“You do?” she asked the other woman. “Where did he get you? Er…where were you when he Claimed you?” she amended.
“I was just a Pleasure Girl on the space docks.” Keelah spoke in a low voice. “Rep. Zerlix tried me and liked my services. So he paid the Claiming price to my owner and took me away with him. Now I live here—until he gets tired of me, that is.”
Bobbi was appalled at her confession. What a terrible life this poor girl had led—being sold on the docks to whatever male wanted her and then winding up with the sadistic Zerlix. The Orniths might be more primitive than the Saurians, but you didn’t see them pimping each other out, she thought indignantly.
“That must have been a hard life,” she said, trying to commiserate with the other woman. “How old were you when…when you started working at the, uh, space docks?”
Keelah ducked her head again.
“Fifteen,” she whispered. “It’s not supposed to be allowed so young, but my owner got a special permit for me,” she added, looking down at her hands.
“Oh my—and how old are you now, if you don’t mind me asking?” Bobbi asked. It was still difficult for her to judge Saurian ages—they didn’t seem to get wrinkles like mammalians did and of course you couldn’t judge by hair color since they had no hair.
“I’m eighteen,” Keelah murmured. “Rep. Zerlix bought me when I was seventeen and a half,” she added. “I’ve been here at the Crimson Blades family compound almost six solar months—much longer than many of the girls he chooses.”
“Is that right?” Bobbi said neutrally.
“Yes.” Keelah’s eyes grew wide. “I hope that he never tires of me! I do my best to please him.”
“What does he do when he’s done with his, uh, Pleasure Girls?” Bobbi inquired.
“Nobody knows.” Keelah shrugged her slim shoulders. “Some say that he sends them to rival Clans as presents to make peace—so the males there can use the girls as they see fit. But some say…” She dropped her voice to a whisper. “Some say he gets rid of them more permanently. I just hope that he keeps me. As I said, I do my best to please him.”
“But that’s not right,” Bobbi said, frowning. “You shouldn’t have to live that way—fearing that he’ll get rid of you, always depending on a man to take care of you. Aren’t there any independent females here on Saurous?”
A shocked look came into Keelah’s yellow eyes.
“Independent females? But how could we live independently of men? Who would protect us during the conflicts and wars between the Clans?”
“Is the whole planet divided into Clan territories, then?” Bobbi asked.
“The Southern Continent is,” Keelah told her. “It’s all one big city divided up into Clan territories. But the Northern Continent isn’t like that at all. There are families there that love each other. And…” She paused for a moment and Bobbi thought she looked like she might cry—if Saurians had been capable of producing tears, that was.
“What is it?” she asked gently. “What about the Northern Continent?”
“It’s where I was taken from,” Keelah admitted brokenly. “I was out playing with my brothers. My mother told me I was too old for such games, but my youngest brother, Garrish loved it so much. I told him to run and hide and that I would close my eyes and count. When I finished the count, I would come find him. But when I opened my eyes…”
She paused again, as though choked with emotion.
“Yes?” Bobbi murmured, gently urging her on.
“When I opened them, the raiders were standing there. They steal girls from the Northern Continent and bring them here, to the Southern Continent for sale. They…they had me before I even knew what was happening. And the next thing I knew, I was at the space docks being…being sold for the very first time.”
Her words ended in a whisper and the look in her eyes was so sad, Bobbi nearly started crying. She wanted to put her arms around the other woman and just hold her, but she didn’t know how Saurian society felt about casual touching. She contented herself with rubbing Keelah’s arm gently.
“I’m so sorry, Keelah. But…couldn’t your parents come find you?”
The Saurian girl shook her head.
“They’re poor farmers. They can’t afford the money to hire a tracking team to locate me. But sometimes I…I miss them so much,” she whispered.
“Of course you do,” Bobbi said sympathetically. “Just like I miss my friends on Avria Pentaura and my mom and dad and sister back on Earth. Do the uh, men of the Southern Continent go all over the place stealing women, then?”
Keelah shrugged and nodded.
“It’s common practice for them. Almost all of the Pleasure Girls have been stolen from somewhere else. No one would come and be one by choice, of course—especially not from the Northern Continent. Females are more free there—that they can even make a living for themselves in ways other than being wives or servicing men.” She shook her head and began feeding more geezers into the slicing machine. “But not on the Southern Continent. Here a female of low birth can only be used by men until she is all used up and discarded.”