"It wasn't awful, it was unforgivable," Linira blurted, finding very little comfort in the dark behind her hand. "I'm a freak, just like Ricord said, and no one in his right mind could ever love a freak."
"Is that what that asshole said to you?" Casi demanded, her tone completely outraged. "Linira, don't you know that no one takes an asshole seriously? Come on, tell me what happened to make the asshole say something like that."
"I—it was the last time I saw him," Linira found herself saying, the words suddenly pouring out. "I'd met him at the restaurant where we usually had lunch together, and halfway through the meal a crazy man came running out of the kitchen. The crazy man was screaming as he ran, and he held a gigantic knife in his hand. Ricord and I jumped to our feet, just like almost everyone else in the restaurant, and Ricord was so pale I thought he would pass out. I was just as terrified, and that's why I didn't stop to think before grabbing a heavy glass candle holder from the table and throwing it. I never miss when I throw things, and the crazy man was knocked out."
"So that's it," Casi said with satisfaction, and Linira realized she'd dropped her hand and was now looking up at the other woman. "The asshole was frozen in terror, and when he finally came out of the funk, he had to blame someone for his lack. He hated you for being more of a man than he is, so he said something meant to shatter you. Are you going to let the lies of an asshole ruin your life, or can you make yourself understand the truth? You are not a freak, you're just not a victim like the asshole. You're a competent human being, while he isn't."
Linira stared up at Casi, noticing how certain the other woman looked. Could it be possible that what she'd just said was true?
"But… If I'm not a freak, why do I feel like one?" she finally got out. "No one else I know can throw things the way I do, so doesn't that mean—"
"No," Casi stated, interrupting flatly. "You're not a freak, you're someone with a talent, like singing or writing or dancing. And the only reason you feel like a freak is because you were silly enough to believe an asshole. Are you going to keep on being silly, or will you take my word about how lucky you are to have a very special gift?"
Linira shook her head just a little, not refusing Casi but trying to get her thoughts straight. It was hard to go from considering yourself a freak to seeing yourself as someone with a gift, but…
"I'm going to try taking your word for it," Linira finally said with something of a smile. "I can't promise I'll succeed, but I'm definitely going to try."
"There are fools who refuse to accept the idea of trying, but I'm not one of them," Casi answered with a much better smile than Linira's. "When you're willing to try, more often than not, you succeed. And now I'm going to call resort security to come for those two sleeping beauties before they wake up. I don't know where they came from, but I'm damned well going to find out."
Linira felt a jolt that she'd forgotten all about the two men, and she glanced at them as Casi headed for the phone. But then her attention returned to Casi, because the woman had paused in the middle of reaching for the phone. It wasn't clear why Casi had done that, and then Linira's heart began to race. Casi was folding silently to the floor, looking as if she were passing out, and then Linira noticed a sweet scent that first made her dizzy before the dark came and encompassed her.
Casi felt as if she were floating, but floating in what, she had no idea. She had only a vague awareness of floating. Her body was so far away she had no control of any part of it, and that left nothing but a floating mind. Then she became aware of a voice, a male voice, speaking so softly that she could only just make out the words. It sounded far and distant but she knew without a doubt that it was real.
"I don't understand this," the voice said. "I know this is the last time we'll be selling females to the savages, so we took five instead of the usual two. But it was supposed to be five of those obnoxious females, not just three along with two innocents. This isn't right."
"I agree with you," a second male voice said, speaking just as softly as the first. "As long as it was nothing but obnoxious females we took, I didn't mind being involved. These two aren't the same, but I don't know what we can do to change things. They're already here."
"We can't do anything right now, but later will be a different story," the first whispering voice replied. "At some point in their training we'll have a chance to get them away and back to where they belong. If you won't help, I'll just have to do it myself."
"No, I won't refuse to help," the second voice whispered its own assurance. "We'll have to treat them just the way the others are treated, but when the time comes we'll do the right thing."
"Agreed," the first voice said, and then there was silence. Casi tried to think about what she'd heard, but thinking was too much trouble. She drifted back into a dreamless slumber.
Eventually, with time, the fog over her mind started to thin, and then awareness of her body returned. She was lying on something soft, but there was also something odd about the feeling. Not until her eyes blinked open and movement became possible again was she able to figure out what the oddness was, and then the answer became perfectly clear.
Whatever she was lying on, she was doing it stark naked.
That bit of knowledge gave Casi a very good reason to move around, so in another minute she was propped up on one arm and looking around. Rather than seeing the room she last remembered being in, she saw what seemed to be a very large tent. It was the kind most often called a pavilion, and there was nothing in the way of furniture in the place, although the entire floor was carpeted. In two places, hangings concealed whatever was behind them, but in another two places—opposite one another—the sides of the pavilion were raised to let in air and sunlight.
And arranged around the pavilion, in a large circle, were five wide… pallets, she thought they were called. Four other women, one of them Linira, lay on the pallets just as Casi now half sat on her own, and all of them were only just beginning to move around. The others were just as naked as Casi, and it looked like they would be finding out about that fact soon too.
The view through the open sides of the pavilion wasn't in the least encouraging. There was nothing but sand to be seen in both directions, which had to mean they were a good distance from the resort. It wasn't even possible to figure out in which direction the resort lay, but that was a problem to be tackled once she and Linira and the other women were out of this pavilion. Perhaps there was a hill she could climb, or a tree, to see the landscape and discover where to go. Since no one else was around, now was the perfect time to try and escape.
Casi frowned as she continued to sit where she was. Her intention had been to get to her feet and go over to Linira, but for some reason her body wasn't cooperating. She had no idea why that would be—until she noticed the thin bands around her wrists and ankles. The bands were restraints usually used by police to control prisoners, but now a different kind of prisoner was being controlled. She had done nothing to warrant this type of behavior. What was going on? Why had she been taken?
"Damn," she muttered, knowing that with the restraints closed on a prisoner, even being unconscious didn't keep that prisoner from having to obey any orders that were given. The bands acted like a set of memories connected to your nervous system, making sure you did nothing your captors would disapprove of. Casi was able to shift into a cross-legged seated position, but that was as far as she could go.
While waiting for the other women to wake up, she thought about the short conversation she'd overheard. Two men had decided to save her and Linira, but not until she and Linira had been trained to a certain extent. What did that mean? The men had been speaking too softly for their voices to be recognizable, and something told her the two would not be the only men around. Figuring out which ones the two were might be impossible, at least until they came to free her and Linira. But there was something strange about this whole setup that she couldn't quite put her finger on.
"What