Page 4 of Interion

“Take the slaves to bathe.” He wrinkled his nose as he passed the line where I stood. “I can smell their stench from here.”

“Yes, sir!”

They wore the Drutes army uniform: black pants with red detailing, short-sleeved shirts beneath vests made of tough material. Most of the fighters were redheads—tanned, tall, and broad. Everything about their bodies screamed danger, from their enormous hands to their green and gold eyes. They were part of my race, but they were also the people I feared most.

Five hundred years ago, a war ravaged the continent. Four coastal nations united to seize the fertile, powerful lands of Interion, located in the heart of Jupiter. But after ten days of battles and death, Interion regained control of its gates and expelled the four nations. Three of them swore loyalty and repented. All except Drutes.

Since then, confrontations still broke out along the borders of the two nations. From what little I’d gathered from the men’s conversations, this was the 10th Drutes Regiment, and we’d become the front line of battle. I was what they called a descendant: a mixed-blood, half Drutes and half Interian. My blood came from the lineage of women Drutes had stolen from Interion during the Great War—a scheme to breed people with high levels of power.

I grew up a promising child, until my parents were arrested for treason. They’d been undercover spies working to free our mixed-blood people from the oppression of both nations, but they were executed. I was too young to waste, and healers with my gift were becoming scarce, so they sent me to the slave market. Since then, my life had shrunk to healing wounded soldiers and trying to survive until the next day. But both were starting to seem impossible as the cancer spread through my lungs.

I was at the end of the line, and a single tight chain bound us slaves by our ankles. There was no room for escape. We shuffled along in short steps. If it weren’t for the chains, the heat, or simply being a slave, I might have considered myself happy. After all, I hadn’t seen sunlight in months, hadn’t felt a gentle breeze on my skin, let alone been around the other slaves. I’d been isolated in the cellar because of my lung disease. They feared I might contaminate the other healers, which was absurd. It would’ve been easier to teach a donkey to speak than to explain that cancer isn’t contagious. They only let me out of the underground because, after the attack on the previous base, the 10th Drutes Squadron was forced to abandon camp and relocate to avoid triggering more confrontations with the Interians.

I felt the chain tug, and then we were pushed toward the right corner of the clearing. We followed a trail for about five minutes until we heard running water. We struggled down the steep path between the trees and stopped at the banks of a river lined with countless colorful stones. I avoided eye contact with the soldiers as much as possible; I’d learned that life was easier without a black eye or broken bones. My lungs were already problematic enough without having to worry about another organ.

“Come on, pigs. You want me to drag each one of you?” Siger stopped near the water and signaled for us to face him.

We were five bald, ragged girls. They shaved our hair so we wouldn’t look like women and attract the men’s attention. Pretty girls died fast in the forests. I’d learned early that feminine beauty was an executioner to be avoided.

We stopped side by side and raised our arms. We all knew the bathing protocols. Siger went around removing our brown cloth dresses—little better than potato sacks. I shivered as my clothes came off, my naked, emaciated body exposed to the open air. Only an orange loincloth made of scraps covered me. We waded into the water up to our waists, then began to wash.

“Babysitting the pigs is such a pain,” Siger said, sitting on a rock as he watched us.

“I don’t mind. I like seeing them without clothes. From here, they almost don’t look like scum.” I recognized that raspy voice, and my hands started to tremble.

“If I were you, I wouldn’t even think about it, Ryuki. They’re too expensive to be broken that way.”

“It’s revolting being stuck in the middle of nowhere with nothing to fuck.”

I looked away to avoid drawing attention.

“They said we can’t touch them because of their health. The 5th Squadron fucked the slaves, and they all died—the soldiers too, since there was no one left to heal them. Look at the tall one on the right and the short one on the left. Pure bone. They can’t even stand on their own.”

Siger pointed to the first slave, Tayla. Then to me.

“You might be right about them, but look at the pale one in the middle.” The two stared at the new girl with the black eye, bought just two weeks ago. “Look at those tits, Siger. I’d kill to have her.”

The soldier studied the blonde, named Armiris. She was medium height, her hair not yet shaved, and she’d had the bad luck of inheriting Drutes women’s genetics. Her body was curvaceous, and since she was new to slave life, hunger hadn’t yet consumed her beauty.

“She's perfect. Too bad she rebelled against the nation and ended up here. If she were a whore in some brothel, I'd pay top dollar.” The man shoved his hands in his pockets and tried to hide the bulge in his pants.

“Me too.” Ryuki moved closer. “But there's no one around, and we don't have to pay.” The soldiers kept staring at us in silence. “If we're careful, maybe it won't hurt her too much.”

I glanced sideways at Armiris and noticed her hands trembling. She was trying to hide her body by sinking deeper into the water. Panic started rising in me, and I looked to the other women. They backed away, indifferent. They were too weak and too broken to show any reaction.

Siger weighed his options for a long minute.

“All right. But if the commander sees anything suspicious, he'll rip our balls off. We take turns and don't hurt her too much.”

Ryuki walked toward us and grabbed Armiris by the elbow. I fell to my knees when the chain shackled to our ankles yanked taut.

“No,” she whimpered. “Please, no!”

Desperate pleas kept spilling from her lips as she was dragged away. Ryuki grabbed her jaw, forcing her mouth open. Then he shoved a rag between her teeth.

“If you try to scream or run, I'll kill the others. Understood?”

Armiris was crying but nodded. I stayed on my knees, hugging my bare shoulders, tears flooding my vision. Ryuki was a metal elemental, and with a wave of his hand, he removed her ankle cuff. As the girl struggled against the man shoving her toward the larger rocks, despair consumed me. I tried to stand, but two years of misery and hunger kept me pinned down.