The Rebellious Slave Ch. 02

Kara now understood why Tamius had been the last general to fall, and had outlasted all the others. While everyone else had been fighting their captors, she had been luring them into a false sense of security and then she had waited. Tamius must have known that she would get one and only one chance to make a move and she had decided to make hers on stage. The entire auction hall had been her captive audience and her message had rung clear: Watch yourselves; we're not done yet. It was definitely intended as a threat, but in her own bloody-fisted way, Tamius was also saying goodbye to her friends and reminding them to stay strong. The auction hall erupted with cheers, but this time, it wasn't the prospective buyers who were jeering, but the slaves.

It took a while for the commotion to die down after that, but eventually, it did and the live auctions resumed. Five more yellow uniforms were auctioned off and soon after, so were a few red ones. Dryden Lane was sold to Lord Algeris for 750k qualid, and Kara thought she'd never seen a man pale so quickly. It was an hour before they finally got to Alyssa. Much like Tamius, she didn't object as she was led onto the stage, but she wasn't exactly stoic, either. She waved to the crowd as if she were in a parade, blowing kisses to disgruntled-looking patrons and baring her teeth menacingly if anyone got too close. As a pair of handlers secured her to the leather-padded "X" at the center of the stage, she flipped off the entire floor and there was an immediate uproar. Patrons were cursing at her from just below the apron and the auctioneer was trying to calm everyone down, but Alyssa had no intention of letting the chaos fizzle out.

"You must be at least nine inches to buy this bitch!" Alyssa laughed, and as the horrified Martkorp handlers rushed to gag her, she only laughed harder. "I don't do tiny dicks!"

A lot of very angry-looking people started bidding on her after that. Somewhere in the second row, Kara thought she saw Greenwood roll his eyes as he raised his card into the air. He got locked into a fierce bidding war with a passionately vocal, silver-haired woman, but won out in the end. Alyssa was sold to Greenwood for 450k qualid and soon after, she was taken away. As the night wore on, Kara watched as more and more slaves were led onto the stage and then whisked off to a room in the back, until the platforms were all but empty. By then, her arms were getting tired and her knees were starting to throb. But all of that stopped mattering the second Kara heard the auctioneer calling out her name into the crowd.

Wait...what? Kara thought, and it was as if she'd been punched in the gut. She'd been under the impression that Lord Arlington already owned her and that she wouldn't have to suffer through a live auction. I didn't...but I thought...

And then, Kara remembered...

Earlier that evening, the auctioneer had explained that a bid had to go uncontested for twenty minutes in order for the associated piece to be considered "reserved." Since Arlington's bid had been made fifteen minutes prior to the start of the live auctions, Kara was technically still up for grabs. A serious case of stage fright caught hold of her as a pair Martkorp handlers took her down from her spot along the wall, cuffed her hands in front of her, and gently guided her toward the crowd of prospective buyers. The closer they got, the higher the stage appeared, until she felt smaller than she ever had before. When they finally reached it, her handlers tried to force her up the stairs, but Kara refused to go any further. She was far more afraid of being up there on display—the eyes of Isleydor's most notorious military personnel on her—than she was of the Martkorp handlers flanking her. But when the auctioneer looked at her handlers impatiently, one of them picked her up, slung her over his shoulder, and carried her up anyway. At Kara's terrified squeal, the audience roared with laughter and she felt herself grow cold.

As the handlers cuffed her wrists and ankles to the leather-padded "X," Kara closed her eyes tight shut and imagined she was somewhere else. It was one thing to be one of many slaves chained along the wall, surrounded by patrons who often passed her by or only glanced in her direction. It was another thing entirely to be strung up on a stage, the focus of everyone's attention, and she simply couldn't bear it. Rather than face the crowd, Kara decided that she would stand perfectly still and wait out the ordeal. But then, she remembered her general's defiant stare and suddenly felt embarrassed. And angry. Angry at herself for being so weak, even now, when she'd already lost everything and had nothing more to lose. Taking a deep breath, she forced her eyes open and was met with a sea of sinister faces. She spotted Lord Arlington among them and he gave her a curt little nod.

"Before we begin, I'd like you all to take a moment and look through your event catalogs," the auctioneer began, and for some reason—perhaps his tone or the way he was gesturing—Kara could feel an overwhelming sense of dread creep up into her stomach. "We would like to apologize for an error on our part or, rather, an unfortunate omission. It has recently come to our attention that the piece on display, Miss Kara Chrystein, is the young lady responsible for the Eastern Ammunitions Incident. For those of you who were affected by the incident, this information may be useful when deciding whether or not to place a bid."

Looking down into the crowd, Kara was horrified to find that the guests now looked much more interested than they had been just moments before. There were whispers between neighbors, curious looks, and a few patrons who had previously seemed bored were suddenly skimming through their catalogs to learn more. Kara desperately wanted to cry out and explain to them that the mission she'd led had been a fluke, that her Commander had guilted her into it, and that she really wasn't as interesting as the auctioneer claimed. But she knew now that any adverse reactions would only pique further interest in her prospective buyers and kept her mouth shut. As a murmur rippled through the crowd, Kara glanced around the room and tried not to throw up.

"We'll begin the bidding at fifty thousand qualid. Do I hear fifty? One hundred?"

A dozen or so bidding cards were raised into the air, but slowly the number dwindled, until there was only one bidder left. Lord Arlington made an offer for 250k qualid and when no one else could match it, the sale was set. Kara's eyes met his and she felt her stomach drop. A small part of her had secretly hoped that he'd lose interest in her by the time the live auctions started or that someone else might outbid him in spite of his interest, but it had been foolish to hope. Tired and dejected, Kara didn't fight as she was led off the stage and towards the back room. The auction hall was getting quiet now and even though there were still a few pieces left to go, the guests were starting to head home. Looking back over her shoulder, Kara wondered what had happened to the violinist and it occurred to her that she'd likely never know.

The room at the back of the hall was pretty unremarkable and there wasn't much to see, aside from a stainless steel chair and a matching cart. However, on closer inspection, Kara recognized the set-up. Atop the cart, there was a bottle of antiseptic, a jar of cotton balls, and a series of sinister-looking syringes, all individually capped. Kara noted the labels on each and it hit her.

Drugs, Kara realized. They're going to drug me.

Then a door opened up in the back and an attendant came wandering into the room, carrying a crate that was padded with white cushion and secured on all sides with heavy metal locks. At first, Kara assumed it was just more medical equipment, but then she saw the breathing holes. The crate wasn't for things, it was for people! Kara swallowed hard, trying to figure out how on earth they were going to fit her inside a crate hardly big enough for a large dog. The farther they stepped into the room, the more anxious she became, until she was very near the end of her rope. If they drugged her, Kara would have no idea where she was being taken or how she had gotten there and then she would truly be lost.

"No," Kara whispered, but no one heard her and she grew more frantic. "No, no...no!"

A sudden surge of energy overwhelmed her and she tried pushing back against her handlers, but they had been cramming highly experienced soldiers into crates all evening and she must have seemed like a gnat in comparison. Kara wasn't even rewarded with a flinch—let alone freedom—and when she started flailing, they only picked her up. Screaming bloody murder, she tried to claw out the eyes of whoever was holding her, but she soon found herself in the stainless steel chair. No one listened to Kara or her pleas as they buckled her in place and the medic assigned to her began to swab her shoulder.

"No, no, no! Let me go. Let me go!"

There was pain, but Kara hardly felt it. She tried to wrench her shoulder free, but it was too late. Cool liquid filled her bloodstream and seconds later, Kara was struggling to keep her eyes open. She blinked, and the world evaporated into darkness.