Kall?
She eyed the controls of the viewscreen. Some viewscreens could show picturesque scenes. President Carson had had a picture wall in the Oval Office, which usually displayed an image of his favorite beach spot in Turks and Caicos, so she was sort of familiar with the pricey technology.
She studied the controls and it appeared as though this were a live view. Disbelief curled inside her, as well as a healthy dose of fear. She’d thought she would have at least two weeks before they reached planet Kall to mentally prepare herself for the life that awaited her. Two weeks to get more answers out of General Zamek.
Her stomach flipped and she touched her right upper arm. Zamek had said she would receive a slave tracker upon their arrival in Sumlin District. She knew it would be painful, but it wasn’t the pain that scared her. It was the realization that she was here now, on fucking planet Kall, and there was no going back.
Officially a slave, unofficially a mistress.
That would be her life now.
Zamek had decided for her. He wasn’t giving her a choice.
Oh, Betsy, where are you?
She peered at the mountainside homes, wondering which one belonged to her dear friend’s husband. Well, she supposed the house belonged to Commander Edek’s older brother, Draken, but they all lived under the same roof—Betsy and Commander Edek, and Draken and his wife Lissa.
Would she get the chance to see her friend again? Would Zamek permit it?
Her heart sank at the prospect of being locked in his house, or restricted to his property, without the freedom to visit her best friend who happened to live in the same district.
On the day we arrive in Sumlin District, I will be required to take you to the slave office and have a tracker placed in your arm. Then I will take you to my home on the mountainside and keep you all to myself.
General Zamek’s words came back to her now, an ominous echo in her head.
Keep you all to myself.
Part of her liked his possessiveness, but another part of her riled against it, the part of her that wanted the freedom to forge her own life. If it wasn’t for Michael and the horrible Kall judge and even Zamek, she would still be on Earth, settling into her new job at the Interstellar Intelligence Agency.
But it all went back to the war. Her life had begun to unravel during the war, after Amos died and Michael’s grief turned to anger, and when Aunt Colleen refused to evacuate and later perished in a Kall attack. She supposed she couldn’t blame one person for her current predicament.
Sighing, she watched as an airship zipped across the sky, moving beyond the mountains and out of sight. A crowd was gathered in the square of the town, and she squinted, trying to get a better look. When she couldn’t make out what was going on, she peered at the control panel and figured out a way to magnify that portion of the viewscreen.
What she saw horrified her.
A crowd surrounded a platform that contained dozens of poor, shackled souls—most of them human, but some were Kall or from other worlds.
Slaves. They’re being sold as slaves.
It’s an auction day.
A shiver rinsed down her spine.
During the two years she’d spent on planet Kall, she had purposely avoided the slave auctions, knowing such a sight would break her heart. The cruelty of the Kall astounded her sometimes.
Layla watched in horror as a short human woman was pushed onto the slave block. She was naked, just as all the slaves were.
Tears burned in Layla’s eyes and she knew she ought to turn away from the viewscreen, but she couldn’t seem to stop watching the scene unfold.
Multiple Kall males in the crowd lifted their moneybags, presumably offering bids. A skinny Kall male stood near the slave block, shouting until his face turned purple as he pointed from bidder to bidder. The auctioneer, no doubt.
Eventually, the human woman was led off the slave block by a huge Kall male who emerged from the crowd. Her new master, and judging by the dark gleam in his eyes, he wouldn’t be a particularly kind master either. A few tears escaped to roll down Layla’s cheeks. This was horrible.
She witnessed auction after auction, watching men and women being sold off in the square of Sumlin District. Her throat burned and her tears kept coming.
A noise behind her startled her, and she spun around at the sound of a throat