A Slave to the Servants Ch. 14

The blankets were pulled up and over me and I fell back to sleep.

We were in a classroom again and I sighed. This dream just wouldn't go away. It was probably because Nu-reeh had said I should be able to read. That comment had really stuck with me. On this world I was strikingly uneducated.

There was a figure on the blackboard in front of me. I recognized it at the symbol for the compound I had come from. It was the only symbol in their language I recognized.

"No, it isn't," Master Kein said from my side.

A new symbol appeared on the board and it looked familiar. It was on the outside of the shop they bought my ornamentation in. He was right, I knew this one, too.

"This part," Master Kein pointed out, "is the symbol for Fredrick's family."

He divided the symbol into it's different parts. The second part referred to what the shop sold and the last part referred to where the shop was located. Anyone that saw this symbol would know who the owners were, what they sold, and what part of the village it was in.

We spent all night with Master Kein teaching me to read. The dream eventually took us back to the place in the Child Keepers where they had learned language. We sat at the benches as Master Kein slowly taught me to decipher the symbols.

I woke feeling refreshed looking into Evan's bright eyes.

"That was boring, Ciara," he said simply pulling me up. "I already know how to read and I didn't like sitting in a classroom all night. Tomorrow you must dream of something better."

"Is it normal?" I asked as he cleaned me. "Why do I always control the dreams?"

Master Evan looked uncomfortable and frowned. "No," he finally answered, "we share everything. One of us never controls the others like that."

We went to breakfast and I sat on Master Evan's lap as Master Christof and Master Bane went to get food. Men approached our table and I felt Master Evan tense beneath me. He wanted to make these men bleed.

"Our Mistress said we are to be punished today for failure," I heard my fake Masters say. "They say the slave is heavy with a child."

"Sounds right to me," Master Damien answered leaning back.

"It was your deception," one of the other men snarled out.

Master Damien and his Brothers grunted at that statement.

"It was your failure to follow instructions and your greed that got the slave with child," Master Damien answered.

My owners were pissed at these men. They wanted to beat them into the ground, but it would have to wait. If they got in more trouble with Nu-reeh, she may hurt them so badly they would be unable to care for me. The women were not known to be light in their punishments.

"Leave us," Master Damien said motioning to the other men. "I have no wish to beat you up today."

Rue and his Brothers grumbled, but smartly left to go to their own table.

The food was delivered and everyone dug in. Anger was put aside so they could have a nice meal.

I thought about how Nu-reeh would punish them if they really injured someone else. It struck me to wonder what the women did when men killed each other.

"It's the price of having a Warrior," Master Damien said. "They expect it to happen."

When the Warriors killed another family their women paid off the women that had lost men. If the killing was not justified the Warriors would be sanctioned by the Administrators. A family that killed for fun or did so without cause would probably be destroyed by their owners.

"It was preferred that we brought thieves and wayward men before the Administrators for punishment. We were allowed to dole out death ourselves only when our lives were in danger," Master Kein said.

Master Kein was munching on that tasty green stalk again. I really wanted to try it. It tasted so unbelievably good to him.

Watching me curiously, Master Kein dug through the pile and pulled out the smallest, most tender stalk. He handed it to Master Evan, who gave it to me.

I'd seen Master Kein eat it and he just chewed and ate the entire thing. I put it in my mouth and bit down. The stalk was ice cold. Kein knew it was fresh because it was so cold. It was like biting a tough ice pop.

Juice leaked out where I bit the stalk and onto my tongue. It was wonderful. Concentrating on the taste, I chewed and sucked. The cold reminded me of cherry ice cream topped with sugar. It was the most intense candy taste I'd ever experienced. If I sucked hard enough I could pull the icy, sweet juice out without biting.

My men continued to talk around me, but I was lost in my activity. I hadn't had sweets in eons and that was what this was like. No wonder Master Kein liked it so much.

I looked up and Master Damien was grinning at me wickedly. Much like men on Earth he was mesmerized by the imagery. It was like watching me suck his cock. He'd make sure I got a piece of the plant everyday to suck on. What a wonderful thing to see at the start of the morning.

"Ha, ha," I blushed.

Clattering talons made everyone look up. The women had entered the eating area. Nu-reeh approached our table and looked at Master Damien pointedly.

"I expect you will work this morning and take your punishment this afternoon," she said bluntly.

"Yes, Mistress," we replied.

"The slave," she said gesturing to me, "will have visitors at mid morning. They will use your quarters and teach the slave what I want her to know. Runen and his Brothers are well versed in language. They will educate the slave...if it can be done."

Arguing with Nu-reeh was a stupid thing to do. It always resulted in punishment, but Master Damien was was willing to take it.

"Kein is bright, Mistress. He is already teaching Ciara," Master Damien said bluntly.

Nu-reeh's eyes flashed and she leaned toward Master Damien.

"I am glad to see you paid attention to what I told the slave, but I will see to her education," she said simply.

Master Damien stood to argue and Nu-reeh let out a warning hiss.

"You know you will never win an argument with me," she said simply. "If you try, I will only make you suffer."

The room had gone silent watching the challenge. It was obvious Master Damien was arguing with Nu-reeh. She never tolerated such outbursts.

It was more Christof's persistent internal entreaties that fighting would be pointless that made Master Damien sit.

"I am gracious, Damien," Nu-reeh said menacingly, "do not forget that."

After breakfast I was delivered back to their rooms. Master Damien's anger was palpable. In a display of rage, he bloodied his knuckles punching the wall several times. My own hand ached sympathetically.

"I do not like Runen and his family," Master Damien growled pacing. "They are..." he couldn't think of a word bad enough, but I got his intent.

Runen and his family were slimy and untrustworthy. They had once been Warriors but now negotiated with the other races for the sale of the ore. It was known they spoke many languages and were bright, but that wasn't what we didn't like.

They had great freedom because of their jobs. Runen had often gloated he was a step above the other men. His family even believed themselves to be at the level of the women.

My men left for the sorting room begrudgingly. Master Damien kissed me deeply before he left. He told me if Runen or his family harmed me, he would kill the other men, damn the consequences.

I cleaned the apartment up and was just finishing cleaning the main room when my guests arrived. They walked in like they owned the place and looked around.

"So," the largest man said slowly, "we are to waste our morning teaching you?"

"Yes, sir," I said politely, "that is what Mistress Nu-reeh ordered."

We started without anymore preamble.

The men teaching me found my ignorance laughable, which they did frequently. They knew English, somehow, at least the basics. They were very effective teachers.

Quite quickly I learned the fundamentals of their language. It helped that I had already been through some of it with Master Kein. The bond I shared with my Masters also made it easier. I drew on what they knew and made it my own.

Master Damien and his Brothers arrived to take me to lunch and my teachers took their leave. I knew Master Damien wanted to do harm to these men. They had treated me like a subservient species all morning and it had enraged him.

It was Master Evan that thanked them for their work and Christof that lead them out.

Once the tutors were gone, I persuaded Master Damien to sit. I rubbed the tense muscles in his back and shoulders. He loved to be touched, so I slipped my hands under his shirt to massage him. The attention had the intended result and he relaxed.

My men ate lightly at lunch as did I. Their punishment was to take place afterwards and they didn't want to do it on a full stomach.

"We have now experienced nausea," Master Bane said watching me. "We think you will feel this when we are punished. None of us wish to experience that again."

Master Damien shifted me on his lap and sighed. He wondered if he should leave me in their room. Nu-reeh answered that question when she came into the dining hall a moment later.

"The slave will sit with me while you are punished," she stated simply motioning me to follow her.

We walked through the halls briskly. I followed Nu-reeh's large strides in a near jog. By the time we made it to where we were going I was out of breath.

The hall we stepped into was crowded. It was full of men there to watch the afternoon entertainment. I heard bets placed as to who would scream the loudest and how many lashes the punishment would entail. If Master Bane wasn't being punished, he'd be having a grand time in the comotion.

Nu-reeh headed toward a raised dais along the wall. She lifted me onto it and then followed with a leap. The large woman gestured to a seat and I took it quickly. Nu-reeh settled gracefully beside me.

I watched the raucous crowd of Warriors that were gathered beneath us. Unless I shut my eyes there was no way not to look at them. Master Damien was quite firm in his belief I should not shut my eyes around Nu-reeh, so I was permitted to watch.

Looking to the head of the room I saw Rue and his Brothers were already there. They were shirtless and looking vaguely anxious. Master Damien and his family went to the same place and stripped off their shirts laying them to the side. The two families stood apart and stared hard at each other, which seemed to surprise the rest of the men in the room.

"Didn't they work together?" I heard the men whisper to one another. "Aren't they friends?"

It wasn't hard to miss. Master Damien looked like he wanted to fight Rue and his Brothers. The rest of my family had the same fierce look. Even awaiting punishment they looked like dark, angry Warriors ready to do battle.

Nu-reeh made a sound akin to purring next to me and I looked up at her.

"Look at them, slave," she said eyeing Master Damien like a piece of meat. "You see the fire? They had almost lost that passion. I knew what they were doing when they left me. When they came back with their natures returned each time I knew I was making the correct decision."

Nu-reeh looked down at me. "I do not know exactly what you do to them," she said tracing my face with a claw, "but I want it to continue. They are valuable assets like this."

"Yes, Mistress," I whispered as the claw left my face.

"You will not carry another child, though," she stated. "That is unacceptable."

"Yes, Mistress," came out of my mouth automatically.

"You have nothing to offer me," she continued, her eyes still on Master Damien. "There is no talent the human race has that I need on this planet."

"Yes, Mistress."

"Evan's talent I appreciate," she said gesturing. "His breeder many generations back was not of Pateria. From that slave he gained his ability," she told me.

I was too shocked to speak and even Master Evan looked curiously over at us. Evidently, he hadn't known that either.

"We do not allow those slaves here anymore, though," she continued conversationally, "we could not control their breeding and they were a very petite race."

"Size is important, Mistress," I said trying to agree with her.

"Evan was bred large," she continued. "We have kept the talent and lost the ridiculous size that was originally associated with it."

More women entered the hall and the men separated to let them go where they wanted. Dinah and Nu-reeh's third Sister, Tosu, approached and jumped up to take seats around us. Dinah looked at me and grunted, but seemed to be controlling her temper.

On the other side of the auditorium I saw the three women that must own Rue and his Brothers take seats on a second raised dais.

A large woman approached Nu-reeh with a wicked looking whip in her hand.

"Twenty," Nu-reeh told her, "divide it between them."

"So few?" the woman asked and Nu-reeh made a vicious sound.

"My men, I decide the punishment," she growled.

"The most to the male breeder then?" the woman asked gesturing to my men. "Which one is that?"

Nu-reeh let out a low curse. "The slave is human; she doesn't know."

The other women looked surprised and then angry. "One like us is arising from...this?" she asked disgusted.

The women shared a look before the whip holder roared and moved to the front of the room.

Rue and his Brothers went first. They each took thirty vicious swings of the whip to their backs. Several of the men cried out loudly, which elicited a cheer from the other men in the room. Bets were won and lost as the whip cracked.

I watched the blood drip from the wounds and cringed. The General's treatment of me had been far less harsh and I remembered the pain. Despite the joy Master Damien and his Brothers felt at their cousin's treatment, I felt sorry for all of them.

Looking up, I found Nu-reeh staring at me.

"Do you have a tolerance for pain?" she asked bluntly.

"No, Mistress," I answered honestly.

"Concentrate on Bane or Damien," she told me. "I refuse to listen to your piteous screams. Your owners are legendary for their tolerance and I am proud of them. Do not dishonor the family."

Master Damien took his lashes first and I concentrated on Master Bane. He was bored. The family had been whipped many times, this was nothing new.

The punishment was also surprisingly light. He had expected far worse. Master Bane was glad he hadn't placed any bets with his Brothers on the number of lashes. He would have lost that wager badly.

Frankly, Master Bane would prefer to be in the crowd betting on the outcome. Just to throw the bets, he considered calling out on the first lash. Most of the men would have wagered he wouldn't make a sound.

Master Evan and Master Christof were irritated with that idea. This was not a family of weak men. Crying out would bring dishonor, even if it would throw the games in the crowd.

It was Master Evan's turn and he grinned cheekily at the whip-holder. Winking would probably really irk her, I thought, so Master Evan did that. No one here had ever seen a wink and it did seem to disrupt the proceedings. Master Evan was thrilled.

The woman doing the whipping was infuriated with Master Evan's attitude. She laid the whip four times in the same place. She left a deep bloody furrow in his back, but he only grunted on the last lash.

I felt the pain from the two of them burning across my own back. It was much, much worse than what the General had done. Tears blurred my eyes and I concentrated on Master Bane.

Christof went next and took the blows stoically. He didn't intentionally goad the woman like Master Evan had done. She repaid him by laying the marks equally across his flesh.

Master Evan was proud of his single mark and bragged he was the strongest Brother. Master Christof did his best to ignore Master Evan, but he did agree with him. Master Evan's mark was deep and bloody. It was impressive.

Master Kein leapt to the position to take his turn. His willingness to take his punishment angered the whip holder, again. She called to Nu-reeh asking to give them more, they were not learning anything.

"They will learn, won't you Damien?" Nu-reeh called.

"Yes, Mistress," we all answered politely, but the internal opinion was quite the opposite.

We weren't learning anything from this. Fuck the women and their stupid rules.

Nu-reeh watched the defiant faces in front of her and I know she saw their rebelliousness. From what she'd told me, she liked it. Their attitude in face of their punishment looked like it thrilled her.

The punishment resumed and between slashes to Master Kein's back Nu-reeh turned to me.

"If I actually wanted to break them," she said, "you would have taken the twenty lashes. I could have opened your flesh until your blood coated the floor. That whip, while mild on my servants, would have torn you apart."

Master Kein cried out loudly hearing that through me and the men in the hall cheered. My owners turned to look at Nu-reeh with wary eyes.

"I am a kind Mistress," she said simply. "They should never make me want to do that. Isn't that right, slave?"

"Yes, Mistress, you are kind," I said petting my gravid belly.

"Never bet more than you are willing to lose, I believe is what Bane would say," she mused.

"Yes, Mistress," I answered as Master Bane humbly took his place and silently took the whipping.

She'd sucked the fire out of my owners. The whip may kill me, it would certainly maim me. Their cream would not be effective on the bone deep cuts the whip could make. My fragile flesh meant a lot to them, Nu-reeh had nailed the unfortunate truth of it. Master Damien and his Brothers would do anything to protect me.

Once the ten men had taken their punishment, they moved to stand before their respective owners. Master Damien looked up at me and he wanted me far away from Nu-reeh, or at least closer to him.

"I believe we understand each other, Damien," Nu-reeh said as she ran a clawed hand through my hair.

"Yes, Mistress," we all answered.

"You should thank me for giving you a light punishment," she purred.

My men and I thanked her dutifully. Compared to the other men, it really had been light.

"I will decide when you need to suffer, Damien, not you. Do not disappoint me again," she said. "Your ability to feel pain is mine."

The rest of the men in the hall dispersed quickly. They'd seen the good part. Bets would be settled outside the view of the women. It was quiet in a few moments and we were alone with Nu-reeh and her Sisters.

"Damien," Nu-reeh said, "Rue and his Brothers have paid for their deception and oversight. Their owner wants no other harm to come to their servants."

My owners were livid. Master Damien spoke quickly and angrily.

"They did not treat Ciara right, they did not care for her-" he said fists clenching.

"And it has been taken care of," Nu-reeh answered him calmly.

I felt it, the shift. It was done. We would not try to punish Rue and his Brothers ourselves. Thirty lashes to the back each was enough punishment for what they had failed to do.

"Yes, Mistress," we said.

My owners were looking longingly at me, but they didn't say anything. Their main concern now was having me closer to them.

"Go," Nu-reeh said simply waving a hand in my direction.

I rose to my feet and moved to the edge of the small stage. Struggling slightly I sat down and my owners pulled me off. They weren't focusing on their backs, they were focused on me. Nu-reeh's wicked claws had been so close...

"Go clean up," Nu-reeh said. "The slave may wait in your quarters and I expect a performance from you all this afternoon."

Nobody knew who she wanted to perform or what she was talking about. Suddenly her eyes locked with Master Evan.

"You specifically, Evan, I expect a good performance from you," she rose and stepped off the stage.