whatever you wish.”

“I want my freedom.”

“Even that might be arranged… eventually.”

“How eventually?”

Valerius stroked his moustache as he considered the matter. “Let us say that if I survive the next ten years, I will make you a freedman at the end of it.”

“Five.”

“My dear fellow, you are not really in a position to haggle.” This was said with the same daunting imperiousness with which Valerius had treated Old Moth’s attempt to negotiate a better price. Ulrik refused to back down without testing the waters though.

“But you want my best efforts on your behalf.” Ulrik did not really care all that much at this point. He just wanted to make a show of negotiating. At some point in the not too distant future he would be able to find a way to escape from Valerius’s clutches. He would worry about the consequences when they came.

“Very well. Let us say seven years. Now I have to make a few more adjustments to this machine. Please be still for a moment.”

As soon as Valerius pulled the lever, Ulrik knew something was wrong. The trapped lightning elementals roared. Needles of ice plunged into his veins. He felt as if he had been skewered through multiple points in his skin. Agony lanced his brain. Darkness rolled in from the edge of the universe and he fell into an infinity of darkness, howling.

 

Chapter Three

When Ulrik woke there was a warm body beside him. When he opened his eyes he saw the cat-girl and caught her faint musky scent. “What are you doing here?” he asked.

“Waiting for you to wake up.” She leaned forward and stroked his forehead gently with her fingers. Her fur made the contact strange.

“Why?”

“I am curious about you.” She looked down into his face with those fierce alien eyes. Her pupils were slit, like those of a cat.

“We both know what curiosity did,” he said.

The bed was bigger than the quarterdeck of some airships he had served on. He had never lain on anything so soft in his life. On the ceiling mural, men fought with squid-faced demons while indifferent gods looked on.

His whole body ached. A devil banged on his skull with a hammer. His limbs felt as weak as a new-born babe’s. He hated the feeling of helplessness almost as much as he hated being enslaved. Panic pushed him upright even though his head spun with nausea. He did not want anyone to see him so.

“You should not be doing that,” said the cat-girl, sitting up on the edge of his bed. He slumped back onto the thick pillows and fought to keep himself from being sick.

“I told you,” she said, stretching her arms above her head in a way that displayed her body perfectly.

“Who are you?”

“I am Rhea. And you are Valerius’s latest toy.”

“He told me I was going to be his bodyguard.”

“Is that what you are? I should have guessed.”

“What are you doing here? Really?”

“I was curious. I thought I would see how you were.