"A portipp will be brought if you need it," Perdil said. I wouldn't need it; I was immortal and didn't need a portable commode. I wasn't going to tell them that. I nodded slightly instead.
"I don't like this," Zendeval sighed.
"You can order her to speak," Perdil suggested.
"No. Do you think I'm that foolish?"
"You've never brought one. This is your first time. Come, we have arrangements to make." I watched both of them walk away before sending mindspeech to Lendill.
"You're joking? They zapped her with something they called a controller? I've never heard of that," Norian said.
"Think about it, Nori. She said they planted the thing in the back of her neck after Rjjn fiddled with his comp-vid. Somehow, the two are connected. We need to talk to Ry and see if he can shed any light on this."
"That might be difficult at the moment; he's got his hands full of dissidents who think he's an unnatural aberration and can't serve as King of Karathia. He and Erland are doing their best to quell an uprising."
"I want to throw Wylend Arden through a wall. Once again, his timing sucks." Lendill fumed over what seemed to be a conspiracy of some sort.
"Do we know where Reah is?"
"Yes. She says an underground warehouse on Stellar Winds. She told me that they plan t ct t0">&quoo move the cages to a loading dock somewhere, so they're shipping them away from there to be sold, most likely. She and I agree that we need to have a location before we move on this. I've already got a dozen ships in that sector, ready to go on our command."
"Why didn't we give her the microcameras?" Norian whined.
"I can send some," Lendill stood as the idea hit him. "I can," he insisted at Norian's blank look. "I have enough power to get them to Reah; I can do it by focusing on the credit chip implant she has."
"Then do it. Tell her they're coming and get them in there." Norian was all business, now.
Reah, I'm sending microcameras, Lendill sent. They'll settle on your skin, cheah-mul. Whatever you do, don't scratch while they're attaching themselves to you.
Fine, I sent. I was beginning to feel grumpy; two clicks had passed and nobody had come to move the cages. My skin felt irritated as four microcameras burrowed into the skin of my neck, just below my ears. They were invisible, and how Lendill managed to send them, I had no idea. I resisted the urge to scratch.
Someone's coming, I sent to Lendill. I heard the noise of the vehicles needed to move cages.
I can see where you are, breah-mul, Lendill sent. Just stay calm. We'll see what they're doing.
All right. Lendill would have someone monitoring the cameras at all times. I could sleep if I wanted. I think I was too frightened to consider sleeping.
Six loaders came and lifted cages to haul them away. They were taking the ones behind me first. I watched while girls placidly observed as their cages were lifted into the air and transported. Some were tilted precariously, knocking the inhabitants against the bars. That caused a bit of shrieking and brought shouting from someone supervising the removal.
They couldn't control everything, it seemed. The fear reflex must have been stronger than the controller was. I tucked that knowledge away and concentrated on counting captives. I counted sixty-seven cages, mine being the last. They'd waited to lure me in, I noticed. I think some of the others had been there for several days at the least. My cage was jerked up by the lifting mechanism on the vehicle and swung slightly as it was driven away. The other cages had been hauled around a corner and out of my sight, so I had no idea where I was going. I learned quickly, once we rounded the corner.
A long, wide hall had been hollowed out, and it led toward a huge dock roughly a quarter click away. I could see a bit of daylight at the end of the hall, and what looked to be the side dock of a freighter ship beyond that. Are you getting this? I sent to Lendill.
We see it, Lendill replied. Just stay calm, we've got ships in the area, ready to go. We'll be following discreetly, so hang on, all right?
Remind me to say the same thing to you if you're ever swinging inside a cage, I returned. Don't worry, I don't want any more women kidnapped and sold into who knows what, I added. I'll do my duty. Just remember you owe me.
I'll remember. Lendill cut off communication.
I was transported to the edge of the loading dock and dropped off there, waiting for another vehicle to load my cage onto the waiting ship. Men were everywhere, checking the cages and the women inside the cen here,m, then lifting comp-vids and scanning controller numbers by pointing the device at the backs of captives' necks.
Some of the women were fondled, too. One was kissed through the bars of her cage. That one shrank back afterward, whimpering. Once again, fear was playing a part. Fear was a strong emotion and one of the most basic. Fear kept people alive. I was beginning to think that the controllers couldn't fully prevent any strong emotion.
"No touching this one." A man came up beside my cage and watched while my controller device was scanned by comp-vid.
"Information says so in the comp-vid," the scanner replied. "Not that I don't want to," he leaned down and leered at me. Stopping myself from reaching through the bars and grabbing his neck to squeeze it, I settled for blinking at him, instead. I'd remained in my sitting position, so I hadn't gotten knocked around like some of the others during the move. "Must be something special, mustn't we?" He was still leering when Perdil walked up.
"If you had half the intelligence this one has, I might think you were a genius," Perdil snapped. "Get away." I turned my head to blink at Perdil. He knelt down to my level. "We're moving you to the small moon nearby," he said conversationally, as if I weren't locked inside a cage and presumably controlled by a device in my neck. "The full moon is tonight, and Zen and the rest of his kind will go crazy if they don't have women available. It's either sex or destruction with them on a full moon, Reah. I promise it will be over in a few ticks. We have physicians standing by; can't have any of the merchandise damaged permanently before the sale, can we?" I drew in a breath. Perdil stood and walked away.
Lendill cursed, long and hard. His father, a master at the art of cursing, might have been proud of his son at that moment. Reah, Reah, baby, we have to get them. We have to get all of them. Fuck, I'm sorry, Reah. We have to get them.
I was cold. Very, very cold. It was a scheduled rape. Whatever Zendeval Rjjn was, he was something affected by the full moon. Werewolves, shapeshifters of many kinds and High Demons were all affected by the full moon. What was Zendeval Rjjn? And Perdil had said the rest of his kind. How many were there? My cage was lifted and hauled aboard the ship.