Rebels of Vulvar (Vulvarian Saga Book 2), стр. 37
I nodded. “Then, be well, Emer,” I said. “I must start north. I have an urgent appointment awaiting at Mount Voln.”
I turned my baacaas away. Emer spurred her mount around mine and pulled up, blocking my way.
“I will not try to dissuade you from following your insane plan,” Emer said. “There is no reasoning with one who has given his mind over to madness. But Mount Voln is a good two-thousand legas from here. At least accompany me to Nisa, where you can get provisions for your journey. You will find no shops or markets where you are bound.”
Emer was right. My grief-stricken mind had not even considered provisions.
“Very well,” I said. “Your point is well taken.”
“Yes, it is,” Emer smirked. “Shall we ride for Nisa?”
“In a moment,” I said. “First, please accept my apologies. Your life is far from useless, Emer. You have well served me since the day we met. I had no right to speak as I did to a friend. Please forgive me.”
Emer regarded me silently for a moment. “Apologies accepted,” she said finally. “It’s forgiven and forgotten. I know your heart is heavy with grief and that you spoke in anger.”
“Thank you, my friend,” I said. “But, I still refuse to believe the Vulvarian Nethersphere fables.”
Emer laughed good-naturedly. “Are they so much less believable than the afterlife fables of your home planet, Tobias Hart?”
I laughed with her. “I suppose not,” I said. “Let us ride.”
* * *
Near the seventh hour, we rode into the yard of Haela’s farm. We found the farm abandoned and assumed Haela had not yet returned from Thiva. After we ate the last of our dried meat and bread, I cached my bow and sword inside the barn. Given the recent slave rebellion, both Emer and I agreed it would not be wise for me to enter Nisa with my weapons. Inside the farmhouse, Emer found a steel slave collar, a length of chain, and the tunic of a farm slave manufactured from coarse cloth.
“I believe it would be wise for you to pose as my personal slave when we enter the city,” Emer said.
“You’re to be my mistress now?” I laughed.
“Why not?” Emer smirked. “Isn’t hard labor as a slave the only conceivable use for you worthless, beastly males?”
I laughed. “I had a master once when I came to this planet the first time,” I said, “who found delight in services I rendered that were not exactly hard labor.”
“Hmm, did she?” Emer said coyly. “How can you be so sure she delighted in your services?”
“Perhaps her moans and the way her body writhed gave it away,” I smirked, pulling off the torn, soiled tunic I’d worn since we’d left the cell in Thiva.
I reached for the clean tunic, but Emer snatched it from me. After tossing it away, she dropped her sword belt and removed the scarlet tunic of the Thivan warriors she wore. She stood naked before me, as I was.
“Perhaps you should demonstrate for me the services you performed for your former mistress, Tobias Hart,” Emer said with a grin. “Allow your new mistress to see for myself whether they delight.”
I found Emer both beautiful and desirable, but my heart was heavy. Idril and my grief still consumed my thoughts. I turned away.
“Emer, I cannot,” I mumbled.
I felt Emer’s arms encircle me from behind and felt her warm flesh pressed against my backside.
“Tobias, does it not please you to look upon me?” Emer sobbed. “I know how much you loved Idril. But does not life go on for the living?”
I felt her wet tears on my neck. “Of course, I find you desirable,” I said. “But it’s too soon. My emotions are in turmoil. You deserve so much more than I can offer you right now, dear Emer.”
Emer released me. When I turned, the tunic she had picked up and thrown struck me in the face. I put it on while she dressed.
“Are you angry with me?” I asked.
“No,” Emer said. Then she grinned widely. “Perhaps your emotions are in turmoil now, but your body betrayed you. It desires me.”
I could not argue the point as I realized my manhood had responded predictably to the touch of Emer’s silky, warm flesh.
“Maybe you can show me your delightful skills another time, Tobias Hart,” Emer said as she affixed the slave collar about my neck. “Let us be on our way to the city, slave.”
“Yes, mistress,” I said with a smile.
21
An Unexpected Welcome
Nisa, once beleaguered by the rebel slaves, but now dauntless was a grim and sobering sight. Every fifty yards along the top of the city walls, executioners had affixed impaling posts with needle-sharp points. There was a body of a naked male impaled on each post. On Vulvar, they used impalement for only one crime. It was the crime Vulvarians considered the worst of all, a male copulating with a female. It didn’t matter if a Vulvarian female consented to the copulation. Whenever the authorities discovered copulation had occurred, the justice authorities always impaled the male. Their view was that copulation between males and females was not only a crime against the dignity of females but a crime against nature.
As we approached the city gates, I saw female warriors in blue-tunics had replaced the rebel warriors in yellow-tunics I had observed on my first visit to Nisa. Hard eyes behind the Y-shaped crossbars of their helmets followed me as Emer and I rode to the gates. Emer held one end of the silver chain she had attached to the slave collar around my neck as we neared the city.
“Who is this male?” a warrior asked Emer.
“He is my slave?” Emer answered.
“Did he take part in the rebellion?” the warrior asked.
“No, some friends in Thiva held him in custody for me until the army ended the rebellion,” Emer said. “I retrieved him there before traveling home.”
“Home?” the warrior