Selena always looked away quickly, but she couldn’t stop the frightening images his silent threats raised in her mind’s eye. Several times she had even stuck her hand in her pocket and fingered the little silver kill-pill. But every time she was close to swallowing it, she remembered the feeling of being wrapped in a warm, comforting hug and the voice that had whispered, “Have courage…”
I won’t take it until the very last minute, Selena promised herself. Not until I’m actually boarding the transport to Hammerdown.
She wanted to live, damn it! She didn’t have a death wish—but neither did she wish to be raped and murdered slowly and brutally—which was no doubt what Big Horn had in mind for her. But if she could just hold on, maybe Valen would still come for her. Maybe he could make the judge change his mind and set her free…
It was a slim hope, but Selena gripped it tightly as her only lifeline. She had to trust that, as dark as things looked, everything was going to work out in the end. Had to hope that the big Kindred still cared enough for her to come to her rescue…
She was hoping to ask Moll what Valen had said, but when the metal door finally swung open, it was a male guard who was pushing the cart filled with metal trays.
“Excuse me?” Selena asked, as she took the tray he passed through the grate to her—it was filled with some thick black lumps that smelled like dirty socks. “Excuse me, but where’s Moll?”
“Day off,” he said shortly. “Pass the trays on, hurry up!” And he went to serve the men’s cell as well.
Selena’s heart sank. Moll probably hadn’t gone to Valen’s house at all! No doubt she’d thought this was a fine time to just take her payment and leave. After all, it was her day off, so the old woman didn’t even have to see Selena again because she’d be on a transport to prison before she came back.
I bet she didn’t even go. Valen has no idea where I am. He probably thinks I got back to the Mother Ship and he won’t find out any differently until I’ve been dead for months.
She fingered the pill in her pocket and looked down at the lumpy black chunks on the metal tray in front of her. Was it some kind of fungus? Whatever it was, she had no appetite—she wouldn’t have wanted to eat it even if it had been some kind of delicacy or her favorite food in the world. All she could think of was the fact that it was getting closer and closer to noon.
Veelah had informed her that if her Defender actually came, her name would be called for the noon session of court. If not, she’d be herded along with all the other inmates in the holding cells—males and females—down the hall to the transport loading area.
“And if that happens, honey, I’d use that kill-pill I gave you if I was you,” the other woman said grimly. She’d sighed and shaken her head. “Too bad you didn’t just polish Big Horn’s knob when he told you to! Then you’d be all set instead of stuck in this mess.”
But no matter what the consequences, Selena couldn’t feel sorry for her choice. She couldn’t have done anything else other than refusing Big Horn’s order to suck his disgusting member. She just couldn’t. She—
“Noon court, now in session!” a bored-sounding guard announced, opening the thick metal door. “Listen for your name. If I call it out, come to the front of the holding cell. The rest of you, get back or you’ll get a taste of my pain prod,” he added, pulling out his long baton, which hissed and sparked on one end.
Selena’s heart jumped into her throat. This was it! Would her name be called? Or was she going on the transport?
She clenched her hands into fists at her sides, squeezing so tightly, her fingernails cut into her palms as she waited to find out.
67
“I’m sorry, Defender, but I don’t see your name on the list for court today. Nor these other people, either.” The Ma’shorkan clerk at the front of the High Court shook his head at Valen, as well as Tolern and Jessica, who were standing behind him.
“What about those people,” Jessica demanded, pointing to a pair of guards who were dragging a struggling, bedraggled Ma’shorkan woman between them into one of the courtrooms.
“Oh, those are defendants,” the clerk said dismissively. “They’ve got to answer for their crimes, so of course they may come to court.”
“So we can’t get in unless we commit a crime?” she demanded. “What kind of system is this?”
“Don’t, sweetheart!” Tolern said quickly, because his wife was looking around, as though trying to see what crime she could commit to gain entrance to the High Court.