TheDutyofPain (2 page)

“I hate those chains, Alda.”

“I am not too fond of them myself, your Grace.” She tightened her lips and quietly laid layer after layer of protection along his nerves. She usually was restricted to the five minutes she was allowed with him, unobserved.

“Stop that, Alda. You will tire yourself out.”

“You can feel that?”

“I can. It is like a soothing blanket being wrapped around me. I have depended on it for far too long, but I couldn’t give it up. Forgive me for being selfish.”

“I do. You had things to do, and I know you wanted to make sure that Olsted was ready for the change in rulers.” Alda didn’t add that his fear of death had been written all over his face the first time they met.

Salugh syndrome struck one in two hundred thousand people on Olsted. It was a genetic disease that activated in the later stages of life. No cure was possible, and it was horrible for the sufferer and their family. The random combination of different species created a cocktail of acid in the blood that wore away at tissue and bone from the inside out.

The private hallway led them to the private dining room, and the four representatives from the Citadel were waiting for them.

The duke walked toward them, and he introduced her as if she was his granddaughter and not shackled in his service.

“Terlio, this is Alda-Xeri. Alda, this is Terlio of Citadel Morganti.” The duke watched the Citadel Rep extend his hand, and he smiled when Alda extended her own.

The chain jangled and the cuff gleamed in the light of the candelabra.

“Why are you in chains?” Terlio turned her hand in his warm, dry grip, his dark eyes were the same ones she had met with her own gaze earlier.

“Why are you pretending to be from the Citadel?” She raised a brow.

The four men shifted.

Terlio asked, “What do you mean?”

“You may have been trained by the Citadel, but you all are currently in a military unit. I saw it in the way you moved in the court. You remained in formation from morning to night. No fidgeting, no twitching and no looking around except for the one of you who locked eyes with me.”

The man with dark eyes blinked as the other three looked at him. “She is correct. I looked at her.”

He made the introductions swiftly. “Alda-Xeri, meet Larsilk. Next to him is Bukel and next to him is Quuro.” The men’s eyes were icy green, blue on red and a charming yellow and purple mix, respectively.

Alda inclined her head, but the duke was irritated. “You represented yourself as members of the Citadel who wanted to look for talents here on Olsted.”

Terlio answered, “We came for her. We have a need for a talent who can give others clarity by removing pain.”

Alda took her hand back. “I believe the duke wishes to know where you are from if it is not the Citadel.”

Larsilk stepped forward. “We are stationed at Sector Guard Base Udell, but technically, we are from Citadel Base Lowel.”

Terlio threw his hands up. “Fine. Tell the truth. Why should I care?”

Quuro cleared his throat. “Be calm, Terlio. If she is to join us, she needs the truth, don’t you think?”

The duke wavered, and Alda held him up. “He should not be standing this long. To the table please, gentlemen.”

She helped the duke to his seat and took the position on his left. The other four took seats close to them as the duke rang for service.

Servants entered, filled goblets, laid platters of food on the table and left them.

“The duke is never attended at meals unless he requests it.” She took the duke’s plate and put his favourites on in small measures.

“Thank you, Alda.”

“You are welcome, your Grace.” She served herself and gestured for the men to begin their own meal. “The duke prefers family style. Eat all you like, and if you need more, it will be brought to you.”

She ate a few bites, but when she noted the stares at her wrists, she pulled her hands into her lap. Alda had grown so used to her chains that she hadn’t realised that it would cause a ripple of attention to someone who had not seen them before.

Duke Ralen-Croth noticed her tension. “Don’t worry about it, child. They will stop staring soon enough.”

She nodded and brought her hand up to grip the eating prong.

Bukel grumbled, “We apologize. You do not seem to be a slave, but you are not free, and we don’t know what to do with that.”

The duke sighed and sipped at his water before speaking. “When my illness struck, my high chancellor offered a reward to anyone who could extend my life. Through local officials in her hometown, Alda-Xeri was offered up as a Pain Taker. She did not come willingly. When she arrived here, the high chancellor put her in the chains to stop her from running on the off chance she could do some good, and now, it has been five months for her.”

“Can’t any healer help you?” Quuro’s voice was simply curious.

“No. Salugh syndrome takes the body and makes one part of it eat another. The healers who have tried to treat it cure one area and it attacks another. It is rare, but when it does strike, it is incurable.” The duke shrugged.

Alda used the distraction of the conversation to finish her meal. She fidgeted with the chains in her lap.

Terlio looked at her, his dark eyes concerned. “How are your wrists?”

She blushed, but they couldn’t see it under the heavy makeup. “I will be scarred, but it isn’t too bad. My ankles are worse.”

The duke sat upright and grabbed her arm. “Show me.”

Sighing, she tugged the cuff away from her skin and showed him the discoloured and abraded skin.

The duke asked the men around the table, “Can one of you take them off?”

Terlio nodded and came around to kneel in front of her. She held out her wrists, and he took the left cuff between his hands. He concentrated and the cuff opened like a flower. The same treatment on the right cuff, and her arms were lighter than they had been in five months.

The skin was scarred, as she had stated, but she was so busy staring at her wrists that she didn’t notice him flipping up her skirt. When his hands cupped her ankle, she gasped and stared into those dark eyes while he melted the metal away from her skin. Her right leg was released in seconds, and as his hands caressed her skin, she winced at the extreme sensitivity she was experiencing.

He kept his gaze on hers, and his fingers continued to stroke the flesh of her calf. “Better?”

She bit her lip and held her breath as she nodded. “Better. Thank you.”

The duke touched her shoulder with a shaking hand. “I had no idea, Alda.”

“I know, your Grace. I do not hold you responsible.”

He took her right hand in his left and brought the scabbed and scarred skin to his lips. “I hold myself responsible. Now, gentlemen, how quickly can you get Alda off our world?”

Chapter Three

Alda-Xeri walked proudly in the cloak borrowed from Quuro. The masks that they wore hid her whitened skin from the eyes of the guards.

Quuro was making his own way to the shuttle. He had a talent for invisibility that enabled him to leave before their party had even reached the gates.

Once cleared, they walked swiftly to the monorail that would take them to the spaceport.

Alda didn’t dare breathe a word.

The moment that they exited the monorail, the soft thud of Quuro’s feet landed next to them.

As the quiet party of four plus one, they passed through customs unmolested and settled into the shuttle as quickly as they could. Larsilk took the helm, Bukel the navigator station and Terlio sat next to Alda while Quuro regained his visibility.

They soared up and away in seconds. The moment that they lifted away from the capital, Alda began to sob.

“You are free, Alda-Xeri. No reason for tears.”

Between her sobs, she whispered, “He will die within the week without me. He was so kind, did so much good while I was treating him.”

“What did you do for him? What is a Pain Taker?”

She looked at the stranger and pulled the mask away from her face. “I numb the brain’s registration of pain—emotional and physical. It can be temporary or permanent, but it depends on the source of the pain.” She looked one last time at the white cliffs that seemed so tiny down below.

“Why did the duke want you to leave so abruptly?”

“The high chancellor was looking at me as a possible source of income or even a bargaining chip with the Raiders. They had someone sniffing around on Olsted for me years ago, but my family ceased using my talents, and I went dormant until they left.”

He kept his questions low and quiet, “What did you do for your family?”

“I administered anaesthetic to patients who were undergoing surgery. I blocked the pain and helped them through their recovery. My family has been in the medical trade for years, so it is no wonder that my talent surfaced where it was needed.”

“How did you enjoy your job?”

“I liked helping others. My life had a good rhythm before the high chancellor sent out his demand for assistance. Don’t get me wrong, I liked helping the duke get his affairs in order, but the high chancellor has been looking at me and trying to come up with an alternate use for my talent, and it was not a pleasant look. The duke knew what was happening, and he has been hanging on for two reasons. One was that he needed to wait until his heir was on the way, the other was that he wanted me gone.”

Terlio nodded. “He said as much when we disguised you. What did you do before we left?”

She sighed. “I kissed him. My saliva can be an analgesic if I am motivated. I licked my lips and kissed his cheek. He should have forty-eight hours of pain-free movement.”

“So, your talent is exclusively pain related?”

Alda looked at him with a frown. “Yes, why do you ask?”

“We had a notification that we needed to pick you up as quickly as possible. Udell base received a notice from Relay, and I was dispatched immediately.”

Blinking, she looked around the shuttle at the other three men. “You were dispatched? What about the others?”

He rubbed at the back of his neck. “Ah, that. Well, it will be explained when we arrive on Udell. Yes,
we
were all dispatched to come here.”

There was a round of throat clearing from the other three, and Alda watched the stars in the view screen. Her vision blurred as fatigue rippled through her. “May I sleep?”

“Of course. You have had a trying day. Take the rest you need. We will have a meal ready when you wake up.”

She waved at him to shut up and leaned back in her seat. A day’s worth of pain killing exhausted her, and she hoped that there was something new to see when she woke. The dream she was in now had run its course.

A hand on her shoulder was shaking her gently. “Alda-Xeri, you have been asleep for twelve hours. Time for a meal.”

She opened her eyes, and the blurry shape of Bukel was standing next to her. Alda grunted and got to her feet, shedding the robes and mask while she stumbled to the lav.

It took her ten minutes to get the makeup off her skin, but when she looked at her own face in the mirror, it showed her sallow cheeks, hollow eyes and pale lips. She looked like hammered hell.

Shivering, she had to admit she probably needed a meal. She looked at the ashy skin of her hands and the scars left by the cuffs. The marks might fade in time, but her body had been so busy replacing the energy she was using that healing itself had come in last place.

She left the lav and went in search of the galley. The smell of food was easy to follow, and Bukel had a plate ready for her when she arrived.

He stared at her and blinked. “You changed colour.”

She chortled softly. “I took off the court makeup.”

“Why did you wear it?”

“It is a uniform. We wear it to hide facial expressions and give us a unified appearance. Why do you wear the robes?”

He chuckled. “Because it was required by the Olsted court. It was the same reason that we wore the masks.”

He wasn’t wearing a mask now, and the clean-cut line of his jaw was definitely worth looking at. He had pointed ears, his eyes were more slanted than they had appeared in the fabric mask and his nose was straight and well-shaped.

She took a seat at the table, and he put the plate in front of her. She reached for the glass of water first.

Alda engaged in the same behaviour that she had in the Olsted court. She shoved the food into her mouth and washed it down with the contents of the glass.

“You really enjoy your food.” Bukel sat across from her.

“Not really, it is fuel. I eat until I am full and then stop.” Alda put the eating prong down and set the plate aside.

He smiled, and he was about to speak when Larsilk came in, his pale green eyes showed his good humour, but it was his face that got Alda’s complete attention.

“You have the same face.” It was identical. It was not the similarity one saw in twins, but a completely identical face right down to the small scar in his left eyebrow.

Larsilk got a meal into the heater and sat down with it next to Bukel.

“Why do you have the same face?”

Larsilk smiled, his lips quirking up at the corners. “Terlio didn’t tell you?”

Bukel elbowed him in the ribs. “Quiet.”

“Terlio said that I would find out on Udell.”

Larsilk sighed, “That would be safer.”

Alda rubbed at her forehead. “This is immaterial. I will find out soon enough. What am I going to be doing at Sector Guard Base Udell?”

Bukel spoke quietly, his deep voice slow and deliberate. “You will train for combat situations as well as espionage. There will be plenty of opportunities for you to contact loved ones and keep them apprised of your progress and location.”

“I can just call my family?” She hadn’t had contact with them since the court guard had come to collect her.

“You can. We have a secure network that sends a completely masked signal. You can contact anyone who is within range of a com device.” Larsilk mumbled the words around his food.

Bukel sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Ignore him, Alda-Xeri.”

She stood and got another glass of water. “You may call me Alda. Alda-Xeri is my formal name. We are now beyond formality.”