Honour (2 page)

She waited until the guards were no longer outside her room. She slowly emerged, heading for the gardens. There were smells out there that she recognised, and she wanted to see if this was an actual representation of a rose or just one of the myriad plants that mimicked the scent.

A chime rang out and women began to return to their rooms. Honour continued on until she saw the pink roses, she fell to her knees at the base of the bush. She buried her face in the blooms and inhaled deeply. It was just like being back at the florist shop on earth. She had missed the scent of roses, true roses, so very much.

A hand fell on her shoulder. “Time to return to your quarters, Terran.”

“My name is Honour.”

She rose to her feet and smiled at the bush. With her head high, she walked with the guard back to her room. If she could continue to visit that rosebush, this confinement might not be so bad after all.

She was sitting next to the roses and looking around. “Hello, is anyone out there?”

“Good evening, Honour. I apologise for the abruptness of your acquisition, but we were running out of time.”

A figure walked out of the shadows and approached her slowly.

“Who are you?” It was her dream; she could ask all the questions she liked.

“I am your host. It has been quite a few years since one of my kind was called upon, and the price is the same as it has always been.”

“What price?”

“A bride. I must say, your species was not available to my kind in pure form the last time we were called.”

“Well, you have plenty of women here to choose from, no matter what you are. I am sure that you can find one of them to fulfill your needs.” She smiled and turned back to the roses.

“You dismiss your suitability?” He was next to her but still cloaked in shadows.

“I don’t want to be suitable. I want to return to the base, make sure that everyone is still alive and get back to learning about the plants of the Nyal Imperium.”

“What if you are chosen?”

She shrugged and resumed stroking the roses. “I won’t be. I would be a very bad bride. I am far too interested in plants.”

“Fascinating. What do you find interesting about them?”

She shrugged. “Their capacity to create new species within a matter of a few generations, their scents and their colours. Their ability to lie dormant and swing into life again the moment that conditions are right. They can heal and poison on different parts of the same plant. They are truly amazing creations.”

“You truly are fixated on plant life.”

“I am. It calms me when the world goes wild. I am not surprised that my dream brought me here. I still have the scent of the petals on my skin.” She smiled and brought her fingers to her lips.

The man in her dreams caught her hand and pulled her fingers to his lips. He licked slowly and delicately as if tasting the rose and her skin in equal measure. “You are right, it is extraordinary.”

She felt a throb in her sex, and she jolted awake.

Honour’s heart pounded and her hands were trembling. She pressed her face into her hands and paused. The tips of her fingers were wet and smelled of roses.
Oh, damn.

Suddenly, sleep didn’t seem like the safest place to be. Honour got to her feet and paced. She walked, did push-ups on the walls and pulled out a nose hair in an effort to keep awake and alert.

When the morning chime rang, she nearly ran out of her room and joined the throng on their way to the meal. The tables were neatly arranged, and as she reached out to take a plate, it was pulled from her hands; one of the attendants filled it for her.

The attendant whispered, “To keep you from getting sick, lady.”

Honour understood. The food may look good, but with this variety of species, there would be several foods that wouldn’t agree with Terran digestion. Honour thanked the attendant and found a seat on the grass.

She looked around, and to her surprise, half the women from the afternoon before were missing. Honour asked a nearby woman, “Where did they go?”

The woman shrugged, “Your guess is as good as mine. Half the women gone in one night, and we have not even begun to meet our host. This is definitely odd.”

Honour tried to act casual. “Where did they go?”

Her new companion shrugged. “I have no idea. I only know that they are not here.”

There was no arguing with that logic. Honour finished her breakfast, one of the attendants swept by and the plate disappeared.

Honour rose to her feet and wandered around the garden. The other women were dressed in a robe similar to what she was wearing. As she examined the variety of flowering species, she noted a few that were very familiar. With a quick look to the guards to check if they were watching, she stroked her hands over the branches and pulled a few leaves.

She leaned forward to inhale the scent of the blossoms and slipped the leaves under the cincher. If her midnight visitor tried to invade the dreamscape again, he was going to show up alone. She wasn’t going to sleep until she had no other choice.

It was not the most rational idea she had ever had, but if she had a chance at avoiding permanent incarceration on this world, she needed to take herself out of the running. That meant stopping the part of the seduction where he could jump her subconscious.

He was going to have to take his pick of the women who enjoyed beauty rest.

Honour jumped at every sound. Three days with no sleep and she was brittle, bug-eyed and aggressive. She certainly was no catch.

Each day she left her room and there were fewer women. She was getting curious looks from the guards, but no one was sending her home.

She grabbed at the plate and headed for the corner of the garden she had staked out as her own. The Liriani leaves were a strange combination of caffeine and cocaine. She was jittery and psycho but sleep was not an option. Two a day were enough to cause all sorts of physiological twists and turns.

She finished her meal, and the attendant came up to her carefully, easing the plate away as if dealing with a wild animal. “Are you feeling all right, lady?”

“I am fine.”

“You look tired.” The attendant spoke softly, her eyes and brows wrinkled in concern.

“Really?” Honour looked at her and watched the image of her swim in her vision. “I feel fine.”

The attendant bobbed a bow and withdrew.

Honour curled up next to the roses and took turns stabbing her fingers with the thorns. When shadows crossed over her, she looked up. “Yes?”

“Lady, please come with us.” The guards inclined their heads in unison.

Honour squinted. “Why?”

“You are not well.”

“I am fine.”

“We do not believe so. Please come with us.”

“No.” She scowled and grabbed the roses. “I don’t want to go with you.”

She felt a cool pressure on her neck, and she went limp.

One of the guards lifted her in his arms, and he carried her out of the garden and down through the security gate, returning her to medical.

The physician didn’t ask what the problem was; he ran scans over her and began a series of hypos that were jabbed into every available inch of skin.

“I am fine.” It was a sing-song chant that she couldn’t stop.

“I know, you are just very tired. What have you been taking?”

“Stuff. Food.” She smirked.

“I see. Why are you filled with the residue of the Liriani leaves?”

“Um. I put them in my salad?” She bit her lip and giggled. Damn, whatever he had given her was working on her feral mood. She felt goofy.

“Not at this low dose. You are avoiding sleep. Very clever.” His eyes showed his amusement.

“Thanks. So, you will leave me alone?”

“No, your self-medicating is having an effect on your health. Your body is stressed, and one more day without sleep might cause an incident between you and the other ladies.”

She scowled at him. “What happened to the other ladies?”

“They were removed, and once their health was verified, they were sent home again. While the species were physically compatible, their psychic compatibility was not quite up to the standards of your host.”

She wrinkled her nose. “He didn’t give up on me.”

“No. You made a strong first impression.” The doctor smiled and slipped his fingers into her cincher. He brought out the four leaves that she had with her. “No more of these. You will be stripped at the end of the day before you sleep and your quarters checked in the morning. You must sleep, lady.”

Honour sat up. “I am not in control when I sleep.”

“That is the purpose of this exercise. Now, return to the women’s quarters and have a bath. Your body reeks of sweat. I will prescribe a massage as well. You are far too tense.”

“Flatterer. I have been avoiding the groomers. They are looking at me with far too much intensity. I get the feeling that they have plans for me.”

The doctor put his hand on her shoulder. “They probably do, but you will not come to harm here. Everyone is here to make you safe and comfortable.”

She blinked and looked at him, trying to make his face stay steady. “You know what would make me feel better?”

“What?”

“I want to talk to the base. I want to know that they are safe and that the Raiders left them alive and well.”

He cocked his head. “That isn’t protocol.”

“
I
am not protocol. I am a Terran. We defy the rules and force new ones.” Her defiant words were muted when she yawned.

“Go back to the garden. Have a nice soak. I will see what I can do.” He patted her shoulder again, and the guards appeared as if summoned.

They walked back with her and took her right to the groomers. She was carefully undressed, scrubbed, soaked and scrubbed again.

Pouting was not Honour’s style, but she really felt put upon when she was flopped on a stone and oil was poured on her back. Strong hands worked at the muscles tightened by the stimulants, and Honour dozed.

She was flat on her belly on warm stone with strong hands rubbing oil down her back before massaging her shoulders.

“I applaud your efforts to avoid me.”

Her eyes opened wide as the voice from her dreams came to her ears. “Um, thank you?”

“You are very welcome. I was worried that you had found a way to shut me out. I am relieved to find that it was a simple matter of stimulants. Well done. None of the others figured that out. They are surprisingly docile to my demands.”

He ran his hands down her spine to her buttocks and back up again.

“So, I am asleep on the massage table right now?”

“My massage is only slightly different than the one you are receiving while you sleep.” He moved his hands down to the backs of her thighs and kneaded at her skin.

“Why the elaborate testing? Why are you trying all of us on for size, so to speak?”

“I choose a bride, that bride rules with me, not just a city, nor a country, nor even a world, but an entire star system. I need a woman of an identifiable species, strong mind, strong body and creative means of thinking. The sexual component is vital, but so is the psychic link.”

“Why is it you who chooses?” She blurted it out, but what the hell, it was her unconscious mind.

He chuckled. “I have the right, I have the power and I have the funds. These are all factors that have enabled men to choose their women throughout history. Even your histories. Either the women surrender to their situation or they find ways to entertain themselves. This testing is to make sure that my bride will never be bored enough to seek another’s bed.”

Honour pushed herself up on her elbows and looked back at the shadows that cloaked him, even in her dream. “Why can’t I see you?”

“It is not necessary. You can hear my voice, feel my touch. I will learn you as you learn me.”

She shivered; he was right, his touch was hypnotic. He drew slow circles on her skin, climbing back toward her waist with designs on her inner thighs.

When he parted her thighs with his hands, she jerked awake.

Her heart was pounding and her sex was damp. She looked around, and the nearby groomer got to her feet and put a robe around Honour with easy movements. “The short rest did you good, lady, but you need real sleep.”

Honour grimaced and drank the tea she was given. There was a bitter aftertaste that reminded her of a sedative she had been given once.
Oh, damn.

The guards helped her back to her room, checked her to make sure she had no more leaves, and after they had run through her room in search of the same, they left her alone.

Honour wasn’t able to stay awake any longer. She dropped into bed and hoped that the mysterious host was done playing with her.

She never was that lucky.

Honour was standing on the edge of a cliff. The forests stretched as far as the eye could see.

“It is amazing, is it not? I am always so proud when I see it from this vantage point.” The host was there behind her. He put his hands on her shoulders and rubbed her arms.

She looked down and noted that her clothing was missing. “Why am I here?”

“Because, I need you. I need a living link to the outer worlds. A voice for the modern age. They only call upon me when they have desperate need, so if I am needed, I need a woman who can stand with me.”

He pressed a kiss to her neck.

Shivers overtook her. “Why not ask for volunteers?”

“I did. They did. No government would willingly part with a Terran just for the sake of an experiment for a few months. If you are the one, they will accept this choice gladly, but they would not offer you up.”

“So, you had them bring me here. Threaten the lives of the people I worked with and dragged me from my holiday.”

He sighed and continued to kiss at her neck and shoulder. “I did not know where you were, merely that you were the nearest unattached member of your species and gender.”

“Flatterer.”

“Despite my interest in your species, it is you in particular that matches what I was looking for in a mate.”

“If that is true, why are the other women still here?”