Chapter Eight

 

 

To say I’m shocked would be an understatement.

Everywhere I glance, Kleaxian males are leading naked or scantily clad females around by leashes similar to the one around my neck. The females who aren’t wearing a collar still follow close behind their mates. I deduce the males dressed in black, like Kenan, are his soldiers—the very warriors who helped vanquish the human males from Tallia, attacked the Stargazer, and closed the wormhole.

Most of the females have flawless skin, but a few have bruises and angry red markings. I stumble past a woman who recently endured a whipping that left her back covered in thin, welted cuts. My legs weaken, and it’s all I can do to follow Kenan into the bustling marketplace.

Vaguely, I’m surprised by how much he looks like a full blooded Kleaxian, and he’s even the tallest in the crowd. I wonder if it’s due to his royal blood. Maybe the Kleaxians of the highest class who also possess royal blood are always taller than their subjects.

My gaze scans the crowd further. The females don’t speak often, only if their mates turn around and converse with them briefly. The Kleaxian language sounds so strange to my ears, I wonder if I’ll ever understand Kenan’s tongue. At least he speaks English. I can only imagine what the other human women are going through, being unable to communicate easily with their new mates.

The Kleaxian females aren’t much larger than me. Their skin is a lighter red than the males. All the Kleaxians, both males and females, have black hair. I carefully scan the throng and spot five human women. They’re on the far edge of the crowd, though, and I’m unable to determine if they have bruises or marks from a recent whipping.

All the males we pass incline their head to Kenan and say the same thing. Huloon ruhosta. Maybe it means “Good morning, Your Highness.”

I’ve never felt more like an outsider.

I don’t belong here, not in this town and not on this planet among this frightening alien race.

Please let our visit here be short.

Kenan leads me into a stall containing items of clothing. Pretty, feminine dresses and male Kleaxian apparel hang on racks and on the walls. He speaks with the owner and it soon becomes apparent he’s shopping for me. The owner, similar in appearance to Kenan, but shorter and with only six fingers, an indication that he belongs to the lower class of Kleaxians, scans me with a device that aims tiny green lines as it passes up and down my body.

When the owner steps too close to me, Kenan grabs my arm and growls. The shorter man backs away and bows his head in regret, his hands trembling at his sides.

If I had use of my voice, I would tell the shop owner not to worry and thank him for his help. But I can only give him a brief apologetic look. I wonder if he suspects the shameful reason for my silence.

As we leave the stall, Kenan says, “He’s going to make you a new wardrobe. I sent a servant to town early this morning to fetch this ready-made dress for you, but you need a sizeable wardrobe with perfectly fitted dresses, and you shall have it. You are, after all, a princess.”

I nod, but I don’t feel like a princess, and my heart goes out to the naked women on the street whose mates, for whatever reason, aren’t allowing them to wear clothing. It’s probably best my voice is gone, because I long to express my outrage for the other females.

We travel through a crowded square, and Kenan pulls the leash so close to him, I’m almost walking beside him. I avert my eyes from the other females.

Will Kenan ever parade me naked through town? Or flog me until my back bleeds?

When we make it through the horde, the dock comes into sight. It’s crowded, too, but not as busy as inside the town. My hair sticks to my neck under the heat of the sun. Tallia is as sultry as Florida in August, though, back home, I typically kept my hair in a ponytail.

Back home. I’ll never see home again. My throat tightens.

We board a boat not much larger than a two-person canoe, and Kenan releases my leash after I sit down. He sits across from me and presses buttons on a panel next to his seat. As the boat drifts off, I dip my hand into the cool water and give an inward sigh of relief. Wherever we’re headed, I’m grateful for the breeze and to have finally escaped the crowded town.

Mourning the loss of my voice, I gaze at him as the boat travels by a larger vessel whose occupants are pulling a net bulging with crab-like creatures from the water. Will I really be unable to speak for days? Before I try to test my voice again, Kenan breaks the silence.

“Despite what you saw in town, Kleaxian males do indeed treasure their mates.”

Like hell they do. I shake my head in a show of disagreement.

“Only a handful of the females you saw had been beaten recently, and, yes, those who were took a hard beating. When one of our mates errs or disobeys in some way, the honorable thing to do is punish the female. To leave her unpunished, would mean the male cares nothing for her behavior. The recently punished females you saw today were not unhappy in the least. Most of them chose not to wear clothing in town because it’s honorable to publicly admit their mistakes to make atonement for their transgressions. I doubt any of the males forced them to walk about without their clothes. Rather, it’s the female’s choice.”

I feel sick. How can this be the world and the culture I’m now part of? I glance away from Kenan and focus on the water rippling by the boat. A group of tiny fish flits across the surface and tickles my hand still dangling in the water. I gasp and cradle my hand in my lap, ever aware while tiny fish on Earth aren’t usually dangerous, that might not be the case on Tallia.

Kenan scoots closer and reaches for my hand. He stokes the water droplets off my palm and smiles at me. When he’s smiling, he looks ten years younger than…however old he is.

“Relax. Those are called novostos, and they are completely harmless.”

Compared to mine, his hand is huge and so very red. Sweat trickles down my temples, and for a moment, I fear I might burn out in the middle of the lake where I’m unprotected from the sun’s rays, but then I recall the ozone of Tallia is thick. The brochures said most people never got a tan, let alone suffered a burn, even if they spent day after day in the sun.

The breeze picks up and I inhale the salty air that holds a hint of seaweed and a fresh, fragrant aroma reminiscent of tulips. Most of the lakes on Tallia are salt lakes and contain as great a variety of life as an Earth ocean.

Had my life gone according to plan, three years from now I would be helping to catalog hundreds, if not thousands, of new species. While I hadn’t been terribly excited by the prospect of such tedious work, I had looked forward to making Tallia my home. Now I must rely on tidbits of information from Kenan regarding the plant and animal life of this world.

He guides the boat toward the shore on the other side of the lake, still keeping my hand in his. He rubs soft circles on my palm, eliciting little shivers from me despite the blazing heat and humidity.

If he hadn’t stolen my voice, I would ask what the large blue birds soaring overhead are called. I might also ask more about his station as a prince on this mountain. Compared to the last remaining royal families on Earth, he seems quite hands-on and approachable to his people. Rather than call a dressmaker to his home, he visited the market himself, and he strides through the town without any kind of entourage.

The shore grows closer and I squint as a new dock comes into sight. Smaller than the first one, it also isn’t as crowded. Only about a dozen Kleaxian males are walking to and fro, hauling large nets of fish and other lake creatures over their shoulders, off the waiting boats. I shoot Kenan a surprised look when we pass the dock.

“We’re having lunch at a lakefront restaurant owned by my friend, Marsalit,” he explains.

An excited flutter stirs in my stomach when he squeezes my hand before releasing it to carefully guide our boat to a tiny dock in front of the restaurant. A young Kleaxian boy runs up to secure our boat to a post, and Kenan rises with the end of my leash in his hand. Kindness gleams in his eyes and he gives the length a playful tug.

“The sooner you accept Kleaxian ways, Laylah, the happier you will be.”

I want to believe him, but I also don’t want to surrender to a way of life I find fundamentally wrong.

He helps me onto the dock and then steps in front of me, once again guiding me by the leash. After all I’ve seen in the town, I’m not as sullen and outraged as I was several hours ago, when he’d first pulled the leash from his pocket. At least I don’t have to wear it at home, and though I’ve only been with Kenan for two days, it appears I’m allowed to have the run of the house.

“Come, my mate, and I’ll take you to my usual table.”