Jake Killen woke up to a throbbing head and an awareness that he lay on something lumpy and not very comfortable. It took some effort for him to turn to one side, and then he had to fight himself into a sitting position. Sitting up made his head spin even more, but once the dizziness eased up he could at least look around at where he was.

Light came into the room through a couple of small windows high up in one of the walls. The room itself was dirty and not very big, holding nothing but the pallet Jake sat on and a second pallet holding a still-unconscious Tandro. Why he and Tandro hadn’t been killed was a question Jake wished he knew the answer to, but at the moment he wasn’t able to worry about ulterior motives. As long as he was still alive it would be possible to escape at some point, hopefully a point that would be reached before they were given too much pain…

“Oh, my head,” Tandro groaned, and then the native was also forcing himself to sit up with one hand to the head he’d mentioned. “What happened, and where are we?”

“This time we were attacked with clubs instead of knives, and I have no idea where we are,” Jake answered, moving just a little to look directly at Tandro. “Since there was no one else on the street at the time of the attack, we’re probably the only prisoners who were taken. You do remember that no one else was around, don’t you?“

Tandro winced as he looked at Jake sharply, but happily the other man got the point Jake wanted him to. If Tain was as good as Jake thought she was, she’d gotten herself and Ennie out of harm’s way before the attack was over. Their attackers might not know about the two slaves who’d been following the pack horses, and if they didn’t know about the girls he didn’t want Tandro telling them.

“Yes, I do remember that there was no one else on the street,” Tandro finally said with a very faint smile. “That has to be why they jumped us at just that time. But I wonder if it’s possible that someone saw what happened and is right now telling the guard about it. If so, we could be out of here in no time.”

“That’s possible, so let’s hope it’s true,” Jake agreed, but only to reassure his friend and companion. Tain would probably decide against telling the guard anything, since she didn’t know about the relationship he and Tandro had developed with Captain Sovri. Jake had been too busy messing around with Tain and then trying to apologize to keep the woman informed about what was going on, and now he was paying for that stupidity.

Tandro lapsed into silence, so Jake did the same. In a few minutes his head was feeling fractionally better, due entirely to the quiet, so he was hoping that the silence would go on for a while. It did continue for a short while, and then someone opened the door to the room and walked in. The man was fairly large and on the heavy side, but those weren’t the most interesting things about him. His vest and knife belt and sheathe were covered in jewels, the most ostentatious display of wealth Jake had seen on this planet.

“How nice, you’re both awake,” the newcomer said as he swaggered a few more steps into the room. He also looked from Jake to Tandro with a very disturbing smile on his face, a smile that made Jake’s insides tighten.

“In case you were wondering, my name is Himlin.”

“Why am I not surprised?” Jake said as he got slowly to his feet, seeing out of the corner of his eye that Tandro also stood. “What I don’t understand, though, is why you changed tactics. The first two times you sent men with knives.”

“But this time men with knives would have done me more harm than good,”

Himlin said, his smile changing to a very cold stare. “You two have lodged an official complaint against me, and you have to be still living to withdraw that complaint. Which you’ll do either later today or tomorrow, depending on when I decide to send you out. I haven’t made up my mind about that yet.”

“And how do you expect to get us to withdraw that complaint?” Tandro asked in his calm and quiet way. “If we walk into guard headquarters either badly beaten or hurt in some other way, they’ll know our decision was forced on us. As I understand it, forcing someone to withdraw a complaint is also against the law around here.”

“You’re right, it is,” Himlin agreed, a flash of cruel anticipation appearing momentarily in the coldness of his gaze. “But I now have a way around that law, and you can thank your friend over there for supplying the way. I’ll admit I probably wouldn’t have thought of the idea on my own… Kneel to your master, slaves.”

Jake had only just started to wonder why he wasn’t making any attempt to jump Himlin when he found out the hard way. His body knelt without any direction from his mind, and Tandro did exactly the same. That told Jake he and Tandro had been given the slave drug, after which they’d been ordered not to make any trouble. Being unconscious hadn’t kept them from hearing the order, and now that they were awake they were able to obey it.

“At first the idea of men being made into slaves outraged me, but that was only at first,” Himlin said as he looked down at them with grim pleasure.

“Once I thought about it for a little while I realized that some men deserve to be enslaved, if only to teach them a lesson about what not to do. If you then add in the opportunity their master would have to take out some of his anger on the ones who made him angry to begin with, you end up with a really good idea. Uncover your bodies completely.”

Jake and Tandro had no choice but to obey, and in no time at all they were kneeling naked. Silently cursing himself out for having such a big mouth did Jake no good at all, especially when Himlin ordered them to stand up and follow him. The damage was already done, and now he and Tandro had to survive the results of Jake’s bone-headed inspiration.

The next room wherever they were was at least three times larger than their original room, and some of the men who had captured Jake and Tandro were lounging around in chairs. In the middle of the other chairs was a larger one that was empty, which told Jake where Himlin would sit.

There were also two things standing not far from the chairs that looked like wooden saw horses, and Himlin gestured to them.

“Each of you stand behind one of the forms facing one another,” the slaver directed as he headed for his chair. “Since you’re both so concerned with what’s done to female slaves, it’s only fair that you find out first hand what their lot in life is like.”

Jake would have enjoyed at least hesitating before obeying Himlin, but even that wasn’t allowed him—or Tandro. The other man walked to the second saw horse which stood about five feet away from Jake’s, and when he put himself behind the thing they were facing one another.

“Good,” Himlin said, and Jake was sure that the slaver had seated himself.

“Now bend over the forms just a bit, but not so far that you can’t still see each other.”

It turned out to be necessary to hold to the top of what Himlin called a form in order to bend over and still be able to see Tandro, so that was the position Jake found himself in. The sight of Tandro in the same position looked disturbingly familiar to Jake, but before he was able to figure out why he felt disturbed he was distracted in a very unpleasant way.

“No, don’t tense your muscles in an effort to resist,” Himlin said, making Jake want to curse out loud. “You’re slaves, and slaves aren’t permitted to resist.”

Which meant there was nothing to stop the person behind Jake from thrusting what had to be an insertion into Jake’s backside. He could see the same thing being done to Tandro even as he felt it being done to him personally, and the grin on the face of the man behind Tandro filled Jake with the need to kill. But he couldn’t kill, he wasn’t being allowed to, and that made the situation ten times worse.