I can easily see five or six other tents in the general vicinity, all spread out into different pockets of clearings. But this clearing is larger, and they made it by cutting down the trees and brush and strapping them together into low-lying benches. Moving behind the larger groups, I try to peek between shoulders and heads to see this convict they brought back.
Sure enough, in the center of the clearing is a circular, raised platform with a large pole sticking out of the middle. Kneeling in front of it with his legs spread on each side, is a large man strapped with his back to the thick trunk. Is this some kind of torture?
I spot Kaneer, crouching down in front of the convict and asking him questions, but I can’t hear a thing over the clamoring of the crowd. Clearly, everyone’s as interested in this guy as Kaneer has been. Taking in the surrounding people, I notice that it’s mostly men. Just as many are looking at me as the convict, too. The ones in front cry out, and I get a good idea of what they want to know by listening to what they ask.
“Why do the low dwellers want him?”
“Why’s a low dweller with his status being hunted like a convict?”
As I get a better glimpse of the man, I realize that this convict has markings on his skin that are different from everyone else’s out here. Instead of the criss-cross designs I’m so used to seeing on Kaneer, this man does have more rounded markings. Almost like cursive.
Kaneer’s—and a large percentage of the men around the clearing—have at least some diamond shaped markings littering the surface of their skin. This man appears to have more on his body. He’s wearing the same wrap-around skirt thing they all do, although his appears newer and in better condition. He’s not wearing the vest shirt they all like, and the scrolling, ornate patterns start just under his jawline and continue down his neck, appearing to have some variation in color.
Is this how they know he’s from the underground? If that’s the case, why are they not absolutely certain that I’m not from the underground? Even the women surrounding me have some form of these markings on their skin. Isn’t that, in and of itself, a sign that I don’t come from the underground? That I’m not a ‘low dweller?’
From the sounds of it, especially from the conversation that I just had a short while ago with the other women, their low dwellers as they call them, sound really weird. Fertility drugs to get pregnant? And wanting to know how I escaped? And in this man’s case, why’d he want to escape? It doesn’t make any sense.
I’ve only made it about halfway around the perimeter of the clearing, when Kaneer straightens, leaning back slightly, and I watch his nose flare. Are you shitting me? With all these people around here, he can sense me outside too? There’s no way in fucking hell… right?
My body stutters to life inappropriately as his eyes land on me. It pisses me off that I feel like that every time he even just glances at me. My clit begins to throb, and I watch his tongue slowly come out and swipe along his bottom lip, causing a clenching deep inside my pussy.
Fuck!
Instead of turning back to the convict to continue questioning him, Kaneer steps to one of the four men I now realize are guarding the perimeter of the platform to which they’ve secured the man. I wonder if they built the platform around the tree? There’s a guard on each side, and he doesn’t talk to them long before he swings back and starts cutting through the crowd toward me.
Shit! I don’t wait around for him to catch up to me. I’m not an idiot. He didn’t give me permission to leave the tent. I’m so fucked!
I don’t understand why he always makes me feel like this, but I spin around and take off at a run, abandoning my idea of trying to talk to the convict. It’ll have to wait! Until when… I’m not sure.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
- Kaneer
I KNEW AS soon as I came back into the encampment that something wasn’t right. Carnell was nowhere to be seen, and I was missing my normal guard that watches the corner of my tent. Imagine my surprise when I walked inside and not only was Carnell there with my mate but also the favored priestess and