“Males are people too, you know,” she told Mistress Crueltongue. “They may be the inferior sex, but that’s no reason to treat them like animals. In fact, I wouldn’t treat animals the way you’re treating them!”
“If I cared for your opinion, I would have asked for it,” Mistress Crueltongue sniffed. “Good day.” She was about to walk on but Lexi couldn’t let her go.
“I’ll buy them from you,” she said desperately. Though she hated to put any money into the cruel Mistress’s pocket, she couldn’t see the poor males sent to their deaths.
“You’ll what?” Mistress Crueltongue raised one razor sharp eyebrow delicately.
“I said I’ll buy them—all of them. Whatever you paid, I’ll double it—triple it even,” Lexi said recklessly. She had the money now to do what she liked—though what she was going to do with five abused male bodyslaves, she had no idea.
Mistress Crueltongue looked down her nose at Lexi.
“You couldn’t afford them. If you had the credit to pay triple what a bodyslave—even an old, broken-down one—is worth, you’d be wearing much better clothing.”
At that moment, the Estate Agent came rushing across the street in tiny, mincing steps due to the height of her heels.
“Oh, Mistress Alexa,” she gasped, coming to a teetering halt in front of Lexi. “You ran away before I could give you the keys and codes to your new building!”
“New building?” Mistress Crueltongue demanded, frowning. “Which building are you speaking of?”
“That one—across the street—Trindall Tower.” Lexi pointed to the towering skyscraper which took up most of the city block across from them. “I just inherited it from my Great Aunt.”
“Oh, are you the one old Mistress Granipants chose as her heir?” Mistress Crueltongue looked down her nose at Lexi and sniffed. “Well, people did say she was going senile before she died. Now I see the rumors were all true.”
“Mistress Alexa is now the owner of Mistress Granipants’ building and all her worldly assets,” the Estate Agent told her. “She comes from Zetta Prime,” she added and gave the other Mistress an expressive look. “That’s why she, er, doesn’t exactly have on the latest fashion.”
“Oh, a Zettite—that explains everything,” Mistress Crueltongue said dismissively. “They’re all such prudes—so afraid to show any skin. And they refuse to take bodyslaves too, when everyone knows it’s the only proper use for a male.”
“Yes, we Zettites refuse to be cruel and barbaric and parade around half naked while we torture poor, helpless males. And if that’s offensive to you, I don’t give a damn,” Lexi snapped at her. “But now you know I can more than afford to buy those bodyslaves from you. So name your price.”
“I see.” Mistress Crueltongue gave her a considering look, as though she was actually contemplating selling the abused pack of males. “And pray tell me—what would you do with them if you bought them from me?”
“Set them free, of course,” Lexi said promptly. “They deserve to live their lives the same way we do. All the Goddess’s creatures deserve that.”
“Hmm…I see,” Mistress Crueltongue murmured again. “Most interesting.”
“So what’s your price?” Lexi demanded.
The other Mistress’s crimson lips had curved into a cruel smile.
“I’m afraid they’re not for sale—at any price,” she said sweetly. “I need them for my mines and I’m not about to give up perfectly good workers just so a goody-goody like yourself can feel superior. Good day.”
And with a final smirk, she’d poked the pack of hapless males into action with her pain prod and continued down the street, leaving Lexi fuming and helpless.
THREE
Lexi still got mad when she remembered that first encounter with Mistress Crueltongue. She’d felt terrible that she hadn’t been able to save the poor males the other woman had been abusing. But the incident had made her decide against selling everything and going home to Zetta Prime. Instead, she was going to stay and keep the awful Yonnite Mistress from sending a more males to her Death Mines. It was her new mission in life, she decided—one she was determined to succeed at.
And so, she had made it her business to find out where the Down Market slave district was located and began to frequent the lowly place every Market Day. She went to every slave market that dealt in downtrodden males who were on their last legs—the ones who’d already seen years of backbreaking service or had their nerves shot from overuse of the pain collar or were sick or too old to be much good anywhere else.
She found the very males that Mistress Crueltongue would have bought for her mines and Lexi bought them instead. She didn’t get them all—she couldn’t be everywhere at once. But she did her level best to put a big dent in the pool of available slaves at the bargain markets.
Of course, once she had the used bodyslaves, she had to do something with them. Using some of her inheritance money, she’d set up a small clinic on one of the moons orbiting Zetta Prime—a place where males were welcome—and paid to rehabilitate the broken-down bodyslaves and get them back on their feet. When they were able, they were free to leave and do whatever they liked—Lexi had set up a job and housing program for them and a number of them were doing quite well now.