Captured (6 page)

“Yes sir.”
 
Mari smiled up at him, “But I need a bathroom.
 
You have a bathroom?”

“You wish to bathe at this moment?”

“No…I mean I need to relieve myself.”

Ekkatt grunted his understanding, and he pointed out the open door toward a small hut twenty feet from the cabin.

“Just like on the farm back home, Ekk…” Mari called over her shoulder as she trotted to the outhouse.

* * * *

Ekk?
 
This is meant to be funny?
 
Ekkatt watched Mari shut the door to the b’yat.
 
Humans
.
 
Until he’d conversed with her on the transport he hadn’t realized they possessed a sense of humor.
 
Sentient beings had an awareness of the absurd.
 
He considered her remark when they’d discussed why the cargo was kept in stasis…
more cost effective
.
 
Not only did she possess a sense of humor, but she was pragmatic, intelligent, and perhaps even cunning. She’d certainly managed to wriggle her way under his thick skin and save herself from the fate of the rest of the cargo.

And, what she’d done to Tril had been no more and no less than he deserved.
 
Perhaps it was merely that the survival instincts were stronger in this one.
 
Perhaps all human females with red hair behaved like this.
 
Maybe they were a more evolved subspecies.
 
Since Mari was the first human female he’d ever interacted with he had no way of knowing.
   

She hadn’t stirred when he’d carried her into the cabin and placed her in his bed.
 
It was the same as when he’d lifted her from the egg house, but then she’d been drugged.
 
This time she’d merely been asleep, but still, it surprised him, the trust she seemed to have in him.
 

He was her kidnapper after all.
 
Ekkatt and his coworkers called themselves
harvesters
.
 
They harvested humanoid stock from less evolved planets to sell for meat, for cheap labor, and in some cases, for use in various houses of prostitution.
 
Ekkatt had never paid much attention to the destination of each shipment.
 

Two hundred years ago, humans were first imported to work the mines of Masetta.
 
However, the males were found to be intransigent and difficult to control, and they died quickly in the smoky subterranean pits.
 
The females were more malleable, but not strong enough to be used as beasts of burden.
 
Earth would have been removed from the list of planets to be harvested had not the inhabitants of Masetta found the females to be quite tasty.
 

Human flesh began to appear on the tables of the wealthy.
 
The flesh trade became very lucrative.
 
Harvesters specifically sought out females with meat on their bones.
 
The Masetta preferred young females, they claimed their flesh was the most tender.
 
The tiny humans, the offspring of the species, were the most prized, until the plague erupted and the importation of human offspring was banned. Laws were passed making the possession of a human cub punishable by death, not only of the one found to be in possession of the cub, but the death of his or her entire family.
 
It was a measure born of desperation.
 
The plague had wiped out half the population of his planet. It was deadly to women and children.
 
The plague was the reason Ekkatt did not have a mate.
 

Men of his world far outnumbered women.
 
Those women who had survived the plague and those born in the twenty years since, were prized and protected.
 
Their fathers, brothers, and uncles arranged matches. They searched for the most prosperous males and those who could keep the females safe and isolated in the event such a plague broke out again.
 
Ekkatt came in frequent contact with alien species.
 
He would never be considered a suitable match.

Ekkatt watched Mari exit the b’yat.
 
He saw her find the spigot he’d installed to bring spring water for washing.
 
She used the cleanser he’d left beside the basin.
 
She washed her hands and face, and then she rinsed her mouth like a civilized person.
 
He’d noticed on board the ship that she had excellent teeth, straight and white.
 
He wondered how she cared for them.
 
Perhaps he would provide her with tooth powder and a small brush.
 
He had extras in his storage closet.
 

She ran some water through her hair and combed it with her fingers.
 
The sunlight shone through the strands and reflected fire.
 
Yes, that’s what he’d seen in front of the egg house.
 
That same fire.
 
He should have ignored it.
 
If he had, he’d be at the auction right now, counting his cills.
 
He would have
 
celebrated with the crew at the House of Pleasure, where he would reward himself with a paid woman and toss back shots of warmed istabuk, in that order.
 

His stomach lurched a bit when he saw Mari walk to the high cliff beyond his garden.
 
She stood with her feet on the edge.
 
Would she throw herself into the canyon?
 
He began to go to her, but he stopped when he realized she simply gazed at her surroundings taking in the mountains, the valley, and the forests of his home.
 
He knew then that he could never return, nor could she.
 
He couldn’t harvest another human female. If anyone discovered what he had done he would be on the run for the rest of his days.
 
All because he was partial to red hair.

Chapter 4

“Can I help you with anything?”

“No. Sit,” Ekkatt said in his own tongue.
 
His voice was harsh and he seemed irritated, so Mari sat without another word.
 
He set a steaming stack of flat bread on the table along with a plate of sliced fruit, handed her a cup of cold water, and another bowl of what seemed to be tea.
 
At least the steam rising from the bowl smelled herbal, and Mari noticed a few tiny leaves floating in the bowl.
 
Ekkatt sat across from her.
 
Despite her hunger, Mari waited to see if Ekkatt practiced some sort of ritual before eating.
 
She didn’t want to appear rude if he prayed or gave thanks to his creator..
 

“Eat,” he ordered.

“You don’t, um, say something before you eat?”

“Say something?
 
What would I say?”

“I was just wondering if you have a prayer or something.”

“A prayer?”

“You know, like…thanks for the food, or give us this day our daily bread?
 
Like…expressing gratitude to a higher power for the food?
 
That kind of thing?”

“Do you?”

Mari grinned.
 
“Yeah.
 
Rub-a-dub-dub, thanks for the grub.
 
Yay God!”

“This is what you would call a joke?”

“Jeez, Ekkatt, yes, it’s a joke.
 
It’s an old camp joke.
 
Where is your sense of humor?”

“Camp?”

“A place where we, where humans send their children for fun.
 
They live in the, well, kind of like this, in the wilderness for a time to learn…things.”

“You went to this camp?”
 
Ekkatt shoved a plate in front of her filled with bread and fruit.
 
Mari didn’t see any silverware, so she followed his example and tore the bread into chunks with her fingers.
 
She popped a piece into her mouth and chewed with relish.
 

“Delicious,” Mari said. “So damn good.
 
Thank you, Ekkatt.
 
Thank you for preparing breakfast.”
 
She noticed a slight blush in his cheeks, and she wondered if it was embarrassment or pleasure at hearing her words.
 
Probably embarrassment at cooking for a subspecies.

“Camp?”
 
Ekkatt prompted.

“Oh.
 
Yes.
 
I went to camp every summer.”

“And what did you learn?”

“I don’t think you want to know what I learned.”

“Why is that?”

The corners of Mari’s eyes crinkled with mischief.
 
“I learned what a boy looks like naked.”

Ekkatt spit out his tea.
 
An odd look came over his face, and Mari wondered if he would order her away from the table, but then he began to laugh.
 
He laughed in his deep voice, and Mari giggled along with him.
 
There’s just something about escaping certain death and dismemberment that makes you laugh,
she decided.
 
Don’t think about the other women.
 
Don’t think about them.

“Eat,” Ekkatt said, his voice more congenial now.
 
“When you have finished, I will show you my land.”

They ate in companionable silence.
 
Mari helped him clean up, and he didn’t order her away.
 
He’d piped water into the kitchen.
 
It was cold, but she didn’t mind.
 
If there was water, she could bathe, cold didn’t matter.
 
Even when she’d gone camping, Mari had always bathed.
 
The water could be barely above freezing, but she had to wash her hair and her face.
 
She hated the fact that she stunk.

“Ekkatt?”

He grunted.

“I need to bathe.
 
I’m not accustomed to smelling like this.
 
I like to be clean.
 
Cold water doesn’t matter.
 
I’m sick and tired of stinking like an animal.”
 
She shot Ekkatt a deliberate look that said,
don’t you even think it
.
 
He seemed to read her mind because he kept his mouth shut.
 
“And,” she continued, “I’m accustomed to keeping my teeth clean.
 
Do you know what a toothbrush is?”

“No.”

“It’s a small brush, like what those little yellow guys at the market had to brush hair, but it’s to clean teeth.
 
Do you have something like that?”

“Little yellow guys?”

“Must you repeat everything I say?”

“The yellow ones are called Brum.”

“Okay, little brushes like the ones the Brum had.
 
What are they, anyway?
 
Slaves?”

“Yes.”

“Yes, you have a toothbrush, or yes, the Brum are slaves?”

“Both.”

Mari crossed her arms.
 
“We had slaves once.
 
We freed them.
 
It was two hundred and fifty years ago.”

Ekkatt made no response.
 
He stalked from the kitchen and left Mari looking after him.
 
He returned carrying several items, a towel, something that resembled a toothbrush, a small vial of powder, and a cake of soap.
 
As Mari watched, he set the things on the table and walked out the door.
 
“Come,” he ordered in his language.
 
Mari picked up the items he’d brought and followed after him.

They climbed the steep hill behind his cabin. Mari walked quickly to keep up with Ekkatt’s longer strides.
 
Near the top Ekkatt turned off to the side, and Mari saw where he was headed.
 
Twenty yards farther down the trail was a rock pool.
 
Steam rose from the surface of the pool and from the water spilling over the rim.
 
It was a lovely hot spring.