Compound, I mean,” she added, seeing the other girl’s look of confusion. “You must know this whole area pretty well since you work here, right?”
Rachel looked indecisive.
“I know my brother would want me to try. He told me he wouldn’t leave without me when the guards came to take me away. But I don’t see how it’s possible now that I’ve been singled out as a prospective concubine.”
“Maybe nobody will choose you,” Alli said hopefully.
“Then I’ll be stuck down here forever, pretending to be Calmed like all the rest of them.” Rachel nodded to the many blank faces of the women sitting around them.
“Well maybe once you do get chosen and they take you back up, you’ll have a chance to get away,” Alli suggested. “You must know all the ways in and out of here.”
“I do but…” Rachel shook her head. “I wouldn’t get far, I’m afraid. Especially not if I’d already been chosen—my Master would come looking for me. I’ll just have to take my chances and hope the Kru’ell One who takes me isn’t a pain-only feeder and that the feeding is short.”
“Do they let you go then, once it’s over?” Alli asked.
“Oh yes—a Kru’ell One doesn’t feed on the same concubine more than once,” Rachel said. “Sometimes they let you go afterwards—back to your regular life. Of course sometimes…” She hesitated.
“Sometimes what?” Alli asked.
“Sometimes they send you back down here—to wait until another Kru’ell One takes a liking to you. I’ve known some girls who stayed down here for months or even years until every single one of the Oppressors has had a turn at her.” Rachel shook her head. “If that happens to me, I think I might do what my sister did. I won’t be able to stand it!”
Alli didn’t know what to say to that. She wanted to protest that the other girl shouldn’t even think of suicide but Rachel was right—it would be a horrible life, being passed from warrior to warrior, being tortured and fed on multiple times. Especially since the Valium-like Calm wouldn’t work on her to dull the pain.
“I just think—” she began.
But just then the elevator door dinged and the silver panels slid open to reveal seven or eight large Kru’ell Ones—including one which could only be the Overlord himself.
Twenty-Seven
Kane was among the group, Alli saw with relief. He was standing silently behind the others and his silver eyes scanned the room restlessly until they found her. Alli started to go to him but a quick shake of his head stopped her. Instead of running over, she sat quietly with her hands in her lap and pasted a calm, slightly vacant smile on her face.
But it wasn’t easy to pretend to be calm—or “Calmed” as Rachel had called the hazy, drugged state—with the huge Kru’ell One warriors prowling around inspecting everyone.
The one she assumed must be the Overlord was the most frightening. He was seven and a half feet tall—a head taller than all the rest—and absolutely huge. His full black beard reached almost to his waist and it had been braided and knotted at the end with what looked like a bone. He wore a fur cape which made his broad shoulders look even wider and his eyes glinted not black and silver like Kane’s, but black and red.
Blood red, Alli thought with a shiver.
The Overlord stalked silently among the seated concubines, looking closely at each one like a man in a butcher’s shop looking for just the right cut of meat. There was a plump, grandmotherly-looking woman with him—Alli hadn’t seen her earlier, possibly because she’d been hidden behind the massive warriors.
“Is there anything in particular you’re looking for, Sire?” she asked anxiously. “A particular kind of girl I can get for you?”
Alli wondered who she was—the Madam of the Harem? Or was she just the Overlord’s personal assistant, in charge of getting him whatever he wanted—including concubines?
For the first time, the Overlord spoke.
“I’m looking for the Immune.”
Had she thought that Kane’s voice was gravelly? The Overlord’s tones were like boulders rubbing against each other in a dry creek bed.
“An Immune?” The grandmotherly lady frowned and shook her graying head. “I don’t understand, Sire. How could we have an Immune here in the Harem without me knowing it?”
“Nobody knows it,” the Overlord growled. “Except me. I can fucking smell her, though she’s shielding her mind from me. The Immune—that’s the one I want.”
His words made Rachel jump visibly and a look of terror crossed her pretty