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 Scion: House of Bardin by Miriam Newman

Dark Castle Lords

Available as ebook, in print and on Kindle: www.thedarkcastlelords.com/ScionHouseofBardin.htm

 

Scion is the story of Caius and Lela, master and slave on the planet Thelona.  Sold into sexual slavery by her own father, Lela is weary and jaded.  Caius, returned to the life of the idle rich after eight exciting years in the Mercenary Corps, seeks only a night’s pleasure.  When he buys Lela on the public square, neither of them expects what happens next.

EXCERPT:

The girl had sixteen years by Danaali’s sun.  That age would be slightly more on some planets, a bit less on others, but by any estimation she had reached the age of flowering.  Her skin was the color of milk from the nonnis she herded for her father, her hair was blue-black and shiny and her eyes were a clear, startling blue offset by coal-black lashes.  Her features were pert, with a slightly uptilted nose, full lips the color of berries and a sweetly rounded chin.  The marble column of her throat led to perfectly formed shoulders and delicate collar bones visible beneath her youthful, supple skin.  Her breasts had ripened.  She was untouched…perfect.  She was worth a fortune.

            “Sixteen latares,” the slave trader said.

            “Twenty.”  Lela’s father had two sons and both needed armament.  “She’s a virgin.”

             “So they all say.  Prove it, if you want your price.”

            Admon gestured to his wife, standing in a dark corner of the elongated hovel that sheltered their family of five.  The thatch leaked, the wattle and daub walls were chinked and drafty for want of time and materials to patch them.  Perhaps, if Lela brought enough, that might be remedied.

Admon glared at the girl’s mother, who had not moved. “Bring oil if you do not want her hurt.”

            The girl stood immobile as her parents and the slaver approached.  It was a test of her mettle, she told herself as she stood, quaking.  She knew it was only the first of the indignities she would suffer so that her brothers might live.  Her mother had told her what to expect.

            The man was quick, at least.  He turned to her father, wiping his hands.  “Eighteen.”

            “Twenty for a virgin.  It’s always twenty.”

            “Times are hard.  Eighteen.”

            “Done.”  Lela’s father sealed her fate.

            Her mother handed the cringing girl a gown, sheltering her while Lela dropped the gray homespun over her head.  A graceless dress, but she had never been so grateful for it, shuddering within its warmth.  Unbidden, she picked up her shoes and stockings from the bench where they had been laid.  She was shaking so hard she could barely put them on, but she knew she must, and quickly.  Money was already changing hands.

            Her mother knew it, too.  Ellendra gently slid two tooled leather ornaments into the girl’s silky hair, securing them with a final pat.  To the men, it looked like a tender parting.

            “One segment only, each time you must,” her mother whispered, pulling Lela close.  “Give them no more slaves.”

            The girl nodded, biting her lip.  Her brothers were elsewhere, shamed by her sacrifice.  She had bidden them farewell the previous night.  There was no point in leave-taking from her father, who had withdrawn his affection years before, knowing that she would be sold.  She looked only into her mother’s seamed and weathered face, stroking her cheek for a last time.

            “Be well, my mother.”

            The slaver shifted from foot to foot and Ellendra glanced at him hopelessly.  “Where will they take her?”

            “Thelona,” he answered.  “It’s a rich planet.  She will have a good life.”  He had said it to a thousand mothers. 

            Admon cleared his throat, addressing his daughter.  “Your name will be honored in this family.”

             Lela picked up the satchel containing her few belongings and walked of her own volition to the slaver.  She could still feel oil between her thighs and the violation of his probing.

            “This family has no honor,” she said.

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