Garden of Serenity (17 page)

Stopping at the wall, Dr. Bresilee’s hands fisted into the pockets of the lab coat covering her yellow jumpsuit. Her foot beat out a quick tempo on the wooden floor.

Kylie, Dr. Bresilee’s blond shadow, stood next to the healer. She didn’t utter a word. Her head simply bobbed in affirmation, like the disjointed toy dog Camille had seen among Gabriella’s artifacts.

“What’s taking so long?” Dr. Bresilee slammed her hand on the paneling. “All four of those girls better be down there, prepped and ready before I arrive.” Her fist pounded the wall once again in frustration. “It really isn’t that much to ask. It’s not like you people don’t know the routine.”

The wall disappeared, exposing the inside of the lift. Two burly women, naked from the waist up, stood in the artificial light of the elevator. Two stretchers held the motionless bodies of young girls.

“Oh for goodness’ sake, we can’t possibly all fit in there.” Bresilee threw her hands into the air. “Forget it, we’ll take the stairs. These girls should have been prepped thirty minutes ago.” Bresilee looked down at her wrist, annoyance coloring her voice. “The night’s getting away from us.”

She turned on her heel toward the foyer. “Come, Kylie. Hopefully Mikalyn will have them ready before I arrive.” Her voice paused, but not the incessant clicking of her shoes. “This’ll give me time to think.” The elevator door closed with a sigh, leaving no evidence of its existence.

Camille peeked around the corner, staring at the women disappearing around the staircase.

She wondered what Dr. Bresilee had in store for the comatose girls. No doubt it would feed her unnatural sexual hunger.

Unable to fight her own curiosity, Camille’s bare feet carried her silently across the floor. She surreptitiously followed the two women to some unknown destination. Her head understood the consequences of being caught, but Camille couldn’t seem to convince her body to stop and turn around. Her pulse ratcheted up several notches as both fear and a sense of adventure warred within her heart.

“Getting rid of Brenimyn should be easy enough.” Bresilee seemed to be talking to herself as she and Kylie hurried down the hall. “He’s a man with no rights. It doesn’t matter what foolishness he spouts at the lake. He can’t possibly get all the breeders to find a backbone.”

Cursing her bad fortune for not being there, Camille wished she could talk to Nathaniel about his visit to the lake. Brenimyn was the leader of the male breeders. Nathaniel had spoken with reverence about the man. No doubt he’d heard whatever Brenimyn had said to the crowds and now Camille wanted to know why it was upsetting the director of the Garden.

The three of them turned down the hall of Bresilee’s private wing. Camille slipped from the cover of one large potted plant lining the hall to another, always keeping close enough to hear their conversation. She needn’t have bothered. Caught up in their own problems, neither woman turned to be sure they weren’t followed.

“Besides, there are laws,” Bresilee continued. “We just need get him to break one and we can make an example of him. Without a leader, this feeble resistance will surely crumble.” Bresilee’s hand swatted at the air as if removing an annoying gnat.

“The man is very cautious. I’m sure he expects we are watching him,” said Kylie.

“Yes, but if we can get recorded evidence that he’s broken a law …” Bresilee paused as if in thought, her hand suspended at her forehead. “Your apartment. You must get him back to your apartment and we can manipulate the computer feed to our advantage.”

“But as a new breeder Jahara has—”

“But nothing, Kylie.” The harsh words reverberated off the walls. Bresilee stopped again and glared down at the cowering woman. “Am I not ruler of the Garden?” Kylie nodded. “Then I can change any law.” Bresilee continued down the hall, her voice once again carrying the controlled tone of a moment ago. “And I decide that an ovulating government official, that’s you,” she nodded down at Kylie, “may usurp the rights of a female breeder. Tomorrow, we’ll invoke that law and take Brenimyn from Jahara Khateri’s residence.”

They turned left into a room at the end of the hall.

Stopping at the threshold, Camille could see the two women skirt around the overstuffed furniture of an office and past the large windows. They paused at the far wall, the light of the false moon giving their pinched expressions a demonic quality.

“Now Jahara will be another problem altogether. Her Dame could make problems for us if something should happen to her.” A door retracted in the otherwise smooth wall. “I do so hate using this entrance.” Dr. Bresilee swiveled her long neck back and forth, bouncing the tight bun of hair. “Heads will roll tomorrow.” They disappeared into the darkness.

Dr. Bresilee’s voice was swallowed by the night. The silence hung like a dark cloud bringing a storm. Camille had a bad feeling about this whole situation.

“Camille, what’s happening is none of your business. Just go back to bed,” she whispered to herself, even as her feet carried her to the secret door, fearing it would close before she could follow. “Don’t do this. You know you’ll only get in trouble. Nothing good can come of you going down there.” Though she spoke the words aloud, they did nothing to convince her of her folly. Curiosity to discover Bresilee’s hidden rooms below burned hotter than her fear over getting caught. Besides, Camille wanted to know what Brenimyn had done that had upset Dr. Bresilee so.

Nathaniel had spoken of Brenimyn with admiration. He’d hoped to introduce them at the lake. Dr. Khateri seemed sympathetic in Dr. Bresilee’s office as the healer had run her fingers intimately over Camille’s body. She wondered how these two ordinary breeders could be a threat to Bresilee.

The short flight of stairs before her was lit by wall lamps glowing in orange intervals. The two women were not in her line of vision. She was a botanist, not a visionary. What was happening with the girls below was none of her concern. But none of these thoughts seemed to register as her feet touched the velvet carpet of the stairs, she gave up trying to talk herself out of prying into other people’s lives.

Slinking down the stairs, Camille kept close to the wall.

The lower level was as plush as the floors above. Though the corridor split in different directions she followed the muffled sound of Dr. Bresilee’s tirade. With great caution, Camille slinked into a brightly lit room dominated by large windows.

Positioning herself in a shadowed corner, Camille could see into the room beyond. Overhead spotlights illuminated four operating tables where the muscular women were transferring the unconscious girls. They propped their feet and knees in stirrups that spread their legs and exposed their genitals.

These young women were certainly positioned for procreation. Though males weren’t allowed in the mansion, Camille wondered if Bresilee made exceptions in the secrecy of this underground suite. Whatever was going to be done to her breeding sisters would be done without their permission—and
that
certainly broke the number one procreation law.

But no male entered the room, only Dr. Bresilee, Kylie and a dark-haired woman in a lab coat. Kylie remained just inside the door, the tattooed women taking up position on either side as if guarding the room. Bresilee talked mutely to the other woman as they scrubbed their hands and arms in the chemical wash at the sink.

Settling onto a rolling stool, Dr. Bresilee moved to the first gurney and hunched between the legs of the first unconscious woman. The other woman in scrubs, rolled over a stainless steel tray covered with instruments of torture. Camille suspected she was privy to some bizarre sexual ritual. She wanted to look away from the horrors she suspected were about to take place, but obligation to witness the mutilations kept her eyes focused on the women.

“Mikalyn, the first syringe.” Holding out her hand, Dr. Bresilee accepted a large instrument that looked to Camille like the tool she used in the kitchens to baste chickens. She nearly gasped as Dr. Bresilee inserted it deep into the young woman’s vagina. With the plunger, she injected the blood-red contents of the tube. The burly women stepped forward, one pushing the knees of the unconscious girl to her chest, the other strapping them in place.

Dr. Bresilee wheeled down the line repeating the process, until all four girls lay on their backs, their buttocks and soles of their feet the only parts of their bodies visible from this angle.

“They are so lovely like this.” Bresilee walked back down the row, stopping at each woman to admire her work. “Keep them here for the next hour before transferring them upstairs. We’ll keep them in bed tomorrow.” She stroked one of the girls and sighed. “Kylie, do find me one of the other girls to join me in my bed. There must be someone who’s slept off the effects of the drug.” She turned to Kylie, her mouth twisted in a reptilian smile. “And do have them in my chambers when I arrive.”

Camille had seen enough.

She raced back down the corridor, praying she didn’t get lost. Taking the stairs back up to the office two at a time, she ran as fast as she dared back down the long hall. Panic clawed at her throat and wrapped around her chest. She didn’t want to explain why she was out of bed at this hour of the night. Three quarters of the way up the main staircase, the unmistakable hum of the elevator echoed in her ears. Camille fell to her belly as Kylie glided out of the hidden panel in the wall on the second floor.

Hope soared as the woman entered one of the other bedrooms. Sprinting down the hall, Camille was grateful for the carpet that concealed her heavy footfalls. She slipped into her room just as Kylie stepped into the hall.

She slid between the sheets, hoping not to wake her roommate.

Over the sound of her hammering heart, she heard the soft click of the door latch.

“Ladies, are you awake? Gabriella requests the honor of your company in her wing tonight. Ladies?”

The cloying sweetness of Kylie’s perfume nearly choked Camille when the blond woman leaned in close to her face. “Honey, wake up.” She shook Camille. Moaning, Camille feigned sleep she knew would never come. The ruse worked.

Kylie walked around the bed. “Honey, wake up.”

“What? Is everything all right? What’s happening?”

Relief flooded through Camille as the girl sat up.

“Nothing’s wrong. Gabriella would like you to join her tonight. Would you like that?” Her voice lilted in an overly cheery tone.

“It would be an honor to be with her tonight. After I disgraced myself at dinner … are you sure she asked for me?”

“She would like that very much.”

The bed shifted and the girl left with Kylie. Camille didn’t exhale until she heard their muted voices fade away.

Chapter Twelve

Jahara lounged in the courtyard behind the hospital, enjoying the sun. A few days had passed since the revelations at the lake and still she couldn’t wrap her head around all that she’d discovered. There was so much work ahead before any changes could be made here at the Garden, let alone extending equality out to the world beyond these walls. At the moment, Brenimyn’s vision just seemed impossible and what it asked of her—overwhelming.

“Jahara, I’m glad I found you.” Gabriella Bresilee bustled up to her. Even as the woman settled next to her on the bench, the director exuded a constant energy. It radiated off the woman in waves, charging the air around them and putting Jahara on edge.

“My apologies for wasting your talents on the breeders these last few weeks. The clinic well-checks are an unfortunate burden everyone must shoulder.”

Except for the Garden’s director
, she wanted to say, but kept the snide remark to herself.

“But I’m pleased to tell you, you won’t have to return there.” Gabriella looked out over the Garden, her hands fluttering about, fixing her hair or picking unseen fibers off her yellow tunic. “We’ve had to cancel the well-checks for the afternoon. My healer in the emergency clinic just birthed a healthy baby girl. A few weeks earlier than anticipated, but thank the Creator, both mother and child are doing fine.”

Gabriella turned her face up to the warmth of the sun, filling her lungs with the lilac-scented air. Jahara doubted the woman even noticed their serene surroundings.

“That leaves an apprentice healer alone in the clinic. And though Mikalyn is certainly a gifted healer …” The director didn’t bother to look at Jahara as she spoke. “She still requires guidance. I know you mentioned teaching when you arrived. I’m sure you’d enjoy joining her there this afternoon.” Gabriella stood, not waiting for a response. “And you don’t need to thank me. I know how difficult it is to work with the males.”

Jahara stared at Gabriella’s retreating back, too stunned to even respond. The woman was a piece of work. She treated her staff like pawns in a chess match, each person moved about with no thought to anything but the director’s selfish needs. And though Gabriella’s words made it sound like a reprieve, Jahara sensed the proclamation was actually a punishment. She could only imagine what had prompted Gabriella to remove her from the well-checks she’d come to enjoy. The male breeders had finally relaxed and her days there were pleasant and entertaining. But trying to explain that to Gabriella was like talking to the stone bench she sat on—cold and unyielding.

Her appetite lost, she dumped the last of her tea and salad in the waste receptacle and made her way through the medical facility to the emergency clinic. If it was anything like her first day here, the afternoon would pass in a dizzying blur of healing. Jahara sensed the organized chaos moments before the apprentice healer ran into her at the reception desk.

“Dr. Khateri. I’m so glad you’re here. We met your first day here, I’m Mikalyn Sabella. Dr. Bresilee just let me know you were on your way.” The dark-haired woman looked frazzled, her brow knit with deep lines of tension. “There are so many who need me today. I can’t do this by myself.” She threw her hands wildly in the air. “Oh, why did Dr. Vinari have to have her baby today? I’m an apprentice. I can’t possibly be expected—”

“Slow down and breathe, Mikalyn.” Jahara understood the overwhelming sense of responsibility that came with healing. She squeezed the woman’s shoulder and captured her wild gaze. “Take a moment to center yourself.”