Slaves of Elysium (14 page)

She smiled at them. ‘I see morning exercises are still part of the routine. Enjoy yourselves?'

‘It was exhausting,' Rebecca grumbled. ‘And the guards, they touched us.'

‘What do you expect?' Cath replied simply. ‘It would be odd if they didn't. Get used to it.'

‘Is the exercise always that hard?' Jeni asked.

‘Oh yes,' Cath confirmed. ‘They like to keep us fit and supple. Later you'll find it makes up for the time you'll spend in restraints wishing you could stretch an arm, a leg or anything.'

‘How long will they keep us shut up like this?' Rebecca demanded.

‘Until you're ready to begin proper slave training. The Erekthion, that's this place, serves several functions. Ceroth, this city, is the regional administrative centre, so it houses what you'd call local government offices, where my master works, and also the law courts, police and military headquarters. It's also a special prison and assessment centre. People are held here until they're judged and then shipped off to serve their term or whatever has been determined. In your case that'll be slave school, and then a public auction.'

Jeni shivered while Rebecca glowered angrily.

‘I know it's hard on you,' Cath sympathised, ‘but you've got to accept it. Anyway, I'm here to start your language lessons. My master says I'm to teach you enough spoken Elysian for you to understand and respond to basic commands, and give you some idea of the script so you can read names and notices, that kind of thing. The rest you'll be expected to pick up as you go. You'll be tested later, so pay attention. We'll begin with the names of simple objects.'

Cath had brought with her a device about the size and thickness of a large format hardback book, which seemed to combine the functions of a sketchpad and computer. You could write on its surface with a stylus as though it was paper, yet it could also display pictures from some internal data file as clearly as high quality prints.

They worked on the names of simple objects and basic grammar through the rest of the morning. The structure of Elysian seemed straightforward enough, and none of the pronunciations put too much strain on their tongues. Jeni rather proudly showed off her knowledge of Elysian for ‘comb', and asked Cath to tell them the names for toothbrush and toothpaste. Cath laughed. It turned out there was device for cleaning and freshening the mouth and teeth in the basin recess. She showed them how it worked. The guards had assumed they would know it was there and how to use it. The incident, though trivial, reminded Jeni how much she had to learn about everyday life in Elysium.

Three lunch trays were delivered as Cath was expected to eat with them, and as they settled down Cath lifted the locket dangling from her nipple. Figures flashed into being on the locket's face and Jeni realised it was a kind of fob watch such as nurses wore. Without a uniform to pin it to it had to be secured somehow. It made sense, she supposed.

Cath looked up at their enquiring faces. ‘I should have finished my housework and be going out shopping now,' she explained.

‘Is teaching us going to be a problem for you?' Jeni asked.

‘Well, the council has supplied a temporary slave maid to fill in for me during the day at my master's house,' Cath explained. ‘I showed her round this morning. She seemed okay, but I know she won't do things just the way my master likes them. When I get home I'll have to check everything over and have his meal ready before he gets back.'

‘You sound like some nineteen-thirties housewife frightened of displeasing her husband,' Rebecca said, with barely disguised scorn.

‘I suppose I do,' Cath agreed. ‘But then, when you can be thrashed for accidentally laying out a dirty plate for a dinner party, you get like that. But Tem's a fair master. He'll understand. I'll try to make it up in other ways.'

Jeni wondered what those ‘other ways' might be.

The lessons continued though the afternoon until Cath left just before the local equivalent of teatime. As the door closed behind her, Rebecca said, ‘God, look what they've done to her. She's pathetic. Racing home to please a man who might beat her for not cleaning the kitchen floor properly. That's never going to happen to me.'

‘But did she seem unhappy?' Jeni asked.

‘What do you mean? How can she be?'

‘Perhaps she's found the place she belongs.'

Rebecca looked at her with her lips twisted in contempt. ‘You'd love that, wouldn't you? Slave away keeping house for some nine-to-five nobody, and kneel at his feet not knowing if he was going to pat you on the head or give you a good spanking.'

An image came to Jeni of herself naked on her hands and knees before the man who owned her, with his name stamped on her collar. How her bare bottom would tremble even as her loins churned with anticipation, not knowing what he might choose to do with her. Was that a sick image, or was it wonderful? ‘I might,' she said thoughtfully.

 

Soon after Cath left they were taken out for another exercise period that was more or less a repetition of the morning session, except that this time Rebecca did not attempt any pretence of premature exhaustion. That came naturally enough as the session progressed, and when it was over they walked back to their cell with dragging steps to shower once again. Supper was eaten in silence and they were asleep before the lights dimmed.

 

 

 

The days that followed ran to the same routine of intense exercise periods either side of language lessons.

Jeni was both pleased and surprised at the progress she made. It would normally take far longer to learn a new language, of course, but then the circumstances were rather special. Cath was a good teacher and apart from the exercise periods there were no other distractions. Besides, it made sense to learn to communicate with people who held such power over her. Jeni found it focused the mind wonderfully.

Rebecca was not so absorbed by the task. She alternated between sullen silence, disparaging observations about Jeni, and short-lived defiant outbursts against the Elysians for what they had done to her; the last only taking place in the privacy of their cell and not to their jailer's faces, out of fear of the consequences if they took offence. In fact, the guards had done nothing worse than fondling them while they exercised, though they had the opportunity to do more or less what they wanted. Jeni wondered at this apparent restraint and hesitantly broached the subject with Cath.

‘One reason is a matter of tradition,' Cath explained. ‘It's not done to use girls who haven't been trained to serve properly. Remember, in their eyes the two of you are more or less ignorant barbarians.' She grinned. ‘Also, they probably don't think you'd be very satisfying if they did have you.'

‘Really?'

‘A trained slave responds much more intensely than even a willing free woman.'

‘What's it like to be trained?' Jeni asked.

Cath frowned, as though searching for the right words. Eventually she shrugged. ‘I couldn't explain it. You'll have to find out for yourself.' Cath looked at Jeni for a long moment, then added, ‘Don't worry, you'll do fine.'

 

Jeni began to wonder what it would feel like to be trained to give herself completely to somebody. A couple of times she woke up in the night wet with excitement, almost as though she was becoming impatient for her training to start.

 

It was on the tenth day of their imprisonment that Narvok Tem himself brought Cath to their cell. Jeni and Rebecca knelt and bowed respectfully before him, as Cath had taught them, though Jeni knew Rebecca did so with gritted teeth.

Through Cath, Narvok delivered some bad news.

‘My master wishes you to know,' Cath translated, ‘that although many pieces of wreckage from the
Galatea
have been found, there has been no trace of your companions on land or sea. It is possible the ocean currents have carried them northwards beyond the boarders of this region of Elysium, in which case the local authorities can do nothing for them. He is sorry for your loss.'

Jeni felt her heart grow heavy, even though she had been expecting such news. Of course there was still some hope left, but it was very slim. She would miss Bradley Ash, and would always savour his friendship and that brief intimacy they had shared. She glanced at Rebecca, wondering if she would miss Devereaux as much. Oddly she saw only anger on her face.

There was nothing more that could be done, Jeni thought wearily. And it was kind of Narvok Tem to bring the news himself. A formal phrase she had already mastered came to her.

‘Nas myron tranas,' she said carefully. (‘Your servant thanks you')

Narvok looked pleased at being addressed in his own language, congratulated Cath on her progress, and then left them to continue the lessons.

‘Why can't they do more to find them?' Rebecca wondered, when they were alone.

‘You'd better understand about the way things are in Elysium. It's all to do with power, politics and social history, and goes back a long way. Maybe we should start with a bit of geography.'

A map appeared on the screen showing an island shaped like an irregular crescent, with the horns pointing west. It was the same outline Jeni had seen on the wall decoration the day she and Rebecca were brought into the Erekthion.

‘Elysium is about seven hundred miles north to south, and four hundred and fifty east west at the greatest,' Cath continued. ‘The north and east is higher country, pretty cold and mountainous in parts. The rest to the south and west is mostly level plains.' She indicated a point marked with a gold star, situated on the southeast coast on the edge of the highlands. ‘That's Zanthum Magno, the capital, where Xanadon the King Emperor lives. Ceroth is down here close to the southern tip, in the province of Pelaria. Elysium is divided into half a dozen principalities, each ruled by one of the King Emperor's children. They act more or less like autonomous states and are always feuding between each other over trade agreements or border disputes.'

‘That's why the soldiers who caught us on the beach were patrolling in the flying disk?' Jeni asked.

‘That's right. Ceroth's not far from the border with Kladria – that's the principality to the north of us. We made a raid on them not long ago and so they're likely to launch a reprisal at any time.'

‘Are these raids serious?' Jeni wondered.

‘Very. People sometimes die. But don't worry. The men do the fighting here, but only between themselves. They'd never intentionally harm women, even slaves. They take them as prizes, or if they're free and from a wealthy family, then hold them for ransom. Some of the women in here with you were captured that way. Those that aren't ransomed will be sent for slave training.'

Rebecca was frowning, and asked, ‘Why does this Xanadon allow such things to go on? Is he too weak to keep the country together?'

‘Oh no,' Cath said. ‘Xanadon's all powerful, and he keeps his own elite guard in Zanthum Magno which are reckoned to be the toughest soldiers in the country. But as long as it doesn't become all out war, he encourages this kind of thing.'

‘That's stupid,' Rebecca said flatly.

‘No, it makes sense when you understand the way Elysians think. They've got an ancient warrior tradition to maintain, but there's no other power in the world to seriously rival them at the moment, so this is a way of keeping the people, and especially the army, alert and strong. Sort of continuous war games with live ammunition.'

‘So one reason they keep slaves is as a way of keeping the score in their border wars?' Jeni said.

‘You might say so. They don't need them as a serious labour force; they've got machines to do that. Apart from their obvious uses, slaves are most important here as status symbols.'

‘You said men are made slaves as well?' Jeni said.

‘Yes, but you probably won't see many of them. They're usually sent to work farms or hard labour gangs. It's more shaming for a man to be taken as a slave, especially if he was in the military. Women end up as domestic slaves, since they're easier to control and they can please both men and women equally. A single Elysian woman might keep a male slave, but an Elysian husband is not going to share his bed with his wife and a male slave. A female slave is another matter. They can both use her.'

‘So, we'd have to please women as well as men?' Jeni wondered, feeling a perverse thrill run through her.

‘Of course,' Cath said. ‘But don't worry, you'll be taught what to do in slave school until it comes naturally.'

Rebecca snorted derisively. ‘So, you think women are natural slaves?'

‘No, but I think we're more adaptable than men. We can swallow our pride more easily and learn to make the best of things. That's our strength. Eventually that's what will see you both through this.' She smiled ruefully. ‘I know what you're feeling right now because I've been there. When I found out I was marked down for slavery you should have heard the noise I made. “I'm an American citizen, you can't do this to me! I have my rights!” I threatened them with everything from the seventh cavalry to the H-bomb. Of course I was just wasting my breath. All that meant nothing here. Elysium is the only superpower in this world and they weren't about to abandon thousands of years of tradition to spare a barbarian woman from what might as well be a fantasyland a little culture shock.