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I screamed and struggled feeling absolutely helpless. While I did not like Vesa at all, I had no desire to be the reason for her demise. If she was killed the guilt would overwhelm me.
The Keepers dropped the divider in front of my face and looked curiously at me. I was shaking and crying. Over and over again I begged Damien and his Brothers not to kill the other slaves.
“Slave, your owners are not here,” one of the Keepers said with his head cocked.
They were coming, though. Damien and his Brothers were on their way. They’d been in the Great Barren Stretch tracking the bandits, but they were coming back at top speed.
“Go back,” I begged the voices in my head, “go track and find the bandits, don’t do this.”
Their feelings were getting stronger by the moment. My pleas fell ondeafears. The closer they were the harder it was to hold a differing opinion, but I was stubborn.
I sought out Christof’s mind. He felt just like his Brothers did, there was no latitude. Attacking me was bad enough, doing so in an unequal grouping had been the height of dishonorable. These creatures had no right to live.NôvelDrama.Org content.
“Take them to their owners,” I begged the Keepers. “Take them somewhere else, please. My owners can’t find them.”
The Keepers did not understand and called the Healers, who understood less. I was acting like I had lost my mind. It made no sense to talk to men that were not present. All ten of them stared at me like I was the strangest thing they’d ever seen.
A whipping would be fine, I reasoned, it could be made to hurt like nothing I’d ever experienced. Vesa would learn, she could be taught. This girl did not need to die for her stupidity.
The disconnect with the men was causing a headache. The pain was mighty and throbbing. It felt as though I would pass out. Soon nothing else seemed to matter except that pulsing pain. It felt as though I was tearing into pieces.
“Fine,” the voices in my head finally relented, “we will… discuss our decision.”
I breathed with relief. We would not kill Vesa and her friends, although we really wanted to. Ciara was stubborn and against it.
I shook my head and tried to clear it. Nothing like thinking about myself as a different person to fully confuse me.
Sweating and out of breath, I hung on the wall and panted. The pain I had caused us had been monumental. The relief was overwhelming and I almost felt sleepy. The anger was still there, but it was controlled and in the background.
The Keepers and the Healers just stood and watched me like I was some animal in azoo. They couldn’t decide what I had been screaming about. It had sounded like I was having a conversation, but I was alone in this room. It took them a while to come terms with the strangeness of it.
Since I wasn’t acting as uncontrolled anymore the Healers eventually took me off the wall and checked me again on a floating table. Perhaps I had suffered some damage they had not seen the first time. It was conceivable that is what had me so bothered.
I had been hurt, but the bruise was only just appearing. The Healers realized that the girl had hit me on my back hard enough to break a rib. They pulled out a funny looking instrument and pressed it to my bruised flesh.
“If you touch our… slave,” Damien said in an even voice while entering the room, “we will destroy you.”
The Healers were shocked and backed away from the angry Warriors approaching.
“Sir, we are trained with the human slaves,” one Healer said in a shaking voice. “We would not have caused it harm.”
The anger in my men was undeniable. Now that they were so close, I felt it and it was making them irrational. They wanted to hurt something in retaliation for what had happened. With them so close I felt the anger starting to pool in my own self. I fought the unnecessary emotion.
“You are not trained for this slave,” Bane said calming down slightly in reaction to me. “The lead Healers deal with this slave. She has special needs.”
The Healers told Damien that was fine, but I had a broken rib. I needed treatment fast or I would be in great pain. This damage would cause difficulty with my breathing for two moons if they let it sit unhealed.
“Thank you,” Damien said politely as Evan picked me up.
I hissed and struggled when pressure was applied to my right chest. Evan quickly adjusted his arms so he did not hurt me. I focused on Christof’s unbroken body and felt the pain seep from me. Of course, now I felt the anger.
The lead Healers were called to our quarters and they met us at the door. They examined me quickly and came to the same conclusion their cousins had. The men pulled out a similar device and pressed it against the tender flesh.
Damien and his Brothers had seen this before. The healers used it to accelerate the healing of broken bones. Something similar had been used on Bane and Christof as children. We had no idea how it worked.
I suddenly moved away from the device in horror.
“Will this harm the child inside?” Damien asked placing a hand over the instrument.
It wasn’t Damien’s worry; it was mine. I knew thatpregnantwomen couldn’t do certain things because it could cause birth defects. Not surprisingly Damien and his Brothers had never heard of that before, but now the knowledge concerned them.