WarlordsPrize Read online

  He touched her hair and unravelled the knot it was in. “Having your hair loose will also draw attention. Every eye and monitor in the palace will be on you. This is your moment, walk and be proud of your survival.”

  They had walked down a number of metal halls. Other males were standing nearby and watching with curiosity.

  She reached up, despite the pain, and finger combed her hair as neatly as she could. As the ship dipped and swayed, she bent her knees and held her balance. Weakness was bad, pride was good. The stars knew that she had her full share of pride.

  The moment that the ship stopped moving, the doctor placed her near the long section that was being lowered to the surface. Her knees shook, but the instant that the thud of contact with the ground reached her ears, she started walking.

  Head high, shoulders back, torso aching and breath wheezing in her lungs, she walked onto the strange world and toward the huge stone edifice that loomed ahead of her.

  Her feet registered the heat of the tarmac and then the softness of grass as she avoided the standard path to ensure her comfort.

  What had seemed like a five-minute walk took forever, the great gates of the palace seemed to stretch back and away from every step she took.

  Relief began to spill through her when she finally reached the doors. The hard-paved surface under her feet was far from soothing. Instead of a medical team, there was another path leading to another building. The sides of the street were lined with families standing silently, judging her performance.

  Her feet burned and when a child spoke in the silence, “The lady is bleeding.” Enari lifted her chin and kept walking.

  She climbed the steps to the palace and walked inside, finding another walkway lined with folk waiting for her. She left her trail of blood behind, not for the pride of the Fennar, but for her own personal pride. Life had dealt her a turn and if she could make the best of it, she would.

  The medical team waited in front of two huge doors.

  As she approached, the doors swung open and the doctors followed her inside. She turned and watched the doors close on the faces who were watching her carefully.

  The doctors grabbed her the moment that the door sealed and her legs gave way.

  Radiance was there when she woke. “Hello, Enari.”

  “Radiance.”

  “Call me Nishka. Radiance is the Asku translation of my name.” She smiled and straightened her gown. “Do you know where you are?”

  “The Asku palace?”

  “And that is all that you will know for now. You are in the old women’s quarters from the days when the warlords kept their harems full.”

  Enari sat up and noted her feet wrapped and elevated. “How many women are here now?”

  “Technically?”

  When she nodded, Nishka continued. “Two. You and me. I am here because these are my rooms while Doron and I are apart and you are here because my son Drion is off waging war somewhere. He will be back in the next six months.” Nishka smiled.

  “Six months?”

  “Or less. He can return tomorrow or in six months. We won’t know until it happens.” The grin was unmistakable.

  Enari’s relief must have shown on her face.

  “Don’t feel too relieved. The moment you are well, you will begin your training to be a very attentive companion. Your virginity will not be touched, but you will be taught what your body is capable of and you will learn etiquette, dance and deportment.”

  That seemed like a lot of homework just to be a whore. “What if I don’t learn all that I need to know?”

  “You will be considered unsuitable and offered to the Asku warriors. But don’t worry. The programs available as well as the instructors will give you a full sexual education as well as everything else you need to know about the Asku. I have confidence in you. There was something that spoke of determination in your eye as you lay bleeding on the floor when we first met.”

  Enari frowned and tried to remember but drew a blank. “When does this training start?”

  Nishka smiled. “It already has. Feel free to read everything in your personal data station. The bot will be here to take you to your rooms soon. Try and relax and send for me if you need anything.”

  “Thank you, you have been most kind.” Enari wasn’t sure if that was the right word, but it seemed to fit.

  “Do not thank me. After your lessons begin, you might wish that we had let the internal bleeding kill you. It is a difficult thing to learn another species’ traditions and you will be judged and punished for any defects in your absorption of the materials.”

  Enari’s mouth went dry. “Punished?”

  “Nothing painful, but it won’t be comfortable. The Asku are very good at getting the responses that they want.” Nishka brushed at her gown and turned to leave.

  “Wait. How did you deal with this when you did it?”

  Nishka smiled gently at her. “I trusted that he wouldn’t hurt me and aside from that, I let the universe sort it out. In time and with luck, it did.”

  The woman disappeared without another word and a mechanical female came into the room in her place. The machine even wore a gown that flowed around her and accented the graceful motions of the hard silver metal.

  “Greetings, Enari. I am Riveh. I will be your primary tutor and your attendant.” The metal woman stood next to her and bowed low.

  “Um, what are you?”

  The face didn’t move, but Enari could swear that there was a laugh in those silver eyes. “I am a trainer for the women of the Asku.”

  “Yes, but what are you?”

  “Ah, I am a service bot. Now, since you cannot get up and out of bed yet, I will be introducing you to the traditions of the Asku as well as showing you your personal training implements.”

  “That sounds ominous.”

  Riveh made a mechanical snort. “If you do as I say, you will get through this just fine.”

  Enari noticed that for someone who was supposed to be a bot, there was a lot of animation in Riveh’s voice.

  Riveh went to the wall and pressed a panel. A box slid free of the wall and the bot returned to the bed. She opened the box and Enari stared at the contents in confusion. Long, short, fat, thin, some with flared handles, some without but all made of smooth plexi and designed in the same columnar shape.

  “These are the tools for your sexual classes and for punishment.”

  Enari blushed and quickly jerked back the hand that was reaching out to touch the smooth surface of one of the objects. “Oh. Um, Fennar don’t discuss sex.”

  “You do not have to discuss it. You simply have to learn about it. Fear creates panic and ignoring your own body creates confusion and a lack of awareness if there is a problem. This instruction is as much for your benefit as the mate you will find yourself with. He may appreciate your lack of fear, but you will enjoy having knowledge of the signals that your body produces. You will know when you are ready and be able to use that awareness to your advantage.”

  She swallowed heavily as she looked at the selection of items. “When does this class begin? I think I might be sick that day.”

  Riveh closed the case and returned it to the wall. “That is not an option. For now, we will begin with the history of the Asku and why you are here at all.”

  Enari perked up and sat up slightly.

  “Genetic manipulation has always been considered dangerous, but the Asku took it to a new level. Their desire for warriors for defence of their world was so great that they were altered in their mothers’ wombs and an entire generation was born stronger, longer lived, with no ability to sire daughters. Panicked, they turned to the stars and evaluated hundreds of races before they began to find compatible females.

  “The populations refused to part with their females, so first, stealth and then aggression secured mates for the men.” Riveh paused. “Several planets fought back and one eventually came upon a means to fight the Asku. They gave the women a fatal sexually transmitted d
isease and offered them to the warriors. The twenty women worked their way through two hundred men in a matter of weeks and by the time the medical staff had the women in isolation, it was too late. Three hundred men and women died months later after a painful and agonizing illness. A council was convened and the Asku society changed overnight.

  “Determined monogamy took over where open relationships had existed. Only virgins who had been tested were allowed access to the Asku warriors and only those who had been confirmed healthy and disease free were sent to meet the men.”

  Enari lifted her hand to ask, “If the women are sent to meet the men, why am I here? Why am I not in with the rest of the women of Fennar?”

  “Because Radiance has given up her one reservation and has held you for her eldest son. An Asku mother has one request per lifetime to reserve a woman for one of her sons. Radiance used that reservation on you.”

  Chapter Three

  Her first orgasm caught her completely by surprise. As she had been instructed, Enari had been getting familiar with her own body and a few light touches on her clitoris had caused her body to jerk and shake with an electric shock. She felt an inner clenching that caught her attention. It was as if her inner muscles were trying to grip something that wasn’t there.

  She slid her fingers across her clit again and bit her lip at the sensitivity that accompanied the aftershocks. Flexing her hands, she shook her tense muscles loose and then explored lower. The amount of slick moisture that she had produced shocked her, but remembering the toys that she had seen, it was probably her body’s attempt to avoid injury.

  Alone in her chambers, she brought her fingers to her lips, sniffing before she tasted her own juices. The tang was not horrid as she had thought it would be and the lecture on oral sex was now making a lot more sense.

  She looked up at the chronometer and cursed, quickly moving toward the bathing room to have a shower before classes started. Riveh was tireless with her efforts to feed information to Enari. They had been at it for a week and today, before classes, the doctors would be assessing her feet.

  After her shower, she put on a wrap-style dress and while she waited for Riveh to arrive, Enari ran through a few ideas for dance classes.

  “What are you looking at?” Riveh moved silently for a large piece of metal.

  “Nefi dances. I think I would like to learn them.”

  “If the doctor pronounces your feet whole, I can upload dance choreography and we can begin today.” Riveh offered her arm and Enari rose and took it. She could make it short distances on the bandages, but the walk to the front area of the women’s quarters was a little too long.

  The doctor stripped off the plastic skin that had been protecting her feet for the last few days and nodded. “Good. You should rest when you need to, but you can start walking again.”

  The first few steps on the floor felt peculiar, but after she pattered around for a while, she stopped and smiled at the doctor and his assistant. “Thank you.”

  They looked surprised at her comment in high Asku and she was suddenly embarrassed. “I said it wrong, didn’t I? I am sorry.”

  Riveh was looking at her with what seemed to be surprise. “No, on the contrary, it was perfect.”

  The doctor nodded quickly. “I was surprised. The other Fennar women have not had any interest in learning our language. They are still fairly angry at being taken.”

  Enari shrugged. “I wasn’t doing anything interesting with my life anyway. Thank you again.”

  She left the room and pattered down the long hall, Riveh moving quickly to catch up.

  “Can we start the Nefi dances?”

  “Of course. Just let me download the dance styles.”

  Riveh moved to her portal and leaned back, a whirring noise indicated that she was downloading and when she completed her upgrade, she stepped away and inclined her head. “I am ready when you are. The gardens would be the best place to do this.”

  Eagerly, Enari followed her tutor out into the fresh air and bright light of the gardens. No one could see them, but it was indeed the perfect space to learn Nefi dancing. As Riveh stood across from her and Enari mirrored her, part of her heart lightened.

  The Nefi were famous for two things—dancing and hand-to-hand combat skills. Oddly enough, their dances used many of the postures and poses that could be used in self-defence.

  As they shifted from pose to pose, movement to movement, Enari felt her body loosen as it did what it loved.

  Taking martial arts classes back on Fennar had been tricky, but her parents’ friends had helped the little orphan in any way they could. Her friend Maki had taken the class that was available to boys and had come home to teach her after every class. She had been kicked, bruised and battered over the years, but eventually, she had a complete grasp of what her body was capable of.

  Being on enforced recovery had been the hardest thing she had done in years. She was used to moving, dancing and stretching every day. Sneaking a workout into her dance instruction was the only way for her to gain peace of mind and equilibrium.

  After two hours of movement classes, she was sweating lightly and smiling constantly.

  Riveh called a halt to their exercise for lunch. They returned to Enari’s rooms and in her entry room, her normal tray of food was waiting.

  “Enari, if you wanted fight training, you only had to ask.”

  Enari froze with her fork halfway to her lips. “You knew what I was up to?”

  “Obviously. You have a very different physique from the other Fennar. You have developed muscles and peculiar calluses on your hands.”

  She took a bite of her lunch, swallowed and nodded. “I am a seamstress. I had my own shop and everything. Is there any way to get some fabric for me to play with?”

  Riveh cocked her head. “Of course. I have filed the request.”

  Happy, she returned to her meal and washed it down with a glass of water. There was a faint tang to the water, so she suspected that they were dosing her with something, but at this point, she really didn’t have the means to fight them on anything.

  Riveh stood near her and asked, “So how have your personal explorations been going?”

  “I am pretty sure that I had an orgasm this morning.”

  “And how did you feel afterward?”

  “Excited, tingly. Energized really.” She smoothed her hands over her thighs. “Is that right?”

  Riveh made one of her laughing noises. “Each one will be different. Your mood, blood flow, skin sensitivity, each one can and will affect your orgasm. Enjoy them for what they are.”

  She smiled and asked, “What is next today, tutor?”

  “Etiquette under duress. I am afraid we will have to break out your collection for this. It won’t be painful, just a little distracting.”

  Enari’s curiosity was up. Nothing that Riveh had said or done to her had embarrassed her beyond her own societal norms, so she kept her trust firmly in place.

  Riveh brought out the box and from within it, she took a set of straps and one of the small toys. With a strange move, she connected the straps to the two-inch stub and nodded to Enari, “Lift your dress.”

  Bemused, she opened the dress and blushed hotly as Riveh slid the straps up her thighs, settling the toy against her opening. The straps were tightened and the toy inched into her.

  Enari blew air out of her lungs as the pressure built until the cool object was settled inside her. The feeling was indescribable.

  “You can replace your dress now. The device will remain in place until after your etiquette lesson. Radiance is on her way as we speak.” Riveh stood and cleared the lunch tray away, returning with a tea tray.

  Enari was trying not to move.

  “It would be recommended that you not act as if you are wearing the device. Radiance may notice and try and test you.”

  Enari exhaled slowly and took a seat, her body clenching around the synthetic invader. Ripples of pleasure started the moment that the di
scomfort eased. She was so distracted by the sensations that she didn’t rise to her feet the moment that Radiance came in. She quickly jumped up and curtseyed, the flexing of her inner thigh muscles giving her another sensation.

  She bit her lip and greeted the older woman in high Asku. “Good afternoon, Radiance. Thank you for coming to visit.”

  “You are speaking very well. Your voice is a little strained. Is something wrong?”

  “No, Madam.” She didn’t explain, merely inclined her head toward the other chair. When Radiance was seated, Enari took her own chair, trying to move casually.

  The slight slide of the object inside her sent a frisson of pleasure up her spine and she tried to keep her face bland and calm.

  “So I hear that you are back on your feet now. How have you enjoyed your education so far?”

  Enari leaned forward and poured a cup of tea for Radiance, but by the time she leaned back to pour her own, her hands were trembling.

  Radiance looked as if she suddenly realised something. “I take it plain, if that is what you were wondering.”

  Trying to quietly grit her teeth, she leaned forward again and passed the full cup and saucer to Radiance. The woman barely extended her hand, forcing Enari to lunge in an effort to hand the cup over.

  She was shaking violently, could feel the flush on her chest and a bead of sweat was working its way between her breasts.

  Shaking her head, she took her own cup of tea, the hot liquid doing nothing but igniting another sensation that added to her overload.

  “I am sorry. I didn’t answer your question. I have found some aspects of the tutoring challenging, but I have enjoyed the language lessons.”

  Radiance had a grin around her lips as she sipped at her tea. “I can imagine that you are having a few challenges. Riveh, how long have you been using a device?”

  Riveh took a step forward, “For less than an hour. She is very sensitive.”