The Free Company

II

There was little traffic, this late at night, and the pair made good speed. The pleasure-house in which she had spent most of her life was located in one of the city's wealthiest districts, close to its preferred clientele. Unlike most other neighborhoods in the city, her home was characterized by expansive gated communities, broad rolling lawns, and more greenery than might have been expected from an urban center.

Well, not her home any more.

There was little to see in the silhouette--no more than suggestive of their form and purpose--that rolled by her window. Aside from those bright patches here and there illuminated by street lamps or the bright halogen lanterns of the occasional watchful House Guard, the entirety of her life bled past her in unformed shadow until even those, too, faded away into a deep flat dark speckled by distant lights.

She didn't know where Stelian was taking her, but she could hazard a guess. He had already driven her out of the city, passing into suburban farmland and scattered Great House countryside holdings; behind her, the bright lights of the city towered over the horizon, fading with every passing mile. Far ahead, the horizon bloomed with yet more lights, the diffuse glow of the enormous port nexus that she knew was there but had never seen with her own eyes. It would probably be at least another hour of driving before they reached it, but already the haze of light was visible. The nexus never sleeps, they said.

She shifted restlessly in her seat and tried to look sidelong at the wolf without him noticing. She thought of him as her captor, though of course he was now her legal owner and there was nothing she could do about that. He hadn't done anything illegal, as far as she knew, or even unsavory--aside from the unpleasant suddenness of his appearance and her departure. She didn't find that comforting, for some reason. He had driven this entire distance so far without speaking a single word, without even looking in her direction. He might as well have been transporting a crate in the passenger seat.

She looked out the window again, at the distant points of light that marked out the country houses. She'd probably never visit one of those again. "Are you going to kill me?"

Stelian snorted. "That's your first question?" For all the long silence that preceded it, he didn't seem to find her sudden question surprising.

"It's... my most pressing one, I suppose. Not much else will matter if you are."

Another snort. Was that his way of showing amusement? She looked back at him to find his eyes still on the road ahead. "If I were going to kill you, I probably wouldn't advise you beforehand." He did look over, then, for just a moment, one brow raised. "That said, no, I'm not going to kill you. Not on purpose."

That was less reassuring than it could have been. "But you might, accidentally."

"Accidents can happen to anyone."

She furrowed her brow and shifted again in her seat, twisting her tail behind her. The close confines of the vehicle were beginning to give it cramps. "That sounds like a threat."

"No. If I were threatening you, you wouldn't have to guess."

Nika looked away again. Hours more of this. And then what? But having spoken, the prospect of further silence weighed on her. Something was better than nothing, she reasoned, as a newly escaped prisoner might prefer privation to recapture. And his voice wasn't bad to listen to, even if it did practically rattle her bones inside her. "What are you going to do with me?"

"I can't tell you that. Not yet."

He wasn't going to make it easy, was he? "Why not?"

"I can't tell you that, either."

Nika exhaled sharply and folded her arms under her breasts. Difficult clients could usually be coaxed into putting their quills down with a few soft words and a well-placed caress, but she did not particularly feel like crooning to the wolf across from her. She wasn't sure if she would be able to, even if she tried. He hadn't shown an ounce of emotion since the moment she laid eyes on him; how was she to embrace that? "Is there anything you can tell me?"

Stelian did not immediately respond; was she to take that as his answer? The silence hung in the air for long enough that her tail began to squirm restlessly before he finally spoke. "I can tell you that I didn't come all this way to terrorize prostitutes, exotic or otherwise. Whatever you're frightened of is probably not going to happen. You're not a disposable asset."

Prostitute. She had never liked that word. It was accurate enough, of course. She worked--had worked--in a pleasure-house. But she provided more than just sex. She provided beauty, companionship, a chance for people to enjoy a little time with something the likes of which they might never encounter otherwise. She was something to be desired and admired and elevated, not some raw dirty common street girl. She was a courtesan. But now? For all she knew, she'd be put to use in a mine, or dissected for science, or something equally awful. At best she would be chained to this brute's bed, though so far she hadn't seen him effect even the mildest attraction to her.

"That's... something, I suppose," she said. "You'd have paid an awful lot just to throw me away." When that elicited no response, she pressed him further. "I know how much. And I know how much it means."

"They teach prostitutes economics?"

Nika hunched her shoulders. "Stupid girls aren't beautiful."

Stelian nodded once, slowly. "No, they're not."

Nika bit her lower lip. Her first impulse was sharp, but instinct and long practice held her tongue. She had already come to think of this giant black wolf as being beyond sentiment of any kind. She'd be surprised to learn that he could even differentiate between beauty and ugliness. But she wasn't sure how far she could push him. And right now might not be the best time to try.

He glanced over again. Though it was for less than a second before he returned his attention to the road, a molten yellow eye met hers. Her stomach clenched. "Go on, spit it out," he said.

"I'm sorry?"

"You were going to say something. Say it."

Her stomach hadn't had the opportunity to relax before it tensed again. "It's... inappropriate."

"That wasn't a request."

Anger bubbled up from within. Was he trying to embarrass her? Give him an excuse to reprimand her, or punish her? She did not spend so many years perfecting the art of tact to be forced to compromise her own thoughts like this. But now he had placed her in the position of speaking her mind or disobeying a direct order. There was really only one thing she could do. "I was going to say that... I would not have expected you to think anything was beautiful." That was almost what she was thinking. Close enough. He wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

"Mm."

She did not know what she was expecting, but that was not it. She waited, in case there was more, in case he would follow up with... something. Anything. He didn't. A minute passed, and she realized he had deflected her from her original probe. She huffed in annoyance. "Why pay so much? And how did you _get_so much?"

"I can't tell you."

"No, of course not."

"I'm confident that you'll find out soon. Were you this impatient with your last owner?"

Nika opened her mouth to respond, but nothing came out. It was a good question. Was she? She would have said no, reflexively, but she recalled the last conversation she'd ever have with Tarek. That could be excused, couldn't it? Things happened so suddenly. She had spent so much of her time before then cultivating an elegant, relaxed, unruffled personality, and it was collapsing around her as she watched.

"Are you blaming me? This isn't a very pleasant experience." It sounded like a poor excuse.

Stelian's prompt snort indicated that he agreed with her private assessment. "There are plenty of people who would like to be in your position right now."

"Being dragged off to who-knows-where in the middle of the night by a stranger she first met six hours ago, not knowing what's going to happen to her?"

"Fed. Clothed. Warm. Healthy. Not being stabbed or shot in an alleyway." Stelian's tone remained as mild as ever, but something about the words cut. It was an accusation. Was she just imagining it? A guilty conscience could conjure all kinds of tricks of the mind. "A few more hours aren't going to kill you. Stop worrying."

"I'll try." It was a response intended to mollify him more than anything. She wasn't sure if she could stop worrying. The best she could do would be to keep her mouth shut. She knew how to do that, at least, when she had to.

"Good."

She turned her attention ahead, where the glow from the nexus was growing brighter along the horizon, and she thought she could make out individual lights throughout it. The minutes ticked away uncomfortably, and no matter how much she shifted in her seat, she couldn't seem to relax. It was only a matter of time before her anxiety boiled over again. "Can you tell me where we're going, at least?"

"The port nexus, first. From there, we'll take a flight to our destination."

"And that is...?" Stelian directed a raised brow at her sidelong, and she sighed. "Of course. I'll find out when I get there. How long will that take?"

"Half an hour to the nexus. Five minutes for boarding. The flight will be approximately two hours. I recommend you get some sleep while aboard."

"Five minutes?"

"They'll be waiting for us. As soon as we arrive, we're taking off."

"They?" The thought suddenly occurred to her that she would like to be able to say something that didn't end in a question mark. The future was a vast empty expanse right now, with nary a landmark in sight.

"I'm not piloting the aircraft by myself," he said. A perfectly reasonable answer while at the same time providing her with no information whatsoever. She ought to have known better than to ask by now. On top of that, she was beginning to reconsider her earlier determination to have conversation at any cost. Silence might well be preferable to a conversation that only leaves her more bewildered than she was to begin with.

For his own part, Stelian seemed perfectly content to drive in silence, though their steady pace down the straight, virtually abandoned road could scarcely have required much focus. She might as well have been escorted by a mannequin, for as much as he moved. Was he thinking about her? About anything? She didn't like it. Petty of her, yes, perhaps, to condemn both his words and his silence, his action and his inaction. But she imagined she might almost feel better if he were more aggressively animated. At least then she could attribute her unease to something concrete.

She watched him for several minutes. Once, he scratched the side of his muzzle; a few minutes later, he glanced out the side window at something that caught his eye. Nothing. She tried looking out her own window for a while, but there was nothing more interesting to see in that direction, either, not in such darkness. It was beginning to weigh on her, and it hadn't even been an hour yet.

"You're like a statue." She had to say something before she went crazy. Assuming she wasn't already.

"Mm."

"Normal people aren't like that."

"No."

That surprised her. At least it was something, agreement rather than some noncommittal grunt. "It's unsettling."

"I know."

"Are you doing it on purpose?"

The wolf shrugged. "I do what I do. How you react is your own responsibility."

Nika twisted in her seat and tightened her arms against her chest. There was no budging him. Against her better judgment, she found herself considering saying something especially outrageous just to see if she could get some sort of response. But she didn't really know him, did she? She wasn't certain what he was capable of, what might set him off. That was part of her unease. She couldn't get any sort of read on him.

"You must be very popular." It was more petulant than she wanted to sound. She didn't like what he was doing to her. What this entire situation was doing to her. She needed space. Rest. Time for her brain to catch up to all of this. And food, too: she suddenly realized that she was ravenously hungry. She hadn't eaten since first meeting the wolf, but in the stress of everything that followed, she hadn't given herself time to notice.

"If popularity were my objective, we wouldn't be having this conversation," Stelian said.

She wanted to reply with something sharp and clever again, but it would be wasted on him. And she wasn't liking where the situation was going, either. Maybe he was right. Maybe she just needed to calm down and have some patience. If she could believe him--and she wasn't yet sure she could--she was at least not in any kind of dire situation, though lacking any kind of information on what was to become of her had a way of exciting the imagination toward unpleasant ends.

She allowed a few more minutes of silence to pass, to clear her mind, before speaking up again. "Can I get something to eat before we leave?" She tried to make the question sound normal, filtering out her sense of helpless frustration and her exasperation with her driver. For her own sake, if not for his.

"There should be some rations on the aircraft."

"Okay." It was the best she could have hoped for. "Thank you," she added after a moment. She wasn't sure whether it was appropriate to thank him for anything at all. It's not as though he was being compassionate. He wasn't going to let his 40-million-royal prize starve to death. But if she was going to be stuck with him, she might as well try to mollify him.

"Mm."

The rest of the drive passed in silence. By this point the port nexus was visible on the horizon, an enormously sprawling complex that was practically a city onto itself. Traffic was starting to pick up, too, and the countryside gradually thickened with criss-crossing roads and scattered buildings: warehouses, professional-looking storefronts, and clusters of buildings that might have been apartments. Airstrips and landing pads surrounded a trio of central towers, monstrously enormous edifices that rose taller than any other building she'd ever seen. The air around them was choked with aircraft of all shapes and sizes.

There was something unreal about seeing it all with her own eyes. The nexus was dense and industrial, built for function first and last, and what little green space remained looked more like an accidental oversight than any attempt to mitigate the raw brutal force of the place. This was not a place where people came to enjoy themselves in their leisure hours. It wasn't a place for her, by nature or nurture. But here she was.

One of the towers, near its peak, hosted what appeared to be an enormous floating barge; it was so large that Nika thought it was part of the tower itself until her shifting perspective brought a network of gantries and cables into view. Spotlights illuminated the walkways and cranes scattered among the nest of scaffolding, but from this distance she couldn't tell if anyone was walking among them.

She leaned forward, hands on the dashboard, to watch the barge loom overhead on their approach. She could barely grasp its size; it must be able to hold thousands of people at once! She was dimly aware of the existence of such things, though they had never had any relevance for her, and she had long since relegated their like to the realm of engineers and laborers. "I don't think I've ever seen anything so big." She was eager for the opportunity to talk about something that wasn't related to her plight.

"That's the GHS-E Indomitable," Stelian said after a single upward glance.

"You can tell? You're familiar with it?" They were almost beneath it, now, coming up as they were to the perimeter of the port nexus proper. A chain-link fence capped with barbed wire intersected the road, stretching off into the distance on either side, and a checkpoint just ahead straddled the only entrance into the compound. A few hundred meters of flat, empty grass separated the border fence from the dense cluster of buildings that rose beneath the shadow of the triple towers and the docked ship.

Stelian brought the truck to a stop in front of the checkpoint and lowered the window. Half a dozen uniformed guards stood or reclined around a blocky building hunched on the side of the road, all of them canines of one sort or another and all of them armed with pistols on their hips. As one of them approached, Stelian fished a folded pack of papers out of his breast pocket and handed it over through the window. Another guard, leaning against the building, watched the proceedings carefully as he cradled a longer weapon in his arms--some sort of rifle. The sight made Nika nervous, but no one else around her seemed to pay it the slightest heed.

The checkpoint guard reviewed the offered papers, then glanced across Stelian at her. He blinked, once, brow wrinkling. Was that suspicion on his face? He excused himself and stepped away, speaking into a shoulder radio as he walked.

"Is there a problem?" Nika asked, voice quiet as if the very act of asking risked drawing more suspicion to her. She glanced out Stelian's window, where the guard was pacing as he read something off. Several pairs of eyes remained fixed on the truck.

"This is normal."

Nika had her doubts. It all looked very dangerous, as if they would be told to get out of the truck any minute now. But true to his word, a couple of minutes later the guard returned and passed Stelian's papers back through the window. "Have a good day, sir," the guard intoned, then rapped twice on the roof of the truck. The barricade blocking their way past the checkpoint lifted, and Stelian drove through.

Nika wasn't relaxed until the guards were well distant in the rear view mirror. "That was very strong security."

Stelian glanced into the mirror himself. "That? No. That's normal. Too light, frankly."

"Do they do that to everyone?"

"Yes. For the most part."

"That seems very... extreme. I don't think I've ever seen so many... armed men just to guard an entrance. This place can't be so unsafe. Not even Tarek had guards like that. No one caused trouble."

Stelian snorted. "No one caused trouble because of the House patrols. Day and night, whether you saw them from your room or not."

"I... suppose." She didn't feel the urge to argue the point. And even if she did, the wolf was not easily argued with, as she had already learned. She chose to change the subject. "That big... thing up there," she ventured.

"The Indomitable?"

Nika nodded. "It's almost scary, how big it is. What is it?"

Stelian rolled a shoulder; he seemed neither frightened nor impressed. "It's a cargo hauler. One of House Estalan's new supermassives. Some four hundred thousand ton capacity. The scariest thing about it is the name."

As Stelian carefully navigated the warren of warehouses and shipping containers, the cargo ship blotted out the sky above. It seemed to stretch from one horizon to the other, a great umbrella that would have cast a vast shadow were it not for the ubiquitous flood lamps, street lights, and vehicle headlights illuminating the ground level. The nexus was bustling with activity, with plenty of vehicle and foot traffic both. Now and again, Nika caught eye of a uniformed wolf or dog like the ones that had manned the checkpoint through which they'd passed.

It didn't take him long to find their destination; a few short minutes after plunging into the traffic of the nexus, he turned onto a short side road that ended at a row of landing pads lined up one after the other. About half of them were occupied with stout, sleek aircraft, their streamlined bodies flanked on either side by vertical engines capped by broad rotors. Nika couldn't tell one of them apart from the other, but Stelian apparently knew the proper one by sight and angled toward it. Its rear loading ramp was lowered, and a pair of men--a cheetah and a lizard of some sort, perhaps a skink--sat waiting on the edge. They stood when they caught sight of the truck, and adopted a relaxed but alert posture on either side of the loading ramp, hands folded behind their backs.

Stelian parked the truck at the edge of the landing pad and cut the engine. He turned in his seat to face Nika--the most expansive gesture he'd made the entire drive--and fixed his eyes on her. Something in his expression made her wither; she was not expecting the sudden intensity coming from him. "I've been loose with you up until now, because I thought you could use some time to come to grips. But as soon as we step outside this vehicle, you are going to behave appropriately. You will address me as 'sir' each and every time you speak to me. You are not to use my name without permission--if you have to use a name, you can address me as 'Captain'. When I tell you to do something, you will do it, immediately and without argument. Do you understand?"

The volume or tone of his voice never changed, but each successive word was like a hammer, now, focused uncomfortably on her. She lasted only a few seconds before she couldn't meet his eyes; it was all that she could do not to squirm under his stare. "Yes. Sir. Yes, sir."

"Look at me when you're talking to me."

She sucked in a breath and hunched her shoulders, then forced her chin up. His face was stern, and she felt as though his eyes would melt through her. It was all she could do to hold his eyes. "Yes, sir." Her voice was quieter than she intended.

"Good. For the time being, you will not speak unless spoken to. I expect you to treat everyone you encounter with respect, and if someone speaks to you, answer them to the best of your ability. But if they start asking questions about you--who you are, where you came from, what you're doing--tell them that the Captain has advised you to direct all questions to him."

"Yes, sir."

"Keep it just like that and we won't have any problems. Just keep your head down until you're situated."

"Yes, sir."

"Get out and get your bags." Stelian exited the truck, leaving the keys in the ignition. Nika followed suit more slowly, still shell-shocked by the sudden sharp focus the wolf brought to bear on her. There was no reason for her to have been so taken aback. She'd dealt with intense, even aggressive men for years. Men who wanted far more out of her than for her to keep her mouth shut and to nod and smile at the right times. There was not the slightest indication that Stelian was even remotely interested in bedding her. She had no idea what to make of it.

By the time she had dragged her suitcases out from behind her seat, Stelian was already far ahead of her on the tarmac. She hurried to catch up, drawing up behind him just in time to see the two soldiers--she assumed they were soldiers from their fatigues, identical in pattern to Stelian's--stiffen their backs and offer crisp, simultaneous salutes.

Stelian returned the gesture, more loosely, and the pair immediately relaxed. "Welcome back, sir," the skink chirped brightly. "Are we all set?"

"I'm ready. Get her up."

As the wolf was speaking, she climbed the loading ramp behind him, drawing the attention of the two other soldiers. Their naked surprise might have pleased her half a day ago; in the eyes of both men, she could see the sharp bloom of unconscious desire. But she was too tired and hungry to enjoy their bemusement.

"Y-yes, sir." The skink cleared his throat. "On it." The pair of them turned to jog through the cargo hold and toward the cockpit.

Once Nika had joined Stelian at the top of the loading ramp, he pressed a large, prominent button embedded in a side panel, and the ramp rose to seal off their entrance. The interior of the cargo hold was dimly illuminated by recessed red lighting, and aside from a few seats bolted against the walls and a narrow, makeshift cot abutting them, the space was mostly empty.

Stelian gestured toward the cot. "You can put your bags there. I recommend getting as much sleep as you can."

Nika deposited her suitcases next to the cot, and seated herself upon it delicately. It was little more than a strip of heavy canvas lashed to an aluminum frame. As a bed, it was entirely inadequate, but at least it would be better than lying on the floor. "You said there would be something to eat? Sir."

Stelian looked at her for a moment, then nodded. "Belo!" he called toward the cockpit. "When we're airborne, bring back some rations."

"Aye, sir," came the reply. The voice was lightly accented, and unfamiliar--it must have been the cheetah who had replied.

Now there was nothing left to do but wait. Stelian took a seat and leaned back, closing his eyes. With nothing else to occupy her, Nika surveyed the hold, but there was not much to see, and even less that she understood: the walls were molded metal and plastic, and now and again there would be a sign advising caution in regards to something that she didn't recognize, or a panel of knobs and dials of mysterious purpose. The only thing that she even vaguely recognized lay bolted to the floor near the loading ramp in a boxy enclosure, nestled against the wall--a heavy, bulky gun of some sort with a tripod base and long barrel, festooned with tubes and cables. It looked exceptionally dangerous.

The floor shifted beneath her, and she braced herself on her cot. She felt her stomach fall as the aircraft rose, then settle as she adjusted to the movement. A few minutes later, the cheetah--Belo--returned to the hold with a pair of plain foil wrappers in one hand. Her expectant look prompted him to offer the packages.

"These are for you?"

"Ah... yes." Nika took them hesitantly. "Thank you." She wasn't sure if she should be thanking him. But it seemed the respectful thing to do. And despite his closed eyes, Stelian might still be listening.

"Of course." Belo nodded down at her and returned to the cockpit, leaving her holding her rations. There was no decoration on the plain silver wrappers, only a brief series of numbers printed on one side. She tore one open, reminded anew just how hungry she was.

The strong scent of salt and smoke filled her nostrils, and she coughed. It was some sort of... dried meat inside the package; the smell turned her stomach, and she grimaced down at the slab of jerky for a few seconds before setting it aside on the chair next to her cot. She wasn't hungry enough to eat that. She hoped the second package was something more palatable than meat, and tore it open with less relish than the first. Happily, it looked to be like something that she could eat: a granola bar. It was plain and simple, but edible, and almost before she knew what she was doing she had devoured the entire thing. It was enough to take the edge off.

She looked over at Stelian, seated with his arms folded and eyes closed. Was he asleep? Just like that? She did not want to test. And without anything else to do, heeding the wolf's recommendation, she stretched herself out on the cot and tried to sleep. It did not come easily or swiftly; her mind raced with her predicament, as if she could conceive of any way of escaping it in the first place, and the jostling rumble of the aircraft around her made itself perpetually known.

The two soldiers, or pilots, or whoever they were, had been surprised to see her. They weren't expecting to see her--which means they weren't expecting another person, or they were expecting someone not quite like her. But they were expecting Stelian to return with something, because no one questioned why she was there or what she was for. What could that mean?

The buzzing drone of the aircraft's engines faded into the background as she wrapped herself in her thoughts, struggling without success to make sense of the last six hours. The wolf promised she would learn something, soon, eventually. The thought dimly occurred to her, in the haze before sleep took her, that when the truth was finally revealed she might have preferred ignorance after all.