He could not trust himself in her presence for a single second longer. If she were to open her mouth and say some impudent nonsense, he did not know what he would do.
So he did what he could do, the only thing that would not make the entire affair so much worse. He dropped the lash, turned, and walked away.
8 The Power of Pity
Left alone, Katie dissolved into tears. Real tears of misery and pain. Her ass fucking hurt. Dominax had really torn into her. Every time she breathed, she felt her rear pulse with fresh sting and ache.
Maybe she’d deserved it. Maybe she’d even pushed for it, but he’d punished her and just walked the fuck away. For some reason, that hurt more than the thrashing itself.
She didn’t know how long she lay there, bare-assed, crying out of self-pity and doing sweet fuck all to help herself. Could have been half an hour, could have been half a day. She was caught up in that exquisite state of pure misery which requires abject wallowing, and she would have stayed there unless the door hadn’t opened.
Katie looked up over her arms, expecting Dominax. But it wasn’t him. It was Alf, the guard.
“I am getting you out of here,” he declared.
Her plan was actually working. She couldn’t believe it. But she wasn’t going to question it. The guard had seemed like a good guy, and she guessed he was. Having to stand out there listening to the king whip her must have been hard for him.
“Really?”
“You were abducted from your world and taken to be the servant of a king you don’t recognize. Freeing you is the right thing to do.”
“Won’t Dominax kill you?”
“If one of us tells him what I’ve done, perhaps,” the guard replied. “The official story will be that you escaped and fell into the lava.”
“That’s a good story. He won’t come looking for me then.”
“Hopefully not, no. Put this on.”
The soldier held out a big, bright pink, floppy piece of constructed clothing which came with a built-in hood. It looked like a hazmat suit, but bright and colorful and with a lot more room in the shoulder region, almost like it was designed for someone with wings.
“What is this for?”
“The palace is shielded from storms,” he said. “But out beyond the verges of this landmass, we get rain.”
“I’m used to rain.”
“Not this kind of rain, I’d bet. You don’t have any leathering of your skin. You’re very soft.”
She was also pretty much naked, so why the hell was she whining about getting some clothes?
“Thanks,” she said, clambering into the outfit. It fit surprisingly well besides the shoulders. “Why do you have this?”
“Our young cannot handle the storms,” the soldier said. “This belonged to my daughter before she outgrew it. You can keep it.”
“Thank you so much.”
“You’re welcome. I never thought I’d taste the food of another world,” he smiled. “And I never thought I’d have the chance to do something that mattered again. Dominax is a good king, but he is not a good lover. He is impatient and he is brutal, and you are far too impudent to be a match for him. It’s best you get as far away from here as possible.”
Katie felt a little pang in her gut at hearing the guard say that she and Dominax weren’t compatible. But of course, she couldn’t say anything. To say that they were would be like saying she didn’t want to escape, and she did.
“Close your eyes if you don’t like heights,” Alf said, picking her up under her arms and swinging her around onto his back, where she nestled between his wings and wrapped her arms around his neck for security. “This is a long flight.”
They lifted off out of the window and took to the skies. Almost immediately, they were enveloped by a cloud which hid them from view. She could see condensation forming on the visor of her suit, and was glad for it. The smell was extremely acidic and not at all pleasant — but she didn’t mind. Freedom was happening to her.
She wondered what Dominax would think when he discovered she was gone. She wondered what would happen to Alf if he got caught having helped her escape. And she wondered what was going to happen to her next — would she find freedom? Or was it out of the frying pain and into the lava fire?
She had plenty of time to think about it. The flight went on for well over an hour. There were no snacks, and no movies to watch. There was just the musculature of the guard who had taken pity on her and a whole lot of lava below waiting to swallow them up if he got tired.
Finally, however, she saw something. At first it just looked like another rocky plateau. But the closer they got, the more she started to make out familiar kinds of terrain. It wasn’t natural. It wasn’t craggy and jagged. It was square and orderly. It was a whole lot of construction, it was…