14 Jessa
The Kwin liked thefoot massage.She liked it so much she let me feed Tovis again the next day, but this time, I bargained a facial, and I got to feed Jiith, as well.I didn’t know why I did it, only that the syto looked like a corpse, and walking past his pale, shuddering body, listening to his wheezing breaths while I fed Tovis made me feel sick.
It helped that the Kwin had no idea what a facial was supposed to entail, so I used the cooking oil from the bar’s grill area and enjoyed my petty revenge as I rubbed Pam into her face and hoped all her pores got clogged.
After an hour of rubbing that left my hands stiff and cramping, I was escorted to the stakes outside by one of the guards.I fed Tovis first, just in case the Kwin changed her mind, and then picked my way across the glass to the other stake.
A full twenty-four hours exposed to the elements had not been kind to the imprisoned syto.He lay on his side, barely breathing, his skin blistered and peeling from the sun.
“Here,” I muttered, still a little salty about being kidnapped.“Food and some water.”
I set the dry ration bar in front of him and waited until he opened his eyes to set down the cup of water.I sold my massage skills for the drink I was giving him, the last thing I wanted was for him to knock it over and waste it.
“Why?”he rasped out, reaching for the cup with shaky hands.
“Because some humans are better than sytos,” I said bluntly.“And I couldn’t handle watching you die this way.”
“I’ll still die,” he said, gulping down the water.“The Kwin shows no mercy.I’m an example to the others.”
“Maybe you will, maybe you won’t,” I muttered, turning away.“But at least I didn’t just let it happen.”
I hurried back toward Tovis, hoping to get a few minutes with him before I was dragged back inside.
“Thank you, female,” Jiith called out.
“Jessa, my name is Jessa.”
He didn’t reply and I pushed him out of my head as I pressed myself to Tovis’ side.I’d done what I could, but I didn’t owe the syto anything.
Tovis looked down at me, his eyes soft.
“You’re a good female,” he murmured, his tail curling upward to stroke my bare leg.
“It doesn’t bother you that I helped him?”I asked.I had worried a little.The sytos had enslaved Tovis, twice now.I doubted he had a lot of charitable feelings toward them.
“Am I bothered that my mate is kind?Never.”He smiled down at me.“Besides, we have two sytos in our band.Uriish is a bit unpleasant, but Gigi is as good a turoch as any of us.”
“Aren’t they your enemies?”I wondered, trying to picture a camp full of turochs making friends with two tentacle headed aliens.“Don’t you hate them for everything they’ve done?”
He cocked his head to the side.“They’ve proved themselves.The Kwin is evil, many sytos are cruel, but most are merely slaves, born to do a task and unable to understand any other way of life.I pity them.”
I looked over at Jiith.He’d sat up and was gnawing at the ration bar like a feral animal.Pity, I could understand.Forgiveness?Friendship?Maybe I could learn a thing or two from Tovis, but I wasn’t quite there yet.
***
