Voices by M J Marlow (uplifting novels txt) 📕

Whether you can speak
or see or hear, or even walk, is completely irrelevant.” He released
me and my head snapped back hard enough to blur my vision.
“Remember that, child; the next time you feel compelled to speak
out of turn.”
He slammed the door as he left with Dolfo and I heard the
lock turning. I was imprisoned in this room in a building on a
planet I had no knowledge of. I was being used to draw the
Emperor; the grandfather of the prince I had been forced to marry,
into a trap so that he could be assassinated and there was nothing I
could do about it. I shook my head at that; there as always
something I could do. I had not been raised to give up when things
looked hopeless. Joris would be ashamed if he could see me now.
They kept drugging me after that meeting and the days
turned into confusing images and disembodied voices trying to
shove their will at me. The nights were even worse as Aden was
brought to me drugged and unable to prevent himself from taking
full advantage of his ‘rights as a husband’. I lost all track of time
and place. And then, just as suddenly as the drugs had started, they
stopped. Three more days followed and my mind began to clear. I
began to dream of escaping again and I went to the windows and
realized that I was only ten feet off of the ground. I had jumped
further, and the cousins I had gained by being Joris’ ward had
shown me how to soften the force of such a fall. I looked at the
garment I was wearing and knew it was unsuitable for escape. I
went into the bedroom and found the clothes I had been wearing
when I was abducted. I put them on and opened the windows wide.
“No one is going to keep me a prisoner,” I said as I climbed
up on the sill and looked down to see my best way down. “Not if I
can do anything about it.”
I swung out and realized I could use the bricks of the
building itself as a ladder. It would keep me from having to jump. I
froze and plastered myself against the building as I heard someone
moving below. I do not think I began to breathe again until they
were well out of hearing. I felt the ground beneath my feet and
smiled in triumph. That triumph was short-lived as someone
moved up behind me and clamped their hand over my mouth.
“If you want to avoid punishment, my darling wife,”
Aden’s voice whispered in my ear, “you will not fight.” I nodded
and was released. I turned around to see prince Aden looking at me
in confusion. He looked up to the second floor window I had left
open. “You escaped?”
“It was a simple matter to climb down,” I replied. “If you
think to take me back in there, I will fight you…” He began to
laugh and I was incensed. “I am not going to be used to murder
anyone!”
“All is not as it seems, my wife,” Aden’s mind into mine. I
looked at him in shock. He did not explain further. “Try to stay
calm; we will not be here much longer.” Aloud he said: “Let me
take you back inside.”
“I would rather die,” I was protesting aloud as Aden
clamped his hand on my elbow and forced me back around to the
front of the building, “than go back into that place.” I dug in my
heels and Aden cursed as he nearly fell on his face. “Please let me
go.” I was growing frantic now. “I don’t want this marriage!”
“My dear princess,” Aden said mind-to-mind with great
regret; “neither do I; not like this.” He drew my attention to the
guards standing nearby. “But until we can find our way out of this
mess, we are stuck.”
“They can’t do this to us,” I cried in despair. “I had a life I
wanted. They can’t just walk in and arrange our lives like this!”
“You are such a child, Princess,” Dolfo said as he joined
us. He looked down the hill at the market. “Perhaps a tour of the
city will help her calm down. Prince Aden, why don’t you and
your guard take your pretty bride to the market and buy her some
pretty little trinket to make her smile while I speak to the Medic?”
“I am not that much a child,” I hissed at them both; “that
buying me a toy is going to make me forget what you’ve done to
me!” But I started off down the hill, forcing the prince and his two
guards to hurry to catch up with me. Aden grabbed my arm and I
looked up at him coldly. “You will take your hand off of me…”
“Or you will hurt me, Princess?” Aden laughed; his men
following suit. I knew I was being ridiculous, but anger was all I
had. “Behave yourself and they will grant you us some control.”
“In other words,” I frowned; “do as I am told?”
“I am beginning to think that is beyond you at this point in
our collaboration,” Aden sighed. “I wish things were otherwise,
Melaura. You have to accept…”
“I don’t ‘have’ to do anything,” I broke in. I saw the
hardness in his eyes and knew that I was never going to win this
argument. I lowered my head. “All right. I will try to remember my
manners.”
“It’s a start,” Tal sniffed. Aden and I turned to see him
standing behind us. “You should be happier about this, children.
You are alive and you are together.”
“We are no better than pets in your cage,” I shot back at the
Romulan. I glared at Aden as he laid his hand on my arm and
looked at me in warning. “How can you be so compliant?” I
demanded from him. “This man has forced us into an act that was
not of our choosing.”
“I admit that the circumstances are not to my liking,” Aden
told me as he cupped my chin in his hand and smiled down at me
warmly; “but I do not regret having you as my wife, Melaura. Our
parents knew what they were doing when they betrothed us to each
other.”
I pulled my arm out of Aden’s hold as he lessened his grip
and we continued into the market. I had been held here two weeks?
How had so much time passed and I been completely unaware of
it? I tried to puzzle out how it had happened and my mind was a
total blank; a sure sign that they had been drugging me. I lifted my
head to the sun as we stopped and let the light bathe my skin.
Aden’s hand clamped down on my wrist and I frowned as he
yanked me along. He spent the next hour trying to make me relax
and enjoy my surroundings.
“Kur!” Zun hissed as he caught sight of us. “That is the
missing prince and princess everyone in the Federation is looking
for!” He was frowning as he noted the man with me. “That is no
ordinary Romulan with them! He is royal rank.”
“He was obviously assigned to be their escort,” Kur
shrugged. “The rumors say that the Romulans abducted the prince
so they could force his people to work for them.” His mind was
spinning with the other little tidbit. “Think of the latinum we could
get holding the young couple hostage.”
“Aren’t we in enough trouble with the Romulans?” Zun
asked his cousin; although his eyes were dancing with mischief.
He thought about it and nodded. “Life is short. Make the most
profit you can before you go. How do you think we should handle
this?”
“Let us just see what they will do first,” Kur smiled as he
saw me yank my arm out of Aden’s hold and storm off. “She is
ready to run. The prince,” Kur frowned as he saw Aden trying to
calm me down; “is more compliant. We shall see what we can do
to assist them.”
I saw the strange aliens as they watched and my skin
crawled under their open regard. What kind of creatures were these
little men? I didn’t want to talk to the prince, but my curiosity was
too much. I turned to him and laid my hand on his arm as he was
speaking to his men about something in Romulan. He turned and
looked down at me patiently.
“Those aliens there,” I asked him as I drew his attention to
the Ferengi. “What are they called?”
“Besides vermin?” Tal spat as he saw the Ferengi. “Their
race is called Ferengi. They are the most avaricious, lascivious,
and duplicitous opportunists in known space. They would sell their
own mothers if it profited them.” He had an uncomfortable
thought. “You do not want to draw their attention to you, Princess.
If they know you are of value, they might take it into their tiny
minds to abduct you and hold you for ransom.”
“Isn’t that what you have done?” I asked him bluntly. I saw
him flinch at being compared to a race he thought of as scum, and
his anger was plain. “You are telling me that they would treat me
worse….”
“They keep their women stripped naked, Your Highness,”
one of the guards spoke up as Tal remained silent. “If they
abducted you, they would have you in chains. You might find
yourself being sold to one of their foul kind as a slave.”
“That is enough, So’den,” Tal held up his hand as he saw
the effect the man’s words had on me. “It is time we were
returning to our quarters.” He saw the look in my eyes and knew
my mind was working hard on finding a way free of him. “We will
let the newly wedded couple return tomorrow,” he said as he
clamped his hand on my wrist, “to look for that toy.” He saw the
flash of anger in my eyes and nodded. “I am glad to see you have
recovered, Princess.” We went back to the prison and Tal turned
Aden and me over to the women. He nodded to the Governor, but
his eyes followed us up the stairs. “We have Ferengi in the market.
I want them watched carefully.”
“Do you think they will be trouble, Your Highness?” the
Governor frowned. He thought it over and the answer was obvious;
so he beckoned to his lieutenant. “See to the lord prince’s request.”
“I will be having dinner with the prince and princess,” Tal
told him; “if anything arises that requires my attention.
He was already heading up the stairs before the Governor
could respond. The man didn’t say a word. He knew this prince;
and if he said he was ‘having dinner’, then that was exactly how it
would be. Prince Tal had no reason to molest us. The Emperor had
given him the order to see me wed to prince Aden, and it was done.
With this act, the Emperor assured our status as his hostages once
we entered Romulan space. It was getting us there that was the
problem. Tal entered our quarters and found us waiting. One of the
women handed him a goblet and he raised it to us before taking a
sip.
“We shall discuss the terms of your captivity,” he said as he
set the goblet down; “and your responsibilities now that you have
become Romulan hostages.”
“I have no wish to discuss either,” I snapped at him. How
dare he walk in here and start issuing orders to us. But then we
were prisoners and had no rights here as far as these monsters were
concerned. “I want to go home.”