Hours passed.
I was fine with just sitting and staring at the doorway the whole time.
The muscles in my shoulders were wound into tight knots, my throat was raw, and my gut felt like it had been punched.
I couldn’t even think everything over.
My brain was overloaded.
I sat there, both nervous and blank.
Whenever I caught sight of Inga, I got a stab of anguish.
Kang rolled over to me when I yawned.
“Please go to bed, mistress.
It’s very late.”
“I’m waiting for my husband.”
“It will be some time, yet, mistress.
He’s coordinating the retrieval of an enemy pod off the side of the ship.”
I blinked a few times.
“Oh.”
I tried to figure out what this meant for Inga, but my brain was fried.
When I looked over at her I saw she was sleeping with her head nestled in her folded arms on the table.
“I…I guess I’ll lie down for a while.”
The act of reclining on the mattress made me realize how exhausted I was.
Every piece of me ached with tension.
I let my head sink into the pillow and faded into sleep.
I slept three or four hours at the most.
The sound of Elentinus’ voice had me clambering out of bed.
He was descending the stairs with Whore.
Inga lifted her head from the table as they walked to her.
I went around the other side of the table so I could be near enough to hear without instigating a new round of insults from her.
Elentinus took out a control unit and pressed some buttons on the side.
Inga’s pink collar appeared and then fizzled out.
“I’ve removed your collar.
Nayjoor said he doesn’t want you anymore.
He’s destroying your marriage record when he gets home.
I’m going to make arrangements for you to join the Earth colony.”
Joyful tears bubbled up inside me.
Inga remained derisive.
“I’ll believe it when I see it.”
“I understand your reluctance, but it’s true this time.”
He leaned nearer to her.
“They left without you.”
Inga’s lips parted.
She looked at Elentinus.
“They’re gone?”
“Yes.”
“He…won’t come back for me?”
“I’ve forbidden him from ever returning.”
Inga searched the table in front of her.
Her breathing grew rapid.
“You can’t forbid him from getting his wife.
He could change his mind.”
“That won’t happen.
We have an agreement.”
Inga scowled.
“What agreement?”
“I’m allowing him to claim that he unraveled the Aquars’ scheme to rescue you.
He’s saying he discovered the pod when we landed on Earth, and that he subsequently traced their signals to my Domestics.
He’ll also claim he’s the one who discovered that the collars thwart the Aquars’ rescue attempts.
He took the pod back with him as a trophy.
He’ll be lauded as the hero who finally put a stop to the theft of our brides.
Most importantly, he’ll be able to humiliate me as the fool who was baffled for months by a scheme that took him mere days to uncover.”
Inga covered her mouth.
Her eyes darted around as though she were looking for another excuse not to accept it.
Then her tears poured out once again.
She shuddered with quiet sobs.
Elentinus soothed her shoulder.
“You’re free, Inga.”
The proclamation made her sob louder.
“Return to the guest room and get some sleep.”
She backed up her chair and rose to obey.
After taking one step away she turned around and threw her arms around Elentinus.
“Thank you.”
He placed one hand on her back.
She broke away, snuffling, and headed for the door.
Whore flanked her.
“Do you know the way?”
Inga nodded.
“I’m just thirsty and tired.”
“Go with her, Kang,” I said.
My Domestic sped to his little robot elevator so he could meet her outside Elentinus’ door.
I rubbed my weary face with my hand once they were gone.
“I’m sorry you had to do that, husband.”
He took a deep breath through his nostrils.
“It bothers me only slightly.
The other council members will mock me, but that was their custom anyway.
The evidence we have now is a boon to the empire.
It doesn’t matter if it comes from me or Nayjoor.
We’ll benefit all the same.”
I felt so wrung out I was dizzy on my feet.
“Is there going to be war?”
“No.
But we’re going to expose their activities to their allies and demand the stolen brides be returned.
If they don’t comply we’ll have every right to assault their home world.
I doubt they’ll take that risk.”
“What’s going to happen to the retrieved brides?” Whore said.
He frowned.
“I don’t know.
That’s something we’ll have to vote on.”
He rubbed my back.
“I’ll suggest they be placed in the Earth colony, Maritza.”
I forced a smile for half a second.
Tears were still built up behind my eyes.
“Inga’s going to tell the people there that I betrayed them.
That…that I’m a traitor to my own race.”
“Who cares,” Whore said.
I looked at him.
“You’re not one of them anymore.
You’re a Dak-Hiliah noblewoman.”
The urge to cry grew even stronger.
Maybe after the dust settled I could be happy I’d proven my worth to Whore.
Right now all I felt was pain.
Elentinus drew me against him.
“It’s true, Maritza.
You’re not of those people.
You’re my wife.
You belong to the Dak-Hiliah Empire.”
He soothed my hair.
“And I’m sure it’s little consolation, but they hate me also.
We’ll be despised as a couple.”
One syllable of a laugh broke free from my chest.
When I met my husband’s eyes I saw he looked as weary and tormented as I did.
I buried myself in his arms.
***
I woke up late the next morning with what felt like an emotional hang-over.
Elentinus remained fast asleep.
I put my head back in the crook of his shoulder and let myself pass out for another couple of hours.
The second time I awakened I saw Elentinus’ eyes were open.
We heard footsteps nearby.
Elentinus opened our curtain to reveal Whore pacing in front of our bed.
“Oh, good.”
He had a tablet in one hand.
“You’re awake.”
“You were stomping,” Elentinus said.
Whore tossed him the tablet.
“You need to be aware of a few things, master.”
I huddled near to see the tablet screen.
My messy-haired wedding picture with Elentinus (which looked to be nicely retouched) was above an article.
Elentinus scrolled the text up.
A flattering picture of Nayjoor appeared on the right.
The two of us read together in silence.
A great event has unfolded upon the Celestial Yacht of our Lord Elentinus, which is currently in orbit above Slave-Planet Earth.
Our Lord Nayjoor paid a visit to Lord Elentinus with his Earth bride, Inga.
During his stay, Lord Nayjoor uncovered a plot by our devious enemies, the Aquars.
They sought to steal Inga through a small vessel attached to the belly of the yacht, unbeknownst to Lord Elentinus.
Lord Nayjoor, through the assistance of Lord Elentinus’ heroic Earth bride Maritza, discovered the vessel before Inga could disable her protective collar to board it.
The most shocking of all is that our own precious robots were drawn into the Aquars’ nefarious scheme.
Maritza showed Lord Nayjoor how Lord Elentinus’ domestics were hacked to allow the Aquars to contact both her and Inga.
It has also been proven that the Aquars could not have obtained Inga so long as her force-field collar was active.
Hail to Lord Nayjoor and Maritza for exposing the methods of this most repulsive Dak-Hiliah enemy.
It’s a testament to our new era of Pakpo that such good luck befalls our honorable High Councilmen.
A full report, along with technological evidence is being sent to the allies of the Aquars in order to…
“They’re really highlighting my treachery,” I said.
“The article is informing the empire that you’re no longer an ‘Earth Bride,’” Whore said.
(He’d perched himself on the side of the bed).
“But are one of the Dak-Hiliah, now.”
“It’s true,” Elentinus said.
“I’m pleased Nayjoor kept his promise to honor you.
It makes my humiliation worth it.”
My pursed lips skewed to one side.
‘Honor’ was a relative thing here.
It wasn’t going to be easy to embrace my role as a traitor.
I had to keep reminding myself of why I did it.
The internal conflict I felt now would have been nothing compared to the horror of causing the Dak-Hiliah to launch a full-scale war on the Aquars.
Besides that, Inga was going to get to live in the nice Earth colony, free from torture.
I’d done the right thing.
I believed that with every fiber of my being.
We focused on the article a few minutes more.
It said that Elentinus must be relieved to finally know how his first wife had been taken.
I didn’t read anything that should cause Elentinus humiliation, but I could tell this came from a propaganda machine.
They weren’t going to say anything that would shame their leaders.
Elentinus’ colleagues would be experts at reading between the lines.
I’m sure Nayjoor boasted to ensure Elentinus’ shame.
“I queued up something more you should read,” Whore said.
Elentinus moved it to the next screen.
This looked more like an email.
Pakpo was outraged over news that some men were using the force-field collars to discipline their wives.
It was a long rambling letter that I had to struggle through to eventually get to the point:
shocking brides was now forbidden.
“Oh thank God,” I said.
Elentinus smiled.
He moved on to the next screen.
My face had been cut out of our wedding photo and blown up to illustrate another article.
This one took a moment for me to decipher.
The square characters weren’t Dak-Hiliah writing.
I still found myself able to read it.