The palace was resplendent, glowing with golden light and filled with the upper crust of Alquon Ultrea, who had been given invitations to the Breeding Ball. According to Chandra, only the best of the best were invited and everyone they saw was of the noblest and purest blood.
“All of the Alquons here have the blood of the past Lord Magnates in their family trees,” she explained to Sarah as they strolled up the golden path leading to the vast front double doors. “And for this one night, we are all paired together by the purity of our blood, with only the purest males breeding the purest females in hopes of producing even purer children. Only in this way can we remove the taint of the genetic modification we were forced to take so many years ago when our world was first covered in water.”
“But…what’s so wrong with your modification?” Sarah asked. She motioned at Chandra’s dainty, barely-there gill slits and the slight webbing between her fingers. “It seems practical to me. And don’t you enjoy being able to live in the water as well as in a dry environment?”
“Children enjoy playing in the water,” Chandra said. “And some of us with more…extreme modifications find it more comfortable. Lemesh, who made your clothing, far prefers the depths to the bright lights of Idd. But most of us just wish to get back to the way we were before we were modified. Also, water messes up your hair.” She tossed her own kelpy ringlets with a little sniff.
Suddenly a well dressed Alquon nobleman with perfectly coiffed green hair strolled up to them. His gill slits were more prominent than most of those in attendance although it looked to Sarah like maybe he’d applied some kind of makeup to try and minimize them.
“Hello, darling,” he said to Chandra and gave her an affectionate kiss on the cheek.
“Oh, Kendro! Darling!” Chandra threw her arms around his neck and kissed him back enthusiastically. “This is my pair partner, Kendro,” she said when she finally pulled away. “And Kendro, these are the Kindred diplomat, Commander Sazar, and his female, Sarah I’ve been telling you so much about.”
“Very pleased to meet you.” Kendro nodded politely. “I’m glad to finally meet the people who have been monopolizing my beautiful pair partner these last two days.”
“Chandra has been invaluable to us,” Sazar said seriously. “She’s both considerate and knowledgeable. Forgive us for taking so much of her time.”
“Oh, Kendro is just teasing you.” Chandra slapped her pair partner lightly on the chest. “I’ll see you after the breeding, darling. Who are you paired with, anyway?”
“Natalan Tangoo.” Kendro made a face. “Her blood is a whole sixteenth less pure than mine. So common! I don’t know how I’ll bear it!”
“Now, darling…” Chandra shook a slim finger in his face. “Every little drop of purer blood helps, you know. So breed her well and do your best to give her a big belly.”
He sighed dejectedly. “You know I will. Are you paired with Jakkob again?”
It was Chandra’s turn to make a face. “Yes and you know he’s so stuffy and proud just because he’s directly related to The Lord Magnate and has some of the purest blood in Idd. He acts like he’s doing me a favor every time he puts his shaft inside me!”
“But think if you conceive,” Kendo exclaimed. “Our child will be one of the purest in all of Idd! You have to do your best too, Chandra. Let him breed you more than once if he will.”
“I’ll try to convince him but Jakkob is notoriously stingy with his seed.” She sighed. “Well look, darling—I really must dash. I need to get Commander Sazar and Sarah here set up with a good centralized breeding couch and show them the ropes before I go find Jakkob.”
“All right. Happy breeding—I’ll see you after.” Kendro kissed her casually on the lips and waved as he walked off in another direction.
Sarah could hardly believe what she’d just seen. And as Chandra stopped to speak to another Alquon noble she looked up at Sazar.
“Correct me if I’m wrong,” she murmured. “But…aren’t pair partners like husband and wife?”
“I believe so, yes,” he said in a low voice.
“But then…did I just hear them making plans to…to have sex with other people? Right in front of each other?”
“It appeared so.” Sazar shrugged. “Such a thing would never be permissible in a Kindred society but I have been on missions to polyamorous cultures before.”
“But how can they just…just plan to have sex with other people and then agree to meet later like it’s no big deal?” Sarah exclaimed. Even in the Compound such a thing would have been frowned on and punished severely. The only male a woman was supposed to sleep with was her husband—after Father Caleb was done with her, of course.
“Oh, do our breeding customs upset you?” Chandra asked and Sarah realized with embarrassment that the Alquon girl had heard everything she’d said.
“They just…surprise me, that’s all,” she said quickly.
“Well believe me, it’s not always pleasant to be bred by another male.” Chandra pouted prettily. “But we do whatever we must to purify our bloodlines. And of course, The Lord Magnate has the purest bloodline of all—that’s why it’s such a great honor to be bred by him.” She sighed, as though remembering something lovely. “I had only just come of age the year he bred me at the ball. I was so excited.”
“I’m…sure you were,” Sarah said as neutrally as she could though the idea of being “bred” by The Lord Magnate still made her skin crawl.
They entered the vast double doors along with a few other nobles and Sarah was surprised to see there was a new addition to the gold and marble entry hall.
An enormous fish bowl—bigger than a dump truck—was placed right in the center of the foyer. It was filled with pale green water that shimmered in the golden light. An enormous, shiny black lump sat like a mountain right in the middle of it.
“Oh look—they brought the grike inside this year!” Chandra exclaimed.
“The grike?” Sazar frowned and Sarah felt a stab of curiosity herself. Since the moment they’d gotten to Alquon Ultrea she’d been hearing about people getting “thrown to the grike,” as though it was the worst possible punishment. She’d assumed the grike must be some kind of wild animal but where was it?
“I don’t see anything,” she said to Chandra. “Other than that big black blob in the middle of the bowl. Where’s the grike?”
“Darling, that big blob is the grike.” Chandra walked up to the fish bowl and tapped smartly on the glass side with one longer fingernail.
At first nothing happened. Then one enormous luminous white eye opened slowly on the side of the black blob. It blinked lazily and then closed again.
“Wow, it really is gigantic,” Sarah murmured. It reminded her of stories she’d heard about grouper who lived off the Florida coast. Rumor was that some of them grew huge in the depths—big enough to swallow a small car in a single gulp. The grike made her think of such a fish. It was enormous, yes, but it looked sleepy and peaceful and not very threatening.
“It’s very large,” Sazar remarked diplomatically. “But not very…active apparently.”
“Oh, you want to see active?” Chandra smirked at him.
There was a small pedestal table sitting beside the fishbowl. It was full to the brim with some reddish-brown substance which had a strange smell. Sarah had thought it might be some kind of alien potpourri. But the minute Chandra picked up a long handled spoon from the small table and scooped it into the bowl, she saw she had been wrong. This was no potpourri—it was more like chum—the mixture of fish guts and blood fishermen use to lure in sharks.
Still smiling widely, Chandra stood on tiptoes and emptied the contents of the long-handled spoon right into the water.
At once the grike came to life.
The luminous white eye opened again—and then another eye and then another. Soon Sarah could see the creature had at least three pairs of eyes and none of them looked happy.
A huge mouth, wider across than Sarah was tall, suddenly gaped open in the greenish water and teeth were revealed—sharp, dagger-like fangs as long as her arm. The teeth were so long and thin they were almost translucent but somehow Sarah knew they were still horribly, incredibly strong. She had read once about an armored fish which had lived in the ancient oceans of the Paleolithic era. Supposedly it had had more bite force in its massive jaws than even the deadly Tyrannosauruses Rex.
Now that the grike’s teeth had been revealed, it reminded her much more of that ancient, extinct fish than the sleepy grouper it had first appeared to be. Sarah was certain it could bite a person in half as easily as she could bite into a breadstick. Her stomach lurched.
“Dear God,” she whispered as the jaws opened wider and wider. Now they were wider than Sazar was tall.
“Oh, you haven’t seen anything yet.” Chandra giggled. “Watch this.” She dumped another spoonful of chum into the grike’s bowl and stood back.
Suddenly the giant fish went crazy. Writhing and thrashing, the grike came to the surface, its massive, deadly jaws gnashing in the water as those terrible, deadly teeth sought something to bite.
“Oh!” Sarah jumped back and would have fallen if Sazar hadn’t caught her and helped her stand steady.
“Don’t worry,” Chandra laughed again, obviously amused by her reaction. “He can’t get out. The only way the grike can get you is if you get your self thrown in.”
“Does that happen often?” Sazar demanded. “Someone getting thrown in, I mean.
“Oh, no—not usually. It’s more of a deterrent than anything else. Although there have been times when The Lord Magnate has ordered someone tossed to the grike. Usually someone who refused to participate in the ball, or refused their assigned breeding partner.”
“Why would…would someone do that if you all take, uh, breeding so casually here?” Sarah asked.
“Well as I said, it doesn’t happen often. It did happen at last year’s Breeding Ball though.” Chandra sounded thoughtful. “Landro Doormel refused to breed with KiiKii Doormel.”
“Why?” Sazar asked.
“Oh, he thought their bloodlines were too close because they were related.” Chandra waved away such incestuous concerns breezily. “But she was only his half-sister! Really, it was such a fuss about nothing.”
Fuss about nothing? Sarah thought. A man refuses to have sex with his sister and he’s thrown to a giant man-eating fish as punishment? Oh my, how terribly dull dear!
A hysterical laugh rose in her throat but she swallowed it back down hastily. Suddenly the stakes for being caught faking the breeding ritual were raised considerably. God, what had they gotten themselves into here?
She looked up at Sazar and saw that his face had gone grim, his lips thinned to a line and his pale eyes narrowed. Was he doubting their chances of getting away with this too?
“Well, enough about the grike,” Chandra said casually. “I think it’s time we go to the throne room and get you two settled. Just think—your first Breeding Ball!” She clapped her hands eagerly. “So thrilling! Aren’t you excited?”
“Overwhelmed is probably a better word,” Sarah said.
“Oh, there’s nothing to be nervous about, sweetie.” Chandra patted her arm comfortingly. “You don’t even have to worry what it’s going to be like with a new breeding partner! You and Commander Sazar have been together already. So you’re just going to be doing in public what you’ve been doing in private for ages.”
Sarah blushed when she thought about some of the things she and Sazar had been doing in private—the way he’d sucked her nipples and healed her pussy with his tongue…but none of that had been actual sex. Now they were going to have to pretend to make love and hope no one noticed they were just faking.
She looked up at Sazar again but he was staring back towards the grike as Chandra led them further into the palace, towards the throne room. What was he thinking? And were his thoughts as chaotic and frightened as hers?
* * * * *
This is going to be fucking tricky, Sazar thought, staring over his shoulder at the monstrous fish which still thrashed and gnashed its dagger-sharp teeth in the immense bowl. We can’t be caught under any circumstances.
Their position would be much simpler, of course, if he and Sarah could just perform the breeding as expected, but Sazar was absolutely determined that wasn’t going to happen.
In his home world of Tranq Prime, a female’s virginity was prized above everything—without it she was nothing. He refused to take his innocent little human’s virginity—absolutely refused. Even if he’d been certain she felt for him as he felt for her, he would have balked at such an action in a public venue like the Breeding Ball.
Sarah was special—she deserved to be taken gently with lots of preparation—not bent over a breeding bench and unceremoniously skewered. She shouldn’t have to give up the treasure of her virginity for this mission or for fear or uncertainty—she shouldn’t have to give it for anything but love, Sazar told himself. And until he was certain she loved him and wanted him, he wouldn’t do that to her—wouldn’t take her.
Besides, she’d run away from The Brotherhood of Peace in order to get away from a forced breeding—he was determined he wasn’t going to betray her trust by forcing her now.
We’ll fake our breeding and make it work, he told himself fiercely. We have to.
They entered the throne room which looked much different than it had the day before when they’d first been introduced to The Lord Magnate. The formerly empty area had been filled with concentric rows of the same red-padded benches they’d seen on the video Chandra had sent them. They curved in a semi-circle around the dais where the golden throne had been the day before. In its place was a golden breeding couch, much larger and finer than the rest. Clearly it was for the use of The Lord Magnate himself.
“Now let me see, oh yes—as guests of honor I believe you’re be assigned to this bench…here,” Chandra said.
To Sazar’s dismay, she led them to the center bench in the front row—directly in front of the dais.
We’ll be directly under The Lord Magnate’s eye. Goddess damn it—she couldn’t have picked a worse spot!
Sarah seemed to be thinking the same thing because she was protesting to Chandra that this spot was much too exposed.
“Sazar and I aren’t used to doing this in public,” she said earnestly. “I really think we’d feel much more comfortable over on the side of the room—maybe even in the back corner.”
“Shove you away in the back corner when you’ve got the purest blood of all—proven by the prophesy?” Chandra exclaimed. “Heaven forbid!”
“But—” Sarah started.
“Besides,” Chandra went on. “I’m not the one who made the breeding chart! That would be the Councilor in charge of Breeding. And your names are right here—see?” She pointed to a small tag with curving, alien script on it attached to the bench.
Sazar frowned. “We do not wish to be so prominently placed. What Councilor must we speak to in order to get our position changed?”
“Well…” Chandra hesitated delicately. “That would be Minister Rando. We met him yesterday if you remember.”
Inwardly, Sazar groaned. He had nearly broken Rando’s arm the day before—there was no way the male would be willing to accommodate them by moving them to a more obscure spot in the room.
“Look,” here he comes now,” Chandra remarked. “You can ask him if you want.”
“Ask me what?” Rando snapped, coming up to them. He looked every bit as greasy and weasely as he had the day before, Sazar thought. And his beady eyes crawled just as greedily over Sarah’s exposed breasts, though he made certain to keep his distance and didn’t try to reach for her breast chain this time.
Sazar swallowed down the possessive growl that rose in his throat and tried to address the male in a neutral tone.
“We find that our, uh, breeding position is much more centrally located than we like,” he said, looking down at the shorter male. “Such things are done in private in our culture and though we are willing to participate in your Breeding Ball ritual, we prefer to be as far out of the public eye as possible.”
“Well that’s too bad,” Rando snapped, glaring up at him. “Because you’re stuck here—by order of The Lord Magnate himself,” he added quickly, when Sazar took a menacing step toward him. “He apparently thinks you deserve the honor of this position although I can’t say I agree with him.” He sniffed. “So you’ll have to take it up with him—if you dare. He wants to see you anyway.”
“He…he does?” Sarah faltered, putting a hand to her chest. “What for?”
“How should I know?” Rando shrugged his skinny shoulders. “Something about some ridiculous ancient prophesy, I believe. Anyway, he’s waiting for you in the throne antechamber—through the door at the end of the dais.” He nodded the way. “Tell the guards The Lord Magnate is expecting you.” He gave Sarah’s breasts one more hungry look and added, “Happy breeding,” before leaving abruptly.
“Sazar?” Sarah looked up at him, fear in her big hazel eyes.
“It’s all right,” he said with confidence he didn’t feel. “Let’s just go see what he wants.”
“Oh, so exciting!” Chandra clapped her hands. “I’m so glad you’re to be honored by another meeting with The Lord Magnate! Good luck to you both and I’ll see you after the breeding!” She hugged Sarah and kissed her cheek and gave Sazar a little wave before fluttering off to a tall Alquon male with angular features and a disdainful look on his face—presumably her breeding partner for the night.
“Well?” Sarah slipped her hand into his. Sazar couldn’t help noticing it was trembling.
“It will be all right,” he said again, squeezing her fingers tightly. “Come on—let’s get this over with.”