Protecting His Mistress - Evangeline Anderson Page 0,85
presence. “I promise—I’ll take it. But…” She bit her lip. “But what about Karn? You’re his Goddess—can’t you save him too?”
“You shall save him yourself, my daughter,” the Goddess told her. “Do not ask how, for you will know when the time comes. And remember…do not be afraid to attempt the impossible.”
Then the voice and the warm, feminine presence that accompanied it faded. It left behind only a fresh, sweet scent that seemed to lift Lilli’s spirits and make her feel like a new person.
“Thank you,” she whispered, though she sensed the Goddess was gone. “Thank you so much for giving me hope.” She put her hands on her belly again. “Thank you for me…and for my baby.”
Forty-Four
Lilli waited anxiously, but no help came. The hours ticked by on her chronometer and nothing happened. She just stared at her walls and wondered where Karn was now and if he had reached the mines yet and if he was all right. Maybe she had imagined the voice and the presence. Maybe the stress of the situation and her deep desire to protect her baby had made her have a hallucination.
Maybe she was going crazy.
She kept feeling the fluttering in her lower belly—Karn’s son telling her he was alive and well—but the tiny movement made her feel hopeless.
“How can I protect you if I can’t get the two of us out of here?” she whispered, rubbing her belly. “And how can I rescue your father so you can know him instead of just hearing about him after he’s already dead and gone?”
She was about to give up and go to bed to have another good cry, when there was a knock at the door of her apartments. Swiping at her eyes, Lilli padded to the door and opened it, only to see a vaguely familiar bodyslave standing there with a tray.
“Your dinner, Mistress,” he said, bowing respectfully. “Would you like me to put it down on the table for you?” He nodded at the low table before the couch where she had so often eaten with Karn, while they were watching a vid.
The thought made her sad all over again and Lilli was about to send the dinner away and say that she had no appetite when she took another look at the bodyslave holding the tray.
“You’re Priss’s bodyslave, aren’t you?” she asked uncertainly. “You’re H’rare—right?”
“Yes, I am. And I was hers until you and Karn won me from her, Mistress,” he said. “I can’t tell you how grateful, I am.” He dropped his voice. “Or how sorry I am for what happened to Karn—he was a good male.”
“Yes, he was.” Lilli felt a lump in her throat. “He told me that if we didn’t try to save you, you’d be sent…sent to the mines.” She could barely get the words out.
“He was right about that,” H’rare said solemnly. “Mistress Priss threatened me with the mines twenty times a day while she owned me.” He shook his head. “Never thought Karn would end up there while I stayed here safe in the kitchens.”
Lilli had a sudden thought—a hope so wild she was almost afraid to speak it. Trying to sound off-hand, she said,
“H’rare—while you were Priss’s bodyslave, did you ever fly her anywhere?”
“Fly her in a shuttle or a hover-ship you mean?” He raised his eyebrows. “Oh yes, Mistress. Lady Priss insisted that her bodyslave be able to do everything and anything for her, from massaging her toes to fixing her favorite rasta-bean smoothie to flying her to downtown Opulex for shopping whenever the notion took her.”
“I see.” Lilli opened the door wider. “Come in so you can put down that tray, H’rare. Let’s talk.”
“Of course, Mistress,” he said, frowning. “But talk about what?”
“H’rare,” Lilli said in a low voice. “How would you like to be free?”
“Free?” He looked around, as though he was afraid someone might have heard the forbidden word. “I don’t know that I rightly understand you, Mistress,” he murmured.
“Come inside,” Lilli said again. “And let’s talk about it…”
She felt that flutter in her belly again, but this time the feeling brought hope, not despair.
The Goddess was right, she thought. I will find a way to save you, little one. To save all of us…
She hoped.
Forty-Five
Gods he was hot. And thirsty. And so damn tired he felt like he could drop in his tracks—but he couldn’t because the fucking Obedience Skin just kept on going.
Karn swung the pickaxe again and felt the reverberations all the way up his arms