walked right up to her and invaded her space in a very inhuman way.

“Turn,” he said in his own tongue.

Mari turned.
 
She felt his fingers, his sheathed fingers, move her long hair aside and trace the tattoo on her back.
 
He touched the ornate and detailed blue dragon tattoo she’d been inordinately pleased with.
 
The artist had stretched the tattoo from the middle of her back, across her right shoulder blade, and wound the dragon’s tail around her right upper arm.
 
The dragon’s spread wings reached from the base of her skull to her lower back.

“What is this?” he asked her. His English was slow and heavy and his voice low.

Mari turned and found herself staring directly at his midsection.
 
She looked up into his yellow eyes.
 
“Tattoo,” she answered, keeping her voice steady.

“What means this…tattoo?”

“It’s art…it’s body art.”

“No, what means this?
 
This creature on your back?”
 
He poked at her arm.

“A dragon.
 
The tattoo is a dragon.”
 
Mari searched for simple words to explain the symbolism and for a way to help herself out of this predicament.
 
“It’s a powerful beast on my planet, a beast like a god.”

“And you follow this god?”

“A dragon has power, yes.”

“He did not help you.
 
This god of yours did not stop my men from taking you.”

Mari was tempted to roll her eyes.
 
Who could have imagined she’d find herself discussing religion with a seven foot tall humanoid male who held her captive and would most likely sell her into slavery.

“A dragon is not my god.”

“Then why this?”
 
He poked at her arm again.

“A dragon gives…it gives inner power.”
 
Mari placed her palm against her chest.
 
“In here.”

“Show me.”

How the hell do you expect me to do that, asshole?
 
You’re seven feet tall, made of solid muscle and I’m five-six, one hundred and twenty pounds on a good day. I’m fucking naked, I stink to high heaven., My hair is a rat’s nest. My life is gone, my family destroyed, and I’m sick of looking at your butt ugly yellow eyes.
 

The man leaned towards her with an amused look on his hard face.
 
He was close enough.
 
Mari grabbed him by his jumpsuit and jerked his body closer.
 
At the same time she braced her left foot and thrust her right knee into what she hoped were his sex organs with all the force she could muster.
 
When the air whooshed out of his lungs with a
screening
noise she knew she’d guessed right.
 
As his knees began to buckle, she slammed the heel of her right hand into his nose then brought her knee up one more time into his solar plexus. He dropped to the floor as Mari jumped away.
 
The shower room fell silent. All eyes stared at her in horror as everyone was certain she had brought death upon them.
 
The silence didn’t last long.
 
The petite yellow-haired creatures fled shrieking to the far door, pushing and shoving, trying to fit through at once in a chaotic mass.

“Run,” Mari shouted to no one in particular.
 
“Run you fools.”
 
She pointed after the little men.

The women, whether they understood her words or not, understood her meaning and did run, but it was too late.
 
Tall figures poured in from both entrances and sent the women scurrying to the corners in fear.
 
Mari stood above the man she’d disabled.
 
As she watched he groaned and tried to get to his feet.
 
His face was covered with blood.
 

Is that a weapon on his belt?
 
Please God let that be a weapon
.

Mari reached down and flipped open the clasp that held it to his belt, and she ripped what looked like a stun gun out of a holster.
 

How do you work it?
 
How do you work the damn thing?

She squeezed the grip and the gun hummed in her hand.
 
If she’d been a cruel woman she would have tried it out on the man she’d injured, but she didn’t want to kill anyone.
 
She had no idea what the weapon was capable of.
 
She suspected the thing might be like a cattle prod, designed to herd recalcitrant merchandise without killing them, but she didn’t know for sure.
 
The one thing she knew was that she was an idiot and her actions had sealed her fate.
 
She was a dead woman.

Well, if I’m already dead, I have nothing to fear
.

Mari waited for the men to approach.
 
She had no doubt they would subdue her and take the weapon, but she would make them work for it.
 
She backed away from the injured man.
 
His arms still moved, and he could reach for her ankle and probably flip her across the room if so inclined.
 
Half a dozen men circled her.
 
Turning as quickly as she could, Mari waved the weapon in their direction.
 
Two men seemed wary.
 
Mari gauged the other four.
 
She saw astonishment in their eyes.
 

Gee, a cow fighting back.
 
Imagine that
.

Mari heard Ekkatt’s voice.
 
He growled something, and the men stepped away and gave her space.

“Mari,” he said, allowing her the dignity of a name in front of all those assembled, “Give me the weapon.”

“Fuck you, Ekkatt.”
 
She heard him snort at her words.

“Give me the weapon, Mari.
 
These men will take it from you in any case.
 
I am just trying to save you injury.”

“Protecting your profits?”

“No, you little fool.
 
I am protecting you.”

Mari stood very still and looked at her kidnapper.
 

“Why?”

“Because in the two hundred years my people have ferried females of your race you are the first to act like a sentient being.
 
Give me the weapon.
 
Please.”
 
Ekkatt spit out that last word.

“What about the rest of these women?”

“I can do nothing for them.
 
Their fate is out of my hands.
 
Yours, perhaps, is not.
 
Your death will not alter their circumstances.”

Mari swallowed hard, and every fiber of her being knew that he spoke the truth.
 
She loosened her grip on the weapon, and the humming sensation stopped.
 
She held it out to Ekkatt butt first.
 
He took the weapon and handed it to the closest man while speaking at length and pointing towards the man she’d injured. That man had managed to rise to his knees still clutching himself.

“Come!” he ordered her in a gruff voice, and Mari followed him, obedient, shutting her ears to the cries of the women she left behind.
 
Ekkatt was right that she could do nothing for them, and there was nothing they could do to help her.
 
She took a small measure of satisfaction in hoping that perhaps these men would not be so cavalier the next time a shipment of human females arrived.