Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 68525 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68525 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
A loud bang brought my focus back to the rostrum though, and I had to struggle not to raise my eyes.
“Sold to Captain Jacper, for the Imperial Navy. Thirty-six thousand credits. I’m sure His Valiance the Emperor thanks you all, my lords, ladies, and gentlemen for your restraint in allowing Heartarse to go to the courageous men of our fleet for so reasonable a price. Heartarse, my dear, I hope they give you a few hours of sleep at least, between rigorous uses of that adorable bottom.”
That brought a ripple of laughter from the crowd. My breath came in ragged pants as I gazed downward, my eyes turned as far up and to the left as I could send them, so as to see the boots of the agent, and the terrifying metal bands in his hand.
I had no idea what the words meant. Rigorous uses… of her… her bottom? The auctioneer’s tone and the sound of the Vionians’ merriment, though, cut through my ignorance. They told me that the meaning could only be degrading and shameful. In association with that part of a girl’s body, the possibilities made my whole body flare with unwelcome heat.
“Lot two. One of the gems of this auction, my lords, ladies, and gentlemen. Silverstar, and as you can see, named for her beauty and her obvious docility. Forty thousand seems inexpensive for such a superior addition to an aristocratic household, does it not? Do I have… Baron…”
My heart thudded in my chest. To my horror, I found that I didn’t want the auctioneer to say the name of the only baron I knew of, in the entire galaxy—the one who had walked away from my cage after watching the company agent shame me with his gloved fingers, the one whose face I hadn’t even seen but whose voice had, impossibly, made me feel valuable.
The agent had led away the girl in the cage next to mine. I had managed to watch it all while keeping my face lowered. He hadn’t even had to give her a command: he had touched the door of the cage, and it had opened. She had emerged, and turned around without being told, putting her hands behind her, emitting a little sound that might have been a whimper of discomfort or of shame. The agent had encircled her wrists in the metal bands, then turned her around and led her away, out of my field of view.
I’m next, I thought, my stomach churning.
“Baron…” the auctioneer said, his tone still smooth despite his clearly needing someone to identify this bidder for him. “Ah… Baron Resbolin. Yes. May I hear Forty-one?”
I bit my lip to hold down a sob.
I’m next.
CHAPTER 13
Baron Gravamir
Silverstar, one of the most uninteresting Kamnian girls—if also one of the most beautiful—I had ever seen, went for sixty-seven thousand. Lady Bresil, who doted on the worthless Joslin Wea—Bresil, now, I corrected myself, since she had ennobled him by marriage—bought the girl as a marital aid. I imagined Silverstar would serve the purpose admirably, and probably even without a need for excessive discipline.
Captain Jacper didn’t place a bid on the navy’s behalf. I found that slightly reassuring: clearly the admiralty had placed limits on the expenditure for bed girls for the fleet. That put the requisition in the category of imperial foolishness I called, to myself, merely “insane,” rather than “utterly unhinged.”
I tried not to let myself get distracted by my extensive negative opinions on the emperor’s recent decision-making. First of all, I found it boring even by ordinary standards, given how much of my daily life the topic occupied, and how exhausting it was to maintain the facade of enthusiastic approval necessary to preserve one’s life and livelihood in the imperial court. Second of all, and much more importantly, the prospect of buying a concubine deserved all my attention—if only to justify how much I was paying Franla.
“You’re set on Wetquim, I gather?” she murmured to me as an agent led Silverstar away to the corral where her new owner would collect her. “I think you may get her relatively cheaply. I didn’t notice very much interest—at least of the sort to worry you.”
No, I thought, most Vionians of the concubine-owning class would think the extensive bruising on the girl’s backside a sign of trouble to come. Not I.
I had begun my survey of the Kamnians in the cages with misgivings about the whole enterprise. My resolution to indulge my rather unexpected, rather whimsical desire to have a bed girl of my own had started to seem foolish. After all, I had more than one friend willing to send me a concubine of his on any given evening, if I needed to fuck as sheer stress-relief from the pressures of court life. Moreover, all those generous friends would happily send me a naughty girl, if I asked, so long as I undertook to correct her faults and left the evidence of her obedience-lesson on her well-fucked arse.