Elias goes to answer it. I hear voices outside. And then I hear Elias replying. I can’t hear precisely what is being said, but there’s a note of concern in Elias’ voice even at a distance, and when he returns, he doesn’t look at me.
“Mattias. We need you.”
Mattias eases me off his lap. “Wait here,” he says. “Don’t go anywhere, I don’t want to have to punish you again.”
I sit down in the warm chair he vacated, and I wait. This has something to do with me, I am sure of it. The auction. Have I been sold? Who have I been sold to?
It seems like forever until Mattias and Elias return. I can tell from the expression on Mattias’ face that things are not going to work out as rosy as he said they would.
“Trissa,” he says. “Come here.”
I get up and walk toward him. He crouches down in front of me, which puts his head a little lower than mine. His big hands wrap around my upper arms as he gives me the bad news.
“The auction is complete.”
“Okay.” Something about the way he is speaking makes my stomach churn with nerves.
“There was more than one winner.”
“You mean I’ve been sold to two men?”
He shakes his head. “More than two.”
“Three?”
He makes an upward jerking motion with his head.
“Four?”
He draws in a deep breath. “When the auction finished, there were seven joint buyers. The sheriff has decided not to sell you outright, but to sell breeding rights instead.”
“Breeding rights.” I repeat the words, my jaw dropping. This is not what they said would happen. This is not what I was promised. This is not okay. And I am not going to stay here for it.
“Relax,” Mattias says, soothing me by rubbing his hands up and down my arms. “You’re still going to be taken care of.”
“I’m going to be bred!” I gasp the words at him. “I’m going to be taken care of like an animal!”
“You can only conceive once per year or so,” Mattias says. “So your life may be easier than you imagine. Once you are impregnated, you will not be taken again until your fertility returns.”
I glower down at him. “Why do you keep saying these things as if they are good things? What will happen to my babies?”
“If they are male, they will be taken as soldiers. If they are female...”
“Stop,” I say. I know what is coming and it will not happen. I will not allow it.
“Elias and I will remain your guardians,” Mattias says. “We will take care of you on a day-to-day basis. We will make sure that you are looked after.”
He doesn’t seem to even understand what is so wrong with this entire situation. He thinks it is fine for me to be used like an animal, my offspring taken from me and sold. This is everything my mother and my father fought to stop from happening to me. And it’s happening anyway. I want to be sick.
“When will they start coming to me?”
“Tonight.”
Tonight. Tonight I will be taken. Tonight some man I do not know will steal my virginity from me and fill me with his seed. Tonight...
“Trissa, you look pale. You should sit down.”
Tonight, I become the prisoner I was never meant to be. Tonight I become a biological thing, a vessel for men. Tonight...
“Trissa...”
Mattias’ voice sounds very strange and far away. The world is all weird and wobbly.
“Triss...”
I faint.