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her, but
goes.
    I wonder if he’s a slave, too. I wonder who she is.
    “One thing, Highness,” the Pente is saying. He stands in front of
Chosi’le, fingering the edges of her wings. She’s shaking, furious and
terrified. “I want her wings clipped.”

 

 
 
 
    Chapter
6

 
    Chosi’le

 
 
    I CAN’T STOP SHIVERING. The slavers are pulling Juhan’tr away,
screaming. Xtan takes my arm, and as I am dragged away, I can hear the tiny
human arguing with the queen and my new owner. She’s trying to negotiate, to
buy me as well.
    It would seem she has a heart. Maybe my brother’s life won’t be so
terrible. The thought is a small comfort as I am marched through the halls of
the auction house.
    The room he shoves me into is brightly lit, with a surgical table and
various lasers. I gag at the antiseptic smell, and Xtan finally releases me.
    “Lie down.”
    “No,” I snap, scrambling up from the floor.
    I’m expecting the blow. It catches me high on the cheekbone, strong
enough to throw me against the surgical table. The pain radiates, blurring my
vision and chasing fire through me.
    “You’re a slave bought and paid for, leech. And your owner asked for
this service. If you cooperate, we can give you pain management.”
    “It’s easier for you, when we cooperate. Most of them don’t even think
to fight back,” I say conversationally, straightening. Xtan watches me, an
anticipatory edge to his psyche—he wants me to fight him.
    So I do. I know I’ll lose—even if I were able to escape, there is
nowhere to go. But I fight anyway. It isn’t in me to do less.
      Xtan meets every punch, every
wild blow—he’s toying with me. I think he just wants to see how far he can push
me. After a blow that leaves my head ringing, I slump on the floor, trying to
get up. Every inch of me aches.
    “Enough,” Xtan says, almost to himself. “Let’s get this over with.” He
pulls me from the ground and I try not to scream as I land on the surgical
table, jarring my bruised ribs. Xtan secures my hands while I reach tentatively
for Juhan’tr. The space where he should be is dull and I wonder if they had to
sedate him after my owner’s demand.
    Xtan leans over me, and whispers, soft and menacing. “That pain
management we offer? Your owner didn’t request it—and you were such a little
bitch in space.” Icy terror floods my veins, and he injects something in my
arm. “Just a little agent to keep you awake. Wouldn’t be any fun if you blacked
out, now would it?”
    Before I can fully process what is happening, his hand clamps down on my
right wing, stretching it out. Heat—hotter than anything I’ve ever felt, hotter
than the brand—sears into me, and I can smell something burning. Blood and
flesh and the unfamiliar scent that has to be bone. I hear a sick snap, and then the wing tip clatters down on the ground beside me.
    There is a curious delay in the pain. I can actually see the clipping of
my wing—a neat triangle from the bony upper corner—before the pain slams into
me.

 
 
    Juhan’tr

 
 
    Everything around me is hazy from whatever they drugged me with. But I’m
stronger than they think, and I can feel her—the choking terror and then a
blinding pain, so thick she throws up, and it pulls a whimper from me. I reach
for her, but she’s out of focus, a distant pressure. - Be strong,- I
murmur.
    Her thoughts are chaotic, horrified and enraged.
    “Hurry,” Sadi says to me. Tin strides alongside her, bent around her,
shielding her as I lag behind. “Come on.”
    “Why the hurry?” I ask, and Tin throws a quick frown over his shoulder
at me.
    “Because I’d prefer to get off planet without an assassination attempt,
if you don’t mind,” Sadi snaps. “Now move your ass.”
    We’re hurrying through dirty crowded streets, and all around me, I can
taste the fear of the slaves inside the auction houses. So many races—and so
many of my people. I slip in a greasy puddle, and Tin