Barbarian Brides. Cecily Royce

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СКАЧАТЬ 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 the hell is this?" a female voice demanded, her tone strident and blurry. "I'm gonna have somebody's head, you just wait and see if I don't!" Her tongue was sharp but her words weren't nearly as tough sounding as she intended.

      Casi looked over to where the voice had come from, seeing the member of the rowdy group she'd had words with in the dining room about the loud music. The girl sat on her pallet almost the same way Casi did, and her two friends were up and looking around just as she was doing. Linira was also awake and sitting, but with her legs together and bent to the right as she tried to cover herself with her arms and looked in Casi's direction.

      "We've been taken prisoner by someone," Casi said to Linira with a sigh. "But let's not panic until we find out what's going on. It could be a joke or something." She didn't feel as though it were a joke, but there was no reason to startle or scare anyone.

      "Even if it is a joke, I'm not laughing," the brat who'd spoken earlier snarled, giving Linira no chance to answer. "My father will cut the balls off whoever is involved in this, and I'll laugh while I watch. Now, I want my clothes back and a way out of here!"

      The girl's last demand had been screamed at the top of her lungs, the kind of spoiled-brat tantrum a child would throw, and then her friends got in on the act. They began to chant, "We want out! We want out!" and the first girl joined their chant with vengeful enthusiasm. Linira looked questioningly at Casi, but she just shook her head. Casi wasn't sure of much, but she knew with dead certainty that joining whatever the troublesome group did would not be a good idea.

      And a couple of minutes later that conviction proved itself correct. A big man with dark hair and eyes came through one of the curtains, followed by four other men. All five were dressed in slacks and shirts and comfortable shoes, and not one of them seemed amused by the continuing chanting. They all appeared to be only a little older than the women they'd taken captive, which Casi found to be distantly odd. None of them looked the least bit barbarian, like the men who had attacked them in the resort.

      "All right, that's enough," the man in the lead said mildly. The noise stopped immediately, even though it was perfectly clear to Casi that the girls hadn't stopped their noise voluntarily. The restraints the girls wore were doing their job, which made the girls furious and outraged.

      "That kind of behavior won't be tolerated," the man in the lead said to the girls, his voice just as mild as it had been. "Now that you're all awake, you can be told what your new situation is, and my advice would be to adapt to the changes as quickly as possible. Refusal and misbehavior will be punished, and that goes for all of you."

      The man turned his head to include Casi and Linira in what had been said, then he returned most of his attention to the three obnoxious girls.

      "What's happening is perfectly simple," he went on. "You young ladies will become the wives or the slaves of some of the savages of this world. Which position you qualify for will depend on how you respond to the training you'll be given. No one knows that we've captured you, so no one will come looking for you. If anyone tries to check on your whereabouts, they'll discover that you left our home planet, Cosimia, and then disappeared. Other young ladies have been paid to pretend to be you, and since they know nothing about your actual fate, even if one of them is caught, she can't tell anyone anything that would help you."

      Linira looked at Casi with wide-eyed alarm, but Casi just shook her head again. Taking everything they were told as gospel would be stupid, but arguing would probably be worse than a waste of time.

      "I refuse to be anyone's wife, and I sure as hell won't be a slave," the first girl stated, staring straight at the big man. "My father won't ever give up looking for me, and when he finds me, you and your buddies are dead. Be smart and let me and my friends go right now, and maybe we won't press charges."

      The two other pack members added their agreement to what the first had said, all of them just as brash as they'd been at the resort. They knew nothing bad would ever happen to them, and if something bad did happen then their parents would certainly get them out of it. They showed not a hint of fear.

      "You've been all but ruined for normal life, haven't you?" the man responded quietly, looking at the three girls. "You expect to get your own way forever, meaning you've never grown up beyond the age of four or five. I'd say it's a lucky thing we took you, otherwise your lives would end up being very lonely ones. Well, the savages won't let you be lonely, especially once you're properly trained. Let's start the training with you."

      The girl he pointed to was the one who had done most of the talking. She was a blue-eyed blonde like Linira and quite beautiful, but her attitude turned the beauty into something close to ugliness. When the man pointed to her she shook her hair back in what looked to Casi like a practiced gesture, then she showed a nasty smile.

      "Go screw yourself," she pronounced clearly. "Not only do I not take orders from members of the common herd, I don't even see them."

      And with that she deliberately looked away from the man and toward her friends, the two other girls snickering at their leader's behavior. They all thought that what the girl had said СКАЧАТЬ