“I don’t mind a little rough language,” she assured them and sighed. “The Goddess of Mercy knows I’ve heard enough of it since I came here and started visiting the Down Market slave vendors.”
“I imagine you would,” Gaze said carefully. “So…Bound and I aren’t the first males you’ve rescued?”
“And how did you come to be rescuing males in the first place if you’re a baker from Zetta Prime?” Bound added. “If you don’t mind us asking,” he added, when Gaze gave him a look. “Sorry if that’s a nosy question, but you don’t meet many bakers that can afford a place like this.” And he nodded around the room, indicating the rich furnishings and elaborate décor.
“I don’t mind,” Lexi told them. “It all started when I found out my Great Aunt had died and left me a title and some property here on Yonnie Six, all of Trindall Tower in fact…”
She explained the circumstances of her inheritance and how she’d seen Mistress Crueltongue with a group of bodyslaves that she had bragged she was sending to her “Death Mines.”
Through it all, the two Kindred listened and nodded. Lexi thought that it ought to feel strange telling them all this—talking to males about her private life, when she had never had many dealings with the opposite sex before…but somehow it didn’t. Maybe she was just lonely after living in the big, fancy penthouse so long without anyone to talk to, but she liked telling her history to the two of them and they seemed to be genuinely interested.
“So you’d had problems with her from the start,” Gaze said. “The skinny Mistress in the red dress, I mean. I thought it seemed like you two had some kind of history.”
“The ‘skinny Mistress in the red dress’ would be Mistress Crueltongue,” Lexi told him. “And yes, you could say we’ve got history.”
She told them more about the Yonnite Mistress and her Death Mines and how she bought the cheapest slaves she could and literally worked them to death.
“Or that’s what she was doing, until she stupidly bragged about it to me,” Lexi told them. “I’ve been trying to stop her ever since. I tried buying her blasted mines but even through a third-party buyer, she won’t sell.”
Gaze frowned.
“Is there any other way to shut her down? Or force her to use some other method of mining?”
“I’ve been trying to introduce a motion to the Sacred Seven—the ruling body of Yonnie Six,” Lexi told him. “The Yonnites don’t care much for males, but I think if I could make them understand how terrible these practices make them look to other sentient peoples from other parts of the galaxy, they might take some action.”
“You say you’re trying to introduce a motion—what’s stoppin’ you?” Bound asked, slathering another piece of bread with butter and honey.
“Well, the fact that they won’t grant me an audience for one thing,” Lexi said, frowning. “I think it’s because I don’t dress like the other Yonnite Mistresses and I don’t have a bodyslave to back me up.” She lifted her chin. “But I refuse to wear some ridiculous getup and subjugate some poor male like that! It’s wrong and I won’t do it—males are people too.”
“It’s very good of you to notice that,” Gaze said dryly.
Lexi’s hand flew to her mouth.
“Oh, I’m sorry—that sounded really condescending, didn’t it? It’s the culture I was raised in and the fact that I’ve never been around any males until recently, and all of those have been in really bad circumstances. They’ve all been beaten and abused by their Yonnite Mistresses so most of them hate all women—even me, even though I’m trying to help them.”
“The culture here on Yonnie Six isn’t exactly conducive to good male/female relations,” Gaze said, nodding.
“Not conducive? It’s fuckin’ horrible,” Bound growled. “We’re fuckin’ lucky that Angel came and got us or we’d be on the way to the Death Mines by now!”
“You’re right, Brother.” Gaze looked at her earnestly. “We owe you our lives. I don’t know how we’re ever going to pay you back.”
Lexi made a shooing gesture.
“I don’t do this for any kind of payment. It’s more of a mission for me—a quest to shut down the Death Mines, or at least make Mistress Crueltongue use robots or machines work her mines instead of killing hapless slaves.”
“You really are an Angel.” Bound’s deep voice was slightly hoarse. “I wonder if those other males you’ve rescued have any idea what they owe you?”
Lexi felt her cheeks getting hot.
“I’m not some saint, you know—I’m just a baker with a hot temper and I don’t like to lose. If I could get the Sacred Seven to listen to me and stop letting Mistress Crueltongue kill her workers, I’d leave and go back to my bakery in a minute!”
Gaze looked thoughtful.
“Maybe we could help.”