It was the absolute truth and it was breaking her heart. She had allowed herself to fall for the big Kindred, had given him her love which he apparently didn’t return. And now she was paying a terrible price for it.
For a long moment, Need stared down at her, his expression unreadable. Lan’ara had almost begun to hope he would reconsider his drastic decision. Then, still without saying a word, he leaned down and unwrapped her arms from around his legs.
He left her weeping on the floor and shut the door behind him.
Eventually Lan’ara had dried her eyes and gotten dressed in the gorgeous silk gown. Clearly Need didn’t want her anymore. And just as clearly, he wasn’t about to change his mind.
This is the life I anticipated for years, she reminded herself as she walked slowly down the long marble hallway. This is what I was trained for at the Academy. I worked hard to get Senator Pouncenblast to become my patron—to get him to buy my contract. All the other girls were jealous.
But none of that seemed to matter now. All that mattered was that Need didn’t want her anymore and she felt dead inside.
“Ah, here you are at last!” A man with a fishy face, bulging eyes, and gills on the sides of his neck rushed up to them at the end of the hallway. “We’ve all been waiting for you. I assume you have the product?” he asked, looking at Need.
Needed patted the large carry-all slung over one shoulder.
“All here,” he said shortly.
“And this must be the girl the Senator picked from Twyleth Tigg.” The fish-faced man looked Lan’ara up and down appraisingly. “Yes, yes—very nice! I can see why he chose you, my dear.” He looked at Need. “Virginity will have to be verified of course. But if all is in order, we’ll be happy to give you your asking price.”
“I only want what I paid for her in the first place,” Need said abruptly. “Forty thousand. No more, no less.”
The other man blinked his bulging eyes in surprise.
“No more than that? But my good man, do you know how much Twyleth Tigg brides go for? You finding this lovely little lady at a common slave auction is akin to finding a priceless pearl in a trash heap. She’s worth five times what you paid for her easily—if not more.”
“Don’t care about that,” Need said stolidly. “Just what I paid for her is fine.”
The fish-faced man blinked again.
“But don’t you wish to make a profit?”
“I just want to break even,” Need said. “I want my bank account—and my life—to go back to where it was before I saw her crying on that damn auction block.”
He wants to forget me, Lan’ara thought dully. Wants to pretend I never existed.
Well, that should be easy enough to do. She was, after all, his property. So he could sell her and get rid of her and pretend he’d never seen her in the first place.
Gods and Goddesses, she wished she was dead.
“Very well,” the fish-faced man was saying. “I’ll need the girl to go with our medical tech here…” He snapped his fingers and a squat, toad-faced woman stepped forward and bowed. “For verification. If the test reads negative for male seed, the forty thousand will be deposited in your account at once.”
Need nodded.
“Fine.”
“Come along, dearie.” The short woman took Lan’ara by the arm. “Just come with me into our verification room. Just one little test—won’t take but a moment.”
Dully, Lan’ara followed her into a small room with an exam table set up in its center. She lay on the table mechanically when requested to do so, and spread her legs, not caring what was done to her.
The toad woman put on gloves and then a metal probe so cold it felt like an icicle was inserted into Lan’ara’s channel and held there for a long moment.
In fact, it took so long, Lan’ara almost began to hope. What if Need had somehow left a trace of his seed inside her that one time he had entered her? What if the probe found that she wasn’t technically a virgin anymore? Would Need be forced to keep her? Would he have to take her back to The Dark Star with him? Would he, in time, forgive her for disobeying his orders and going into Drung’s room?
But then the probe emitted a friendly sounding beep and the technician pulled it out. She looked at it for a moment, then nodded as though satisfied.
“Very good, dearie—there’s been no seed in you,” she said, smiling. “I’m sure Senator Pouncenblast will be happy to have you.”
“Th-thank you,” Lan’ara whispered, feeling her last hope blow away like so much dust in a cruel wind.
The medical tech patted her leg.
“You’ll do just fine,” she told Lan’ara. “The Senator is old, so in spite of performance enhancing drugs, he hardly ever asks to use a girl more than once a solar month or so. It’s an easy life and will get even easier as soon as you give him an heir.”