DRAMA NOVEL ONLINE Chapter 31: Granted
665 standard years after the signing of the Alliance
The slot on Valenna’s door opened. A tray slid in and the slot shut. Valenna pressed her back against the back wall of her cell and swallowed. The tray held a single blood bag. The blood inside was human. She could smell the scent.
Her body was shaking. She stared at plump, chilled bag. She had just finished her six hour shift at lord Karek’s side. He had drunk from her eight, excruciating times. She would be back on duty in another 48 hours and this would be her only meal until then.
The wan bulb overhead flickered. It will be okay, just this once. The hunger in her body growled.
“No. Not today, not any day. Never again. Even if I have to die.” She squeezed her eyes shut. “Please, my lord. Help me.”
She rocked slowly back and forth trying to think of anything but the delicious scent of the blood bag sitting across the room from her; how sweet and rich the blood would taste on her tongue, and how life would thrum through her veins after she had drunk it, how the ecstatic high afterwards would ease her mind, carrying it far away from the filthy little cell she was shivering in. Her stomach growled pitifully.
Time passed interminably slowly. She heard cockroaches scuttling in the hall. She heard the next slave going on shift, being dragged from their cell begging and crying. Not too much later she heard another whimpering slave being dragged back to their cell. As they were thrown into their cell, she heard very faintly the scuttle of tiny feet. The cell door slammed. The tiny feet were scurrying along the hallway.
Valenna straighten. “Please…please.” She whispered. She closed her eyes and calmed her body. There was a scrabbling at her door. She forced herself to remain calm. The tiny feet cautiously entered her cell. Valenna kept still. The light flickered against her eyelids. There was silence for a long moment. The feet moved across the cell.
Valenna’s eyes snapped open. If she could slip into the weave of space time, this would be a cinch. Unfortunately the collar around her neck kept her firmly locked into normal space time. She spotted her prey and pounced. There was loud squeaking and a frantic flurry of fur, hands and teeth, then a small crack as Valenna snapped its neck.
“Thank you, my lord.” She breathed. She sank her teeth into the rat and ravenously drained it of blood.
* * *
The green chime sounded. Valenna opened her eyes groggily. It wasn’t time for her shift yet. Maybe one of the other slaves had gotten sick, or had died. She pushed herself up on one hand as the door swung open.
Two royal guards entered the cell, grabbed her by the arms and dragged her out of the room. It took her a few yards to get her feet under her, but she managed to get up on them and start walking between the guards.
She expected them to bring her to the changing room, but they brought her straight to lord Karek’s hall and and threw her down in front of the dais.
“Valenna.” Lord Karek said in a bored tone.
“Lord.” Valenna kept her head bowed. Another blood slave was on duty, kneeling next to lord Karek’s throne.
’“It seems your strange god has heard your prayers.” Lord Karek continued.
Valenna frowned. “Lord?”
“The Ir’klahn are having a little problem with a rouge prison guard. It seems that he’s taken a quantity of criminals from the prison system and disappeared. His followers are spreading messages of dissent across the Ir’klahn empire and a few more prison uprisings have popped up. But the odd thing is, every time an uprising happens, the instigators all disappear.
“The rouge is building up an army and the Ir’klahn empire has no idea where they are. The Ir’klahn have been sending out search parties everywhere across their empire looking for this army, and so far they have found nothing. They are starting to search in unclaimed stretches of space.
“Our spies have intercepted a message that came from one of the rouge’s disgruntled followers. Unfortunately, it seems the rouge has set up rather close to our little secret, the human planet, Earth. I want to send someone I can trust to offer the Ir’klahn empire our assistance. We need to make sure they don’t discover our little operation out here.
“At this point, you’re the only one I feel I can trust with this. You’ve always done good work for me. You’ve upheld your contract, when you could have run. You’ve held to your strange beliefs even though we have…made it difficult for you. So, I’d like to offer you a deal.
“If you’ll go to the Ir’klahn empire on our behalf and protect our operation out here, I will allow you to finish out your contract in a different capacity.”
Valenna swallowed. She thought for a moment. “If I represent you to the Ir’klahn empire and protect your operation form being found until the rogue is captured, then I want my contract with you to be considered fulfilled.”
Lord Karek made a petulant face and picked at something on the armrest of his throne for a moment. He sighed. “Fine. But if our operation is found out, you’ll owe me the rest of your twenty years.”
“Agreed.”