“This time I am!” she insisted. “I just wish someone had warned me. There’s a new real around that you have to avoid at all costs. I’ve never had such a shattering experience!”
“You couldn’t possibly mean `Tree Planet Adventure’?” I asked with only a slight edge to my voice. “If so, you’re a little late. I just left there, and as a matter of fact, Len said you and Guy recommended it.”
“Maybe Guy did, but I never would,” she stated, then lifted her glass again to drain it. “On second thought, I’m sure Guy recommended it. Terry, it was unbelievable! How is it you’re here now if you just experienced it?”
“I didn’t complete the experience.” I grinned. “I’d like to see Len’s face when be emerges and finds that I’m gone.”
“So would I,” she said savagely, her dark eyes lighting in a way that made me uneasy “I’d also like to see Guy in the same fix. He trapped me into it, Terry, and I completed the experience. When it was over I tried to throw it off, but I couldn’t. I spent three days at his place, serving him on my knees, kissing him for every slap, thanking him for abusing me, before I could break out of it. Rod took Jan a week ago, and she hasn’t broken out of it yet. The thing should be declared illegal.”
“It probably already has been.” I assured her. “That was a real house I’d never been to before, and I’m sure it’s temporary and restricted, but they just ‘forgot’ to ask if I was willing. The most that could happen would be a fine for the house, and a warning for its owner. It’s too effective a real to be suppressed.”
“I’ll say it’s effective.” She grimaced, a hand to her throat. “I still quiver at the thought of Guy. I’ve managed to avoid him since I escaped from his apartment, but I have the awful feeling that if he walked in right now I’d go to my knees in front of him, let him tie my wrists behind me, then follow him back to his apartment. I’ve been afraid to go out since I got back.”
Vera sat staring into space, her eyes wide and frightened, her left hand clenched in her lap. She was on the verge of losing herself to her fears, and it wasn’t an attractive sight.
“Why don’t you take a trip?” I suggested, pitying her more than I cared to show. “I’m sure that a month or two away from here will make all the difference, and you’ll come back just as you used to be.”
“That’s a good idea,” she agreed shakily, brushing at her lavender-tinted hair. She wore lavender and red makeup, offsetting a purple-shaded house suit that hung loosely on her, and then her suddenly visibly weary eyes were resting on me again. “You couldn’t use a house guest for a while, could you?”
I was almost tempted to accept her partial plea, but then I remembered what I had left at home.
“Unfortunately, I already have one.” I told her, emptying my glass. “A colleague from Dremmler’s sector, visiting Central for the first time. He’s unbelievably backward, but I’m stuck with him, at least until we leave for the mediation assignment I’ve just been given. He’s coming along to see if he can learn anything.”
Her expression changed then, and it was an expression I’d never seen before. “I really envy you,” she said wistfully staring at me with surprising longing. “Here you are, a PXM with a wonderful career, and here am I useless at everything. After serving my required year with Central central, I’d hoped they would ask me to continue, but they never did. I just wasn’t good enough. I have everything I need now but a purpose in life.”
She was staring down at her hands in a way that left me shaken, but it wasn’t something I could show. “Come now, it’s not that bad!” I encouraged heartily, patting her knee. “There are many things to do if you look about you. We’ll get together again before I leave, and I’ll help you choose something. Right now, it’s getting late and I’d better be on my way”
“Wouldn’t you like another port?” she asked in a hopeful tone as I stood up. “We could talk about old times and who’s doing what now.”
I begged off and left as fast as possible, feeling worse than I had before I’d arrived. I’d never known that Vera was so unhappy and it was very unsettling. I hated to admit it, but the only composed person on Central seemed to be Murdock McKenzie!
It was dusk before I was back in my speedster, heading for home. I put it on automatic and leaned back, thinking about what was waiting for me. After this long a time, the barbarian should have realized that I was an individual to be dealt with, not a servant to be ordered about. If he expected my help with his problem, he’d have to treat me with respect and consideration. I stirred in my seat harness, knowing how fine it was going to be pointing this out to him, watching him compose himself for a sincere apology. After a time, I might even forgive him. His problem was an interesting one, and the professional in me was attracted by it in spite of Murdock McKenzie’s underhanded methods. I would handle the problem well, and never let Murdock forget that he’d had to come to Mediation for his solution.
In just a few minutes’ time, I set down on my landing-circle and rolled inside the hangar. The door closed securely behind me as the engine whined down to the shut-off point, so I secured all controls, got out, then ambled into the house. The ground floor was deserted, and that was just as well. I hadn’t had dinner yet, and I was beginning to be hungry I went upramp to the living floor, intending to visit my kitchen, but Tammad suddenly stepped out of my bedroom into my path. I stopped short to keep from running into him, and gave him a pleasant smile.
“So there you are, l’lenda,” I murmured as I brushed at my tunic skirt. “I trust you’ve had enough time to do an adequate amount of thinking?”
“Indeed I have,” he answered with a nod, folding his arms. “The day has fled in the time of your absence.”
His expression wasn’t quite as anxious as it should have been, but that was surely because I hadn’t explained matters to him as yet.
“True enough.” I agreed. “I’m sure you now realize that I’m not to be trifled with. If you expect me to...”
“I expect you to obey my word,” he snapped, rudely interrupting me. “On Rimilia, it could mean your life! I shall have to teach you proper respect for him to whom you belong, lest this ever happen again. In the room!”
His broad face showed anger as he pointed toward the bedroom, but I couldn’t believe it. He was treating me, a Prime, as if I were a nobody!
“How dare you speak to me that way” I gasped, moving a small step backward. “Don’t you realize...?”
“Woman, in the room!” he repeated, taking me by the neck and propelling me through the doorway then following behind. “Too long have you lived among these nonmen, these darayse. They know nothing of the training of women for their place, but I have not that lack. Should you ever think upon disobeying me again, your fate will be well known to you!”
I stumbled from the push, nearly losing my balance, and felt shocked as I never had been in my life. I didn’t know what the barbarian was talking about, but I knew it wasn’t right. Couldn’t he see that he needed my help badly? That if he mistreated me, my help might not be forthcoming? I tried to explain that to him, but he refused to listen. He pushed me over to the bed, then picked up what looked like a long, thin tree branch.
“You were bidden not to leave the house,” he explained in his calm, even way the anger frighteningly showing behind the calm. “Because you were not aware of the consequences of disobedience, your punishment will be less harsh than it otherwise would be. You are not to disobey me again.”
I was wide-eyed and confused, determined not to tremble before the likes of a barbarian, but then he pushed me face down on the bed, putting one of his knees in the small of my back. I struggled to get away from him, fought to squirm loose, but his weight held me in the place with no other effort necessary from him. He stripped the triple-red legging from me and threw it aside, then tucked up my tunic skirt. I was wild with the thought of what be would do to me, and then it happened! He brought the thin, springy branch down hard across my hips, leaving a streak of fire in its wake! I’d never felt anything like it before, and I screamed with the pain, but it was just the beginning. He beat me with the branch, across my hips and thighs, until I cried wildly for him to stop, but he continued on as if he intended destroying me. When my tears ran my makeup down to the bed in a stream, he finally stopped and took his knee from my back.