“And you expect us to help with that?” Celene said with a snort of scorn.

“I don’t know about you, but I swore off beating up on men twice my size.”

“Well, it so happens that I didn’t,” Tain returned with the most evil grin she could produce. “Beating up on those men will be a true pleasure, but I’m not fool enough to think I can take a large number of them all at once. What I want to do is sneak into that warehouse, wait until dark, and then break the two prisoners loose. But before I make my try I’ll come back here and tell you that it’s time. If I’m not back with the men an hour later at the most, you’ll know that you have to take Ennie and get out of here.“

“And what happens if you’re found while you’re sneaking around?” Celene demanded, her face showing that a struggle of some sort was going on inside her. “We still don’t know if a second dose of the drug will put you back under their control, and even if it doesn’t there’s always that torture you mentioned. Sitting here waiting for you to get back could get us retaken.”

“Not if only one of us waits for her,” Risdin said before Tain could answer the objection, the dark-haired woman’s body straightening where she sat. “I think this woman can do what she says, and I’m willing to risk my own freedom to help her. Help her help us, that is. You and Areen will take the girl and hide, and if a group of men come bursting in instead of Tain, you’ll all run. I’ll be able to keep from being recaptured long enough for you three to get away from the city and warn everyone in the hideout.”

“That sounds like a plan to me,” Tain agreed, sending Risdin a smile. “The only change I’d make is that you do your own hiding, Risdin. That way if

I’m taken and the men come looking for you, they’ll have to tear this place apart to find you. If the others are close enough to hear the noise, they’ll know enough to run.“

“I’m willing to stay close enough to hear the noise, assuming it happens,”

Areen said, the words not quite forced out of her. “Celene had a harder time than we did as a slave, so she has to be the one to take the girl farther away. Remembering what she went through will let her run as far and as fast as it’s possible to go, and that’s best for all of us.”

Celene had looked as if she were trying to force herself to argue about who stayed close, but Areen’s line of logic gave Celene a reason to simply nod her agreement. The decision was made, then, with everyone prepared to do her part, so they all went back to drinking coffee. Tain noticed that

Ennie hadn’t moved from the pallet and the girl’s eyes were closed, so it was possible that Ennie had fallen asleep. Tain sipped her coffee and hoped so, considering that the girl would need all the strength she could muster. Even if things went well, that would not be the same as having them go easily…

When she’d finished her coffee, Tain left the warehouse by the back door and made her cautious way to the front of the building. She’d considered letting the women take the red bands off her arms, then rejected the idea. If anyone saw her she wanted them to think she was a slave, a point she’d had to make with her three new companions. No man believed that a slave could be dangerous to him, which gave Tain a very large advantage. Taking off the bands and borrowing a change of clothes from one of the women would have thrown away the edge.

No one was in sight when Tain crossed the street to the warehouse Killen and Tandro had been taken into, but that didn’t mean Tain simply opened the door and walked inside. Instead she made her way around to the back of the building, found a window, then peeked inside. There was still no sign of guards or anyone else, so she took a chance and opened the back door. Nothing but emptiness greeted her entrance, but she could hear voices from somewhere else in the building. Walls had been put up to divide the inner expanse, which ought to help Tain with her sneaking. Lurking behind walls was easier than lurking in shadows.

Ghosting around from place to place wasn’t easy on Tain’s nerves, but the search had to be made so she did it. She’d found a large room with chairs in it that could be seen through a crack in one of the walls, but there was no sign of Killen and Tandro. The narrow corridor she’d been using dead-ended just ahead, so Tain was about to retrace her steps to find a more productive corridor when she heard voices in the large room.

Looking through the crack again showed Tain that a number of men had entered the room, but again none of them were the two she searched for. For the second time she was about to walk away when a big man entered the room from a doorway to the right. The big man wore a gaudily bejeweled vest and swordbelt, and right behind him came Killen and Tandro. The two men had been stripped naked, but they were still alive.

Now all she had to do was figure out a way to get them out of this place…

At first Tain didn’t understand what was happening. Not until the big man in the jewels ordered Killen and Tandro to the punishment forms and they obeyed without the slightest hesitation did the truth finally dawn. The drug that had, until now, been given to no one but women, was now being used on the two men.

I wonder what took them so long to think of the obvious, Tain thought as she watched Killen bend over the wooden form the way he’d been told to do. But maybe I’d do better wondering what caused the change of mind set. If it’s unthinkable to use a drug for women on men, what would make it less unthinkable?

There was no easy answer to that question, so Tain dismissed the thought as she watched what was being done to Killen. The big, macho agent who’d had so much fun with her looked a lot less macho when the insertion was put in him, the same thing being done to Tandro. Tandro seemed to close his eyes for a moment, possibly remembering how he hadn’t hesitated over his treatment of Ennie, but that was just the beginning of the native’s regret—if regret it was.

The switching the two men were given looked extremely painful, and to make matters worse they were both aroused when they were finally allowed to straighten up. The other men in the room laughed at them as they made their way to the place where the man in the jeweled vest sat to kneel at his feet. Killen and his friend were being given the full treatment, and Tain couldn’t help thinking that it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving pair.

It wasn’t possible to hear what the big boss said to his two new slaves, not even before the girl in the see-through silks was brought in to dance. The man in the fancy vest spoke softly to the two kneeling near him, and there was nothing in the way of an echo to bring even some of his words to where Tain stood. All she could do was watch the dance along with the men, hoping that something useful to her would soon happen.

But the only thing that happened was a sudden realization that Killen and Tandro—and the other men in the room—weren’t nearly as bored with the dance as Tain was. When the girl finished her dance and knelt in front of the man in the vest, Killen looked ready to attack the girl and Tandro didn’t seem any better. The man in the vest spoke to the two kneeling men one at a time, and then Killen said something. The something seemed to be what the man in the vest wanted to hear, and he grinned as he sent the girl to bend over the wooden form Killen had used.

Tain knew at once that the girl would be used, and it was obvious that Killen knew the same. Killen fairly quivered where he knelt, for some reason expecting to be allowed to go to the girl, but he ended up disappointed. It was the man in the vest who went and used the girl, which increased Killen’s—and Tandro’s—suffering.

Once the girl was kneeling again, Tandro was sent back to the wooden form to be switched a second time. It looked like Tandro had done something wrong or hadn’t done something right enough, and the punishment he was given looked brutal. But not brutal enough for the native to accept what was done with stubborn courage. It’s hard to be courageous when your bottom is being spanked, even if the spanking hurts more than being beaten up might. A spanking is a suitable punishment for a child; how are you supposed to show dignity and pride when you’re being punished like a child?