Chapter One
Brighid
The bright sun was stifling, made all the worse by the thick, heavy dress that clung to Brighid’s neck. As a virgin in the College of the sea goddess Atlantica, she rarely stepped out into the sun, much less with her face uncovered.
Though the heat made her want to vomit, her chest was cold, as if her heart had turned into a block of ice. Brigid sneaked a peek at the other girls standing in a line beside her. They all wore the same uniform as she did, thick black gowns that swept the ground and went to their chins and just past the wrist. Their hair was down freely, indicating they were ready to be taken as wives. All their eyes were ringed with kohl. It looked almost fearsome on the girls. In the morning many of them would have kohl streaking their faces.
She would be one of them. All the girls were being picked by Atlantica’s priests to wife today, and she already knew who would pick her. Jyah. He was one of the high priests and never had a wife before, so he would be among the first to pick. There was a slim chance one of the others would pick her first but unlikely. Everybody knew Jyah wanted her and given his rising prowess on the battlefield, nobody would want to anger him by claiming what he already thought of his.
Brighid's hands clenched. Perhaps it would have been better if she had thrown herself in the well where disgraced virgins were sent to be tried and drowned by Atlantica herself. It would be better than this fate. Perhaps in the morning she'd dive into it, or step from the high towers of the temple. Or perhaps Jyah would not be as terrible as she feared.
A large transport ship, shaped like a bow with stylized propulsion systems like wings coming from the back, descended from the sky. Brighid shuddered. So they had arrived.
The eunuchs and old maids of Atlantica, who guarded the girls’ virginity and punished those who broke their oaths, activated the energy barriers that would separate the virgins from the priests. They had all spent a decade of their lives out in space protecting the Lantian Realm from intruders, especially the great Beasts of Viles. Now that they were looking at the beautiful faces of human women once more they could hardly be expected to control themselves. It was a good thing they were being married, else they might become just as terrible as the Viles.
The priests left their ship in a long line of swirling robes and armored bodies. They stood on transit disks and as they floated to the surface they formed a battalion rank.
Brighid watched only long enough to see Jyah among the others. Even though priests spent their decade fighting, he was an exception. Four months ago he had been grievously wounded in battle and brought to the College for the virgins to tend to. That was when Brighid met him, while tending to his wounds.
That was when he decided he wanted her.
Her stomach churned as the High Priestess greeted the priests and thanked them for their service. She closes her eyes as the first warriors were called forward to choose their brides.
Please, she begged the Ocean Mother, don't let me end in his bed.
As if in answer to her prayer, a screech split the air. Brighid’s head snapped up. Jyah stood right in front of her. His face turned to the sky and his hand gripped the hilt of his long sword. Brighid followed his gaze. Her breath caught in her throat as plumes of fire burst in the sky.
“Dragon!” someone shouted.
The girls screamed. The priests drew their weapons. Brighid stared, fascinated, as the graceful shapes ducked and wove through the air. She knew in the back of her mind that she should be running. She should be utterly terrified.
Half a dozen of the great beasts veered around and dove for the girls. They scattered. Brighid was frozen. From fear? It didn’t feel that way. Fascination? Not that, either. Just frozen.
The dragon didn’t seem real until its claws were wrapped around her. Even then, there was no fear. The sharp edges of its scales cut into her dress and the talons were none too gentle but as it drew her against its hot belly and beat its wings at the priests that charged it, she didn’t feel how she ought to have. Full of terror. Pleading to be released.
Through the crowd, she saw Jyah rushing towards them.
With a final beat of its wings, the dragon took off again. More of its fellows were rising above the scurrying crowd, dodging this way and that as the priests threw spears at them. Girls writhed and screamed in their claws and Brighid wanted to laugh at them.
Don’t you see that the priests would do the same as the beasts?
She gazed at the ground as it got further and further away and wondered, if she prayed hard enough, Atlantica would make the dragon drop her so she would be dashed on the dirt. Her morbid thoughts shocked her from the daze that had taken hold of her. She struggled in the dragon’s grip. A rumbling vibrated its chest. A growl or laughter?
The dragons wheeled about like a flock of birds. A cavernous mouth gaped open before them and Brighid screamed. But when they passed through the mouth it didn’t close. Instead, it turned into a giant, glittering cave. The dragons set down and pushed their catch into the center of their circle. Brighid clung to the other girls, her stomach churning.
But that numbness that had taken her when she first saw the dragons crept back into her and she couldn’t make herself weep like the others.
All around them, the dragons’ wings got smaller. Their bodies twisted and condensed until what looked like men surrounded them. All had hair that was coarse and blond, braided into chunks down their backs. Many had tattoos and all had scars. Viles, a species of alien that could transform from a humanoid appearance to the dragons that had taken them.
“We’ve got a good bounty for the auction. And all Atlantica’s virgins.” One of them laughed. “Abelard was right, the risks were worth the rewards.”
All around her, the other girls started wailing. And no wonder. The auction was well-known. The Viles gathered up stolen women and children and sold them as slaves. Brighid knew what sort of slave that they, as virgins, would become but she still couldn't work up the tears that had her fellow sisters gnashing their teeth. If anything, their dramatics were getting annoying.
Her lack of tears caught the attention of one of the men. “You’re not wailing about like your sisters. Why not?”
Brighid wondered for a moment if he was hoping that his cruel tone would make her tears come but shrugged. It was better than the leering that she got from Jyah. The way she would leave the baths and find him by the doors with a swelling in his pants and wonder if he had been watching her. How much worse could the auction be?
“I suppose I don’t see any change in my fortunes.”
The Viles’ hairy brows rose. He stepped closer to her and she was surprised that he didn’t smell of brimstone and rotting flesh, as she was so often told. His skin glistened and he smelled of animal fat, presumably rubbed over his body, but that was it.
“No change in fortunes is it?” He grasped her wrist. “Why’s that?”
She didn’t like him touching her but tried not to let her revulsion show. “I was sold to the college when I was a young girl. My mother was a harlot and she had no use for me. All my life I knew I was going to be claimed by a man whom I did not choose. A man I would not care for and a man I probably wouldn’t even like. I knew who was going to choose me today and I would rather be blinded by fire and live my life as a beggar than be forced into his bed.”
The Viles laughed. “And so you will be sold to another man without complaint?”
“He will probably be as dreadful but if I’m lucky, perhaps not.”
His grip on her wrist tightened. “I could keep you. You’re a pretty one. Just bend over for me here and I’ll mark you as my own. No market. We’re allowed to keep a girl from each raid in our harem.”
“Harem,” Brighid repeated. "Bend over?"
Perhaps this man would be better than the one that she was going to be sold to but she pulled her hand away as a shiver ran down her spine.
The Viles laughed once more. “Perhaps more frightened that you realize yourself. Cry when we sell you. With luck a soft-hearted fool will take pity on you.”
“I don’t cry,” she replied.
The Viles smirked. He strode away and others came to herd the girls down the cave. The lights faded away behind them until they were in pitch-black. It was only then that Brighid realized that the Viles had a transporter. It was the only way they could have appeared the way they had and escaped without pursuit. A transporter. No wonder the priests could never catch them.
Their captors stuck them in a cold, black room. Brighid clutched at the girls who clutched at her but only for warmth. Even if she had turned down that Viles offer, she didn’t feel frightened. She didn’t feel anything at all…
Except she did.
Here in the darkness without anybody being able to see her face, she allowed a smile blossom over it. If she had been alone she would have laughed. A change in her fortunes? Oh, yes, there had been a change. It didn’t matter who she went to now, because she knew who was never going to get his foul hands on her.
Even if the priests came after these girls, none of them would ever be taken to wife. Not when they might have lost their virginity, willingly or not. It didn’t matter to the priests, they would only think of how the girls were no longer pure and that they didn’t want to raise a Viles baby. No, there would be no reclaiming. And that meant that she would never have to put her eyes on Jyah again.
Brighid clasped a nearby girl to her as the girl started to cry but her own triumphant lips made no noise. Perhaps Atlantica was real after all, to give her this blessing.
What if I get someone worse?
She shook her head. It wasn’t possible. There was nobody worse than Jyah. It simply wasn’t possible.