230
Days passed and I wondered internally how long it would take for us to know I was carrying. I didn’t ask, because part of me didn’t want to know. Preemptively, I was fed bits of the root everyday. Damien informed me that no mistakes would be made this time.
The Healers came and their inspections were perfunctory. Damien explained the nausea, or morning sickness, to them and they were surprised. Listening to them talk they seemed to know less about actualpregnancyand more about the cycle that made it possible. Whether they figured it out or not, I would know eventually. I guessed it would be obvious.
As I sat on the beach one afternoon looking out over the warm water, I suddenly felt hot and dusty. Silly really, I thought looking down at myself. A few specks of sand clung to me, but it was hardly a bad thing. Walking into waist deep water I dunked my head and surfaced.
I stood in the sea and looked down at my skin, now glistening wet. Nope, it still felt hot and dusty. My thoughts were fluid as I stood in the sea. This day was annoying and so was this job. I hated this part of our land. No water in sight and the wind whipped up the dirt so it got in my eyes. No one else found it nearly as irritating as I did.
Such a thought was grossly illogical since I was standing in waist deep water.
Dunking myself a second time I scrubbed at myself under the water. I surfaced and still felt dry and sandy, which made no sense at all. I rubbed my arms briskly with water, but the sensation stayed.
“So your owners don’t even bother to bathe you?” a voice said from just ahead of me. “You must be sad that you have to do it yourself.”
“Vesa,” I sighed looking at the lovely girl sneering at me.
She and her friends stepped gracefully into the water and came toward me. This could not be a good thing.
I watched the girls sliding toward me and wished I wasn’t standing in water. Vesa was human and she was jealous. She longed for status in this world and she believed I had it. That sole belief had made us into mortal enemies. Vesa would do anything to take my place.
My usual tack with this girl was to try to explain that this was not a choice we could change. I would usually end up spending what felt like a goodhourevery other day reminding her that slaves did what we were told. She didn’t believe me no matter what I said.
The horrible girl believed I’d found a way to get pregnant and now I gained favors by being a breeding slave. My men served me, she foolishly thought. Her owners had unfortunately told her about me feeding Evan. She believed she could wrap the world around her finger if she could do what I did.
She did little annoying things to convince me to talk to her. Her friends would stick their legs out to trip me or they’d sit and stare at me forhourson end. Thanks to her influence only Rose and Fuji still dared to talk to me. This new Keepers’ was quite a desolate place for the three of us.
“Tell me how you managed toconceive,” she demanded now.
I didn’t back away and held my ground as the four girls circled me. Not for the first time I was glad I had not told these girls what the health drink really was. As they closed in I steeled my resolve not to let the secret slip in this company.
“I got pregnant when the women wanted me to,” I told her simply.
A thought niggled at my mind. Two girls were slipping behind me. This was a set up, something bad was about to happen.
“Liar,” Vesa sneered, “my owners were in trouble because you carried a child. All the Administrators were punished. You did it yourself… somehow.”
I sighed and silently spread my feet for more solid footing in the loose sand beneath me. The waves were making that a losing battle.
“Vesa, I was owned by men who liked to study things, perhaps they did something to me,” I offered.
“The Keepers can be distracted, stupid, as many times as I need them to be,” she said coming closer.
“Don’t be foolish,” I warned the girls, “hurting me will only end up getting us all punished. This is not a point of discussion.”
“Let’s see if a little time in the sea changes your mind,” Vesa growled. “You’ll learn I can hurt you without leaving a mark.”Content rights by NôvelDr//ama.Org.
Before I could scream I was jumped and my legs were tugged from beneath me. My head plunged beneath the surface and I struggled with the girls. It was a mighty fight beneath the placid surface.
They tried to hold me under and failed miserably. I fought like my family had trained me to. Quite quickly I adapted to the underwater battle. I breached the surface and sucked in air. Before they could attack again I swung, striking Vesa in the jaw. She stumbled back and now it was only three against one.
Vesa’s friend clawed at my neck from behind trying to drag me under. My elbow swung back and I heard the crunch of bone as I broke her nose. The other girl threw a vicious jab into the back of my ribs. The wind rushed out of me and I stumbled for a moment. The girl in front grabbed my hair and tried to pull me under.
I’d drowned once and that was enough. Using my remaining energy I pushed the girl in front forward until we were in shallower water. The girl still behind me tried to dig her nails into my sides to hold me, but it did not work. Without the water to limit me, I was a vicious bitch.
Swinging with intent I knocked out the girl that was trying to pull out my hair. When I turned to take on the girl pummeling my back, the Keepers finally saw us.
The Keepers rushed to separate us. They got soaked pulling us out of the water and away from one another. I forced myself to calm down and not fight the man holding me, that would have been pointless. He just carried me as his Brothers carried the other girls from the beach into their building.
Slaves aren’t allowed to hurt each other, the Keepers reminded us as they fixed our wounds. I was scratched and bruised, but the other girls were in much worse shape. Healers were summoned for Vesa’s jaw and her friend’s nose; I had broken both.
Standing in the all too familiar punishment room I wondered at my circumstances. Being stuck to the wall wasn’t uncomfortable, but my back still throbbed. That worried me less than the future, though. I was certain fighting with the head Administrator’s slave would be grounds for serious punishment. Hopefully Damien and his Brothers would protect me.
They would, I suddenly knew. The men were livid that I had been attacked. They would watch the slaves die that had done this. Vesa and her friends would be corpses by nightfall. Their right to live was forfeit.
Oh hell, I felt the bond now. It was getting stronger. The men knew it all, they had witnessed everything.
“No!” I screamed fighting the air shackling me to the wall. “Please don’t kill them! They just made a stupid mistake!”