Hidden Rage: Kindred Tales

Still, she tried to stay strong and told herself that if the opportunity to get away presented itself, she would take it. She had to get away before the Kindred of the Mother Ship came. She cared about Dragon now—she didn’t want to see him die in a bloody fight to keep her because he refused to let her go back home. However, her determination was a moot point while she was stuck in the compound.

Then, about two weeks after Dragon had first kidnapped her, she finally got her chance. That was the day that Res. Tizlah announced that it was Market Day and that Bobbi would be allowed to go with Keelah and some of the other Saurian females to buy the necessary groceries for the compound.

“I’m only letting you out because Komendant Vizlar ordered it. He says you need to learn how to bargain and get the best prices,” she told Bobbi sternly. “After all, you and Dragon are to be married very soon, and we want you to be a proper wife for our son—and a proper wife knows how to get the best bargains at the Market.”

“I understand.” Bobbi ducked her head respectfully. “Thank you, Res. Tizlah, I’ll do my best. Maybe Keelah can show me how it’s done.”

Res. Tizlah gave her an unreadable look.

“Child, don’t get too attached to Keelah. She won’t be here forever, you know. It would be better if you’d make friends with the wives of the other Clan members. Those would be more permanent friendships for you.”

“Do you mean that your son might get tired of Keelah at any minute and get rid of her?” Bobbi asked.

She knew she ought to hold her tongue—this was the first kind word Res. Tizlah had said to her since Zerlix had thrown his public tantrum at the feast two weeks before. But she couldn’t stand the way women were treated here on Saurous and it struck her that it wasn’t just men who were allowing it to happen—Res. Tizlah had power here too, even if she wasn’t male.

Dragon’s adoptive mother glared at her.

“Yes, that is exactly what I mean,” she said coolly. “Men have changeable appetites, as everyone knows. You shouldn’t make a friend out of someone who might be moved along soon.”

“Moved along to another Clan where any male who wants her can use her, do you mean?” Bobbi demanded. “Or moved along back to her pimp, who can sell her to customers until she wears out or dies of some awful venereal disease?”

But Res. Tizlah was not so easily shamed—she refused to drop her eyes as she spoke.

“That’s the way of life with these low-class girls,” she said stiffly. “It’s nobody’s fault—it’s just their lot.”

“Nobody’s fault?” Bobbi cried. “Of course it’s somebody’s fault! What about the slaver who kidnapped Keelah from her loving family in the Northern Continent when she was only fifteen and brought her down here to pimp her out? What about the customers who bought her services while she was held in sexual slavery for years until your son came along and decided to buy her for his harem?”

She wanted to add, “And while we’re talking about it, what about your son, who beats and abuses and uses Keelah and women like her on a daily basis?”

But she was smart enough to bite her tongue on that particular statement. Res. Tizlah might be a good mom, but she had a definite blind spot when it came to her biological son and there was no way she would be willing to hear anything bad about him.

“I’m sorry the girl has had a hard life,” the Saurian matriarch said, frowning at Bobbi. “But I can’t do anything about it. She belongs to my son and her destiny is in his hands.”

“But you have a lot of influence over your sons,” Bobbi protested. “They love and respect you so much! What if you told Zerlix to keep Keelah indefinitely—even to marry her? Or what if, instead of sending her to another Clan or back to her pimp, he sent her back to her family on the Northern Continent?”

Res. Tizlah stiffened.

“Zerlix is a grown male, I don’t tell him anything. And anyway, a trip to the Northern Continent takes a lot of fuel—it can get very expensive. If he had to take every cheap Pleasure Girl that caught his fancy back home when he was tired of her, it would bankrupt our Clan!”

Bobbi very much doubted that was true—the Crimson Blades seemed to be doing all right to her. She thought it was much more likely that Res. Tizlah just didn’t like to think about the plight of the Pleasure Girls her son used so freely. If she examined what was actually going on under her nose, she’d have to admit what a sadist Zerlix was and also that the society she’d been raised in was horribly unjust towards women. Still, she tried one more time. Softening her tone, she looked into Res. Tizlah’s eyes.