Slave (29 page)

Slave 221107.qxd 1/30/08 4:36 PM Page 262

WE SPENT THE NEXT SEVERAL DAYS AT RANATA’S

house, my sister and I getting reacquainted and remembering old times—happier times when we’d only viewed the subjects of kidnapping and slavery and torment as having been someone else’s misfortunes, and not something that had ever directly affected those we loved. I’m happy to report that Dantonio did manage to loosen up some when he finally realized that we weren’t going to steal his bride away in the middle of the night, but he still was a bit too stoic for my tastes. Ranata did seem to love him very much, however, and her growing happiness was a joy to see.

I had, for the first time in many years, the leisure to simply enjoy being alive on a beautiful world. It wasn’t Earth, of course, but it was more similar to my homeworld than many other planets I’d visited, and, to be quite honest, it was making me a little homesick. Having my sister there, not to mention Cat, made me feel far less discontented than I would have otherwise, but the time was coming when I knew we would have to leave. I could only assume that our parents were still alive and well, and the trip back would take a few years as it was.

I certainly didn’t want them to die not knowing what had become of either of their daughters.
Cat and I went out riding almost every day, even going down to the village a time or two to do some trading on the side. We took the pack-droid back up to Ranata’s place and kept it in the barn along with the horses, and I must admit, I wasn’t nearly so irritated by its singing anymore. What I hadn’t counted on was that Cat had finally heard “I’m Happy When I’m Hiking” one time too many. We were on the way back up the road one day when, suddenly, he wheeled his horse around, drew his sword, and smacked the top of the droid’s head with the flat of his blade.

I couldn’t believe my ears. The damn thing actually shut up! “Holy shit, Cat! Why the devil didn’t I ever think of that?”

“Perhaps you were not angry enough,” he suggested.

“Not angry enough?” I scoffed. “You’d be surprised just how mad I’ve gotten at it! That damn thing got me run off a planet one time for making so much noise.

There I was, making money hand over fist, and wound up getting deported for disturbing the peace! Honestly, I was ready to nuke it till it glowed!”

Overlooking a few figures of speech that I’d have been willing to bet he didn’t fully understand, Cat sheathed his blade and pointed out the fact that I hadn’t had a sword at the time.

“Well, no,” I admitted. “I didn’t. Guess it must have been manufactured on another planet where there were testy men who carried swords all the time.”

“I am not ‘testy,’” Cat protested.

“Oh, yes you are!” I declared. “Honestly, I’ve got to get you away from these damned Statzeelians before you
start picking up any more of their bad habits.”

Cat grinned seductively. “But I do not become angry to entice you, do I, Jacinth?”

“Well, no,” I said grudgingly. “You don’t do that.

Don’t have to. But still, it might be time to—”

“—get the heck out of Dodge?” he suggested with the lift of an eyebrow.

“Yeah,” I said, laughing. “Something like that. And on the way, you can watch some old movies so you’ll be able to understand what that line refers to.”

“But we will be alone together on your ship,” he reminded me, beginning to purr. “Do not imagine that we will have time for watching ‘old movies.’”

And the only thing I could say to that was, “Ooo!”

The next afternoon, Cat had gone down to the barn to saddle the horses for our ride and I was sitting out on the porch chatting with Ranata while I waited for him.

“You know how you were telling me about why Cat’s planet was destroyed?” she said, suddenly changing our original subject. “Well, the more I’ve thought about it since then, the more familiar his story sounds. I think I’ve heard it somewhere before.”

“Probably from the Nedwuts,” I suggested. “Cat says they’re the ones that did it by redirecting an asteroid so it would crash into the planet. It’s odd though, for he says he saw it in his mind, rather than with his own two eyes. I haven’t noticed him being particularly clair-voyant in other areas—perhaps it was a dream, although he didn’t put it that way. Still, it sounds just dastardly enough for Nedwuts to be involved, though I wouldn’t have thought they were that smart, myself. Someone else
had to pay them or put them up to it somehow—plus provide the technical know-how! I mean, I know they’re cunning, but shifting that asteroid took some doing! Not just anyone could have the wherewithal to pull off a deed like that, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all to discover that more than the few worlds that Cat said they were fighting were actually in on it. Cat says they were besieged by men from several different planets, but the Nedwuts weren’t in the main battles because Cat didn’t even know what they were called before I told him. He’d only seen them in his mind and described them to me. If he’d been out there fighting them, he’d have seen them.”

“
Several
worlds?” Ranata said, her voice heavily laced with skepticism. “They couldn’t have made that many people jealous!”

I just stared at her as though she were a complete idiot.

Ranata laughed. “You know, Jack, I’ve really missed that ‘flying eyebrow’ look of yours! But you’re serious, aren’t you? He really is that good?”

I nodded. “If the ruffle around the head of his cock doesn’t get to you, the fluid he secretes will.” Forgetting my original intention to keep that little tidbit of information to myself, I went on, “We are talking continuous, effortless orgasms for as long as that fluid is in contact with a mucus membrane. Honestly, it’s a better high than any other drug I’ve ever heard of.” Then I paused, as the answer came to me like a bolt from the blue, and suddenly, all the pieces of the puzzle dropped effortlessly into place.

Someone
had
considered it to be a drug: a drug that would have made all other recreational drugs obsolete,
unnecessary, and unsellable. The drug cartels, the black market smugglers, and anyone else who peddled dope to an unsuspecting galaxy had feared they would lose customers, for it was safe, had no side effects that I could see, wasn’t physically addicting, and was a naturally occurring substance that the Zetithians were giving away for free—and I had the only known source of it left in the galaxy!
Ho-ly sheep shit
! The old man hadn’t been kidding when he’d said that Cat was precious! He was more than that: he truly was beyond price!

Suddenly, a wave of anxiety shot through me as I considered the consequences of my theory. “Where the devil is Cat?” I said nervously. “What’s taking him so long?” I felt so strange! I couldn’t seem to sit still anymore and, without even realizing what I was doing, I jumped up from the porch and began to run toward the stable.

“Where are you going?” Ranata yelled after me.

Pausing briefly in my flight, I shouted. “I know why Cat’s planet was destroyed! And I’m never letting him out of my sight again for as long as I live! That collar and leash thing was a great idea, by the way. I think I’ll keep him chained to me forever.” I ran around the side of the house, nearly running down Alanna who was working there in one of the flower beds. “Have you seen Cat?” I demanded.

Alanna looked up in surprise. “He is at the stable,”

she replied, “and should return soon.” Noting my concerned expression, she went on: “He will come to no harm, Jacinth. My daughter, Juzette, is with him. As you know, we seldom leave men unattended—even those who are not from our world.”
I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself. Of course, Cat was just fine, and my news could wait until he returned. I suppose I could have gone dashing down to the barn right then, but it really wasn’t necessary. He would be back. I hadn’t lost him. Why would I think that, anyway? As if in reply to that question, a different, more jealous side of my brain put forth a suggestion as to why that thought might have occurred to me. Alanna’s daughter was a very pretty girl, and perhaps I
did
need to worry! These chain-happy Statzeelian females couldn’t stand the thought of an unchained male running around loose, you know! What if she got a taste of his dick and wouldn’t give him back?

The answer was simple: I’d kill the little slut! No way was anyone taking Cat away from me! I might not wish to sell his coronal fluid to the highest bidder, but I wasn’t giving it away either! He was mine. I’d paid five fuckin’

credits for him and he was mine!

With the utmost reluctance, I told myself I was being stupid and went back to where Ranata was sitting and took a seat, but I was perched on the edge of it, anxiously awaiting his return. Ranata chuckled at my obvious distress. “You see what happens when you begin to care for one of them? You don’t want them out of your sight for a moment, for worrying about what they’re up to or if they’re getting into trouble of some kind. I find that I
like
having Dantonio chained to me. Then I don’t have to worry or wonder; I know.”

“Well, you’re right about that much,” I admitted.

“When I first heard the bit about the collar and chain thing, I’ll have to say, I wasn’t too twerked up about it,
but now that I’ve done it for a while, I know exactly what you mean. You can’t trust the little buggers for a second, can you?”

“Oh, yes, I suppose we could,” she conceded. “They aren’t helpless and they aren’t—well, some of them aren’t—that stupid. But Cat isn’t from this world. He’s not nearly as belligerent, and is possibly more intelligent.”

“Well, I certainly hope so!” I exclaimed. “I can’t see taking him for a walk on another planet like that, although I
have
seen a couple of people from Statzeel on another world, and, let me tell you, they got quite a few stares, and not just from me! Of course, those were the only pair I’d ever seen before I got here. Your guys must not get out much.”

“No, we’ve found that it’s better to keep them at home,” she replied. “If we go offworld, a man must have at least three females traveling with him.”

“Sounds expensive,” I commented. “No wonder you stick close to home.”

Ranata and I continued chatting, and eventually the topic returned to the old days on Earth, and I guess I simply lost track of time, for it had been nearly another hour before I realized that Cat wasn’t back yet. He’d had plenty of time to groom those horses, clean the tack, and even clean their stalls before saddling them up! To top it all off, I was feeling more irritable by the second, and even my bones were beginning to itch.

Giving voice to my earlier thoughts about what might be going on down at the barn, I found myself asking furiously, “Is Alanna’s daughter trustworthy? She wouldn’t decide to mess around with him—would
she?” He was pretty irresistible as far as I was concerned, but perhaps the locals didn’t like cats. Some people just aren’t cat people, after all, but Alanna’s daughter might have been.

“Oh, of course she wouldn’t!” Ranata assured me, laughing out loud at the idea. “He doesn’t get angry like one of our men, so she would have no need.”

I still didn’t believe it—couldn’t shake the notion that something was wrong. This time I didn’t even reply to Ranata’s shout when I took off for the barn. I sped around the house and down the path to the stable, racing through the open doors abruptly enough to startle the horses. I ran through the barn and found ours, both clean and shiny, but the black was still in his stall while the chestnut, who had already been saddled, was standing in cross ties in the aisle. Cat was nowhere in sight, and neither was anyone else. I started yelling for him then, panic rising in my throat like a Resaneden goose dinner coming back up—which, if you’ve ever eaten such fare, you’d know it tends to do—and I ran out of the barn to search the grounds.

The house was situated in a large clearing at the top of the hill, and while I could see for a great distance in nearly every direction, I saw no sign of Cat. Despite a warning pain which began growing in the center of my chest, I took off for the house again at a dead run and stormed up the steps to the porch. “He’s not there!” I screamed at Ranata. “You’d better find Alanna’s goddamned daughter, right now, because I want to have a little talk with her! Honest to God, if she’s let anything happen to Cat, I’ll kill her!” If I’d had time to
reflect, I probably wouldn’t have let myself get so worked up, but my gut told me that it was not only understandable that I be upset by his disappearance, but also that there was something pretty fishy about it.

Something was rotten in Denmark, and I was going to get to the bottom of it if I had to knock some heads together to do it!

I tore through the house, shouting for Juzette and Cat.

I have no doubt that the entire household was in an uproar because of me, but at the time, I didn’t give a shit.

Cat didn’t answer me, but Juzette did. “What is it?” she asked in worried accents.

“Where’s my Cat?” I bellowed, rapidly losing patience. “You were supposed to be with him in the barn, but he’s not there now, nor is he anywhere in sight out there in the yard. You’d better find him quick before I start—” It was then that I realized that I couldn’t start shooting, since I wasn’t the one carrying Tex—or a sword, either, because Cat had them both. I tried to console myself with the thought that at least he was armed, and if he’d run into one of the local guys in a rage, he would be able to defend himself. He’d handled himself pretty well against Nedwuts and swergs, so I doubted that a Statzeelian could have given him much trouble, especially if he had a female chained to him. Of course, that particular method of peacekeeping might not always work; I mean, surely they must have
some
degree of failure—it couldn’t be
completely
foolproof— after all, nothing else was.

Everyone in the whole place turned out after that, and there were at least thirty people in that household:
gardeners, cooks, nannies, housekeepers, horsekeepers, in addition to Ranata and Dantonio and his two other wives who each had two children. All the people who worked there seemed to have their entire family living there with them; it was like a little village under one roof, and every one of them seemed to be present and accounted for—except Cat. Juzette reported that she had gone down to the stable with Cat to check up on her own horse, but had left him there to come back to the house alone. No one had even the slightest notion as to where he had gone. Finally, at my insistence, everyone spread out and searched the immediate area, but we found no trace of him at all; it was as though he had simply vanished into thin air.