A Friendly Caper
Chapter Eight - Talis
"We're going to St. Moritz."
"Are we?" I looked over my shoulder, having gotten quite comfortable sunbathing on my tummy. "When did he decide this?"
Lilith giggled and shook her pretty head. The 14-year-old wife of my master, Prince Ibrahim bin Saud, had only recently delivered him a son. Her breasts had grown large with the milk leaking from dark, rubbery nipples the size of her thumbs. They were impressive and contrasted starkly with Lilith's otherwise petite form. She wasn't shy in the privacy of our Riyadh palace either. We were both naked beneath the bright Saudi sun and relaxing beside the swimming pool. By mid-day it would be much too hot, but for the moment we could enjoy the fresh air and endless blue sky over the Kingdom.
"I have decided," she answered. "My husband dallies in Lebanon. It will do him good to find an empty bed when he returns."
I watched as Lilith arched her back, stretching her arms over her head as she lay on divan identical to my own. She pointed her toes with a happy, contented sigh and reminded me of a kitten. Her caramel body glistened with lotion and I admired the woman-child's resilience. She'd worried terribly over the stretch marks pregnancy had stained her with, but less than four months later they'd faded completely. Lilith had regained her previous shape, even more so as babyfat gave way to shapely thighs and sweet, round hips.
My body had changed little over the past few years. I'd grown into a woman, more or less, and I spent a lot of time perfecting the gifts nature had bestowed. Diet, exercise, and a genuine lust to appear beautiful had become something of a religion for me. I was the Mistress-Slave of wealthy man. The Prince could sell me on a whim should I ever displease him, even kill me, and I had no desire for that! I loved him deeply, and I believed he loved me as well, but his ongoing infatuation with that French whore…
"He'll be angry," I reminded Lilith after several minutes. "The Prince will have you whipped before he fucks you again."
"But at least he will fuck me," she sighed. "I wish I'd borne him a daughter."
Lilith rolled onto her side and faced me, propping herself up on her elbow. She had a dozen gold rings on her fingers and toes, countless bangles, and chains around her neck and tummy. I preferred my piercings, the gold rings through my nipples and the six carat emerald in my belly button. The smaller half-carat emerald in my nose and the diamonds in my ears. My scrotum had been pierced close to my anus and my cock had been pierced as well, just under the smooth glans. It pleased the Prince to bind my cock to my balls when he was absent. This made it impossible for me to penetrate his wife, of course, but I know he enjoyed the aesthetics and I'd learned to appreciate the frustration.
Yes, I had much jewelry and like my young friend, I liked to indulge with precious bracelets, necklaces, and many rings. My Prince liked to spoil me, even more so now that he felt guilty for taking a second mistress, and I'd never demanded anything of him but love. The sapphires around my throat had cost him a hundred thousand euros at least, but that necklace was a mere trinket without a man to admire it - to admire me - but I wore it all the same. Most often I wore nothing else, at least in the privacy of my palace apartments. Elsewhere I dressed in the traditional garb of cultured Arab women, covering my body from head to toe and I'd learned to appreciate my adopted culture as well.
I was very much at home with the life Fate had chosen for me.
Lilith sipped her tea and I went back to torturing myself with the latest issue of Paris Match. Her idea of going to St. Moritz was only a fantasy. She wished to assert herself, but I'd chosen her as Ibra's wife precisely because she lacked the forceful personality that would have posed a threat to me. I was his real wife and I would decide how and when we would remind the Prince of his obligations. In public I didn't exist, but in this place, alone with Lilith and our household…
"Comfort me," I told her. "This magazine is boring. Use your mouth."
"Mmmm…Sareth," she breathed, moving from her divan to mine as I spread my legs.
Lilith's hands stroked my flesh and I closed my eyes, laying face down and smiling. She squeezed the bronzed cheeks of my ass and kissed the back of my thighs, working her way higher. I felt her humid breath on my cock and balls and the tip of her nose against my asshole when she kissed them. My swollen penis was trapped beneath me, being tugged downward and locked to that piercing behind my scrotum. It wasn't so awkward as it sounds, nor painful at all, just annoying as my arousal tugged at the metal. But this would be nice anyway and we enjoyed oral lovemaking quite often. Sometimes I would go down on Lilith's barely pubescent sex, but more often like this, with her delicate tongue wriggling inside my ass.
I reached blindly to dig my fingers into her hair. She had long, black hair, soft as silk and scented with desert oils. I loved the way it fell in thick waves around her slender shoulders. My own hair was much the same, soft and perfumed as well, but not so pure in color. With my bronzed skin and occidental eyes, no one in Riyadh would mistake me for anything but a foreigner and I regretted that sometimes. I'd grown to love the Kingdom and its people. In my heart I often lamented the fact that I wasn't Arabic in my blood. Being neither a man nor a woman bothered me not at all, but having no country I could call my own…I prayed often to Allah, asking for a miracle.
"Come swimming with us, Sareth!" Alya shouted, and then squealed happily as her sister, Iris, pushed the girl into the pool.
"The children are up," Lilith observed, lifting her face from between my ass cheeks and smacking her lips. That almost made me laugh considering that my twin servants were two years older than her.
It was the right word though and I opened my eyes just in time to see Iris jumping naked into the water after her sister. They were from Palestine and not beautiful really, but decidedly cute and possessing an affection for life that was quite impossible to ignore. I loved them very much.
"Sareth!"
"Lilith, come play with us!"
"Don't stop," I sighed, reaching behind me to find a fistful of Lilith's hair. "Use your fingers too."
"Mmmm..." she breathed, teasing around my asshole with her tongue. Lilith rubbed my cock with her thumb and tickled my sphincter with a small, delicate finger.
Little girl hands are so wonderful and it wasn't long before she was fucking me with two and then three fingers, pumping my oiled rectum easily as I hunched my hips and concentrated on breathing through the pleasure. If my penis had been free it would have stood stiffly erect and I surely would have had to seek relief in one of Lilith's hungry holes. As it was, however, I could do little but enjoy the stimulation much as a real woman would. I could even cum given enough time and pleasure, but the children were not to be denied in their exuberance.
"Grab her!" Iris shouted, laughing and dripping water on my back and shoulders. "Help me! Grab her feet!"
"No! Stop!" Lilith protested, but she was laughing too as the twins picked her up by the arms and legs. "Let me go! Wait! No! I'm wearing my..."
SPLASH
"...jewelry," I finished for her, since Lilith certainly hadn't been wearing anything else.
"Saaareth..." Alya sang, and it was my turn to protest and struggle as the girls wrestled me off the divan and into the tepid waters of the swimming pool. At least I managed to pull Iris in with me, hugging her firm young breasts to mine as we sank to the bottom.
We all shouted and laughed, and I hadn't fought them too much. Unlike small Lilith, I was eighteen and in very good shape thanks to a fanaticism for exercise and diet. It isn't easy being a beautiful woman, but I'd always found it simple enough to be a girl and the four of us capered in the Olympic sized pool like ordinary teenagers skipping school. We teased and tickled each other, shared kisses and playful grab-ass gropes while Raman, Rashid, and Lilith's two bodyguards stood in the shade and pretended not to watch. Servants took away our tea, replaced our towels and pillows, and set a table for our mid-morning brunch. We paid them no mind at all.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
By ten o'clock it had become much too warm to sit in the sun. Near the pool a well-appointed solarium offered air-conditioned comfort in a luxurious garden setting, but we were wet and giggly. We decided to sit outside beneath a bright canopy of silk and wide-spread palm fronds. Lilith and I ate our breakfast of fresh fruit, English muffins, and cold tea while Alya and Iris served. I fed Alya grapes from my mouth, bending over as she knelt on a pillow near my chair and kissing her. Lilith, wanting to show off her decadence, offered Iris caviar that she would spoon onto her milk-filled breasts. The girl would suckle the delicacy from Lilith's nipples slowly, drawing a mouthful of thin cream to wash it down with.
We heard a helicopter passing overhead, but couldn't see it. "Perhaps my husband is returned," Lilith said without much hope, and I merely snorted.
"He wouldn't be in such a hurry," I replied, knowing the truth of it. Ibra was still angry about my tantrum and determined to punish me with his absence.
All we could look forward to was a long bath and massage, our noon prayers, and a light lunch before retiring for an afternoon of lazy, lesbian sex with catnaps in between. There seemed to be nothing extraordinary about this day so indistinguishable from recent others. With the exception of our Prince being absent and probably fucking his French whore in the Beirut Hilton, all was right with the world. It gave me something to think about anyway, how I would deal with that particular fly in the ointment.
The woman's picture had been in the magazine I'd been reading and she didn't strike me as a cunning creature at all. She probably imagined that her famous face made her immune to unhappiness. It was an illusion I suffered not at all and I'd have to do something about her before she even had a hint of my existence. Lebanon wasn't so far away, nor even France. That would be better. It should happen with Ibra in my arms, or at least in Lilith's, but she'd given him a son and so his interest in her would be much lessened now. The Prince hadn't fucked his wife properly since she'd announced her pregnancy, I knew, and I saw no need to change that.
An automobile accident perhaps, like the one that had killed Diana so long ago. Fame hadn't protected that woman, had it? I decided to give it serious consideration and actually opened my mouth to suggest that I might visit the bazaar in a day or two when Lilith's eyes widened with surprise.
"Prince Faisal?"
"What?" I turned to see Ibrahim's older brother approaching with two other men, one being his bodyguard and the other one of his personal assistants.
"How dare you!" Lilith gasped and I came to my senses then, giving Iris a push.
"Cover the Princess!" I told the twins. "Quickly! Use the towels!"
No man had seen more than Lilith's face and hands since before her marriage to Prince Ibrahim a year before. Since their engagement had been announced, to be precise. Not even the girl's own father couldn't see her without the modesty of being fully clothed. It was unthinkable that Faisal would see her completely nude, not to mention the other two men. The insult to Ibra would be almost irreparable according to my understanding of Islam custom and law.
Iris and Alya covered Lilith quickly and pressed the smaller girl between them with their own immodest bodies. Their nakedness mattered somewhat less, being servants and unmarried, but the entire situation was an affront to our sensibilities. Even I deserved more consideration than this, being Ibra's mistress and living under his roof. Prince Faisal did not own this palace, his authority did not extend over his brother's household even in Ibra's absence.
I wanted to scream at the man for this outrage, but the look on his face stopped me and I contented myself with hiding behind my own over-sized beach towel.
"Forgive this intrusion, sister, but there's no time," he said, motioning to Lilith's bodyguards as they'd already moved closer. "My helicopter is waiting. Take the Princess to her room, get her dressed and packed. You have ten minutes."
"What? Why? What are you doing? Where is my husband?" Lilith asked from beneath the towels. "Where are you taking me? I demand to speak with my husband!"
"He isn't here. Go now...Go! Take her upstairs!" Faisal ordered, ignoring all the other questions and I could only sit there. I didn't have to ask, but I did anyway...
"I'm not going, am I?"
The Prince, dressed elegantly in his Brooks Brothers suit and Hermes tie, looked at his watch. "No," he answered. "There isn't enough room on the helicopter. I'll arrange a car..."
"Don't lie to me," I said softly. "Where is Prince Ibrahim?"
I'd never met Faisal before, but he bore more than a passing resemblance to his brother. They had the same sensuous features, a masculine jaw and generous mouth; the same gentle brown eyes that could turn cold as the moonlit desert when angered. Perhaps I'd had a premonition when he'd walked in so rudely on Lilith. Something must be very wrong and I was nothing to this man but one of Ibra's many expensive toys...and yet he must have known how much my Prince loved me.
"He's dead," Faisal said, giving me his eyes just long enough so I could see the truth in them.
"How?"
"Paris was destroyed. We just found out..."
"What?" I blinked at him, wondering if my Arabic had suddenly failed me and he'd meant something else.
"...London, New York, Los Angeles, I think," he continued. "They've destroyed everything. Riyadh could be next. We have to get out of the city."
"Who destroyed..." I started, and then had a thought. "But Ibra wasn't in Paris! He went to Lebanon, he told me himself. He can't be dead!"
"He was in Paris," Faisal assured me. "He called our father just before the phones went down."
"The phones?" I gave him a blank look and the Prince had no more time for me anyway.
"I'm sorry," he said, glancing at his watch again. "Stay in the palace. When it's safe we'll come back."
I watched him leave, feeling more confused than anything else, but the devastation came soon enough. Not to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, but to my heart as I accepted the truth about Ibra. The helicopter left only a few minutes later, I could hear it, and I wasn't able to say goodbye to Lilith. I prayed that Prince Faisal would break the news to her gently.
Iris and Alya brought me to my apartments and wept with me. They tried to make me eat, but I refused. Whoever had destroyed those cities, the Russians probably, although I had no idea why - Wasn't the Cold War over? Why start World War Three now? The Chinese maybe, would they nuke Paris? Whoever it was and for whatever reason, I hoped they'd strike Riyadh soon and put an end to my misery. But then I remembered the millions who lived there and cursed my cowardice.
"Sareth! No!" Ramin took the knife away before I could cut my wrists properly and the doctor they summoned gave me a powerful sedative. She had old eyes and wrinkled hands and I thought the woman should have known better than to save me.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Where is Lilith?"
"She's safe," Prince Faisal assured me some three months later. "I've decided to take her as my wife and adopt the boy. You don't have to worry about that."
I'd expected as much for that wasn't an unusual custom in this place. Faisal had assumed all of his dead brother's obligations and debts, as well as his property - including me. I wanted to see Lilith again, but clearly that wouldn't be possible if he married the girl. This prince didn't share the same affection for me that Ibra had shown and I wasn't sure if I should be grateful for that or not. My greatest fear was that he'd simply kick me out with little more than the clothes on my back, putting me on the chaotic streets of a city still starving in the aftermath of the alien invasion.
"And what of me," I asked, whispering the words and opening my arms.
I wasn't quite trying to seduce him, but the invitation was there. I wore a gauze of brightly colored silk that hid the details of my charming form and little else. My feet were bare but for the jewelry I wore, likewise my arms and neck. A finely wrought veil of 24 karat gold covered my mouth, but my hair flowed free, oiled and scented with rare perfume. I hadn't gone to great pains to make myself beautiful for Prince Faisal, but my appearance was undiminished in any event. I knew how good I looked and the only question was whether or not the man wanted me for his own or...
"You may enter," he said over his shoulder, and I narrowed my eyes.
Iris and Alya had found pillows across the room, watching with no small interest what happened between Faisal and myself. They were probably correct in thinking that their fates were linked with mine, but I'd learned long ago that Fate had her favorites. Now the twins hurried to my side as the doors were opened by the Prince's bodyguards.
"Oh my!" the creature exalted, widening its yellow eyes and licking olive green lips. "You saved the best for last, I see."
It had three fingers and two thumbs on each hand, pointed ears like an elf, and a shock of shimmering yellow hair on its bulbous head. Male or female, I couldn't tell, but definitely alien despite its surprisingly passable Arabic. I suspected the former given its unquestionable focus on me. It didn't look around the room or pay any attention to my two servants, but only drank me in from head to toe.
"What is it?" Alya gasped, clutching my left leg as I stood above her.
"Mistress?" Iris trembled and stood behind me, wrapping her arms around my waist. "What does it want?"
As if I would know?
"Unregistered, yes? Oh, I love this planet!" It clapped its hands together and shuffled its feet beneath the shapeless linen robes it wore. A caftan? Apparently the creature had decided to clothe itself like one of us and I found the idea vaguely insulting.
I looked at the open doorway hoping to see Raman and Rashid, but they were nowhere to be found. Doubtless the Prince had taken steps to ensure they wouldn't interfere. I very much hoped my bodyguards had not been harmed. They'd promised to protect me with their lives, but I couldn't hold them to such an oath any longer. Prince Faisal owned this palace and everything in it now, including me.
The alien hadn't come alone, of course, several other men wearing military uniforms had entered the room as well. One of them spoke to the alien: "The King refuses to catalogue the Faithful. Such a thing would be a great injustice to Allah and..."
"Enough," Faisal cut the man off. "You wish to be done quickly? What is your offer?"
"Oh yes," the creature agreed. "I've been here too long already. Let me see...That one is the prize, no? Breathtaking. Not personally, but I'm an artist, you know. I can see the potential, um-hmmm...The others not so much, let's say...With this morning's selection...Have you any others like this one? No, I suppose...Not a virgin, I'd wager, eh?"
The alien seemed to enjoy speaking to itself, clearly not expecting any answers or commentary from Prince Faisal. It seemed to be using a small calculator, although I might have expected more from a race that had conquered humanity in less than a day. The strange being struck me as a grotesque parody of the merchants found in the bazaar. Aside from the initial shock at its appearance, I found myself quite unafraid for some reason. Perhaps because I'd been sold into slavery before.
Humans and aliens, I decided, were not very different at all.
"You declare a Jihad against the aliens and now you're trading with them?" I stared at Faisal, daring him to look me in the eyes. "I'm happy Ibra isn't here to see his brother's betrayal!"
"We're getting a fair price," he muttered, but the hypocrisy must have wounded him.
"Yeah?" I spat the words into his face. "What's the going rate for a daughter of Allah these days?"
"You're no one's daughter, Sareth," he said, but the point was moot. I'd converted to Islam heart and soul and Faisal knew it.
"Answer the question!" I shouted as his two bodyguards approached, obviously intending to carry me out of the room if they had to.
The alien merely watched and perhaps it was vanity that prompted my outburst. I knew what Ibra had paid for me and I wanted to know what an alien thought I was worth. The answer, I hoped, would provide me with a clue and I needed every advantage I could get. The more valuable I was, the more I could get away with, or so my reasoning went, but the answer wasn't very helpful.
"For you? Alone?" The alien had been conferring with the military men and now it answered for the prince with something like a smile. "Another five thousand tons. You earthlings drive a hard bargain."
"Five thousand tons of what?" I asked, my first thoughts running to the obvious...Gold? But that would be ridiculous.
"Food. Our people are starving," Faisal said quietly. "Allah will be merciful to you."
"Allah Ahkbar," I replied after a moment's thought. God is Great and there was nothing more to be said as I pulled Alya and Iris to their feet.
I might have expected to be stripped of my jewelry before leaving the palace, but I wasn't. Prince Faisal probably lacked the courage, but that may be unfair of me. I wore only what his brother had given me out of love and so it was perhaps not Faisal's right to take the jewelry back. Of course, the alien, whose name I didn't even know yet, would probably take everything anyway.
Still, I rather hoped that the gold and gems would offer me a chance to escape if I needed one. Maybe not though, since the alien didn't seem impressed by anything but my flesh. The question of my virginity had told me all I needed to know about my future duties. I wondered if it knew I was part male, or if it even cared. At least I had Alya and Iris with me, although I suspected the creature wouldn't have bothered with my twins at all if they hadn't been thrown into the deal for free.
"I'm sorry," I whispered as we were marched out of the palace and towards what must have been the alien's spacecraft. It rather resembled a fat, stub-winged airliner to me and barely fit on what had once been Prince Ibrahim's polo field.
"For what?" Alya whispered back.
"You couldn't leave us, Sareth," Iris said, offering me a brave smile and a squeeze of her hand. "We love you."
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"In you go," the alien told me, and I stepped into something resembling a huge test tube all by myself. It hadn't touched me yet and I didn't want it to.
Seeing some five dozen others already occupied helped make up my mind. They all appeared to be female, ranging in age from mid-teens into their twenties perhaps, although I couldn't know for sure. Most of them were fully clothed anyway, but from what I saw they were attractive enough to convince me that we'd been selected to a specific, sexual purpose. It was deja vu all over again, except I wasn't handcuffed to a bed this time, thank goodness.
"Will it hurt?" Iris asked, and the alien made a clicking sound that I took for laughter. I wished he'd locked up Alya and Iris first, just so I'd know they were okay, but I was his prize apparently.
"It will keep you safe," it promised, and then the tube closed with a whoosh of air. I couldn't hear anything or even feel anything a second later.
My muscles refused to work properly, but I could breathe and my heart kept pumping. I just couldn't move except to blink my eyes and though I could see through the glass, I almost panicked with a sudden attack of claustrophobia. I'd never suffered such a thing before and it frightened me terribly. I worried that the condition might be permanent, or what if something was wrong and I was supposed to be asleep or frozen or something. What if I died of starvation or ran out of air? I couldn't even shout for help or bang on the glass with my fists.
Only when I saw the woman directly across from me blink several times did I feel any sort of reassurance, but it wasn't much. The next thirty minutes were the longest of my life. I'd have much preferred being tied down to a dirty mattress, but I'm equally sure that would have been a bad idea on a ship leaving the earth's surface.
There were no windows. The lighting was amber and the interior of the ship was as unappealing as the inside of a chemical factory. There were many pipes and wires, gauges and valves and monitors. I heard the ship rumbling, maybe it was the engines, maybe something else, but felt no vibrations or thrust. When a slipper floated past my tube, a simple rubber-soled shoe that one of the other slaves must have lost, I understood that we were in space. No gravity. It drifted slowly and silently past, left to right until I lost it in my peripheral vision.
WHUMP!
Something happened. The sound had been loud and hollow, but ringing like a great hammer striking the side of a ship. I was on a ship, I reminded myself, and the amber lights flickered and went out completely. I could see nothing and soon I found it difficult to breathe. My lungs felt heavy and my head began to hurt. My eyes wanted to close and I tried to take deeper breaths, but it didn't help. I had to breathe through my nose because my mouth wouldn't open and I couldn't even gasp properly. I didn't know what was wrong and I think I began to cry, but by that time everything was so dull and confused that I could have been dreaming.
Rain, I thought. It was raining and Ibra was holding me, wiping at my cheeks with his thumbs. Kissing my mouth. He hadn't died at all. I'd been dreaming, that's all, and we were safe in Riyadh and it was...raining?
No. Someone else held me and he was blue as the sky and dressed in white. He held a flask of water and let some pour across my lips. It felt cool and refreshing and I opened for a drink, staring into his silver eyes. This was the dream, but it wasn't and as I became aware of the ache in my lungs and the pounding headache behind my temples, I remembered my twins.
"Alya! Iris!" I said, bolting upright and looking around. "Where are they? What did you do with them?"
I spoke Arabic, naturally, and the blue alien spoke something else entirely. He didn't try to stop me as I stood up, but he must have known I'd fall down right away because he caught me with a smile. As soon as the blood hit my head, I'd lost all sense of balance. He spoke again, probably trying to tell me to relax. How could I with the two girls missing?
We weren't on the alien's stubby ship either. That seemed to be parked right in front of me with people - aliens - dressed in leather carrying more women out of it. There were more blue people as well, male and female by the looks of them, and they seemed to be doctors or nurses. They were tending to the others much as this guy was trying to take care of me. We must have landed someplace, in some sort of huge hanger at an airport or something. We'd never gotten into space, I thought. We must have crashed, or almost crashed anyway, and made it here, except...Nothing made sense.
"I have to find them," I said, gritting my teeth and standing up again. This time I felt better and didn't lose my balance.
The blue man helped me and I might have been surprised by how tall and slender he was, but I was busy. There were thirty-some women laid upon the metal floor and still more were being brought out of the ship. I didn't see my girls right away and was just decided to try and enter the ship myself when Alya saw me.
"Sareth!" She managed to gasp my name loudly enough that I heard it above the confused din. Iris lay beside her with a blue woman in attendance. They looked dazed and more than a little frightened, but their faces lit up as I ran to them. I barely had the energy for even a 20 meter dash, but I made it and collapsed onto the floor between them feeling much relieved.
The alien nursing Iris had long silver hair to match her eyes, bright pink lips too, and she said something in their peculiar language. I didn't need it translated, the look on her face told me all I needed to know - I had to stop running around and rest. Drink some water and let my body recover from being nearly suffocated in that stupid test tube. So much for keeping us safe! When I saw that ugly alien again, I decided, I'd kick it right in the balls - or whatever it might have down there. They could sell me to a whorehouse on Mars, I didn't care as long as I got just a little payback for going through all this crap.
I'd just said as much to Alya and Iris, much to their weary delight, when I heard something I really didn't expect at all.
"...we're going to need a translator up here," a giant black man was saying. "None of these people are speaking English. Where did they come from?"
He wasn't African black either, but definitely alien and wearing a uniform different from the others. Rather than looking like a SWAT-team member with their tactical gear, weapons, and masks, he simply wore a navy blue tunic and trousers. He had snow-white hair and a sword, of all things. It hung from a scabbard at his belt. I was tempted to speak up and tell him that I spoke English, but I wanted to listen as long as I could. People tend to say things they normally wouldn't if they think nobody else is listening.
"We'll have the navigation logs soon," a smaller man replied, and he seemed to be leading the guys with guns. Whether they were policemen or soldiers, I had no idea and it didn't really matter. They had enough weapons anyway, but for the moment everyone seemed to be more concerned with saving lives than taking them.
"I think it's one of the Middle Eastern dialects," a woman said. She was dressed in leather too, but of a completely different sort.
Tall and thin, with rich, auburn hair and oriental green eyes, the woman had an angular sort of body with narrow hips and very small breasts. She looked Japanese to me, actually, but one dressed for a night club or something, not this place. Her outfit was a teal catsuit, much like those found in fetish magazines, but the tailoring was exquisite! And she wasn't Japanese or even human, her tone of voice and body language told me that much; this alien seemed to be the one in charge of the situation.
"I'll have to find a linguist," she continued. "It would be a lot easier if they were on file. Do you have a shuttle standing by?"
"It's being arranged," the giant said. "The Duchess wants to come down and see them for herself."
"She probably wants to apologize personally," the woman said, but I couldn't tell if she was joking or serious. None of them so much as smiled.
One of the blue aliens reported to them in his strange, bird-like language. I couldn't understand what he was saying, but it seemed to make the woman unhappy. They began walking away, towards the spaceship, so I couldn't listen in any longer. I'd heard enough to convince me that we weren't in any immediate danger and that was good news. I wondered what had happened to the creature who'd bought us for there didn't seem to be any sign of it.
"What happened?" Alya asked. "Where are we?"
"What are they going to do with us?" Iris added, both girls talking at the same time as they began to recover.
All I could do was shake my head and hug them to me as the twins moved closer. Around us, the other would-be slaves were beginning to huddle together in small groups of three or four. I could hear them whispering the same questions, looking for something to reassure them. We were all calm at least, or perhaps cowed is the better word. The doctors and nurses had finished with us and now only the soldiers remained, not too close, but not too far either. They had their weapons ready, but pointed deliberately away from us too. Their language was different from the others, but they didn't say much to each other anyway and nothing at all to any of us.
The place had actually quieted down quite a bit when a woman shrieked, prompting others to scream as well. One of the blue aliens had returned, several of them actually, and he'd tried to give the woman an injection of some kind. The doctor, I assumed that's what he was, looked confused as the nearby women scrambled to get away from him and whatever it was he held in his delicate fingers. It looked more like a silver ballpoint pen than anything else. He said something in his language, but it was no good. We were all frightened again, the others more than me as I'd had the small advantage of overhearing that bit of conversation earlier and knew they meant us no harm.
"Where's that damned linguist?" the oriental woman asked, walking quickly in our direction. "This is ridiculous!"
"Busy with interrogation, I'd imagine," the giant replied, and that wasn't a word I found comforting at all. Who would they be interrogating and why?
"Do any of you speak English?" she asked in a loud voice, but by then it was too late. Any of the woman who did would be too frightened to admit it. They probably should have asked that question a long time ago.
"I do," I answered, surprising myself even as I slowly raised my arm. I should have stayed quiet like the others and Iris gave me a unhappy frown.
"Sareth, don't..." she whispered, but it was too late for that.
"Bring her to me!" the woman commanded, and her giant companion translated the order into a sharp, alien barking sound for the soldiers.
"It's alright," I told Iris and Alya. "Let me go. Stay here."
They didn't like that, but I was afraid if they tried to keep me close the aliens would do something unnecessary. Clearly the one in the teal catsuit was becoming impatient and I didn't wait for the soldiers, but stood up by myself and crossed the dozen meters between us on only slightly rubbery legs. This was probably a foolish thing to do, drawing attention to myself that way, but I was getting a little impatient myself. It had been a long day.
"What is your name?"
"Sareth," I replied, refusing to shy away from the alien's brilliant eyes. They were like emeralds and not very warm at all.
"Very well, Sareth. Tell your people they have nothing to fear. They're safe and will be returned home shortly."
I did as she asked, translating the words into Arabic. Some of the women visibly relaxed as I spoke, others not so much.
"Explain to them that this..." she held up one of the silver pen-looking devices "...will not hurt them. We need to get a DNA sample from everyone."
"Why?"
"Excuse me?" She blinked, not expecting me to ask even that simple question.
"Why do you need our DNA?" I asked reasonably, wondering if I wasn't pushing my luck further than it wanted to go.
"It's a safety measure," she replied, getting a look from the black giant. "To ensure you haven't been infected with anything on your little trip."
The woman's eyes never left mine, but I knew she was lying. She was good at it too, obviously accustomed to saying whatever was necessary to get what she wanted. I flirted with the idea of calling her on it, but that wouldn't have been too wise, I thought. I'd never get the truth out of her anyway, not in front of everyone else, and I had no idea what she might do if I angered or embarrassed her. But perhaps I overestimated my position, since I was just a slave and technically her prisoner. What choice did I have but to do as she asked?
"The injection is for your own good," I told the other women. "It will keep us healthy, that's all."
"He touched me," a young woman said, calling out in a quailing voice. She must have been the one who first screamed and I understood the reason for it then.
"The men, uh...the males," I explained slowly, "cannot touch the women. They shouldn't even be looking at them, really."
"They're doctors," the oriental alien said, as if that was the only thing that mattered.
"Yeah, but they're men too. It's the Sharia. Being touched like that, it's degrading. An insult to their womanhood."
Exasperation flickered across her face and for a second I was afraid she'd simply order all of us strapped down and injected whether we liked it or not. Some of those women, perhaps most of them, must have been virginal and to their minds the violation of their modesty would be far worse than being kidnapped and sold into bondage. I suffered no illusions after my own experiences of being raped into submission by Prince Ibrahim. More than likely it would happen to some of these women as well, but it didn't have to happen today. Not in this place, not today, and that was my whole point.
"Female doctors are okay though?" a girl's voice cut between us before the alien could make a decision. "We'll respect your wishes in this matter. Right, Helena?"
"Mistress," the alien whispered, bowing her head immediately.
The black giant bowed his head as well, the doctors too, but not the soldiers. If anything they seemed even more alert suddenly. I wondered who this girl was, because she didn't look like an alien at all. She had blonde hair and California good looks, like she'd grown up surfing in Malibu, and I found her quite attractive. She had a smile that seemed genuine and only her eyes revealed something lurking beneath.
"I'm Talis," she said, pausing just long enough to see if I'd recognize the name. I didn't.
"The Duchess of Cepheus and Protectorate of the Spinward March," the giant elaborated for my benefit.
"I'm just Sareth," I told her. "Are you, um...human?"
"Oh yes," she answered, giving her shoulders a playful shrug beneath the crimson robe she wore.
The reaction struck me as so natural, so instinctive to her nature, that it couldn't have been feigned. Some part of Talis found her situation amusing and that really surprised me. In that moment she seemed like nothing more than a teenage girl and how she'd ended up here - wherever "here" was - playing the role of Duchess baffled me completely.
"May I see your arm, please?" a blue alien asked in sing-song English. "Perhaps if we did you first...Are you the leader of these people?"
"Me?" I stared into his face, deciding the alien was rather handsome. "I'm just a slave. Who are you?"
"This is Doctor Esyaseyayas," Talis said, watching as I pulled the silk up my left arm and exposed myself to the silver pen.
"You may call me Doctor Yes," he said with a small chuckle. "A small pinch...There. That didn't hurt, did it?"
"No," I agreed, rubbing my arm. "It was okay."
"Good." The second pinch hurt even less. "One more, a genetic tag and...All finished."
"My personal physician," the Duchess explained. "I guess you could say he specializes in treating humans."
"I've had enough practice lately," he sighed, and then bowed his head. "If you'll excuse me, Mistress."
"Of course." Talis let him go with a smile. Around us the other blue aliens were all female now and they were administering the tags or whatever with much less fuss than before. The other aliens, the oriental woman and her black friend, had left us without further ado and would presumably arrange transportation for us soon.
"There you are! You shouldn't be here," a woman said. "None of these people have been scanned."
"Ellicent has found me," the Duchess whispered, rolling her blue eyes before turning around. "I'm in trouble now."
This Ellicent person was probably the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen in my life and for a moment I thought she was human, but no. She had crimson eyes and sharp, curving fangs in her mouth, thick blonde hair and a wonderfully tanned complexion beneath her lavender robes. I wondered if her golden color was all natural or if she might not be hiding some tan lines, and that just goes to show how truly striking she was. I wasn't usually so flippant in my thoughts, at least not under circumstances like this!
Was everyone here so beautiful? First the woman in the catsuit...What had Talis called her? Helena? She had a cool, austere beauty that defied easy definition. The Duchess looked like the proverbial "Girl-Next-Door" in the old Calvin Klein ads, and now this vampire-like creature who turned her blood-filled eyes on me as if I held her friend at gunpoint.
"Who are you?" she demanded, but it was Talis who answered for me.
"Everything is fine. Ransom is here and I have my guards, see?" Talis gestured and I hadn't really noticed the half-dozen or so aliens who surrounded us. "This is Sareth. She's been helping us with the situation."
"She hasn't been scanned," Ellicent insisted. "Remember what happened to Orion..."
"Oh, I don't think she's dangerous," Talis said lightly. "Are you, Sareth?"
"Dangerous? Um...No!" I shook my head quickly.
"See?" The Duchess smiled at her friend and I wondered exactly what their relationship might be. "Don't worry so much."
"I'm paid to worry," Ellicent retorted, "and you're paid to rule, not take unnecessary chances. We're already behind schedule."
"See?" Talis looked at me. "I told you I was in trouble. Thank you for your help, Sareth."
"Sure," I said. "It was my pleasure, uh...I guess."
"You'll be returned to your homes soon," she promised. "This entire affair has been very regrettable."
"We have to go, Mistress," Ellicent said, giving us both a frown. "Jericho has prepared a list of candidates and...."
"Yes, yes..." Talis sighed, letting herself be led away from me without further goodbye.
It struck me then, what she'd said about being returned home, and I had no home. Perhaps none of those women did, having been sold to the alien like we were. For certain neither I nor my twin servants had anyplace to return to and if we were brought back to Riyadh our futures wouldn't be overly bright. I could possibly attempt to contact Prince Faisal, but that was easier said than done from outside the royal household. I seriously doubted he'd welcome me back in any event. I couldn't be trusted, not after being sold, and whatever his opinion, I regarded his actions as a betrayal of his brother.
No, Faisal would have me exiled, if not executed, and alone in the city, the girls and I would end up prostituting ourselves just for food. The others I couldn't know about and they weren't my concern anyway. It was time to be selfish. I had three lives to protect and the only possibility of survival seemed to lay with this Duchess and convincing her to keep us. I knew all of that instinctually more than rationally, and the only real question was how to grab her interest and keep it.
"Talis...ah...Mistress?" I licked my lips as Ellicent gave me a withering look, but the Duchess had turned her head as well. "I don't, um...I have nowhere else to go."
"What do you mean?" she asked, stopped a dozen paces away. "You're free now. The slaver...What was his name?"
"Unimportant," Ellicent answered impatiently. "He'll be executed by the end of the day."
"Executed?" I blinked at her.
"Does that bother you?"
"Ummm...No," I replied truthfully. The punishment would have been the same under the Law of Islam, the Sharia, but his unhappy fate didn't help me with mine.
"Walk with us," Talis said, surprising Ellicent as much as me.
"Mistress..." she whispered, but the Duchess waved a hand.
"I wish to speak with her."
"You have to look through the list of candidates," Ellicent reminded her. "There isn't much time, you know that."
"Better than anyone else," Talis agreed. "But I think we have a candidate right here. Come along, Sareth. Are you hungry?"
"Her?" The beautiful alien narrowed her eyes and I felt distinctly uncomfortable. If I'd wanted attention, I had plenty of it now. "Are you certain?"
"Do you doubt me?" Talis asked, chiding her friend with a giggle. I understood none of this, however, and I had my girls to think about.
"I have two...friends," I said slowly. "My servants. I don't want to leave them."
"Servants?" She actually smiled. "I thought you said you were a slave?"
"I was the mistress to a prince," I explained. "He liked to spoil me."
"I can see why," Talis said. "Where are they? Bring them along."
"Mistress..." Ellicent shook her head. "What are you doing?"
"Trying to save my cousin's life," she replied. "What does it look like? She's the one, except...Sareth?"
"Yes?" I'd started to motion for Iris and Alya to join me, but froze as Talis cocked her head with a crooked smile.
"You're not a woman, are you?"
"What?" I swallowed hard, wondering how she could possibly know that. I'd long since perfected my appearance and mannerisms. I had none of the usual tell-tale signs; no Adam's apple or awkward, masculine hands. I had no facial hair at all and I walked and talked exactly like an eighteen-year-old girl should, albeit one with experiences quite out of the ordinary.
Ellicent looked surprised and I imagine the look on my face confirmed what Talis already knew. There was little sense in denying the truth, especially if I wanted the Duchess to protect me.
"It's alright," she said, giving me a smile before looking at her friend. "See? I've been doing this for a long time, Ellie. We'll bring her with us. I'm starving."