A Change of Fortune

  ******

  Another year passed in quiet tedium. The Enclosure 1 prisoners were still in routine use, though none of them were Favorites. Only Kobi-Wynn could have Favorites, and there were only Haru and Hicham left who were Kobi-Wynn.

  Valencio had been invited to Gloria’s room, and now cradled her close in her single bed. She sighed, “Thank you.”

  Valencio laughed, “You thank me? You know you give me enormous pleasure!”

  Gloria stroked him, “Yes, but you don’t need me and I need you. I find it too hard these days, never knowing whether we’ll survive another day.”

  Valencio kissed her, very gently. They hadn’t been used in a very long time. He finally said, “I think we’d be able to tell from the guards if anything was about to happen. Like we knew when we were to be moved.”

  Gloria touched his wrist cuff. “Narzu-Han gone with all the others, over two years now. And now Yiko’s dead. Yet you still have the colors?”

  “I don’t know that it means anything. Maybe Abensur has just forgotten. Or maybe thinks I’ll throw a tantrum if he touches the cuffs.”

  “Would you?”

  Valencio shrugged. He didn’t know. It would be nice if they were just a touch looser, but he certainly wasn’t asking. They’d been last changed when he was seventeen, but he’d grown a bit since then. Not much taller, but his wrists must be thicker. He tried to put a finger under the cuff, and couldn’t.

  “Why don’t you ask him to take them off? You’ve made not the slightest trouble for so many years.”

  Valencio said positively, “He won’t. They will never trust me, and Hilde and Carol say that I’m to keep as far away from the wizards as possible.” He laughed, with some irony, “They don’t trust me, either.”

  Abensur had not forgotten, but chose to leave them as a reminder to the guards and to Haru, that cruelty to Valencio could still be risky. Abensur was also a protector, though he could be as ruthless as any of the Kobis when he chose. He wanted to try his own methods when Enclosure 3 was used again. Selection of prisoners for instance. Instead of just grabbing thirty or so men from Baradan, what if he chose Westerners, accustomed to being safe and so less likely to panic, and then kept them reassured with promises as long as he could? It would be a challenge, and it would be humane as well. Abensur preferred to be kind. It worked so much better that way - certainly made for better sex slaves if they were not traumatized to start with.

  Not long after Yiko’s death, there was some news that shook the Kobi family to the core. Grandmother Riza was dead. She’d been in Japan, and fifteen-year-old Zhor had travelled there all by herself and killed her. It was because her baby had been feeble-minded and Riza had had him put down. The Compound emptied except for the essential guard. Even Haru went to Japan for the funeral. Hicham didn’t go. It seemed that the great wizard had left him with unbreakable instructions that he was not allowed to leave his home in Morocco.

  Zhor was in hiding. Treen told Valencio, “They’re searching the world for her. Not to kill her, but they need her to breed from. Because there’s no-one left to have babies, you see?”

  “There’s some children in Japan, aren’t there?”

  “Three young children, and they’re here now. And there’s supposed to be a boy as well, a bit older.”

  “They must be sorry now that they sterilized so many children!”

  Valencio still had no feeling of imminent danger, although he knew how concerned the Committee was. They were superfluous, expendable, and surely the cull couldn’t be far off. Probably all of them in Enclosure 2. If they suddenly needed subjects again, they could always move a half dozen of the older ones of Enclosure 1 over. A few would normally have been put over anyway by now, but there had been no new ones since Treen and Ingrid. He set to work on a new branch, cutting it away from one of the bigger bushes, which took all of one night and blunted most of his blades, then hiding it under the same bush where he’d trim off excess twigs, ‘tidying’ it to look prettier. They still did routine sweeps with the Akriktia now and then, but it was a very long time since they’d found anything.

  He’d had to give up on his hole under the divider fence. Just ten inches deep, and the pain of digging was now unendurable, just a touch almost making him faint. Instead, he tried even harder to know the minds of the wizards he saw. He was sure he could feel a little of the confusion and sadness of the el-Kobi. Elder Yiko gone, and then Grandmother Riza gone, who’d been there all their lives. A hundred and thirty-eight when she was killed, it was said.

  It became quieter for Enclosure 1, though occasionally they heard snippets. There was fighting going on, but suddenly, it appeared things were settled. The Kobis had a new leader, a woman, Suma Kobi-Wynn, who’d been the girls’ teacher. She was now known as Elder Suma Kobi-Wynn, though she hadn’t been an Elder before. Women were seldom Elders.

  One evening, a few weeks after Suma took over, Helene hurried to the fence where they always held the Committee meetings, and whistled. Valencio, who’d been wandering in the dark, crossed to her. She smiled at her friend, but said, “Quickly, get Carol, would you? Important news.”

  “Anyone else?”

  “Anyone who wants.”

  Helene didn’t have to wait long before Carol hurried to her, and announced, “They’ve closed the Compound in Japan. About two dozen of the el-Kobi are here now, plus one boy of thirteen, Tashfin, and he’s Kobi-Wynn.”

  “How certain’s your news?”

  “Certain. There was a line-up, and some of the ones from Japan were there to choose a girl. And then Abensur just told me, which was a nice change from having to extract information from clients.”

  Her glance went to Valencio, and she decided to leave out the information that Botan was there, looking as hideously scarred as ever, and, like Fudo, risen in the ranks of Fighters. He’d chosen poor little Treen, and had said to Abensur in front of all the women, that he should make Valencio available for use now that Narzu-Han was gone. Luckily, Abensur had answered that it was not policy, that once a slave was relegated to Enclosure 2, they stayed there. A few of the younger ones had preferred not to think that the vividly handsome young man in Enclosure 2 could ever have been just another sex slave, but it was impossible to deny.

  The morning after, those in Enclosure 2 waited to welcome Emma and Tiffany. Emma walked straight into the arms of Valencio, who kissed her forehead, and said, “Welcome to Enclosure 2. Only free and voluntary sex allowed.”

  Emma giggled and answered, “All these years, and I always disliked it. Donkey ears for me any day.”

  “Donkey ears I loathe. Narzu-Han was about to punish me one day, gave me the choice of five minutes Pain Curse or Donkey ears. I chose the pain, without question.”

  Tiffany asked curiously, “Did he inflict it himself?”

  “Probably gave me date scones instead. He hardly ever punished.” He squeezed Emma again, “Would you like me to carry your bag?”

  Tiffany said, “The new ones are Eva and Lucy and they joined us for breakfast. They’re not new to the job, they’ve been in New York and in Japan, and say they’re the favorites of Zhang and Hung Tu, so were not killed when, they presume, all the others were.” All the others like themselves. Of no use, and therefore disposed of.

  “Zhang and Hung Tu are only el-Kobi though.”

  “Not Favorites with wrist-bands, but it seems favored enough to survive.”

  Valencio gave a whistle to Marietta in Enclosure 1 after lunch, and asked if he could talk to the new ones. He was disappointed. Eva and Lucy knew no Japanese, and Eva explained, “They did a test. Punishing us because we didn’t follow an order made in Japanese.”

  Lucy said, “If we’d learned Japanese, I don’t think we’d still be alive.”

  “Any words at all?”

  “A few, I suppose.”

  “Well, I can teach you Arabic, Italian, Greek or German if you share every single word you do know,” and ther
e were several words added to his list, and others confirmed in meaning. They could share a little information as well. That in New York there had been twelve prisoners, but then the Kobi-Wynn stopped coming, and the el-Kobi had seemed to grow more worried every day. That weeks passed and then they were taken to Japan, and told the other ten were to go to Morocco. Eva said, “We looked for them when we came, but we didn’t expect to see them.”

  Lucy said sadly, “All we can hope is that at least they were killed humanely.”

  “There was a little girl. She was only eight.”

  “Ahjmed’s?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, it seems that the English wizard defeated him, and if he’s like Hicham, he’s no longer hurting little girls.”

  “That’s something, I guess.”

  “It’s a lot. Ahjmed has hurt scores of little girls. And now it’s ended.”

  Three days later, Carol spread the word. Five people were wanted for work in the morning, twelve in the afternoon. Probably fairly easy in the morning, with Tashfin as the student, but in the afternoon, it was to be a review for some of the el-Kobi arrived from Japan, and that was expected to include the Spell of Pain.

  Clarence went to join Valencio as he sat on the edge of the swimming pool. He said in a low voice, “The Pain Curse again! It makes me sick to the stomach.”

  “One thing about it. There’s no point trying to be brave. And if you were, somehow, they’d only think they hadn’t done it right and have another go.”

  “You always look totally unmoved, just wait and don’t look at them.”

  “I had acting lessons when I was a child. I cringe as much as anyone, just try not to show it. But there are worse things, all the same. And it never lasts long. It’s probably worse when it’s children learning. I reckon these will just do it a few seconds to show they can, and go on to the next thing.”

  Clarence felt a little better, and resolved to try very hard not to run away when it came time. He hadn’t been such a coward once, but Clarence bore scars.

  Valencio said, “I hope Abensur doesn’t put me on with poor little Emma. It would be as difficult as seeing Tasha hurt.”

  The review work for the ones from Japan didn’t last long. They were all qualified Fighters, but the ones taking lessons had gone into different specialties, and some were quite elderly. All the same, it didn’t appear that any had forgotten old skills. As Valencio had foretold, the Spell of Pain was just a quick check for each of them, to ensure they could do it. It appeared they’d all heard of Valencio, but the curious stares were only what he was accustomed to from the younger students. He ignored them. There may still have been a ban on visitors for him, as the only other wizards he saw were those on Enclosure duty, and he preferred to keep as much out of their sight as possible.

  The lessons for Tashfin continued. They knew he was quick to learn, and was showing indications of enhanced power.

  “Gloria told me he’ll be up to the Pain Curse any day now,” Deirdre said fearfully.

  But then Abensur advised Carol that Tashfin’s practical lessons would be on hold for a while, and Carol spread the word. “There’s another student, Tristan Kobi-Wynn but they must think he’s behind or something. They’re going to start again with the boys together, but not for a couple of months.”

  “Where did he come from?”

  “Overseas somewhere, we assume. No-one’s heard of him before.”

  “Five children now,” said Helene. “They’re going to get back on their feet.”

  Carol admitted, “I don’t know whether that’s good or bad.”

  “At least we survive a little longer.”

  They went on to talk about a possible successor as leader in Enclosure 1. Helene was twenty-seven, one of the oldest of the women there. “Ingrid, maybe, if she was older. Eva has a lot of sense, not too old, not too young.” There was no point in electing a leader much past the age of twenty, as she would not be there long enough to gain experience.

  Carol mentioned that Abensur had said that there would probably be getting a few new young ones for Enclosure 1.

  Helene said, “Didn’t I tell you? There was a line-up yesterday morning, but it was the leader, Suma, to inspect, and I have a feeling that she might have refused permission to get in any new ones.”

  “Well! That’s a change!”

  “Maybe she thinks the men should look to their own women for sex rather than use slaves.”

  They exchanged a worried look, and then Helene sighed. “Even if it means we’re at risk as well, I’d rather we were killed than more young girls taken for rape!”

  ******