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jeriendhalTime for a change of scenery.
She came back to see him a few hours later, after she bribed the CP’s to let them go unmolested back to the spaceport and shuttled back up to the Scarlet Claw. Most of the offloaded cargo, at least a quarter of it, was left behind in the warehouse as they made a hasty departure out of the system. “No doubt it’s going to be a present from Brutal Brooks to his mistress,” the Red Vixen complained bitterly. “I should have just melted the damned stuff rather than let Mavra Chan have it.”
“Forgive me if I can’t bring myself to feel too much sympathy,” Rolas said. He’d indulged in a wet shower to scrub all the garbage stink off of himself and switched out of the embarrassing cabin boy outfit back into the equally embarrassing but at least more modest prison coveralls. The Red Vixen in turn had changed into a (relatively) demure set of shorts and a crop top, all in her signature blood red.
“I didn’t really expect you to.”
“Hmph. I don’t know what you expect of me to be perfectly honest. What am I to you, your prisoner or your pet? You certainly don’t treat me like a hostage. More like a grass chaser you keep locked up until you want to ride him.” It took him exactly a half-second to regret that turn of phrase, as her frown turned into a grin and he was possessed with the most extraordinary images in his head.
“Lord Rolas, please don’t give me straight lines like that,” she begged, covering her muzzle with her hand while her eyes twinkled and he felt his face flush. “As for my interest in you, well, Den Mother only knows that you're attractive enough, if a bit moody. You must have had your pick of vixens back home."
"Not really," he admitted. "Before Salli's marriage to that scum I was in the defence force, doing my mandatory tour. After that I was busy taking up her duties while she was away. When she returned..." he grimaced. "I had no interest in relationships."
"Oh, surely there was somebody. You weren't a monk."
He shrugged. "A few times, with a couple of my crewmates on the cruiser we were assigned to. But that was just recreation, with no commitment implied or desired." He looked at her suspiciously. "How did we get on this subject, anyway?"
"We were discussing attraction. I assume eventually you'll have to get mated to someone, if you want your family's line to continue."
"I suppose, assuming I ever actually make it home. If not, I suppose my mother and father can try again, they're both young enough. Perhaps the third child will have better luck than their first two.”
“I’m sure they’ll find a way to rescue you. Though I may start billing them for your room and board if stay much longer.”
“Haw, haw,” he laughed without humor. Deciding to turn the tables, he asked, “You’re my age, I think. Why isn’t the great Red Vixen mated?”
“Who says I want to be? Do you think I’d be out here, doing what I’m doing, if I had any interest in a conventional life?” She shuddered. “When I was younger, I could feel the walls of obligation closing in on me. We pride ourselves on having such an orderly society, with everyone in their place. But I didn’t want that.” She drew her palms together. “I could feel myself shrinking back home, getting shoved into the notch that my parents had set aside for me. I had to run, or else be crushed to fit it.”
Rolas drew in a breath, feeling her perfume sting his eyes. She smelled of hickory smoke today, to match the fire banked in her heart, it seemed. “Who are you really? What caste? Noble, commoner? No, you must have been a soldier. No noblevixen would dress and act as you do. No commoner would have the resources to equip a ship like this. A soldier though, an officer, would be able to lead and perhaps persuade others to follow her into such a mad venture.”
“Oh, that would be telling, Lord Rolas,” she said. “I have more important matters to concern me though. Thanks to your rash actions, I now may have to count Mavra Chan as my enemy. I do hope you realize how unacceptable that is to me.”
“That human looked like he was ready to assault you,” Rolas said. “I couldn’t allow that.”
“I’m the vixen who captured your ship, stole your family’s fortune, has kept you collared, imprisoned and forced to prance around in public like an exotic dancer. What in the world makes you think you were obligated to come to my defense?”
He drew in a deep breath. “I don’t know what you’re going to me, but I could make a fair guess what he was going to do to you. Lord Kev may have had a veneer of noble sophistication to cover his evil intent, but he and your Brooks had the same predator’s look in their eyes. I could not permit an assault on your person to come to pass.”
The Red Vixen was silent for a long moment. “I am not your sister, Lord Rolas.”
“I never claimed you were.”
“The anger in your heart will do you no good, in the end. It’s killing you inside, even a blind man can see that. You couldn’t help her then, you can’t help her now. What’s done is done.”
“It’s not done,” he said tightly. “It’s not done until we are free of our countess and my sister’s heart is healed. Until then, my anger is what sustains me.”
“That’s a poor meal then. Careful that you don’t starve yourself.”
* * *
Two more weeks passed. The Red Vixen did not visit him, leaving him to brood and pour over the daily news chip. At the beginning of the fourth week of his captivity, the news finally broke of his capture at the pirate’s hands. This was accompanied by an article in one of the major newsnets about the “tragic accident” that had left both his sister and Lord Kev so seriously injured as to withdraw from public view. It was enough to make his stomach twist in knots from sheer rage at the deception. He began eating only small, bland meals to ease his digestion and slept badly.
Two days before the Red Vixen’s deadline for his ransom, he was asleep in his cell when the light suddenly snapped on and the door slid back to admit two burly pirates. Still half-asleep, he was pounced upon and his arms were twisted behind his back to be locked in the elbow-wrist cuffs again. Then he was sat upon and leg irons were applied to his ankles, rendering him hobbled and helpless.
“What is the meaning of this!” he demanded for the third time, as he was hauled to his feet, his upper arms held tight in their grip to hold him upright.
“What it means, is that it’s time for you to go, Lord Rolas,” the Red Vixen answer, walking into his cell.
“What do you mean? It’s still two days before the deadline for my ransom. You’ve decided not to wait and just sell me off, then?”
She gestured to the two pirates and Rolas was summarily dragged out of his apartment cell and down the corridor. “Nothing of the sort, Lord Rolas. It appears that you’re luckier than you thought. Your ransom has been paid.”
“What?” he asked. Then his heart sank. “By who?” he asked numbly.
“The money came directly from your House. I suppose they felt obligated once the news got out. It would have seemed bloody strange otherwise.”
“No,” he said, as he was dragged onward to the lifeboat bay. He was tossed into a small, claustrophobic one-man lifepod, barely more than an ergonomic coffin. One of the pirate leaned over and started strapping the five point harness across his chest and waist. “They couldn’t have done that. They swore that they wouldn’t.”
“Then you appear to be foresworn, Lord Rolas,” the Red Vixen said without apparent sympathy. “And I’m denied the chance to make you my cabin boy. Poor luck for us both.”
“What’s going to happen now?” he asked.
“We’ll be doing a skip out of superluminal, just long enough to launch your pod in the general direction of a System Forces refueling outpost and then be on our way. Once they pick you up, you can explain yourself and hitch a ride home.”
“And was this,” he jerked at his chains, “actually necessary?”
“Well, we can’t have them thinking you were comfortable, during you long, arduous imprisonment.” She grinned evilly. “Besides, with you pinned down like that, it gives me a chance to do this.” She crawled into the pod, settling across his lap and taking hold of his head with both her hands. Before he could utter a protest her mouth was upon his, reaching inside him, tasting him as he tasted her. Then she broke the kiss and stepped out of the pod. “Something to remember the Red Vixen by, Lord Rolas. You shant be seeing her again.” The lifepod’s hatch cycled shut, leaving him with the quiet hum of its life support system. In less than a minute there was a loud bump as he was launched away from the Scarlet Claw and towards home.
Back to his parents, back to Salli, back to his family’s pain.
TBC
She came back to see him a few hours later, after she bribed the CP’s to let them go unmolested back to the spaceport and shuttled back up to the Scarlet Claw. Most of the offloaded cargo, at least a quarter of it, was left behind in the warehouse as they made a hasty departure out of the system. “No doubt it’s going to be a present from Brutal Brooks to his mistress,” the Red Vixen complained bitterly. “I should have just melted the damned stuff rather than let Mavra Chan have it.”
“Forgive me if I can’t bring myself to feel too much sympathy,” Rolas said. He’d indulged in a wet shower to scrub all the garbage stink off of himself and switched out of the embarrassing cabin boy outfit back into the equally embarrassing but at least more modest prison coveralls. The Red Vixen in turn had changed into a (relatively) demure set of shorts and a crop top, all in her signature blood red.
“I didn’t really expect you to.”
“Hmph. I don’t know what you expect of me to be perfectly honest. What am I to you, your prisoner or your pet? You certainly don’t treat me like a hostage. More like a grass chaser you keep locked up until you want to ride him.” It took him exactly a half-second to regret that turn of phrase, as her frown turned into a grin and he was possessed with the most extraordinary images in his head.
“Lord Rolas, please don’t give me straight lines like that,” she begged, covering her muzzle with her hand while her eyes twinkled and he felt his face flush. “As for my interest in you, well, Den Mother only knows that you're attractive enough, if a bit moody. You must have had your pick of vixens back home."
"Not really," he admitted. "Before Salli's marriage to that scum I was in the defence force, doing my mandatory tour. After that I was busy taking up her duties while she was away. When she returned..." he grimaced. "I had no interest in relationships."
"Oh, surely there was somebody. You weren't a monk."
He shrugged. "A few times, with a couple of my crewmates on the cruiser we were assigned to. But that was just recreation, with no commitment implied or desired." He looked at her suspiciously. "How did we get on this subject, anyway?"
"We were discussing attraction. I assume eventually you'll have to get mated to someone, if you want your family's line to continue."
"I suppose, assuming I ever actually make it home. If not, I suppose my mother and father can try again, they're both young enough. Perhaps the third child will have better luck than their first two.”
“I’m sure they’ll find a way to rescue you. Though I may start billing them for your room and board if stay much longer.”
“Haw, haw,” he laughed without humor. Deciding to turn the tables, he asked, “You’re my age, I think. Why isn’t the great Red Vixen mated?”
“Who says I want to be? Do you think I’d be out here, doing what I’m doing, if I had any interest in a conventional life?” She shuddered. “When I was younger, I could feel the walls of obligation closing in on me. We pride ourselves on having such an orderly society, with everyone in their place. But I didn’t want that.” She drew her palms together. “I could feel myself shrinking back home, getting shoved into the notch that my parents had set aside for me. I had to run, or else be crushed to fit it.”
Rolas drew in a breath, feeling her perfume sting his eyes. She smelled of hickory smoke today, to match the fire banked in her heart, it seemed. “Who are you really? What caste? Noble, commoner? No, you must have been a soldier. No noblevixen would dress and act as you do. No commoner would have the resources to equip a ship like this. A soldier though, an officer, would be able to lead and perhaps persuade others to follow her into such a mad venture.”
“Oh, that would be telling, Lord Rolas,” she said. “I have more important matters to concern me though. Thanks to your rash actions, I now may have to count Mavra Chan as my enemy. I do hope you realize how unacceptable that is to me.”
“That human looked like he was ready to assault you,” Rolas said. “I couldn’t allow that.”
“I’m the vixen who captured your ship, stole your family’s fortune, has kept you collared, imprisoned and forced to prance around in public like an exotic dancer. What in the world makes you think you were obligated to come to my defense?”
He drew in a deep breath. “I don’t know what you’re going to me, but I could make a fair guess what he was going to do to you. Lord Kev may have had a veneer of noble sophistication to cover his evil intent, but he and your Brooks had the same predator’s look in their eyes. I could not permit an assault on your person to come to pass.”
The Red Vixen was silent for a long moment. “I am not your sister, Lord Rolas.”
“I never claimed you were.”
“The anger in your heart will do you no good, in the end. It’s killing you inside, even a blind man can see that. You couldn’t help her then, you can’t help her now. What’s done is done.”
“It’s not done,” he said tightly. “It’s not done until we are free of our countess and my sister’s heart is healed. Until then, my anger is what sustains me.”
“That’s a poor meal then. Careful that you don’t starve yourself.”
* * *
Two more weeks passed. The Red Vixen did not visit him, leaving him to brood and pour over the daily news chip. At the beginning of the fourth week of his captivity, the news finally broke of his capture at the pirate’s hands. This was accompanied by an article in one of the major newsnets about the “tragic accident” that had left both his sister and Lord Kev so seriously injured as to withdraw from public view. It was enough to make his stomach twist in knots from sheer rage at the deception. He began eating only small, bland meals to ease his digestion and slept badly.
Two days before the Red Vixen’s deadline for his ransom, he was asleep in his cell when the light suddenly snapped on and the door slid back to admit two burly pirates. Still half-asleep, he was pounced upon and his arms were twisted behind his back to be locked in the elbow-wrist cuffs again. Then he was sat upon and leg irons were applied to his ankles, rendering him hobbled and helpless.
“What is the meaning of this!” he demanded for the third time, as he was hauled to his feet, his upper arms held tight in their grip to hold him upright.
“What it means, is that it’s time for you to go, Lord Rolas,” the Red Vixen answer, walking into his cell.
“What do you mean? It’s still two days before the deadline for my ransom. You’ve decided not to wait and just sell me off, then?”
She gestured to the two pirates and Rolas was summarily dragged out of his apartment cell and down the corridor. “Nothing of the sort, Lord Rolas. It appears that you’re luckier than you thought. Your ransom has been paid.”
“What?” he asked. Then his heart sank. “By who?” he asked numbly.
“The money came directly from your House. I suppose they felt obligated once the news got out. It would have seemed bloody strange otherwise.”
“No,” he said, as he was dragged onward to the lifeboat bay. He was tossed into a small, claustrophobic one-man lifepod, barely more than an ergonomic coffin. One of the pirate leaned over and started strapping the five point harness across his chest and waist. “They couldn’t have done that. They swore that they wouldn’t.”
“Then you appear to be foresworn, Lord Rolas,” the Red Vixen said without apparent sympathy. “And I’m denied the chance to make you my cabin boy. Poor luck for us both.”
“What’s going to happen now?” he asked.
“We’ll be doing a skip out of superluminal, just long enough to launch your pod in the general direction of a System Forces refueling outpost and then be on our way. Once they pick you up, you can explain yourself and hitch a ride home.”
“And was this,” he jerked at his chains, “actually necessary?”
“Well, we can’t have them thinking you were comfortable, during you long, arduous imprisonment.” She grinned evilly. “Besides, with you pinned down like that, it gives me a chance to do this.” She crawled into the pod, settling across his lap and taking hold of his head with both her hands. Before he could utter a protest her mouth was upon his, reaching inside him, tasting him as he tasted her. Then she broke the kiss and stepped out of the pod. “Something to remember the Red Vixen by, Lord Rolas. You shant be seeing her again.” The lifepod’s hatch cycled shut, leaving him with the quiet hum of its life support system. In less than a minute there was a loud bump as he was launched away from the Scarlet Claw and towards home.
Back to his parents, back to Salli, back to his family’s pain.
TBC
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no subject
Date: 2008-08-13 12:49 am (UTC)Hmmm.
I wonder what kept the Red Vixen from stopping by Rolas's cabin for two whole weeks. Sounds like something has definately changed. Is she having a bad case of Mavra-itis?
And the ransom was paid... with what? The family has lost a huge portion of it's wealth to the Red Vixen and what it has left was needed for the 'great escape'. I can understand why they would do it when the news of Rolas's capture broke. They couldn't afford for rumours to start circulating.
Brilliant and unexpected turn of events. Never saw it coming. :)
keep going. I'm lovin' this.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-13 01:01 am (UTC)As for how Rolas' House was able to pay for his ransom, that will be revealed in the next chapter. Hope you enjoy!
no subject
Date: 2008-08-24 08:38 pm (UTC)...but I am not telling =)
mjkj