too much. “What’s the plan?”
Chapter Four
“Axis?” Kaine’s voice came through loud and clear over the speaker inside the cockpit of his shuttle.
“Yes, sir,” he answered. “I saw something unusual today in the market square and am reporting as instructed.”
“Do you have them?”
Kaine’s question had Axis dropping into the pilot seat with a thud. “Them?” he breathed. The word sounded hollow coming out of his mouth. He’d never expected there to be one human female on Euphoria much less more than one.
“Yes, them. How many did you see?”
“Just one, sir.” Axis let out a big breath. “I only saw her for a few moments in the market, but I have an idea of where she may be staying.”
“How?”
“She was wearing brothel marks, sir.”
“What?!” Kaine’s voice cracked over the intercom.
“I saw them myself, sir. Her hands were tattooed, showing her designation as a house slave on this planet.” Even now he was trying to remember the placement of swirls on her fingers and hands, a design placed on the indentured servants who chose sex work as a way to pay their debts. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t recall the pattern he’d glimpsed.
“Did you recognize the house?”
Axis shook his head, even though there was no one to witness the action. “Negative, sir. I don’t visit the brothels often enough to recognize the marks of ownership. Especially, those that service with slaves.”
He hadn’t visited the Euphorian brothels, either sanctioned or illicit, since he was a young Phaeton still in training. His few visits always left him feeling ill when he could read the workers’ sadness and the distaste some had toward the services they provided. Even when he’d made several appointments with more enthusiastic workers in the houses, there was always the females who were there because they had no other choice. His enthusiasm for the brothels faded each time he saw the sad eyes as he and his brothers walked by them on their way to another room. After a while he simply stopped going; his hand provided just as much relief as he could attain at a brothel.
“Track her down.” The order brought his attention back to his original mission of finding something simply unusual.
“I need more information, Kaine.” Axis tapped his fingers against the arms of the pilot seat. He didn’t want to upset the councilor, but it was the truth. He was on a need-to-know mission, and now he needed to know. His mind raced with questions. There were too many unknowns to make sense of it all. How could he trust his instincts without even knowing the basics? “How many am I looking for? How long have they been here?”
“Three,” Kaine answered on a heavy sigh transmitted with clarity over the comms. “They were part of the original shipment of brides that the Djaromir rescued from the Traccorians. We didn’t realize they were missing until Maggie and Hix turned over the files they’d taken from the Verge. The other females have been accounted for with the miners on Djaromir, except for three.”
“How do you know Djaromir aren’t simply hiding them to keep the females to themselves?” Axis knew the Djaromir were just as bride hungry as the Phaetons with their race in a similarly desperate need for the human females. “They need brides just as much as we do. Considering I’ve only seen one human so far, is it possible the others are on Djaromir and we’re being lied to?”
“Doubtful.” The sound of his leader’s frustration and his certainty in his dismissal of a Djaromir plot could be heard clearly over the cockpit’s speakers. “I’ve questioned Paine and Rowe’s bride, and she supports their claim. I had hoped she’d be able to recognize them from her time in Fyeir, but she’d never seen either of them, which means they never made it out of the Pleasure Sector.”
Axis swiped a hand down his face at the information he was hearing. If Kaine was correct, the woman he’d seen, as well as the other two he’d not yet seen, had been in danger on Euphoria this entire time.
“We cannot be sure how long they were kept in stasis, but they’ve been there for months,” the councilor continued.
“How?” he asked, stunned. He didn’t know how it was possible, but considering he’d seen her, grabbed her with his own hands, he knew it was true. His chest ached at the realization that, while he’d been enjoying his vacation for weeks within the market, there had been females imprisoned close-by, needing