Kaspa — the largest city Kyros Epos had ever laid eyes on — dazled and frightened the lowly private. From the moment the Second Division had landed, he'd been awed by the sights and sounds. The draft, far from the horror he'd first considered it, had taken him into a universe of wonder.
True, his Group mates considered him a stupid hick. So what if he couldn't read? Nither could a lot of privates. So what if he'd never been anywhere but the swamps of Riparious? Corporal Xicks hadn't cared. He'd taken Kyros under his wing and showed him the way both the military and the worlds of humans worked.
When the draft notice arrived, Pap had gone white, a stricken expression crossing his craggy face. He'd slumped at the table — an action that had frightened Kyros half to death. His father, scared? And just because Kyros got drafted by the Regan military?
"You be good, son. You keep the ways of the Blessed Gods, you hear?" His father's gravelly voice still echoed in Kyros' mind and left him feeling terribly uneasy. Pap wouldn't approve of what he now did for Corporal Xicks.
Sure, keep the ways! Fat chance! Why just on his puny ten-day share of the profits Xicks gave him, he'd made more money in Kaspa than Pap made in a year trapping shimmer skins in the swamp. Why he'd send enough money home in the next post to buy Pap and Mam a new house!
Like Xicks told him — slaving could be considered just another form of trapping.
A haunting shiver of doubt ran its feather touch across Kyros' conscience. Pap would have been horrified. But rotted corruption, this paid good!
Behind him in the dark, water dripped off the sooty brick of the alley, plopping loudly in a fetid black pool. Kyros shuddered. Why had Xicks picked this ratty part of town to hunt in? Lone Regan soldiers still died in the outskirts of the city.
Kyros slid along the rough gritty brick to look out into the shadowed street. Wouldn't be more than a couple decants until morning now.
The street stretched empty before him. Dark windows— some smashed — gaped threateningly above. Kyros could feel strange eyes on him, watching, eating at his ebbing confidence. The brick street glistened in the fog-dulled light of widely spaced floors. Here and there, pools reflected " from black water in potholes. The signs had a dreary effect where they hung above closed and boarded businesses. What kind of place had Kaspa been before the war? Now it appeared blue-black in the night, dank, wet, and laden i with secrets and sorrow.
\ He saw the figure coming, walking head down, posture] somehow pathetic, preoccupied. Kyros licked his lips. From the sway of the hips and the narrow shoulders, he definitely spied on a woman. To his learning eye, she stepped youth-
fully, her body slim. A good one! They'd take Xicks back a good one!
He suffered a momentary hesitation and wondered why she was out so late. Pale Eyes' quick signal from behind an
overturned crate brought his mind back to the job at hand. The girl's feet tapped softly on the irregular cobbles as she passed, head still down. Moving silently — like he did when sneaking up on a sleeping shimmer skin along Money River — Kyros saw Pale Eyes and Shil step out ahead of the woman.
Her reaction startled him. Instead of turning and running into his arms, she crouched in a threatening manner. By instinct, Kyros jabbed the stun rod into her back. He caught her as she stiffened and fell into his arms.
"Good job!" Praise hung in Shil's voice. "Xicks picked
this neighborhood good, eh?" He ran quick hands over the limp form in Kyros' arms. "Pus rot me, a woman!" A thin light appeared in his hand as he studied the captive. "Young and…" the voice turned oily, "pretty!"
Pale Eyes slipped the binding fibers around her wrists and ankles with practiced hands. Shil gagged her with sure movements. Among the three of them, they picked the limp woman up and started down the mist-enshrouded street at a trot.
Within several blocks the stun wore off and she began to squirm violently. Muscular, Kyros thought before he touched the stun to her again.
"You can hear me," he whispered. "So long as you don't struggle, we don't stun, huh?" No more struggles.
In the middle of a commercial block, they took a dark stairway down to the basement. Pale Eyes knocked the code. The door swung open and they hauled her into a poorly lit room. The place smelled of dust and mold sweetened by the bacca Xicks constantly smoked. The lamp cast patterned shadows over the grimy brick walls. Cobwebs strung gossamer fabric between the low beams that hung down from the roof. The flooring grated underfoot.
Corporal Xicks and another soldier looked up from a table burdened by a bottle of liquor and several stacks of Imperial credits piled high around a tapa game.
"Good hunting," Shil called, eyes bright.
"Let's see what we got," Pale Eyes added, triumph and expectation in his voice. They dropped the girl on a stained sleeping pallet. Kyros felt his pulse quickening. Would Xicks let him be first this time? He was the one who'd made the tag.
Kyros looked down into the most striking amber eyes he'd ever seen. She struggled unsuccessfully to sit up. Fear had glazed her expression — but then, he'd become used to that in the slave business.
"My, my Corporal, we got us a beauty this time!" Pale Eyes announced, a quaver in his voice.
Kyros watched the woman try to swallow. Hell, she wasn't much older than he. Shining auburn hair spilled loose from under the cowl, a glistening wealth in the light.
Xicks, in his corporal's armor, stood up from the table and walked over. "Rotted Gods, you did at that! She'll
bring a shining credit in the market! I'll wager she's worth at least five hundred ICs." The corporal leaned down and tilted her resisting chin up, eyes appraising. "Maybe six."
Kyros felt himself quicken as he looked at her. "Never seen such a pretty woman." His heart started to race.
The others nodded, eyes glinting in the dim light. Kyros shot a quick look to see smiles widening as they studied her. A shiver of fear ran down her arms and her jaw trembled.
"Who's first?" Pale Eyes asked. "I caught her. It's only fair that I—"
Kyros started. "But I—"
The corporal waved them both down and grinned. "Rank hath its privileges — and I'm the one with the connections." He slapped Pale Eyes on the shoulder. "Later, pa. You boys know the drill."
Kyros bit off his protest and bent down to grab an ankle while the corporal stripped out of his battle armor. Damn Xicks anyway.
She screamed into her gag as the corporal's rough hands pulled her robe aside, exposing her. the others pinned and bound her to the pallet while Xicks stripped her, cloth ripping amidst her gasps and Xicks' heavy breathing.
"Strong one, this," Shil remarked, panting from the effort as he struggled with the woman's wrist and got a binding strap around her pale flesh. Kyros fought her leg down and bound it to the mat.
"By the puss-dripping Rotted Gods," Xicks gasped as he studied her naked body, "she's worth eight hundred if a credit!"
Kyros licked his lips and agreed, eyes caressing her firm breasts before following down her gleaming stomach to the dark red tangle of pubic hair — and what it promised. The body of a goddess!
The woman stared at Xicks, fear making a gurgling in her throat. Her expression grew panicked as the corporal peeled out of his undersuit to expose his hardened penis. The wadded rag kept her shrieks to an eerie whimper as Xicks lowered himself. Her muscular body bucked and jumped at his touch. She arched, rigid as a board while Xicks wiped spit on his penis and reached down to open her to his manhood.
Fascinated by the contorted expression on her face, Kyros
barely heard Xicks whoop, "Tight as a virgin! Boys, she's split now!"
Kyros couldn't understand the difference, but her amber eyes changed as Xicks
thrust and grunted in satisfaction. Her white flesh rocked with the corporal's motion as he took her. Xicks moaned and shuddered before he went limp.