Bringing Stella Home (28 page)

James. Stella.

Chapter 13

The summons to Qasar’s chambers came
only two days after Stella’s encounter with Borta. This time, Engus
brought her a holo projector with a personal message from
Qasar.

“
Lady Sholpan,” his
holographic image said, barely two feet tall on the table in her
and Tamu’s apartment. “I would be honored if you would join me this
evening as my guest.” The image bowed, and the message
ended.

As his guest,
Stella thought to herself.
That means he doesn’t expect me to sleep with him.
She swallowed and rubbed her stomach where Borta
had stabbed her. All trace of the bloodless wound had long
disappeared, but the memory was still fresh enough to make her
shudder.

She wordlessly went through the
motions of washing and showering, her mind occupied with other
things. When Narju had finished combing and drying her hair, he
walked to the clothes locker in the wall and returned carrying a
yellow dress. The silk was so thin that she could see his arm
through it—even a wedding veil was more opaque than
that.

“
Lady Borta sent you this
dress, Mistress Sholpan,” Narju said.

He held it up, and Stella saw that it
came in two pieces. The top was a tiny shred of fabric barely wider
than one of her hands. She bit her lip and stared.

“
Lady Borta gave this to
me?” she asked after several moments.

“
Yes, mistress. Shall I put
it on?”

Stella didn’t move. She did
not want to wear that thing—it would be like walking into Qasar’s
bedchamber stark naked.
Borta would
probably approve of that,
she
realized.

“
Mistress?”

Stella blinked and glanced up at
him.

“
Do you…have anything else,
Narju?”

He raised an eyebrow. “You would turn
down this gift from Lady Borta?”

“
Is that a bad
idea?”

Narju didn’t answer right away. He
draped the outfit over his arm and bowed.

“
Lady Borta is a dominating
woman, mistress. If you allow yourself to be dominated in small
things, though, you will never crawl out from under her thumb. She
commanded that you should wear this dress tonight, but as your
personal servant, if you command me otherwise, I will
obey.”

“
But what will she do if I
refuse?”

Narju shrugged. “Nothing she wouldn’t
otherwise do.”

Stella hesitated, but only for a
moment.

“
Bring me something else.”
Whether or not it would help with Qasar, she would rather keep her
peace of mind than wear such a slutty thing.

This time, Narju brought a choice of
several dresses, both one-piece and two-piece. She wanted to go
with a one-piece dress—bare midriff always made her feel nervous
and self-conscious—but knew that a modest dress probably wouldn’t
be nearly enticing enough to suit her purposes.

“
That one,” she said,
pointing to a blue silk bedlah outfit. The top was thin and more
than a little revealing, but the dress itself stretched almost to
her ankles, held up by a wide double belt made of leather and
colored beads.

I would never have picked
out clothes like this before I came here,
she thought to herself as she rose to her feet and slipped out
of her bath towel. Narju helped her into her dress and clasped the
belt low on her hips.
I would never have
let a man dress me, either,
she thought to
herself as Narju slipped the top over her chest.

What am I turning
into?

As Narju stepped away, she collapsed
onto the bench and held her head in her hands. She wanted to cry,
but the tears wouldn’t come. Instead, she felt an overwhelming
sense of powerlessness, as if she were trapped in thick mud and
couldn’t move. Her mind spun with dizziness, and for a short while
she couldn’t breathe. She felt Narju’s hand on her arm, and her
face tightened up, barely squeezing a tear from her parched
eyes.

“
Relax,” Narju said,
rubbing her bare shoulders. She took in a deep breath; the air was
sweet in her lungs. The room spun a little slower, and tears
finally sprung to her eyes, gushing out like a fountain in the
desert.

“
Mistress?”

“
What am I doing this for?”
she asked, barely coherent. “Why do I even try? My life is a living
hell. Why don’t I just give up?”

Narju said nothing, massaging her
instead. Her muscles gradually loosened under his gentle touch. For
a brief moment, she could forget she was a sex slave for the
monster who had conquered her home.

“
Be still and listen,”
Narju said, his voice solemn. “I was not always Narju. Before the
Hameji enslaved me, my name was Asi. My people were the free nomads
of Tajjur V.”

Stella stopped crying long enough to
listen.

“
The Hameji see all
planetborn as weak and honorless,” Narju continued, “but that was
not so with my people. We made our home in the untamed lands,
underneath the open sky—not in the sprawling, polluted arcologies
of the domers. We were a strong people, a proud people.”

He paused, and the strokes of his
hands became harder. It was obvious that the memories pained
him.

“
What happened?” she
asked.

“
The Hameji killed my
people when they slagged our world. My brothers and I were in a
small town on the edge of one of the domes when they came. Before
we knew what was happening, one of the shop owners rushed us onto
his shuttle. To this day, I don’t know why he did it. We were the
only ones to escape with our lives.”

“
I’m so sorry,” Stella
whispered.

“
So was I,” said Narju. “So
was I. The Hameji took away my home, they took away my family, and
they took away my manhood. In my despair, I came to believe that no
man had ever suffered as much as I. I dreamed of being a martyr, of
killing as many of the Hameji as I could before embracing death
myself.”

Narju paused. He continued to rub her
shoulders—strong, unyielding strokes, firm yet gentle.

“
What changed your mind?”
Stella asked, eager to hear the rest of his story.

He sighed. “I came to realize that
such a death would be utterly pointless. Had God kept me alive this
long, just for me to end it that way? No, he had a purpose for my
life—a reason for keeping me alive when so many others had
perished.”

He stopped, lifting his hands. Stella
glanced over her shoulder and stifled a gasp; the solemn look on
his face reminded her of her father.

“
Your self pity is a
terrible poison, Sholpan,” he continued. “It is much more
destructive than anything the Hameji can do to you. They have not
stripped you of everything—not by far. You are not friendless. You
are not hungry or naked or cold. The master even respects your
chastity and allows you to keep it unsullied.”

Stella looked away. “Yeah,” she said,
“but Borta doesn’t.”

“
Borta sees your virtue as
a threat,” said Narju. “But she sees everything as a threat. How
else could she remain head wife? If it were not your virtue, it
would be your beauty. If it were not your beauty, it would be
something else. She is, unfortunately, an overly paranoid
woman.”

“
Not just paranoid,” said
Stella. “She threatened to kill me if I didn’t sleep with
him.”

For several moments, Narju was
silent.

“
How did she threaten
you?”

Stella hesitated.
Can I trust him?
she
wondered. Borta had claimed to control even the food and water that
came into the concubines’ quarters. Was Narju one of her
agents?

No,
she decided.
Narju wouldn’t have
opened up to me so much if he were one of her
agents
.
He was a
good man, and he’d always been kind to her. Stella decided to trust
him.

“
Here,” she said, pointing
to her stomach. “Look.”

Narju bent down and squinted. “I see
nothing—maybe a slight redness above your navel, but that is
all.”

“
That’s where Borta stabbed
me.”

“
Where she stabbed
you?”

“
Yes. She stabbed me with a
needle, at the meridian point or something. She did it to prove she
could murder me and get away with it.”

“
One of the doctor’s
instruments,” Narju muttered. A frown crossed his face. “This is a
grave development.”

“
She’s going to do it,
Narju—she’s going to kill me if I don’t sleep with Qasar
tonight.”

He nodded slowly. “And what have you
decided to do?”

Stella felt her arms and legs clam up.
Her breathing became short.

“
I don’t know.”

Narju placed his hand on her shoulder.
His touch felt firm and reassuring.

“
Do not be afraid,
Sholpan,” he said. “Whatever decision you make, I am sure it will
be right.”

Stella swallowed. She wished she could
be so sure.

* * * * *

“
Ah, Sholpan,” boomed Qasar
from inside his private chambers. “Come in—please come
in!”

Stella stepped through the doorway,
into the scarlet room. She drew in a breath and tried to relax,
hoping that her smile didn’t seem forced. With her warm, sweaty
fingers, she held tightly onto Tamu’s pill.

“
Good evening, Master,” she
said, giving a little curtsey.

“
Come, please,” said Qasar,
motioning to the bed. “Have a seat.” This time, a bowl of fresh
fruit and a plate of flatbread sat next to the platter of
sweetmeats. Together, the three dishes made a full meal—much more
than the two of them could possibly eat.

“
Oh my,” said Stella,
sitting cross legged on the bed. “The food smells
delicious.”

At least I have some time,
then.

“
Of course,” said Qasar,
reclining casually on his side. “Only the best for us both. Now
come and eat!”

Stella’s stomach felt much too
unsettled for a meal, but she forced herself to swallow a few
pieces of fruit and break off a chunk of bread. While Qasar made
loud smacking noises with his lips, Stella took small bites and
chewed slowly, nervously fingering the pill in the palm of her left
hand.

Not yet,
she thought to herself.
After the meal.

“
I have good news, my shy
goddess,” Qasar said, chewing on a piece of roasted meat. “Or news
that is good for you, at least, and convenient for us
both.”

“
What is that?” Stella
asked.

“
The Generals have
appointed me overseer of your star—
Karduna,
as you call it. They’ve given
me twenty seasoned captains to hold the system and manage the local
planetborn.”

Manage.
Such a cold, heartless word—as if the ‘planetborn’
were robots or animals, not human beings.

“
Granted, I could easily
rule this system by force alone,” Qasar continued, “but with you by
my side, that is now unnecessary. Once we are married, your
standing as one of the locals will grant my rule a degree of
legitimacy that it otherwise could not have, and prove a tremendous
asset as I seek to build my court.”

Stella swallowed as Qasar took a
pitcher of wine from a nearby hovertray. She trembled as if she
were perched at the top of a narrow precipice, where any wrong move
could end in her death.

“
Well?” Quasar asked,
pulling out two golden goblets and filling them with wine. “What
say you?”

“
I—I don’t know,” said
Stella. “I—I’m not very high-born, and I couldn’t possibly do well
in—”

“
Nonsense,” said Qasar.
“With me as your husband, no one would dare dispute your place in
my court.”

“
But I don’t think I
could—”

“
The gods have ordained
this, Sholpan. Your coming at this time is much too auspicious to
be a coincidence. They will provide a way—they always
do.”

Stella nodded, her whole body tense.
“Of course, Master Qasar. I do not doubt it—”

“
Then it’s
settled?”

“
N-no, not yet,” said
Stella, rolling the pill back and forth between her fingers. “I
mean, how could I possibly make a difference? Those who hate you
would resist your rule whether or not I were your wife. Besides,”
she lied, her voice slowly dying, “I like being a concubine. It’s
very…comfortable.”

Qasar stared at her for a long time,
as if she had gone mad. Then, with a shrug, the expression
disappeared.

“
Perhaps,” he said. “I must
admit, I am quite liberal with my women. If that’s where you’d
rather be—but no, we do not have to decide this right now.” He
handed her one of the goblets. “Thirsty?”

“
Yes,” said Stella, keeping
her eyes on him as she took it. When he tilted back his head to
drink, she slipped the pill into her mouth and pressed the goblet
to her lips.