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I shake my head. He feels it.

“There’s a shallow area. Stay there.”

He walks to the edge of the cliff and scales down it, easily, as if I am weightless on his back. His hands find crevices where I see only a flat cliff face, his booted feet easily finding footholds. At the bottom of the cliff there is a lip, and he simply strides over where the pool funnels into the stream, taking me back to the sturdy ground in the clearing. He kneels again, and I slip off his back.

The pool is widest directly below the cliff, endlessly deep waters, but where the stream leads into the pool, there is another smaller pool, the size of a hot tub, that has shallow waters. It’s going to be icy cold, but I don’t mind.

Khra points to the shallow pool. “There is no current there, and it is shallow. Stay there.” He strides to it, and his Orb-Blade is in hand before I can even sense the movement. He can draw before I can blink. The blade activates, the razor-sharp black metal appearing as if he imagined it into existence, wrapping with energy, black-blue lightning that appears and disappears. With a great strike, he embeds it into the rock at the edge of the waters, making it hiss and bubble.

“Give it a minute to heat. Tell me if it gets too hot.”

“Thank you. I didn’t know an Orb-Blade can work like that.”

“It does what I say. It is my slave. To most Aurelians, an Orb-Blade is nothing but a weapon of war. My will is deeper than most.” He clears his throat. “Would you like me to go back in the cave?”

I look up at the cave. I was expecting Bolden and Krazak to be standing there, waiting to watch me nude in the waters, staring down at their property possessively. There’s no one there. The pool is lit up by the eerie light of the Orb-Blade, the moonlight faint through the trees.

“Could you stay and guard me?”

“Yes.”

I pull the pleasure dress from my body, folding it and placing it on the rock, then slide into the icy coolness of the pool, away from the Orb-Blade. I wanted the refreshing iciness to wash me clean. It is fed by the mountains to the north, the harsh, unforgiving cold peaks where hard men earn their livings. It is clean, unpolluted, and fresh. It is life.

I wade in deeper, my nipples pebbling in the cold, as I shiver and wash myself as the waters heat. I sit on a ledge near the Orb-Blade, where the water is pleasantly warm. It seeps into my bones. I look at that blade, that has been used to cut down so many men.

That will be used to cut down noble Aurelians. Pure white togas will be stained with blood when this triad is done with them.

I look up at Khra. He stands, straight backed, staring outwards into the forest. He knows I am here, completely naked, but he stands eternally watchful for any sign of an enemy that could take me from him.

I look at him, my silent protector, and I don’t understand him. I don’t understand what he and his triad want. They kidnapped me, but when I offered myself to them, they turned away from me. They hate me, and want me, and they are nothing like what I expected from the Fanatics.

A rhythmic thumping breaks the silence of the forest. “What is that?”

“Drones. The General will have been alerted to your disappearance. They’re searching for you.”

I breathe out in relief. I don’t know what I thought it could be. Aurelian Empire ships, perhaps, come to claim this planet?

“Do you want to be found?” I’m shocked by his question.

I don’t answer for a long moment, splashing myself with hot water. “I don’t know.”

“You do know.”

“If I’m found, you three die. I don’t want that.”

“So you hate us, but you do not wish us dead. Because we alone can save your father.”

“That’s not why.”

“Then why?” He never turns. I stare at him, his strong, broad back. His body, made for war.

I say nothing. I don’t know what to say.

“Answer me.”

“I don’t want them to find me.” I say it, unable to hide from the truth any longer. I’ve been surrounded by weakness my whole life. Men like the guards, who ogle me and want me as a notch on their bedpost, men like Paulus, who think their wealth and power makes me want them, men with fake bravado and empty promises.

These three are the first men who make me feel whole, and yet I know I should hate them.