The Demon and the Emperor

The Demon and the Emperor

by Yamila Abraham

“I must ask you–with greatest respect, Lord Demon…”  The general looked up with eyes maddened by fury.  "Why do you drape your arm around the Divine Emperor with such intimate familiarity?“

Rodukjo stared down his nose at the general.  "Your emperor has but one thing of value to offer in exchange for my fealty.  The pleasures of his body.”
Newly crowned Emperor Dianese needs the power of the lascivious demon Rodukjo to solidify his authority.  The mighty demon asks for a dear price in exchange for his aid, one Dianese has no choice but to accept.  
The emperor expects a life of suffering at the hands of the demon, but as their partnership evolves something more profound develops.

• A FULL-LENGTH novel presented in its entirety–not a series.
• Intense erotica with elements of bdsm.
• A fantasy realm more typical of anime than fairy tales.
• The well earned HEA comes after numerous twists and turns!
• The author’s longest and most satisfying work to date.
• Fans of Yamila Abraham’s Vanquished Series will love this book!

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Exerpt~

Emperor Dianese exited his coach where the road ended in Farravie forest.  He could hear the waterfall, though it was at least a mile off, as well as the trilling of cicadas.  The forest had dense overgrowth that allowed only a few blades of sunlight to crack through.  Dianese filled his lungs with a long draw, then exhaled with a slump of his shoulders.  He hoisted a large leather satchel onto his shoulder.  His attendant, Tessai, lunged for it in protest.

"Let me carry that, Divine Emperor."

"You're not coming with me."

Tessai eyes bulged.  Though a sword cut had rendered him too lame for battle, he was still dense with muscle.  His shoulders were broad enough to easily handle the bundle.  On Dianese's delicate frame it looked as though he were an ant carrying twice his body weight.

"Divine Emperor, you shouldn't go alone.  There could be assassins."

Dianese ignored him to make his way through thickets that threatened to destroy the fine silk fabric of his robes.

Tessai stayed planted beside the coach behind him, as he would never disobey a command, yet still cried out to the young emperor.

"Divine Emperor!  Why will you not let me help you?"

Dianese turned to meet his servant's eyes.  "I must do this alone.  If I don't return in two hours time, you may come to look for me.  But if you come sooner than that, Tessai, I will demand your suicide."

Tessai's eyes bulged once again.  "My Lord..."

Dianese gave a gentle smile to ease the sting of his threat.  "I'll be fine, Tessai."  He continued on until his servant was no longer in earshot.

His silk curl-toed shoes with ivory soles had no traction on wet leaves.  Dianese had to scramble on hands and knees to get over even the shallowest gully.  His burden made it feel as though a fire had been lit between his shoulder blades.  Then he grew aware of his labored breathing, and how his sweat caused some of his feathery tresses of blue hair to stick to his forehead. 

A toppled great oak offered a tempting place for him to rest in a clearing.  Dianese didn't have to check his pocket watch to know he was already taking far too much time to reach the waterfall.  If he rested then he risked coming back after dark.  Even if he could find his way back to the road, their coach would likely fall prey to blockades on the way back to the city.  He thought it fine to pay a few unscrupulous tolls, but Tessai would rather coat himself in their blood than suffer such disgrace.  If one got the better of his attendant, then what would Dianese do?  He could never make it back to the castle without a guardian.  Even his mile-long trek with a bundle of bones was proving a greater challenge than he'd imagined.

The air became electrified with the cleansing aura a massive waterfall produced.  Dianese came around two ancient trees broader than houses, and then spied the clearing.  A roaring waterfall poured into a misty crater that led to the underworld.  The spraying water had drowned any grass growing near the hole, leaving a bare circle of sodden peat. 

Dianese ventured as near to the crater as he dared and let the bundle drop from his aching shoulders.  He dropped as well, getting muck on the shimmering silk of his green dressing gown.  For a while he could do nothing but gasp and wait for his pain to abate.  Then he settled back on his bottom to behold the glistening water as it disappeared into the abyss. 

He had to look wretched.  He'd dressed for a royal ceremony, the kind he should have been carried to in a pristine litter so that his dainty feet never touched the ground.  This was to give a good impression to the demon.  He wanted to be sure he knew the highest manner of noble was summoning him.  Lack of experience had caused him not to anticipate the rigors of his journey. 

Dianese wished to wash his face, since his powder had certainly been ruined by sweat, but he dared not get near enough to the crater to scoop some falling water into his hands.  He instead drew out a handkerchief and wiped his face clean.  This renewed his confidence.  Even without make-up he knew his face was incomparably beautiful.

He forced himself to his feet to dump out the bones: a gozz-hound's tooth, the leg bone of a giant tortoise, the lower jaw of a giant, the finger of a tangador bat, and, wrapped in cloth, the skull of a virgin queen whose eye sockets had been filled with jewels. 

Each relic brought him back to the time and place when his father had obtained them.  Two thousand brave men had died to battle the gozz-hound.  Not a one of them understood what their sacrifice was for, or why they hassled the reclusive beast who was a threat to no one.  Then the tortoise, so beautiful a creature and over 1,000 years old.  None understood why the former emperor Ryuinto had ordered that its species be made extinct.  The giant was simply a man who had grown to gargantuan proportions due to reasons of ill health.  No one claimed he was cursed, as they might have done with someone who was less well-liked.  He had a wife and a large brood of children who all relied on his income as a carnival sideshow act.  He'd committed no crime, yet was still slaughtered at the whim of Ryuinto.  The final relic had to be obtained through war, two hideous years of it.  Fanterah suffered famine and poverty at levels they'd never known before, and a generation of children would now be reared without fathers.  Their enemy had been a valued trading partner who'd never crossed them.  Emperor Ryuinto first killed the king and then his only daughter, who'd become queen at the age of 13 after her father's death.    

Dianese scattered the bones around the perimeter of a circle large enough for him to sit in.  He took his place, and then felt a cold in his middle so profound he hugged his arms close to his body to warm himself. 

Dianese's lower lip trembled.  He swallowed, closed his eyes, and whispered a soft oath.

"You must.  You must.  It's all that matters.  You must, Dianese."  

He gave a deep sigh to still his rioting nerves, then bowed as low as an envoy from a lessor country might bow to him.  His forehead rested on his hands, which rested on the earth.

"Come forth, Rodukjo."  His voice was weak even in his own ears.  He cleared his throat.  "Come forth, Rodukjo.  It is the Divine Emperor Dianese Diancanchi who summons you."  

"I'm here."

Dianese's pulse thundered in his temples.  He'd not only heard the deep voice, but now sensed an encompassing presence mere feet from him.    

He lifted his head slowly.  Seated on folded legs outside his circle of bones was a demon twice the size of his large attendant Tessai.  His flesh, mostly bare, was intricately colored in red and yellow.  Red on the rounds of his massive shoulders, and carving accents over the rippling muscles of his arms.  Yellow on his bare chest and bulging abdominal muscles, though surrounded by red on his flanks.  His face had red markings over yellow skin in an aesthetic manner.  Dianese was at once reminded of the masks used in battle hundreds of years ago.  He now beheld the demon these soldiers sought to imitate to add to their fearsomeness.  While those masks were grotesque, the source was indelibly regal.  His red and yellow face was handsomely boned with a broad masculine chin and enticing full lips.  His eyes, though pure white and without pupils, bespoke both confidence and serenity. 

Dianese felt emboldened by what he sensed in the demon's eyes.  He sat up in full to continue his examination.  Rodukjo had a long mane of thick black hair.  On the top of his scalp were six horns, two of gold in the up-curling shape of a bull's, two in silver, in the shape of a ram's, and two coming from the peaks of his hairline, short and black like onyx.  The demon's feet were bare, revealing toes tipped with sharp black claws.  His hands rested on his lap and were also accented with fearsome black claws.  He wore metal gauntlets on his forearms and similar guards on his calves.  Besides this, his only garment was a skirt of brown leather with tassels of softer leather dangling before it from a braided belt.     

"How pretty you are," Rodukjo said.

Dianese fixed his gaze back on the demon's eyes.  There was now the touch of a smile at the corners of the demon's lips. 

"I thank you," Dianese said, forcing the words past a building lump in his throat.

"Speak, Divine Emperor who has summoned me."  Dianese glimpsed the demon's sharp white teeth as he spoke.  "I'm so eager to hear what you have to say."

Dianese nodded.  "Honorable demon, unimaginable efforts were taken to procure these gifts I've laid about me."

"I have no interest in any of that garbage.  Why would your father kill the last giant tortoise in existence?"

Dianese's heart resumed its thunderous beats.

"And you bring me the skull of a virgin instead of the virgin herself?  That sickens me."

"I don't understand."  He gazed at the hard-fought treasures about him.  "My father was convinced these items had merit for you."

"The fool probably spoke to a witch who sent him on an impossible quest rather than admit her ignorance."

Dianese's stomach squeezed.  He recalled the conversation about a witch his father had consulted shortly before adopting him.

"I beg you to forgive my ignorance, honorable demon."

"Call me Rodukjo."

Dianese bowed his head in consent.  "There's more on offer than these regrettable items, Rodukjo.  We purchased twenty of the finest courtesans from nineteen brothels in seven regions."

"I most recently aided a warlord who granted me sixty courtesans."

Dianese believed the ground was spinning.  He realized it was only an illusion caused by the churning waterfall in his peripheral vision--as well as his collapsing situation.

"I could provide you with a hundred."

Rodukjo smirked.  "Ah.  But then they would not be the finest."

Dianese mouth was growing dry.  He sealed his lips and tried to draw up some spittle.

"Never mind the courtesans, sweet emperor.  Twenty, sixty, or a hundred--it matters not.  My appetites could be sated with but a single bride.  It's your kind who deems me a glutton."

Dianese's voice lowered to scarcely above a whisper.  "Forgive me for my ignorance once again."

"You're more ignorant than you know.  I desire no courtesans.  If I were to grant you aid it would be for you, Dianese.  You, personally, grant me compelling enough a reason."

"Tell me what you wish, Rodukjo."

"I have told you."

Dianese lowered his gaze.  "Then I don't understand."

"First I'll take your body."

Dianese looked back at him.

"I've been a glutton on these courtesans, as I said.  My palate can endure no more rich desserts.  I desire the finer meat of a half-fey emperor."

Dianese felt a terrifying pang within him, as though frozen metal were pressed against his tender abdomen.  "How did you know that I'm--"

"Next I'll take your authority.  You must accept me as your master.  Oh, you may continue to perform your duties as emperor.  I care little for mortal minutia.  However, you'll truly be no more than a viceroy henceforth.  My will shall supercede yours, particularly on matters of war.  When I choose to rule you shall be as my puppet and carry out my wishes over your domain."

Dianese's lips were parted.  He shook his head slowly.  "You've asked for two things I can't possibly grant you."

Rodukjo laughed softly and without malice.  "My sweet emperor, you have no choice."

Dianese kept his gaze fixed on him.  Fear had evolved into cunning, as it always did when he felt cornered.  He remained calm and listened.

"I've no need to threaten you.  You already knew the only two possible outcomes for a meeting with Rodukjo."

"You either help the summoner," Dianese said, "or kill them."

Rodukjo nodded.  "But the threat of death is not why you will come to accept my terms."

"Tell me."

"It's because...you must.  You must.  It's all that matters.  You must, Dianese."

A chill dripped down his spine at hearing his words parroted.

"You're desperate.  I'm your only hope.  You've already conceded to my wishes in your mind as you sit there.  You're inwardly celebrating that I've agreed to help you--regardless of my terms."

Dianese considered while staying fixed on the demon's white eyes. 

"I have conceded.  But I'm not celebrating."

Rodukjo smiled.  The sharp-toothed grin portended no cruelty.  The demon was merely pleased.

"Shall we go, then?" Rodukjo said.  "Your attendant grows mad with worry."

"Would you humor me a moment longer?"

"Of course.  For the rest of your mortal life, I shall."

"How did you know that it was my father who gathered your gifts?  How did you know of my desperation?  And...how did you know of my half-fey blood?"

Rodukjo laughed through his nostrils.  "Which of those three questions is the most pressing to you?"

"My blood.  How did you know?"

"I knew it was that."  He braced himself with an arm and rose to his feet.  "I'm going to fuck you and take you as my slave."

Dianese cringed both within and without.  The demon was too blunt for him to stifle it.

"Yet what troubles you most from our meeting is that I know who your mother is."

Now Dianese crumpled forward and buried his face in his hands.  "You know...as much as that?  Who was she?  I beg you to tell me."  He began to weep against his will.  His reaction repulsed him.  The demon already had control over him to cause such emotion. 

"Wipe your tears and rise, sweet emperor.  I'll answer you in your coach."

Dianese lifted his red-rimmed eyes.

"Dark approaches fast in these months after harvest.  Your domain belongs to me now, and I should like to survey it in the daylight."  He offered Dianese his clawed hand.  "I should also like to hold you on my lap as we ride.  I wish to fathom your delicate form enshrouded in your silk layers.  The look of you is like a bird, lighter than one would expect, fragile and easily crushed.  I've not held anything truly delicate in centuries."

The speech granted Dianese time to collect himself.  He wiped his tears on his sleeve and accepted Rodukjo's hand.  The strong demon lifted him with little effort.

"Before I bring you to my home...no one can know of my heritage."

Rodukjo's smile returned.  "Have no fear."

"Nor of our terms."

"We'll discuss that further."

"Nor that I shed tears just now."

Rodukjo bellowed with a laugh.  "You're troubled by such foolish things!"

Dianese scowled.  "You are not familiar with my plight."

Rodukjo pulled Dianese against him.  He closed both thick arms around him so that the small man was pressed against his body.  Dianese kept fixed on his eyes with determination.

"I am familiar."  Rodukjo moved his lips very close to Dianese's face.  "I know who your mother was.  I know who your father was before Emperor Ryuinto adopted you."

The determination drained from Dianese's face.  His lips parted.  "Then...you know everything."

"Everything you wish to hide."  He brought a large hand up to stroke the blue tresses of Dianese's hair.  "Indeed, my sweet emperor."

Dianese swallowed.  He looked back into Rodukjo's eyes.  "It's good that you know...if we're to be allies from here on.  There should be no subterfuge between us."

Rodukjo smiled with one side of his mouth.  "Yes.  Save your cunning for the rest of your court.  You can't deceive me.  I know the roots of your soul."

Dianese nodded after a moment's hesitation.  "Then you must know that I wish for you to release me now."

Rodukjo's smile grew tender.  He wove his fingers through the long strands of Dianese's hair.  "I know that very well, sweet emperor.  It's just that I don't care."  He forced their lips together.

Dianese made a nasal scream.  He bashed both clenched fists against the demon while wrenching his body to struggle free.  Rodukjo pulled back and dropped him.  The emperor tumbled to the ground.  He remained where he fell, panting while glaring up at Rodukjo.

The demon's white eyes were wide.  "What do you think you're doing?"

"What do you think you're doing?"

"We have an agreement."

Dianese climbed up on shaking legs.  "And this is how I intend to serve that portion of our agreement.  By resisting with every fiber of strength I can muster."  He dusted his robes with furious swipes.

"I--I can overpower you easily."

Dianese turned his back to him.  "I'm aware.  I'll still resist."

Rodukjo's voice lowered.  "We are meant to be allies, Dianese.  An ally is what you need."

Dianese crossed his arms.

Rodukjo grunted through his nostrils.  "This won't do.  And I've no wish to kill you now, despite you violating our terms." 

Dianese turned back to face him.  For several moments the demon looked him up and down.  A stitch formed between his dark brows. 

"Perhaps I could take the time to court you in some manner--and then seduce you gently.  Will you cease your resistance then?"

"What you suggest is despicable."

Rodukjo flared his sharp teeth.  "There can be no alliance between us if I have to rape you!  You must yield on this.  I don't owe you any compromise.  You're my possession now."

"I don't wish for there to be strife between us any more than you do.  I've enough strife to contend with.  But...what you seek, that was never meant to be our bargain."

Rodukjo's white eyes narrowed.  "The deal is already done."   

Dianese drew a breath and then shuddered as he exhaled.  He uncrossed his arms and bowed his head.  "I will compromise."

Rodukjo's one-sided smile returned.  He strode ahead of Dianese to lead him back to the road.  Once he'd passed, Dianese allowed his own sly smile to form.

"You needn't act like it's a death knell," Rodukjo said.  "I'm the greatest thing to ever happen to you, and you're getting almost all the benefit from our arrangement.  You should admit that this is the beginning of a magnificent partnership."

"I admit that without reservation."   

He paused at the bones before following.  So much time wasted, so many sacrifices, so many lives lost--and now it was just litter on a forest floor.  Dianese shook his head and sneered.  What a fool his father had been.

***

Tessai placed his hand on the hilt of his broadsword when the demon broke through the woods ahead of Dianese.  Rodukjo looked the large man over with a placid expression.

"Hold, Tessai."  Dianese emerged, once again winded from his journey.  He maneuvered himself between his demon and attendant.  "This is the great demon Rodukjo, Master of Ten Thousand Armies."

Tessai gasped with his mouth opened wide enough for his uvula to show.

"He has graciously joined our cause.  Grant to him as much respect and consideration as you would me."

Tessai dropped to the dirt at the demon's feet.  He bowed as low as Dianese had when first greeting him.

"Lord Demon, I am without words."

"Oh, you have words."  Rodukjo smiled down at him.  "Let me hear them."

Tessai's large form quivered.  "For...for ten years my former master sought your tributes.  He had me lead my men in so many directions...chase so many phantoms.  No sacrifice could be too great to one day summon you.  Once we had you...we would be invincible.  Now that day has come.  If only...if only Emperor Ryuinto were alive to see this."

"If it were Ryuinto who'd summoned me I would have killed him."

Tessai lifted his head.

"You were a commander of soldiers once.  How is it you're now the handmaiden of the Emperor?"

Dianese's brow rose.

Tessai's face grew marred with pain.  "During the war with Yowscot--I was wounded.  I could manage the rigors of the battlefield no longer."

"He's still a most able servant to me."  Dianese exchanged a glance with Rodukjo.  "I needed a guardian as well as an attendant."

"Of course you did, sweet emperor.  You can not even lift the sword your man carries so easily on his lame hip."

Dianese heard Tessai gulp.

"Yowscot was the land of the virgin queen, was it not?"

"Yes, Lord Demon."

"We still suffer the consequences from my father's insane quest," Dianese said.

Rodukjo looked down at Tessai.  "How would you feel to know that I desired no such thing as wretched as a young woman's skull?"

Tessai sat back on his haunches.  Tears streaked his reddened face.  "It...it was all for nothing?"

"No, there was merit in the war games, the battle training.  No simulation of war could serve your soldiers better than actually going to battle.  But your former emperor was a deranged lunatic.  He should have measured the cost of his folly and sought to win my aid by other means."

Tessai closed his eyes, allowing more tears to fall.  His voice was now hoarse with emotion.  "He had us convinced that nothing short of the ultimate sacrifice would do."

"You are not to blame for that.  Be glad that your master replaced him before I was summoned or it truly would have been for nothing.  I would never serve one so despicable as your former lord Ryuinto."

Tessai nodded slowly with fierceness in his eyes.  "Lord Dianese is the more worthy emperor."

Rodukjo fit inside the coach despite his horns cutting the satin fabric of the ceiling.  Dianese accepted Tessai's help to climb in since his limbs had scarcely any trace of strength left.  The door of the cab was closed and they were lightly jostled as Tessai climbed onto his seat outside to steer the giant stag that pulled them.

Dianese sat across from Rodukjo.  He was unsure of whether to be angry at the demon.  His expression and voice was neutral.

"Why did you discourage Tessai like that?  He nearly lost his leg and his life in the war.  When he saw you he thought he'd finally had validation for the sacrifices he'd made in order to obtain your tributes.  Now you've told him it was all a waste.  You may have destroyed him."

"Did you hear his words, sweet emperor?"

Dianese kept an unblinking stare focused on him.

"When he said, 'Lord Dianese is the more worthy emperor.'  He was telling this to himself.  It was the first time he'd come to realize that.  Tessai was only loyal to you because you were the son of his cherished Emperor Ryuinto.  Today, in that moment, he has finally shifted his devotion to you in earnest.  This is what you need from your closest attendant.  I could not proceed with him in our inner circle until he made that leap."

Dianese touched his chin in consideration.  Then he bowed his head one time to the demon.  "You are more insightful than me...something I thought impossible.  I won't question your judgment again."

Rodukjo smiled.  "Wonderful, my sweet emperor."

"But will you expose my father's folly to the rest of our soldiers?  I fear the discouragement this will cause them.  Morale will plummet--don't you agree?"

Rodukjo leaned back into the satin cushions.  "Have no fear.  There's no need to tell them.  They will become loyal to you when they see my own fealty.  When they know there's no way they can have use of my armies without Divine Emperor Dianese leading them, then they will bow to you with the greatest devotion."  He smiled gently.  "You'll still need to make amends for your father, without exposing his folly.  Let your troops discover what a fool he was slowly and for themselves.  This will be long after they've come to appreciate your rule.  They'll realize they've lost nothing, for they have a far better lord to serve."

Dianese smiled back at him.  "Your wisdom humbles me."

Rodukjo patted a spot on his lap.

Dianese lowered his eyes.  "I'll come into your arms, if that's what you truly wish, but I'm caked with filth and sweat.  You shall find me most unpleasant right now."

"The sweat was clean as it poured from your freshly bathed flesh.  The dirt was clean as it soiled your perfumed garments.  You're not unpleasant at all.  This is a chance for me to absorb the true essence of you.  I find it erotic."

Dianese's face grew paler.  Rodukjo merely smiled.

"If you do more than hold me I will scream for Tessai.  You'll be forced to kill him--and he's valuable to us."

Rodukjo reached out and took Dianese's finely boned hand.  "I wouldn't fuck you here, my sweet emperor.  Such a thing shall happen on a bed, and at that time you shall relinquish yourself to me like a dutiful bride on her wedding night."

Dianese stood in the rocking coach since he was small enough to do so.  He let Rodukjo help him onto his lap.  The demon cradled him in his large arms as though they were lovers.  Dianese's aching limbs and shoulders strained with tension.  The demon soothed his hair.

"Relax."

"This is most distasteful for me."

"Struggle past your distaste in order to please me.  Am I not entitled to that?  Breathe deeply until your muscles grow slack, then cuddle your body against me.  Amend your heart to pleasing me, even with so small an offering."

"This isn't small to me."

"But it should be, for it's merely an embrace.  It's but one step on a mile long journey."

Dianese closed his eyes and his chest swelled with a deep breath.  He exhaled slowly, allowing his shoulders to slacken as he did.  Then, with his eyes still closed, he rested his cheek against the demon's massive chest.

Rodukjo caressed his throat with one clawed finger.  "How sweet you are."

"I value you--and our partnership."

"Indeed.  And you think I'm not aware of your manipulation."

Dianese's eyes opened.

"You would take all that you can from me and give nothing in return.  You're already aware of how your charm will grant you everything you wish from me."

Dianese waited.  He did not yet feel the anxiety the discovery may have warranted.

"You think I can't seduce you--that you're entirely in control.  In truth you're just enriching my challenge.  I'm exhilarated.  I've never sparred with so worthy a partner.  Taking you without resistance shall be one of the most glorious triumphs of my existence.  Not just the first time you yield, but each time I bed you.  You're a treasure I'll savor precisely because you're nearly as cunning as I am."

Dianese thought for a moment in the silence that followed. 

"Alright.  I accept that I can't manipulate you unless you abide my manipulation.  I will speak to you as plainly as I'm capable.  I could never give my body to you without reservation because you are a monster whose endowment will tear me in two."

Please support Yaoimila by purchasing the full 133 page novel!  Just click your country to buy this now!  Kindle USA, Kindle UK, Kindle Germany, Kindle Australia, Kindle Canada, Kindle France, Kindle Brazil, Kindle Italy, Kindle Japan, Kindle Spain, Kindle Mexico, Kindle Netherlands, or Kindle India. Everywhere Else: grab it in ANY format from Smashwords.   Coming soon for Barnes & Nobles, iTunes, Kobo, Scribd, and Google Play—just search for it!

Alien's Bride Meredith

Alien’s Bride: Meredith

A new Alien’s Bride Novella by Yaoimila!!
Meredith isn’t going to betray her people–no matter how compelling her alien conqueror is.  
Meredith and the rest of the settlers on Jupiter’s moon hid from Earth’s alien tyrants for years, but now they’ve been discovered.  A few escape on a ship, but the rest are captured and made the property of the Dak-Hiliah Empire.
Commander Jaximor is in charge of enslaving the settlers and harvesting brides from their ranks to aid his depleted population.  It becomes clear that several of the colonists are missing.  While his mother ship takes the rest away, he stays behind to track down the escapees.  He knows Meredith is a navigation expert who likely helped her fellow settlers to get away.  Jaximor demands Meredith help him find the missing settlers.
He’s also decided he’ll take the feisty woman as his bride.
As Meredith gets to know Jaximor, some deviant behavior gives her pause.  There was a reason this commander was assigned to wear her down.  Jaximor has an unusual skill set that can be applied to both a lover and an adversary.
Alien’s Bride: Meredith is a thrilling erotic novella 21,300 words long.  It’s followed by a listing of the other books in the Alien’s Bride universe and a riveting introduction to another erotic sci-fi romance novel.
Grab this now!!  You can read this on your COMPUTER or KINDLE.  You can read this on ANY COMPUTER, PC or MAC, now or IN THE FUTURE FOREVER!  You can never lose this once you buy it!  You can always access your Kindle books by just logging into Amazon! Even if you go to borrow a computer at the library–YOU WILL BE ABLE TO READ THIS! 

Please support us by purchasing this sexy novella!  Just click your country to read it immediately!  Kindle USA, Kindle UK, Kindle Germany, Kindle Australia, Kindle Canada, Kindle France, Kindle Italy, Kindle Spain, Kindle Mexico, Kindle India, Kindle Brazil, Kindle Japan,  or Kindle Netherlands.  Everywhere Else: grab it in ANY format from Smashwords.   Coming soon for Barnes & Nobles, iTunes, Kobo, Scribd, and Google Play—just search for it!

Excerpt:
Meredith held her microphone with both tremulous hands from where she sat in the control tower.  Before her console was a floor-to-ceiling window where she could watch the massive Dak-Hiliah warship attempting to land.
“Smitty, are you on?” she said with more than a touch of urgency. “We need to move all the green cars completely out of the landing area.  The aft of their ship is not going to clear.”
“Got it!”  Smitty’s voice came through her speakers.  "Can you tell them to hover?  We won’t have enough time.“
Are you kidding me? Even if there wasn’t the language difference she had no idea how to initiate communication with their conquerors.
Another glance out her window made her chew her lower lip.  Half their cars were going to be crushed by their enemy’s warship.  For all she knew the colony still needed them.
Meredith opened all channels by pushing up the switches with both hands. "This is Europa Space Station calling the Dak-Hiliah vessel.  Can anyone there hear me?”
Two harrowing minutes passed without an answer.  The massive angular ship, which was so black it looked like a portal into the abyss, was starting to block her view of the landing area. Meredith now tore at her cuticles. Smitty was still directly under the aft trying to drive out their cars.
Screw the cars…he’s going to end up being crushed!
Though…from what she’d heard, the Dak-Hiliah were going to castrate and enslave all their men anyway.  Was a quick death really such a bad thing?
Meredith squared her jaw.  No. Get that bullshit out of your head. They didn’t know anything yet.  This wasn’t the time to get suicidal.
“This is Alyona from the Dak-Hiliah ship.”
Meredith’s eyes grew wide.  It was a female voice…not just a female–an Earthling!
“I’m one of their wives,” Alyona continued. “I’ll have to translate for you. None of the soldiers speak English.”
Soldiers?  So it really was a warship?  Why? Were they expecting us to fight? Meredith’s heart started racing even faster than before.
“Alyona,” she said, while drawing up a few faint scraps of fortitude.  "Can you ask them to come in slower?  We’re still clearing the landing area.“
Silence followed once again, but after only a few moments Meredith could tell the ship was no longer descending.  She puffed out a deep breath.
"We’re going to hover until you tell us we’re clear,” Alyona said.
“Confirmed,” Meredith said at once.  "Thank you.“  That was a good sign, right?
"What is your name and rank?” Alyona said.
The question made her face hot.  Should she lie?  Would she be punished for her involvement in hiding their colony from them?
No.  You’re a woman.  They need women.  The implications of that thought made her stomach tighten.
Meredith cleared her throat.  "I’m Meredith Evans.  I don’t have a rank.  I’m a just a traffic controller.“
"Meredith, they want to know if any of your people left on your ships.”
The heat in her face increased.  Damn it.  Why did she have to be their point of contact?  Riley should have been up here or Song-Yu.  She chewed her bottom lip some more and looked around her as though there was an answer to be found in the small control room.
“Okay, Alyona, look–I’m not the best one for you to be talking with.”
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
Meredith gripped her microphone stem with a fist.  "I didn’t say that!  Don’t go telling your masters some load of crap that gets me in trouble!“
"I don’t have a master.  I have a husband.  He wants to know how much lead time the ships that left had, and if there were both men and women on board.  Also, how many of your people took off?”
Meredith’s jaw clenched.  But you’re an Earthling too!  Lousy traitor scum!  Tears began to build behind her eyes.
“We’re clear!” Smitty said through her speaker.
This perked her up.  "You’re clear to land now.“
"Yes, fine,” Alyona said.
Meredith closed all the channels.  She rolled back her chair with her heart thumping in her chest.  Before her the alien’s ship landed with a thud that shook the ground.  Meredith let a few tears fall.
Smitty came up the stairs to look out the tower beside her.  The rail-thin senior took off his cap and wiped his brow on it.
“Son of a deuce.”  He shook his head slowly.  Then he glanced at her.  "They had to hear that underground.  Hope they ain’t panicking.“
Meredith stared before her blankly.  "We knew they were coming.”
“Guess our reckoning’s finally here.  It was a good ride though.”
Meredith raised a brow at him.  They’d had nothing but mushroom broth to eat for the last seven days. She had some spare pounds to carry her, but Smitty looked emaciated.
“They’re already asking about the Shanghai,” Meredith said.
Smitty wet his chapped lips.  "You made contact?  How’d they know it was gone?“
"They don’t.  Not for sure anyway.”  She unfolded her arms so she could gesture as she spoke.  "They just see this space port and all those ships parked around it and figure there’s probably one or two missing.“
Smitty grimaced while he considered.  "Well, we’ll see how it all goes down.”
Noise on the landing strip made him dart his head to look.  Meredith stood.  
One side of the black ship unfurled to open a large hatch.  Meredith stared at it without breathing for half a minute. Then a squadron of robots rolled out on tank treads.  They were boxy and simplistic, with glowing yellow cylinders for heads.  A hundred moved out of the ship onto the landing area.
Smitty scowled.  "I remember those damned things.“
Meredith eyed him.  Her only memories from Earth’s war were what she’d seen on the news.  Maybe that was why that Alyona woman was so cold to her. Did she know Meredith had escaped the war, the Instajant Invasion, and had never been in a Dak-Hiliah slave camp?
"Here they come,” Smitty said.
Meredith looked back down.  Five blue-skinned aliens marched behind the robots, all male.  Each was taller than any of their men by a good half-foot. They wore thight black bodysuits with chiseled silver armor attached, while brandishing guns that looked like small bazookas.  Meredith could see they were densely muscled.
Super soldiers.  That’s how they’d been described to her in the past.
The aliens stepped onto the landing area and huddled to discuss things. Meredith wished she had binoculars. She wanted to see what they looked like in detail.  Hopefully they weren’t too foul up close, because her best-case scenario was to be forced to marry one of them.  They’d conquered Earth to get brides.  If she was lucky that would be their same agenda here on Jupiter’s moon.  At least then she’d survive.  She tried not to worry about the men–Smitty, Riley, and the others.  She’d done all she could for them.
Their time was up.
Meredith wiped a new tear away with the back of her hand.
“Looks like they’re coming up here,” Smitty said.
She swallowed down a lump.  Two of the aliens were striding for her tower.  The other three were leading the robots to the elevator bays that went down to the colony.
Meredith looked at Smitty.  "What do we do?“
He shrugged.  "Nothing.  They’re in charge now.  Maybe they’re going to kill me, or maybe they’re going to cut off my nads and work me to death.  Guess I’ll find out here in a minute.”
His voice cracked with emotion on the last word, causing Meredith a heart-wrenching pang in her middle.
The aliens’ footsteps were thudding up the stairwell behind them.
“Fighting them won’t do no good so don’t even try,” Smitty said. “We’ve surrendered.  That’s all there is to it.”
Meredith nodded.  Smitty stood and she moved beside him to face the entrance.
The alien who entered first had curled horns on his head.  (Meredith had forgotten they had horns.)  His skin was a clear blue nearing turquoise with pink markings.  He had a somewhat chubby face beneath short shiny black hair that was parted in the middle. Most of his bulk was muscle, but there was a protrusion of belly.
He walked in with his gun pointed toward them.  Meredith and Smitty raised their hands.  The alien grunted at the gesture.  He turned his gun to the side.
“Cre-ahchra deel,” he said over his shoulder.
A slightly taller alien who had extra horns growing from his shoulders entered behind him.  Meredith’s lips parted.  The first one wasn’t entirely ugly, but this second one–he was gorgeous.  He looked a little older than her if she went by Earth years, 35 or so.  He had long white hair with tresses of silver.  Some of this spilled over his forehead in a sultry way.  His face was lean and aristocratic.  He had the super soldier body she’d fathomed from the distance, but this was lean also.  He was more athlete than body-builder.
Geez.  Can I marry this one?
The alien locked fierce blue eyes on her.  His face was eerily cold.  He let his gun hang on the strap going over his shoulder and pointed to himself.
“Jaximor.”
Now he pointed at her.
Meredith pursed her lips.  His icy demeanor kept her heart rate up.  She touched her finger to her chest with resignation.
“Meredith.”
Jaximor said a few words in his language to the other one and turned to go. The black-haired alien grabbed her arm. Meredith sent a forlorn look to Smitty as he carted her away.
“Bye, Smitty.  Stay strong.”
Smitty didn’t look at her.  His face had grown flush with emotion.  "You take care of yourself, Meredith.“
She was brought out of the tower to the landing area.  The alien held her arm too tight.  She did her best to keep up with him, but got yanked every five steps or so.  Meredith glowered at him as they went.  What the Hell is your problem?
He must have been angry at her, despite what seemed to be a neutral, somewhat bored expression.  She wondered if the aliens took the existence of their colony personally.  They’d managed to hide for seven long years. Maybe that hurt their conqueror’s pride?
She had no doubt they’d still be hidden if they hadn’t sent out the help beacon. Even that had been a tough decision. Should they starve, or should they surrender?  Without any allies willing to defy the Dak-Hiliah by sending them food, and with barely enough fuel to make it to the nearest causeway, there wasn’t a third option. This was their only chance now.
The handsome alien was met by a younger brown-haired one and followed him to an elevator bay.  The second alien parted from them to bring Meredith onto the ship.  They passed through a massive bay that held hundreds more of the tank robots.  All the walls were black, like cast iron, and had wires and circuitry exposed.  Steam puffed out of random pipes near the high ceiling.  It struck Meredith as archaic and forbidding.  When they exited the bay she entered a corridor as large as a train tunnel. The area was well-lit, though still clad in rough black walls.
The alien pulled her onto a sidewalk that moved so fast Meredith stumbled against him.  Her flailing body didn’t even nudge him.  The alien made no attempt to help her–he didn’t even look at her.  She righted herself with new tears welling.
Things were happening too fast.  She was overwhelmed, and this asshole was making her lose all hope for her future.
He stepped off the sidewalk while yanking her along.  This time she fell outright.  The alien kept dragging her.  She had to scramble back to her feet using his grip on her to lift herself.
A door slid open in front of them.  The room inside had white walls, massive equipment with delicate looking tools, and two slender bug-eyed androids with glistening red chassis. She gaped in confusion until her eyes fixed on an operating table.
Oh shit.
The alien shoved her toward one of the androids.  He said a few things to them in his indecipherable language. Meredith shot him back a plaintive look.
"What are you…what are you going to–”
The android stabbed her neck with something.  Then the floor started rising toward her face.
***
Meredith squinted against a bright light in her face.  She heard weird electronic voices, and the hard cold surface beneath her was not her bed in the colony.  Her brain was not able to put these clues to any use.
She sat up and her grogginess cleared.  She was on that operating table.  No.  Worse than that.  She was on the aliens’ ship.  Meredith’s heart started to race.  The two androids were standing a short distance away with their backs to her.
What the Hell did they do to me?
She looked over her body.  Her sweater, tee shirt, and bloomers had been replaced by a weird black dress.  Its collar buttoned directly below her chin, the sleeves were long, and the flowing skirt looked like it would go to her ankles.
“Oh my God.”
The androids looked back at her.  She didn’t pay attention as they walked near.  The spit had gone cold in her mouth.  She focused for any aches that would tell her where they’d cut into her.
“You should now understand what I’m saying,” an android said.
Meredith looked at its bug-eyes with anguish and disgust.  "What the Hell did you do to me?“
"Speak in the Dak-Hiliah language.  Do you understand what I’m saying?”
The words finally registered.  Not just their meaning, but the actual words.  It was speaking in the Dak-Hiliah language–not English.
Meredith blinked a few times.  "Yes I…I understand you.“
"Speak in the Dak-Hiliah language.”
She swallowed.  "I understand you,“ she said in Dak-Hiliah.  The complicated words rolled off her tongue as though she’d spoken them all her life.  She was more than dumbfounded.  She couldn’t begin to comprehend a society that was able to do such a thing.
The android turned and stepped away.
"Wait.”  She continued speaking in Dak-Hiliah.  "Is that all you did to me?  This…language surgery?“
The other android turned toward her.  "You have been implanted with several languages you will find necessary in Dak-Hiliah society.  Your reproductive organs were also altered to enable you to breed with Dak-Hiliah males.”
Meredith put her hand on her belly.  "So, on top of brain surgery you messed with my sex organs?“
"Yes.”
They turned their backs to her.
Meredith closed her eyes and drooped forward.  She wasn’t sad or angry.  There was coldness inside her caused by an inability to process what had happened.  Beyond the numbness was a tiny inkling…one that was telling her to get over it.
Okay.  Okay. Tuck it away for now.  You speak their language…that’s huge.  That’s worth any bullshit surgery.  
She drew a long breath.  The feeling of ice inside her middle was slow to dissipate.
The door slid open.  The homelier alien entered and went to her.  Meredith sat with her legs over the side of the table and her arms huddled close to her chest.  The disinterested eyes of the alien were no longer something mysterious.  She scowled at him.
“I’m Pret-Dorno, manservant of Commander Jaximor.”
His eyes were a third of the way closed.  Meredith decided that he was either smug or bored.
“Meredith Evans,” she said.
He tipped his head with a soft grunt.  "You’ve been implanted with our languages so you can communicate with your people on our behalf.  We prefer one of the colonists taking this role rather than Delexor’s wife, Alyona.“
Meredith swallowed.  "Right. Sure.  That’s probably for the best.”
“We will also need your assistance in tracking down the escaped colonists.”
He said this in the same unenthusiastic tone.  Meredith pursed her lips.
“Commander Jaximor will be remaining on Europa to see to this matter with you.  His status in our empire has entitled him to choose a bride from your colony.  Since you will be working with him he’s decided he will take you.”
A crackle of electricity coursed down Meredith’s spine.  Just like that, huh?  Well…at least he’s a hunk.   She wet her lips.
“Understood.”
Pret-Dorno looked away from her.  Meredith now felt sure his expression was one of boredom.
“How do you feel about this?”
Her brow rose.  "How do I feel?“
"About becoming the bride of Commander Jaximor?”
“My feelings don’t really enter into it, do they?  I have no choice.”
“Are you going to give it a chance?”
Meredith blinked a few times.  She loved this question.  "Hell yeah, I’ll give it a chance.“
Pret-Dorno eyed her.  "Is that so?”
“I mean, yeah.  I don’t know what his personality is like, but he’s certainly nice to look at.  If he’s a decent man and treats me right, then hopefully there won’t be any problems.”
Pret-Dorno gave an approving grunt.  He began to pace the open part of the room between her and the watching androids.
“My master is an exceedingly decent man.  That’s why he was assigned to this mission by our general.  He performs his duties with efficiency, but also compassion.  This is how he attained his high rank.  He expresses the ideals the empire is seeking in our new age.”
Meredith placed her bunched hands beneath her chin.  The hope that had been dripping out of her earlier was being replenished.
Pret-Dorno lowered his head.  "However–my master has…foibles.  These are flaws of his character that will be particularly noticeable in his interactions with you.“
Meredith’s brow knit.  "What kind of foibles?”

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The Android's Bride

The Android’s Bride

“When she spoke of her inability to breed with the soldier robot you frowned,” C-Raptin said in his electronic voice.  “Know this:  you can breed with Eisler.  You can—and it will be expected of you to do so.”
Karin’s mouth grew dry.  “How could we possibly…?”
Karin is a dedicated administrator in her once prosperous country of Red Scale.  When their militant neighbors begin a merciless war, Karin and her Governor father contact the isolated country of Lohocke for help.  All they know of this mysterious neighbor is a legend about metal men.
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Karin has been tied to Lohocke in an intricate way since her birth.  She’s ready to accept her destiny at the Alpha Lord’s side—even if he’s not the man she expected.
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Governor Jol-Hassik leaned close to bulbous microphone attached to a communicator station as big as an armoire.

“Hello, hello?”  He glanced back at his two daughters with his bushy silver brows brought together, then refocused on the microphone.  “Can anyone from Lohocke hear me?”  He wet his lips and glanced back again.  His tallest and eldest daughter, Nina, wrung her pale hands together.  Karin, his youngest at 25, merely stared.  Her expression was one of stony determination.

“Your communication is being received.  This is C-Raptin from Lohocke.”

All three started in unison.  The voice that boomed from dual speakers sounded electronic.

Jol-Hassik’s lips trembled.  “Oh, um, this is, um…”

Karin darted forward to claim the microphone.  “This is Red Scale calling.  Our districts are under attack from the Haradan.”

Jol-Hassik began to wring his hands in the same way as his eldest.  Karin stayed focused on the microphone.  Her lips moved as if she had more words to add, but none came out.  This had been her idea: reaching out to their distant neighbors.  She felt responsible.

“Is this Karin Hassik-Ten?”

Karin blinked a few times.  “Yes.  Yes it is.”  The sound of her name gave her an instance of panic, but then she realized they likely monitored their news broadcasts.

“The war between Red Scale and the Haradan is well known to us.  There is no alliance between our lands.”

Karin exchanged a glance with her father.  He reclaimed the microphone.

“This is Governor Jol-Hassik speaking.  We’re asking for help.”  Pain now weighed down his voice.  “The Haradan won’t negotiate for peace.  We just offered them our unconditional surrender but their response was their most violent raid to date.  They aren’t interested in conquering us.  They merely want to pillage our resources.  The mountain reservoirs, the crop terraces, our two refineries.  They—they’re out to survive by making us extinct.  I don’t know what we can do anymore.  They’re killing our soldiers by the hundreds.”  He paused to swallow.  “Now, we don’t have white-coal to spare right now, but next year we could allocate half the mine’s take as payment.  Not just coal.  We’ve grain and timber too—that we could give you right off.  The timber I mean.”

“Lohocke has no need for any of this.”

Jol-Hassik face grew scrunched.  Karin pulled the microphone toward her. 

“What do you need then?  All we’re asking for is a thousand of your metal men to repel the Haradan.  We’d give you anything for that.  We’re desperate—surely there’s something, something that you—“

“We will provide one thousand soldier robots in exchange for you.”

Karin and her father froze in the silence that followed.

“In exchange for what?” Jol-Hassik said.

“In exchange for Karin Hassik-Ten.”

Karin’s stomach felt as if it descended from her.  She scarcely noticed her father’s shaky hands gathering around the microphone.

“What…just what are you saying?  You want my daughter?”

“The exchange shall be made at the western foot of your tallest scale-covered mountain, sunset tomorrow.  Please confirm.”

The electronic voice said everything in rapid high-pitched monotone.  Karin stared agape at the console, as if a demon stood before her. 

“Wait now—what do you want with her?”

“Karin Hassik-Ten will be taken as a bride for Alpha Leader Eisler Durant.”

Nina let out an expansive breath of air and dropped into a wooden seat.  “Thank God—they’re going to help us.”

Karin shot her sister an incredulous glower.

“The exchange shall be made at the western foot of your tallest scale-covered mountain, sunset tomorrow.  Please confirm.”

Jol-Hassik frowned.  “Oh…well, this Eisler fellow, I mean…”

Karin wrenched the microphone from him.  “Yes, yes!  It’s agreed!  Sunset tomorrow!”

“This commitment is irrevocable.”

The line went dead.  A loud humming noise filled the small station until Jol-Hassik pushed down the lever to end the call.  Deep lines formed in jagged tributaries beside his eyes.  He swallowed a lump formidable enough for Karin to hear his gulp.

“Oh, Karin.”

She crossed her arms.  “What choice did we have?”  She intended to show determination.  Heat built in her chest and then pressure behind her eyes.  She drew up one slender hand to wipe away a rebellious tear.

The head of the royal guard (a metal worker who’d been compelled to take the post after the true guard was maimed) peeked his head into the one-room station. 

“If you’re done, governor, we’d best be getting down.  It’s not safe.”

Jol-Hassik lifted his head to sigh.  “He’s right.  Come, girls.” 

He ushered both of them out to the waiting six-wheeled mountain car.  As fate would have it, the station sat on the peak of their tallest mountain, Mother Dragon.  It was the only place high enough where a signal with far neighboring lands could be established.  They began down the winding dirt road.  The mountain car hugged its surface with splayed wheels like some kind of insect.  The wheels bounced, but the cabin was still—a great feat for their engineers back at a time when riding up and down the numerous mountains was a major concern of the country. 

Outside the clear membrane windows were fields of tight red grass, which grew in scale shaped clusters and glistened in the sunlight.  From the distance the mountain truly looked like the body of a glittering red-scaled dragon.

Karin stared, but took in none of this.  She’d drifted to a numb void where the implications of her fate could not reach her.

“Oh, Karin,” said her father again, while wiping his tears on a handkerchief.

“He called them robots,” she said, without emotion.  “I saw that word on the diplomatic files before we rode up here.  I should have called them that instead of metal men.”

Jol-Hassik sighed again.  “That’s what the merchant who went to their land described them to us as.  That’s about all we’ve ever had to go on.  They never did let the diplomat visit.  There was nothing of interest to them in Red Scale.  Nothing, well, until now.”  His voice broke in the last sentence.

Karin deplored having used an improper term.  The new land she was entering would already be prejudiced against her for her ignorance. 

Nina sat leg to leg with her on the cab’s furred bench.  She focused on her cuticles.  “I don’t see what the tragedy is.  She’s got to be getting a better husband than what our wasted land has to offer.”

Once back in the manor house Nina flitted away to make wire calls to her friends.  Karin followed her father into his cluttered office and sat before his desk.

“I never could have expected this.  Oh, Karin.”

She stared without focus to the side of her.  “I expected not to get a connection, for the call to be ignored, or, if we did reach them, to simply be turned down.”

“What shall I do without you?” Jol-Hassik’s voice grew heavy.  “Why couldn’t they have asked for Nina?  Oh, of course, it breaks my heart to lose either of you, but you’re such a help to me.  Particularly in these times.  You’ve such a mind for governance.”

“Your biggest problem is the Haradan.  If these robots get rid of them then you’ll be running things as they were in peace-time again, when I still lived with my birth mother.”

“What glorious times those were.  You could trust your neighbors.”  His chest rose and fell. 

Karin grew contemplative.  “This is the best outcome.  If you have an army, I don’t have to worry about you.  About our country.  This will make everything right.  Isn’t this the best thing I can do for our people?  It would be paying my debt back to you in the greatest way I can.”

He glanced at her solemnly.  “These are good thoughts, Karin.”

A bald soldier, recently promoted to major, knocked on the open door.  They both turned to him.

“It’s all quiet, governor.  The valley watchtower says they went back to Jadellor with their loot.  Probably going to be gorging for a while.”

Jol-Hassik nodded.  “Leave the lightest complement of men at the boundary.  And tell the others…tell them this war shall be over soon.”

Karin had an inclination to lift her head high, but could not.   Instead she chewed her bottom lip and tried to return to the numbness that would keep her from a breakdown. 

“We should…”  She began to speak without a clear idea on what to say.  Her old habit of catching the loose ends her father missed came to fore.  “We should open the rice rations for the three districts that were hit the worst.”

“Oh yes,” Jol-Hassik said.  “We should do that.”

Karin stood.  “I’ll see to it.”

Her father made a sound, as if to protest, but didn’t let his voice rise before she’d left.

Making busy with the task allowed her mind to wander over the many things she had to put in order before she left.  She had the mechanic’s daughter Jaxma stay at her elbow to jot down notes for her.  The most pressing matter, finding a new minister of finance to replace her, was the simplest for her.

“Humbridge Elator should be given my post.  His sister is old enough to take his place goat herding.  Humbridge must put his keen mind to our books.  I know he’ll do just as well as I did.”

“You’re on good terms with him?” Jaxma said.

“Yes, our break-up was amicable.  It just has to be him.  I taught him almost all I know.”  They were at the east side of the manor which looked down into a twisting vine forest.  The foliage was too dense for her to make out any of Humbridge’s goats, but she knew they were there.  “Pity he’s not around.  I could get that settled.” 

Jaxma stared out with her, as though trying to spot him.  The moment’s quiet made her wonder if her skills would be of any use in Lohocke.  Would the ‘Alpha Lord’ share his responsibilities with her?  There was likely a reason they made metal men and not metal women.  It was significant that they felt the male form to be the standard, unlike in Red Mount, where there were as many scarecrows in women’s smocks as men’s trousers.  She feared the Lohocke might regard women as chattel, the way the Haradan did.  They’d certainly claimed her as though she were an item up for barter.

“He’s probably bringing in the herd right now,” Jaxma said.  “It’s getting late.”

Karin squared her chin.  “You’re right.  Let’s keep moving.”

She tried to do her own packing early the next day.  Nina’s girlfriends descended onto her bedroom, with tears and words of encouragement.  She was able to delegate the chore to them.  There were just a few books she had to take with her from the shelf in her father’s office.  Nina emerged to block her path with folded arms.

“Father says I have to help you dress in a bridal smock and do your hair for you.  You don’t need me to do this, do you?”

“Oh, Nina, can’t you?”  She frowned.  “Father asked you to because you’re so good at making your friends look pretty.”

She fumed.  “I need to dress too, you know.  When will I have time to see about myself?”

Karin shrugged past her.  “I don’t know.” 

 Several other matters diverted her.  When dusk colors started to peek up from the mountains she finally met Nina in her dressing room.

“Thank God mom didn’t live to see this,” Karin said.  She sat before her dresser table while Nina wove sparkling pink flowers into her hair.  It was the final touch to a traditional bride costume of flowing layers of cloth. 

“You’re talking about your mom?  The factory worker who died?”  Nina pinned the flowers in the crown of her long auburn tresses with brutal efficiency.

“You know I’m talking about our mom, Nina.” 

“I don’t see why you’re moping.  You’re getting to marry a rich Lohocke.  Our mom would have been thrilled.”

Karin eyed her sister in her mirror.  The pressure of tears had returned to the back of her eyes.  Her sister was without any worries, because, as always, her only concern was for her own prosperity.  The thousand robot soldiers ensured that. 

“You aren’t going to miss me, Nina?”

Her lanky sister rolled her eyes.  “Ugh, don’t try to make me sad when we’re finally getting an end to the war.  You can really be selfish, you know?”

Maybe it’s good that’s she’s incapable of empathy, Karin thought.  Father is destroyed over my fate.  Wouldn’t it be better if he didn’t suffer over it, like Nina?

“You’ll be fine,” Nina said, and Karin knew the mantra would keep her from any further thought about it.

***

Jol-Hassik rode alone with her in the car to the mountain.  He took her hand in his.  “We hardly spent any time together.  You were so busy.”

“I had to make sure everything was settled.”

His lower lip began to quiver.  “I shall miss you so dearly, my child.”

“But I could get to visit, or at least call.”

“Oh, that would be a great comfort to me.”

Karin pursed her lips.  “But, if not, there’s a lot I wanted to say to you.  More than we have time for.”  She drew a letter from the pocket of her multi-layered dress.  “Read this once I’m gone.”

Jol-Hassik cradled it in both hands like a treasure.  She’d written of how grateful she was to be adopted by him and her mother, how he’d made her feel as loved as his own true child, and how grateful she was for the education and opportunities he’d given her.  This was the debt she had spoken of.  The letter went on to describe a few matters he had to see to in her absence, but ended with her assurance that she would thrive in most any situation thanks to his care in raising her. 

She could visualize her father reading it later with tears falling.  If that was the last communication she had with him she hoped he’d take comfort from it.

“Good God, look!”  He pointed through the membrane window beside them.

The clear silhouette of an army of giants was rising into view.  Karin’s stomach tightened.  The robots were behemoths, twice as tall as any man from their cities.  Their heads were shaped like upside-down buckets and had a single yellow glowing band where eyes should have been.  Their chests were thick rectangles adorned with armor that imitated pectorals and abdominals.  Black crescent shoulder plates protruded out on either side with jointed metal tube arms as thick as most men’s thighs.  For hands they had three long gun barrels coming from their wrists.  A boxy pelvis was below the abdomen.  From this came not legs, but a hexagonal metal skirt with tank treads on either side.

Karin’s heart raced.  Her father wept beside her.

“Oh, they kept their word.  They’re honorable people.  And these things…the Haradan will run in terror from them.”

She swallowed while still focused on the hideous army.  Rows of the beasts stretched further than she could see, up a small side mountain and over its blunted peak.

Jol-Hassik clasped her elbow and pointed.  “Look at those ones.”

Grouped in a cluster in front of the army were six smaller red oval-shaped robots who would have matched Karin’s height, except that they hovered a foot above the ground.  Large circular white eyes took up most of the top third of their round forms.  Karin’s brow rose at the sight of them.  Not only were they less intimidating than the robots, the way they bobbed up and down in the air made them endearing.  These were the robots to come to the car when they parked. 

When they exited Nina and her girlfriends were already gathered near the round robots.

“They said no people came,” Nina said.  “Just metal men and—“

“Are you Karin Hassik-Ten?” said an oval robot.  Its voice was electronic, but emotive and decidedly female.

Karin had to clear a lump from her throat before speaking.  “Yes.”  (Her driver was depositing her trunks and suitcases behind her).

A second round robot moved beside the first and spun so her glowing eyes were on her peer.  “Pree-pree-longa.”

“Hmm?” Karin said.

The robot faced her.  “You’re pretty.  We didn’t know what you would look like.  I think the Alpha Lord will be happy.”

“Oh.”

Jol-Hassik stepped forward.  “He’s not here?  Eisler Durant, I mean.”

Nina stamped her foot.  “I told you no people came.”

“No,” a third floating robot said.  “You expected him to come in person?”

He wet his lips.  “Well I—I didn’t know.  I presumed there would be some type of ceremony.

The same robot started to answer but another interrupted.  “You can have a ceremony if you want.  Whatever you feel you need.  But we can’t turn the soldiers over to you until she’s been given to us.”

Karin glanced at the imposing robots.  She noticed one bristling as though growing impatient.  At the same time, four of the red robots extended out banded metal arms with pinchers for hands from hidden compartments.  They used them to gather up her luggage.

“I should go now.”

“Oh, Karin!”  Her father drew her into his arms with a new swell of tears.

Nina looked at the robots agog.  “So that’s it?  There’s no wedding?”

“We couldn’t arrange something like that remotely,” a robot said with a touch of irritation. 

“How are you floating like that, anyway?”  Nina spat out the question with disdain, as though their drifting annoyed her.  When none of the robots answered she grumbled and headed back toward their car. 

Karin reached out for her.  “Nina, give me a hug goodbye.”

“Oh forget it.”  She lifted open the car door.  “Goodbye.”

Her girlfriends gathered around Karin instead.

“Oh, you must try to make contact,” Jol-Hassik said.  “Just let me know you’re well.  I’ll ache until I know it.”

“I’m sure she’ll be able to call you,” a robot said.

Another thumped her with its round body, almost dropping the trunk it held.  “You don’t know that.  Don’t make promises you might not be able to keep.”

Karin blinked a few times while watching them.  They’re just like people.  But the voice that spoke to us in the station sounded so emotionless…

Loud clanking started to the side of them.  They looked to see one of the metal behemoths breaking formation.  He rolled on his treads until he was near Jol-Hassik.

“Are you our commander?” the robot said with an electronic voice loud enough to reverberate in Karin’s chest. 

Jol-Hassik shrank back from it.  “Dear God.”

“Yes,” Karin said.  “For now he is.  Our major will take command once you’re at the boundary.”

“Let’s move out, then,” the robot said.  “There’s a lot of men here wondering what’s in store for them.  They’re getting impatient.  Frankly, so am I.”

Even these ones, Karin thought.  They’re like people in metal bodies.

She gave her father a final hug.  “I’m sure I’ll be fine.  They don’t sound uncivilized.  I’ll send word just as soon as I can.”

He fretted as she pulled from him.

Karin faced the flying robots.  “I’m ready to go.”

“Are you sure?  Don’t riddle-longa.”

Karin made a look of consternation.

“No slang!” another red robot said.  “Keep it basic, remember?”

“Oh right,” the first said.  “Don’t rush, I mean.”

She swallowed and nodded.  “I’m sure.”

The capsule-shaped robot began to grow longer.  Karin’s eyes bulged.  It expanded until a gap began to form in its center, and then further, until a cushioned seat for one was revealed. 

“Climb in, and buckle yourself,” the distorted robot said.  “There’s two buckles that go across you like an X and another that goes across your lap.”

Karin’s mouth went dry.  “Oh.” 

Jol-Hassik and their driver came over to help her.  Karin’s hands trembled as she fastened the buckles.  The robot was still levitating inches from the ground.  She felt as though she were on a boat.

“Alright,” the robot said.  Its voice was all around her.  “So are you ready?  Hold on to the hand rests.  Close your eyes if you have to.”

Karin squeezed her eyes closed.  “Oh God.”  She felt herself rising.

“Take care of yourself, my daughter!  I love you!  I’ll miss you!  Oh, do be careful with her!”

His voice was growing distant.  She opened her eyes to see that he’d become small beneath her.  Nina came out of the car to gape up at her.  The rest of the red oval robots were flying with her things in a scattered group about them.

“Goodbye!” she managed to scream.

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