Cyberella: Preyfinders Universe Read Free Page A

could not be happening.
    If she told them she was almost a cyborg, Kalfa would let her go. Or he might kill her. The Sicar people hated borgs. She wasn’t one really, but he might still do it. Revulsion might make him release her or she might be killed. She didn’t know . The theoretical small print on their Way was so convoluted that no one raised outside of their system was sure of anything, one hundred percent.
    Torgeir might be so disgusted he’d let her be sold too. That was the most likely result.
    Ella sighed, shut her eyes beneath the cloth of her panties, feeling her lashes brush the lace, and she said nothing. Despair rose in her until it seemed her heart would wither into a knot of useless scarred flesh before this day was done.

Chapter 2
    That Kalfa hesitated was to be expected. The man knew his intent. The Om had been an honorable debt and obligation held between their two families for generations. They were friends despite it, perhaps because of it, as it had drawn them together knowing neither family would raid the other’s lands.
    Without the Om holding Kalfa back, he would be free to raid. They both knew who would win.
    He had nothing and no one loyal. Five of his Rakkel warriors had accompanied him off-planet, to the foreign stars and systems, to fight the war against the Bak-lal. Only he had returned. They’d stayed loyal but had died in small engagements and battles, one by one. Warrior’s deaths and none had blamed him. Though he regretted their passing, it had been their choice and they were now safe in the realms of their gods.
    Being away had meant the remainder of his warriors had left his holding. Too long away, but he’d known that. Nearly half his life. The manager he’d left to take care of his lands and structures had done well, considering.
    At a whimper, he glanced down at the little female laid out across the table. Well, not so little. She squirmed enticingly under his hand, reminding him of the raids of his youth when they’d taken females. A pity. He smiled to himself, imagining those times, when a captive like this would be stripped, collared, and tied to his bed at the snap of his fingers. Old ways and he was returning to the new.
    Besides, she was an outsider and didn’t understand. Her shivering probably meant she was frightened but he had no way to communicate or calm her except to stroke her neck with his thumb.
    He’d been looking for an honorable way to return the Om. This way both of them, he and Kalfa, retained credos. Buying her was only an excuse – one he’d pounced on when the opportunity arose. Simply giving the Om away would be despicable.
    Kalfa slapped his thigh. “You’re certain of this, Torgeir? She’s worth it?”
    He looked up and used Lord Kalfa’s personal name also. “Yes, Jagna. I’m certain.”
    A lesser man would’ve taken the Om when first offered.
    “Then I accept. Take her and go. You have a day to be clear of my lands.” He added quietly, “I am sorry to see you go.”
    He inclined his head as Jagna did so. After the day had passed, anything could happen – including being attacked. “I will transfer the moneys when I reach Besk.” Both of them knew the money was trivial to Kalfa, if not to him.
    His lands were empty. His true family was dead and long gone after the plague that had ripped through the outlands two decades ago. While grieving, he’d decided to join the Concer forces to fight the Bak-lal. He’d seen so much out there, on other worlds circling other suns, things that Jagna and his men would never understand unless they too ventured beyond Sicar. He’d seen things that’d opened his eyes, his mind, even his heart, he believed.
    The Way had stifled him as soon as he stepped on the surface of Sicar.
    He tugged the cloth from the girl’s eyes.
    She turned her head to the side and whispered, “Thank you.”
    “You are welcome. You’re mine now, so it’s for me to say whether your eyes are covered or not. Come.” He